Bonadio Group’s 2015 hiring spree began with Syracuse acquisition

The Rochester–based Bonadio Group’s acquisition of Syracuse accounting firm Testone, Marshall & Discenza (TMD), which took effect Jan. 1, 2015, started what Bonadio says was a “record” year of hiring.

The Bonadio Group added 183 new employees in 2015, including 52 recent college graduates.

The TMD acquisition resulted in 79 of the 131 experienced employees who joined the Bonadio firm, the company said in a Feb. 8 news release.

The Bonadio Group added experienced candidates to all of its offices, and recent college graduates to each of the locations, except for Utica.

“We’re giving them the opportunity to stay near their home,” Thomas Bonadio, CEO and managing partner of the Bonadio Group, says of the recent college graduate hires. He spoke with CNYBJ on March 18.

The Bonadio Group describes itself as the “largest independent provider of audit, tax, and management advisory services in upstate New York.”

The firm had 753 total employees as of March 18, a figure that includes temporary and seasonal employees because of the upcoming tax deadline in mid-April.

In Central New York, Bonadio Group’s Syracuse office has close to 135 people, while the firm employs between 15 and 20 people total at its offices in Utica and Geneva. The Bonadio Group also has offices in Albany, Batavia, Buffalo, East Aurora, New York City, and Rutland, Vermont.

Besides the recent college graduates and employees hired through the TMD merger, about 50 new hires replaced other Bonadio Group employees who left the firm.

“They go on to other cities. Some of them left and went to Southern locations and a lot of them over a period of time leave our industry and go to other industries, so that’s pretty normal to have turnover in an accounting firm and you have to replace that,” says Bonadio.

The firm didn’t initiate any layoffs in 2015, so all the departures were voluntary. Some employees join the firm to get experience to become certified public accountants (CPAs) and then determine that “public accounting is not where they want to be long term,” he notes.

“Almost all” of the new hires are candidates to become CPAs, Bonadio says.

The Bonadio Group has training programs “for every level of the firm.” The firm’s experienced hires are “typically experts” in a given area, such as taxes or health care.

“The experienced people are the hardest to find because there just aren’t that many of them that are in upstate New York or want to come to upstate New York,” Bonadio says.

Revenue growth
Besides the employee growth, the Bonadio Group also reported a 21.5 percent increase in projected revenue last fiscal year when compared to fiscal-year 2014. 

Tom Bonadio says the figure included “about 8 percent organic growth and the rest was through mergers.”

The firm projects it will generate revenue of $102.3 million for fiscal year 2016, which ends on April 30 of this year. 

The company’s fiscal year stretches from May 1 through April 30, he notes.

The Bonadio Group has outlined a three-year “strategic” plan to grow another 35 percent. The firm wants to expand its total employee count beyond 1,000 and generate annual revenue between $130 million and $140 million, says Bonadio.

“And that will include, we anticipate, a number of mergers and it will include organic growth,” he says. 

The growth plan covers the fiscal years that end on April 30 of 2017, 2018, and 2019, he notes.

The firm’s revenue growth in its fiscal year 2015 helped it rise two spots to number 38 on the 2016 list of Top 100 accounting firms in the publication Accounting Today.

Accounting Today, a bi-weekly magazine for the accounting industry, uses revenue generation to determine its annual ranking of the largest U.S. accounting firms.

The publication first listed Bonadio on its Top 100 list in 2007. Since then, the firm says it has generated revenue growth for nine consecutive years.