While Bradley Ray CPA has provided such services on a global scale and for some of the largest clients in the world, he would eventually leave the firm to found BRCPA, which provides the quality and competency of a Big 4 firm Partner at a fraction of the cost. Rather than staying at a Big 4 firm and "buying into the partnership", Bradley Ray CPA elected to form his own practice, where he controls the direction of the firm and avoids the well-known issues associated with larger firms such as talent shortages, turnover, lack of agile decision making, and exorbitant fees that price many would-be clients out of having access to such resources. Through BRCPA, small businesses, not-for-profits, and other small organizations will have access to "Big 4" Partner talent without paying "Big 4" Partner fees. In fact, Bradley Ray CPA's fees will be lower than what you currently pay (or would pay) a local firm with less competency.

In the spirit of full transparency, and from a business perspective, our fees are less than what is charged by Partners/Owners of most small firms, even those with less competency than Bradley Ray CPA, but our margin and net income is higher. Additionally, the reduced fees also result in a higher number of engagements secured. This is economically beneficial to both the client (you) and to the firm (us). Most firms still apply the antiquated model of occupying physical office space, maintaining full-time headcount with a staff of W-2 employees, etc. To recover these costs, firms under this old model must charge higher fees to cover these costs while still ensuring they earn an acceptable margin on their engagements. As a result, you are paying higher fees to cover their costs. Since BRCPA is a virtual firm and maintains no physical location, staff, or other unnecessary costs, our margin and net earnings are higher than competitors and we can charge less than our competitors for superior talent and service.

In an audit, review, examination, or other service that falls under this category, you'll likely notice that during the negotiation process and up to the point when you sign the engagement letter, you'll have ample correspondence with the Engagement Partner. However, once the letter is signed and contract formalized, communication with the Partner will drop off and you'll find yourself communicating more often with the Engagement "Manager" or "Senior Manager" instead of the Partner, unless there is a large issue, or you express dissatisfaction with the service. This is because once a CPA reaches the level of "Partner" their role becomes more "front office" and project management in nature, where they attend meetings, establish overall direction, and mostly just review the work of the junior staff prior to report issuance. The Partner's involvement is limited, and you'll soon find that you've reserved an office for the staff to set up and do the work, not the Partner. Your accounting function will receive "PBC requests" and inquiries from inexperienced associates and senior associates, perhaps only a few years removed from college, who are simply checking boxes in their audit workflow software without fully understanding why they are performing such tasks. You may find that your controller or other accounting staff are periodically frustrated about questions/requests being repeated by the inexperienced staff, and finding that your accounting department is more knowledgeable about accounting concepts than the inexperienced auditors actually performing the audit. As such, since the less experienced staff performs the bulk of the audit work, the client (you) miss out on the opportunity to receive valuable, real-time feedback about your accounting function since those performing procedures lack the competency and experience to do so. In other words, outside of satisfying a statutory requirement or covenant with a bank or other stakeholder to complete an audit/review/examination, there is no value-add.

Once the audit is ready to wrap up, the Partner will suddenly once again become more involved in correspondence to: 1) present results to the Board, Governance, or whatever entity engaged the firm to perform the audit, and 2) resume the "front office" role to convince you to re-engage the firm for the subsequent year. This model is financially beneficial for the firm, but not for your business. With Bradley Ray CPA, Bradley is engaged throughout the entire process and performs all of the work. You will work only with Bradley (who has the competency of a Big 4 Partner) and communicate only with Bradley, not inexperienced junior staff once you sign on the dotted line.