Employment
Understanding your role at our firm starts by understanding who we are, what we do, and why we do it. This information helps guide our daily actions by reminding us of our big picture objectives. When considering employment with Pearl Accounting, knowing our values helps you determine if they align with your personal and professional goals.
Mission Statement
Our mission is to provide an extraordinary experience by making life better for our clients through simplifying their tax and accounting responsibilities. We strive to accomplish this by being an approachable, trusted partner to the small business owners we serve through technical accuracy, timely & efficient work, strategic planning, and most importantly, an elevated level of customer service.
Vision Statement
Our vision is to provide small business owners with such exceptional service that it drives continued organic growth through personal referrals. These referrals happen when clients feel they have received extraordinary service; we aim to give each client that level of satisfaction.
Firm Culture and Values
Most business owners have specialized knowledge in what their business does, not in accounting and taxes. New clients often come to us, like other accounting firms, because they have questions related to accounting and/or taxes, and we have the technical expertise to answer those questions. How Pearl Accounting is different is that we provide both answer and empathy. As you can see through our mission statement and vision statement, it is important to Pearl Accounting that all of our clients feel respected, valued, and well cared for. We do this by listening carefully to our clients when they express concerns or share their needs. Clients stay with us because we recognize and acknowledge their concern and show them how to develop a customized solution to fix their problems. Providing empathy to our clients creates a lasting relationship that makes clients comfortable discussing their changing needs and gives us the continued opportunity to meet those needs, exceed expectations, and improve their businesses. Happy clients create referral partners that help Pearl Accounting grow, which creates opportunities for our employees to grow as well. Each employee has an important role in helping us carry out that mission.
We Value Our Employees and Their Time
Many positions at Pearl Accounting are eligible for flexible scheduling as long as deadlines are met. Employees eligible for flexible scheduling have the option to work the standard M-F 8-5, shift hours to accommodate family schedules, compress hours into four days to enjoy three-day weekends, or any other schedule the employee would like considered. Eligible employees work with their supervisor to develop a plan that works for the employee, supervisor, and team.
If a position doesn’t require you to be present at our premises, you may be eligible to work from home. Employees who have completed training and demonstrate acceptable quality of work, efficiency, and self-sufficiency can make arrangements with their supervisor to work from home full time or for part of their work week.
Employee Training & Development
We want our employees to have the opportunity to grow professionally with us, so we invest in our employees’ development. We want employees to feel confident about improving their efficiency and productivity. We also want to help our employees achieve personal growth and success. Some potential opportunities include support to pursue professional designations, continuing professional education, employee coaching and mentoring, seats at industry conferences, on-the-job training, and job rotation.
Current Openings
Pearl Accounting is looking for an experienced tax preparer interested in a seasonal role. An ideal candidate would be interested in a long-term relationship, coming back year after year, and would be given significant flexibility in choosing how many hours they work and when those hours are scheduled.
Responsibilities include:
- Scanning and organizing tax return supporting workpapers
- Preparing individual, partnership, and S corporation tax returns
- Self-review for technical accuracy
- Accurately tracking and recording time spend on projects
- Preparing and mailing W-2s and 1099s (optional)
- Administrative tasks as assigned (optional)
Technical Requirements:
- Previous tax return preparation experience
- Degree in Accounting or Finance with at least 2 years of experience at tax return preparation
- Proficient in MS Excel and Word
- Experience with CCH tax products (prosystems fx or axcess) preferred but not required
- Experience with QuickBooks Online preferred
Required Skills:
- Care about doing what’s best for the client
- Responsive to client communications
- Ability to manage and appropriately prioritize multiple tasks
- Clear communication about workload, capacity, and when tasks will be completed
- Ensure deadlines are met
- Strong attention to detail and good analytical skills
- Ability to perform work accurately and efficiently
- Ability to work independently with minimal supervision
Work Hours and Benefits:
- This is a seasonal position. For tax preparation, the role would be February 1st – April 15th. If the candidate is willing to help with additional tasks, such as Forms 1099 and W-2 preparation, the role could run January 1st – April 15th. During the season, this role could be full time or part time for the right candidate, and may allow for overtime if the candidate would like and workflow allows. Start and end dates may be flexible to meet the candidate’s needs.
- Significant hour flexibility allowed as long as deadlines are met. Options include work the standard M-F 8-5, shift hours to accommodate family schedules, or compress hours into four days to enjoy three-day weekends. Number of hours per week is up to the candidate, as long as they are communicated in advance. Willing to consider any schedule the candidate would prefer.
- Work from home option available if candidate can demonstrate acceptable quality of work, efficiency, and self-sufficiency.
Commissions for bringing in new clients (not a job requirement, just a bonus opportunity).
Pearl Accounting is looking for a tax manager interested in fostering client relationships. The ideal candidate would be looking for a long-term career where they will be responsible for being the contact person for a group of clients. We offer significant scheduling flexibility for choosing when hours are worked as long as deadlines are met.
Responsibilities include:
- Prompt responses to clients with questions about tax, accounting, and payroll
- Meeting clients to discuss their tax information at the beginning of tax season
- Scanning and organizing tax return supporting workpapers
- Preparing individual, partnership, and S corporation tax returns
- Review tax return preparation by interns or entry level staff
- Client follow up for missing items
- Self-review for technical accuracy
- Signing tax returns
- Meeting with clients to review their tax returns after they are prepared
- Assisting with year-end tax planning
- Accurately tracking and recording time spend on projects
- Helping with preparation of W-2s and 1099s
- Reviewing bookkeeping
- Administrative tasks as assigned
Technical Requirements:
- Previous tax return preparation experience required
- Previous client relationship management experience preferred but not required
- Degree in Accounting or Finance
- Proficient in MS Excel and Word
- Experience with CCH tax products (prosystems fx or axcess) preferred but not required
- Experience with QuickBooks Online preferred
Required Skills:
- Care about doing what’s best for the client
- Responsive to client communications
- Ability to manage and appropriately prioritize multiple tasks
- Clear communication about workload, capacity, and when tasks will be completed
- Ensure deadlines are met
- Strong attention to detail and good analytical skills
- Ability to perform work accurately and efficiently
- Ability to work independently with minimal supervision
Work Hours and Benefits:
- This full-time position could be structured as a salaried position with comp time for excess hours worked during tax season, or as an hourly position with overtime if the candidate would like and workflow allows.
- Significant hour flexibility allowed as long as deadlines are met. Options including work the standard M-F 8-5, shift hours to accommodate family schedules, compress hours into four days to enjoy three-day weekends, or work a school schedule with summers and holidays off. Willing to consider any schedule the candidate would prefer.
- Partial work from home opportunities available if candidate can demonstrate acceptable quality of work, efficiency, and self-sufficiency after an initial training period. Because this position interacts with clients, some scheduled office time will be required.
- Paid Time Off accruing and usable immediately upon hiring.
- Paid Holidays.
- Commissions for bringing in new clients (not a job requirement, just a bonus opportunity).
- Internal growth opportunities since the business is rapidly growing, and promotion from within will be considered before external searches.
Pearl Accounting is looking for an intern during tax season. This internship is with a small, but growing firm and offers the unique opportunity to see all aspects of owning and running an accounting business. While the internship will focus primarily on tax return preparation, the intern will also get to sit in on client meetings, help with marketing and social media, assist with bookkeeping, payroll, and consulting projects, and learn the importance of customer service in client satisfaction, retention, and referrals for ongoing business growth.
Responsibilities include:
- Scanning and organizing tax return supporting workpapers
- Preparing individual, partnership, and S corporation tax returns
- Self-review for technical accuracy
- Assembling tax returns for delivery to clients
- Accurately tracking and recording time spent on projects
- Preparing and mailing W-2s and 1099s
- Administrative tasks as assigned
Technical Requirements:
- Pursuing a degree in Accounting
- Proficient in MS Excel, Word, and PowerPoint
- Having already taken a tax class is preferred, but not required
- Basic understanding of financial and accounting principles
Required Skills:
- Care about doing what’s best for the client
- Interpersonal skills, including written and verbal communication
- Responsive to client communications
- A desire to learn about the industry, tax rules and regulations, and various software
- Motivated and reliable
- Ability to manage and appropriately prioritize multiple tasks
- Strong attention to detail, analytical, and problem-solving skills
- Ability to perform work accurately and efficiently
- Ability to work independently with minimal supervision
- Clear communication about workload, capacity, and when tasks will be completed
Work Hours, Location, and Benefits:
- This is an entry-level, temporary position during tax season. Ideally, this role would be February 1st – April 15th, but we are willing to work with the student’s schedule. This internship can be 20-40 hours per week, depending what the student can manage with their class load. Hours are preferably the standard M-F 8-5, but can be shifted to accommodate the student’s class schedule.
- The intern will work in our downtown Sioux Falls office, as much of the experience benefits will come from a hands-on environment.
- There will be shadowing opportunities for management level tasks to give a full view of what it is like to own and operate an accounting firm focused on serving small business clients.
- The position provides training in technical skills for career preparation.
- This is a paid position.
