Engineered Tax Services, an engineering company that works closely with CPA and accounting firms on specialty tax services, has acquired firm consultancy The Growth Partnership and the ABLE CRM platform.
Terms of the deal, which was effective Oct. 1, were not disclosed, but TGP leaders and consultants Jeff Pawlow and Charles Hylan will serve as managing directors at both ETS and TGP.
ETS works with CPA and accounting firms on specialty tax services like cost segregation and R&D Credit studies, and expects to use the acquisition to enable it to offer marketing services, CRM tools and a range of training options, as well.
“The professional services space is rapidly adopting a more ‘advisory’ mindset and looking to drive additional value into their client relationships,” said ETS CEO Julio Gonzalez (pictured) in a statement. “Jeff and Charles have positioned TGP at the forefront of that movement. I look forward to introducing their significant expertise and the unique ABLE CRM platform to our client family.”
“ETS works with 3,000 CPA firms around the country, and we work with 400 firms, and Julio saw a tremendous opportunity with his client base,” Hylan told Accounting Today. “He has 15 client service reps, and they’re hearing firms say they need soft skills straining, they need sales training, and so on. He told us, ‘Our clients need what you do.'”
He also noted that combining with ETS will give even greater scope to the Rosenberg Survey, the major accounting firm benchmarking study that TGP conducts and publishes annually.
“I am excited about adding TGP and ABLE to Julio’s growing family of companies,” Pawlow said in a statement. “The expanded range of advisory services our clients will have access to via the ETS companies allow us to ‘complete the circuit’ when it comes to helping our clients position themselves as trusted advisors.”
Allan Koltin, CEO of Koltin Consulting Group, advised both ETS and TGP on the transaction.
“This combination will prove transformational to Julio Gonzalez and ETS and quickly advance their position as thought-leaders and advisors to the profession,” he said in statement. “The additions of industry luminaries Jeff Pawlow and Charles Hylan along with the talented team at The Growth Partnership and ABLE will position ETS as the go-to option for firms looking to pivot from compliance to advisory services.”
The deal adds 17 people to ETS’s 120 professionals. The two organizations will continue to operate under their original names.
