Something fishy going on? Not with this accountant

"It’s not really a fish tank. It’s a coral reef tank," the certified public accountant and senior partner at Stewart, Archibald & Barney accounting firm said.

The scene reminds him of places he likes to visit on vacation, beaches in Hawaii and Southern California, anywhere with water and sand. He likes to swim and sail and water ski.

A graduate of Clark High School and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Pace is one of six partners who started their careers at Stewart, Archibald & Barney. Hired in 1979, he became a partner in 1984 and now works in the firm’s business consulting department.

Stewart, Archibald & Barney, founded in 1972, has never gone through a major reorganization of its partners, though the three founding partners have since retired .

Average length of service for the firm’s 50 employees is about 7½ years, he said. About one-fifth of the staff had worked at the firm, left to go somewhere else and then came back.

Question: Why did you decide to become an accountant?

Answer: Initially I was planning to be an attorney, but I didn’t want to do criminal litigation. I wanted to do business litigation and I figured accounting would be a good foundation to go on to law school. My eldest son was born the year I got out (of UNLV) and I was tired of school. I’d been accepted to law school, but I thought I’d work a couple years and get my CPA and then go back.

I enjoyed the profession. It’s misperceived by most people. You think of a bean counter with his green shade visor. What I found is there’s a tremendous amount of help that can be given to people and I enjoyed communicating and interacting and helping people.

Question: Who are some of your longtime clients?

Answer: Brady Industries. We’ve got clients in the construction industry. They’re really struggling. PetroChem Marketing. They do asphalt coatings. M.J. Christensen Jewelers.

Question: What do you do for them?

Answer: Taxes, audits, financial statements. But my role is slightly different. I lead the consulting division, working with entrepreneurs and helping them be successful both in their personal life and business, so a lot of what I do is at the point where business intersects with personal.

Question: Like what?

Answer: Exit strategy. What’s he going to do so his entire life isn’t that business? Does he have kids to bring up in the business or is he going to sell it, either to outside interests or to key employees? How do we do that to yield the best return on his investment, all the years of putting it together?

They need financial planning, creating trusts for their grandchildren. I help structure that for them. I spend time with these entrepreneurs, get to understand their vision, where they want to go.

Question: What’s the hardest part of being an accountant?

Answer: The volume of rules and regulations, the Internal Revenue Service codes. Books and books and books of codes, and on top of that you’ve got accounting standards that are very different from the codes. The IRS is concerned with compliance and collecting revenue, and accounting standards are about fair and accurate reporting to the public.

Question: You got your business administration degree from UNLV. How would you rate that program in preparing you for an accounting career?

Answer: The program there has been very good actually. UNLV has done a good job, very sensitive to the needs of students. They turn out products that are well-trained and prepared for the marketplace. The school has to prepare them in a fashion to pass the CPA exam, and that’s very difficult. It’s got less than a 50 percent pass rate. They also need to prepare students to work in the marketplace, and that’s a challenging thing for them to do.

Question: How much do you charge for your services and what are your fees based on?

Answer: I charge a flat fee, a fixed-price agreement. It’s agreed upon with the client before I get started. It has to be win-win for both of us, so I spend time with the client to show them the value of our service. When we agree on that service, by agreement gives them unlimited access, so I don’t charge per hour or per phone call. There’s no meeting charge.

Question: What might the charges range from?

Answer: Our lowest is $6,000 a year and we go up to $75,000 a year.

Question: Why do companies need accountants?

Answer: Back to the rules and regulations. The owner of a business knows his business and most entrepreneurs are fabulous at what they do. To add an understanding of tax laws and understanding of accounting regulations is overwhelming. I bring a wealth of years of experience seeing people in similar circumstances. If you’re looking at an exit strategy of five to seven years, I’ve seen that and can bring ideas to the table that they may not have thought about. That broad-based business experience is one of my primary strengths.

Question: What makes you tick?

Answer: Two primary things. We help people. That’s our motto. That is an important part of who I am. As a young boy, someone told me to find a way to benefit mankind. I look for ways to help people.

The other thing, I’m someone who likes lots of diversity, lots of different experiences. You see that in my office. With public accounting, you see a lot of clients who have different needs and different expectations and demands, and I thrive on that. Some people, it smothers them, jumping from one thing to another thing.

Question: What do you look for when hiring an accountant?

Answer: As I look at myself and others, certainly the ability to manage time, the ability to be precise. Perfection isn’t required, but accuracy is. And I’m looking for well-rounded individuals, people who like to do different things, both in their personal life and in their education and schooling. I look at their transcripts to see if they wandered around a bit in humanities and sciences.

Question: Whom do you consider your mentor?

Answer: Gary Stewart. He was the fellow that hired me out of college. He’s of high moral character, fun-loving and enjoys life. So often people can be smothered by this profession. He’s a practical joker who likes to laugh and laugh at himself. He also cares about people.

Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0491.