Oldenburg Accountants & Advisors
About
Since 1991, Oldenburg Accountants & Advisors has been committed to providing reliable, high-quality tax, accounting and advisory services to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in northern Illinois and Chicagoland. Our clients are family-owned businesses and often, multi-generational, and closely-held, multi-owner businesses. Oldenburg Accountants & Advisors is a small, boutique CPA firm where the owner, Sue Oldenburg, is directly involved with every business-owner client. We have a reputation for sustaining long-term relationships with our clients.
We work proactively with SME business owners to help them interpret and act upon the financial indicators of their businesses so they can make decisions based on reality instead of operating in the dark. We specialize in assisting our clients to:
§ Track profitability by job, customer, product, department or location
§ Forecast and improve cash flow
§ Benchmark against their peers in their industry
§ Determine critical success factors for their particular business
§ Establish and measure key performance indicators
§ Present financial information to banks to win loans
Owner and founder Susan A. Oldenburg is an experienced business owner with more than twenty-five years in the public accounting industry. As both a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) and EA (Enrolled Agent), Sue has a comprehensive knowledge of business planning and monitoring as well as a specialized knowledge of taxation. Under both designations, she has unlimited practice rights and is unrestricted to which taxpayers can be represented before the IRS. When she is not at the office, you can find her reading, listening to music, cooking, and relaxing with friends and family in Door County.
We promise:
§ To always be reachable and highly responsive
§ To welcome your questions and to NOT charge for your phone calls
§ To give you an up-front fee quote, and stick with it
§ To deliver our reports on time, with accuracy and completeness
§ To use our professional expertise to help you lower your tax bill
§ To guarantee your complete satisfaction with our work
WHY OLDENBURG?
DO YOU WANT AN ACCOUNTANT WHO ACTIVELY WORKS WITH YOU TO MAKE YOUR BUSINESS MORE SUCCESSFUL?
WOULDN'T IT BE GREAT IF YOUR ACCOUNTANT:
Helped you to understand your business’s overall financial situation so you can make decisions for your business based on intuition instead of operating in the dark?
Explained the meaning behind critical financial concepts so that you can understand your financial statements?
Guaranteed you accurate tax returns and financial statements?
Charged you a yearly, all-inclusive fee paid monthly, rather than an hourly rate where the longer it takes, the more you pay?
Met with you regularly and served on your board of advisors?
Proactively monitored your progress on an ongoing basis so you could adjust quickly to maximize profits?
Worked with you to determine critical success factors and built key performance indicators for your business to make it run like clockwork?
Helped you create a regularly updated action plan to achieve your goals?
If you’re ready for this kind of relationship with your accounting firm, Oldenburg Accountants & Advisors can help. Instead of solely focusing on “crunching the numbers,” we work with you to improve your business and your profits immediately. To discover what opportunities exist for your business, call us now.
Highlights
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Frequently asked questions
What is your typical process for working with a new client?
We schedule a meeting with the prospective client to determine if we are a good fit to work together. I ask the business owner about the history of the company and the plans and goals for the future particularly around revenue growth. I ask many questions, and the answers generally prompt more questions. It is important for me to have a thorough understanding of the business and the philosophy of the owners. Depending on the industry, we talk about direct and indirect costs and how those are allocated, and if they are tracking their profits by customer, department or product lines.
When I meet with prospective clients that are starting a new business, they usually have many questions about the process of working with a CPA and what their tax filing requirements are from sales and use tax to payroll and 1099 forms to income tax. If they have not created the entity for the business, we discuss which form, LLC or corporation, etc., makes the most sense for their business. I recommend that they also consult with a business attorney before making the final decision on entity type, and I have attorneys that I can recommend that they talk to if needed.
We determine what their needs are in terms of services and how often they are needed. Some businesses need monthly financial statements where others can work with using and discussing the statements on a quarterly basis. We can provide bookkeeping services for those that need them as well as sales tax preparation and quarterly payroll tax returns. We also have relationships with payroll processing companies that we refer clients to.
Prior to the end of the year, we prepare a tax projection to determine if the owners need to increase their withholding tax or estimated tax payments. A big part of the projection is to determine how they can reduce their tax burden. Often making contributions to a retirement plan are in the best interests of the client and reduce their tax liability. For equipment-intensive businesses, making purchases before year-end offers tax savings.
What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
I am a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) which is a designation earned by studying and passing an exam administered by the state. When I sat for the exam, it was a two-day exam which I passed on the first try. The state regulates the profession and issues the professional licenses. We have a requirement for 120 hours of education in a three-year period which includes ethics classes. Beyond the 120 hours of mostly tax and accounting topics, I am an avid learner of business in general and financial statement metrics.
Do you have a standard pricing system? If so, please share the details here.
We provide a price quote prior to working on projects. Most of our services are priced at a flat rate or within a range. There are a few services that are billed at an hourly rate. My time is billed at .....
How did you get started?
I had a love for the public accounting industry from the start when I took a job at a local firm in an administrative role after working as a bookkeeper. I was fortunate in that the firm that I worked for gave me a lot of latitude to take on new tasks and move in to a position of staff accountant. I went back to school to learn the profession, and started my own firm after that.
What types of customers have you worked with?
Our customers have ranged from small to medium-sized businesses up to $30MM in revenue. The industries we have served are many which include construction, manufacturing, distribution, retail, professional services (consultants, architects, veterinarians, attorneys, financial advisors, etc.), real estate, manufacturers' reps, music producers, and others.
Our individual tax clients are executives with employer stock plans, business owners, investors in real estate, highly-compensated individuals, and those with complex tax situations.
Describe a recent event you are fond of.
I enjoy watching the Chicago Blackhawks play though I can not say I was fond of last season (2016-17).
What advice would you give a customer looking to hire a professional in your area of expertise?
The best advice I would give is to meet the CPA and determine their involvement in your work. Ask who is going to be working on their books and tax returns, and if the CPA is directly involved. Make sure that you request that you have a conversation with the CPA on a regular basis. The size and industry your business is in will determine the frequency. You should meet with your CPA/business-adviser throughout the year, not only when your tax return will be prepared.