Bowling & Associates, CPA Firm

Accounting and tax in southern Illinois

This CPA firm is based in McLeansboro, Illinois, and works with business owners, independent professionals and private individuals across the southern part of the state. Its range covers bookkeeping done daily or weekly, compiled financial statements and reviews of a business's financial health, as well as tax planning and preparation. The firm's pitch is that tax rules are complicated and always changing, and that its job is to keep up with them and make sure clients use the deductions and credits they are entitled to.

Payroll, entity returns and audits

Other work is practical and recurring. The firm will work out, file and pay payroll taxes to keep a client compliant, and it prepares returns for LLCs and for S and C corporations, each of which follows its own rules. It also offers to trace where a client's money is going and suggest ways to keep more of it. On audits, it notes that only a licensed CPA is qualified to examine financial records and business transactions in that way, and says its audit work is mainly for governmental entities.

Agriculture and the local economy

The site gives agricultural businesses a section of their own for tax planning, which fits a region whose economy, by the firm's own description, rests on farms and small enterprises. A tax planner is provided to help clients organize income and expenses during the year so tax season is less of a scramble.

How the practice began

In 2014 the firm's owner, who holds a CPA license and an MBA, took over an established and well regarded practice in the town and renamed it. A second CPA joined that autumn and later qualified. The firm describes its priority as helping clients succeed, with the day to day team serving both businesses and individual taxpayers.

Ethics and deadlines

Two principles run through its description of itself. The first is honest accountancy: it says it aims to minimize a client's tax bill legally and ethically, and that its CPAs take continuing education to stay current with the tax code, tools and programs. The second is deadlines, which it treats as a matter of discipline, saying that neither it nor its clients like extensions and that it works to file on time.

Bowling & Associates, CPA Firm is an accounting practice in McLeansboro, Illinois. Cara Bowling, CPA, took over an established local practice in 2014, and the firm now works for business owners, self-employed professionals and private individuals across southern Illinois.

Services

• Tax planning and preparation: returns and planning that make use of available deductions and credits.
• Bookkeeping and accounting: daily and weekly bookkeeping, compiled financial statements and reviews of business health.
• Audits: audit work, concentrated mainly on governmental entities.
• Payroll taxes: calculating, filing and paying payroll taxes to keep employers compliant.
• Business entities: handling the rules that apply to LLCs and S and C corporations.
• Cash flow review: tracing where money goes and suggesting ways to keep more of it.

Who it works with

Businesses, independent professionals and individual taxpayers in southern Illinois.

Key facts

• Based in: McLeansboro, Illinois
• Current ownership since: 2014
• Led by: Cara Bowling, CPA, who also holds an MBA