By Ellie Boeschenstein EBS CONTRIBUTOR
While Elevated Tax and Accounting is a group based in Missoula, they have a large clientele in Big Sky, a location they are proud to serve. Owner Andrew Stolle, and his business partner and financial consultant, Joe Holbrook, talked with Explore Big Sky to discuss their business and how they help their client succeed. At Elevated Tax and Accounting, they believe in a vision past just numbers, and empowering businesses and individuals to reach their full potential. They work into strategic insights, big time opportunities and lifelong growth.
Both Stolle and Holbrook provided responses for this interview. This series is part of a paid partnership with the Big Sky Chamber of Commerce. The following answers have been edited for brevity.
Explore Big Sky: Andrew and Joe, please tell me a bit about yourselves. What brought you both to wanting to work out west and within Montana?
Andrew and Joe: Andrew’s family moved to Missoula from Flagstaff, Arizona in 1998. He went to Big Sky High School and graduated from University of Montana with his accounting degree in 2013. After college he moved around quite a bit working for Eide Bailly in Salt Lake City and Denver, and also spent some time at Moss Adams in Sacramento, California. When COVID hit and working from home became the norm, he and his wife decided it was the perfect opportunity to return back to Missoula where they now live with their three golden retrievers. Joe was born and raised just south of Salt Lake City in Cedar Hills and graduated from Brigham Young University with his masters in taxation in 2014. Joe then spent some time in Houston, Texas, between his undergrad and masters working at Ernst & Young before moving back home to Utah and has also worked at PwC and Eide Bailly where he and Andrew met in the Salt Lake City office. Joe recently bought his childhood home in Cedar Hills where he lives with his two boys. Joe and Andrew are both outdoors enthusiasts and spend much of their free time skiing and mountain biking.
EBS: Can you tell me about the journey of Elevated Tax and Accounting?
AS + JH: Joe left Eide Bailly in 2020 to start his own specialty tax consulting firm in 2020 where Andrew joined him a year later. That firm – KPT Consulting – focused on tax credits and incentives, mainly the research and development tax credit and cost segregation studies and grew rapidly during the first four years. Then at the start of 2024 we decided that we wanted to move into a more traditional accounting focus and sold KPT a couple of months later. Our initial plan was to start a tax and accounting firm from scratch and as we were preparing to launch when Elevated came on the market and was exactly the type of firm that we were hoping to build. We put in an offer and took over the company at the beginning of October this year. Our goal is to continue to grow the firm to continue to serve Big Sky and the surrounding communities – we’ve already managed to land some talented accountants in Missoula as well as a tax director who will be relocating to Boise, Idaho, shortly.
EBS: What sets your firm apart from other tax and accounting services in the region?
AS + JH: We moved out of the specialty services space because we wanted to focus on building lasting client relationships that really focus on full-service consulting and partnership. We’ve developed a system that allows us to operate as an extension of our clients’ business so that they can focus on the mission that drove them to go into business in the first place, while we focus on improving the financial metrics to help them capitalize on opportunities and create lasting growth.
EBS: How does your team stay up-to-date with ever-changing tax laws and regulations?
AS + JH: This is a constant battle – in addition to staying on top of tax news, each of our CPAs participates in an average of least 40 hours of Continuing Professional Education each year. We also have an incredible network of former colleagues that share information to stay on top of the latest news and trends.
EBS: What types of clients and services do you specialize in?
AS + JH: We provide a wide range of services to really suit any size and type of client – from tax planning and compliance to monthly accounting, payroll, accounts payable/accounts receivable all the way to fractional CFO services. The Big Sky community has a diverse business environment and our clients are a really interesting core sample of that community. We work a lot with nonprofits, homeowners associations, retail shops, restaurants, construction and professional services.
EBS: Are there specific challenges or opportunities in Big Sky that have shaped your approach to accounting and tax planning?
AS + JH: One of the main challenges that we see with a lot of the businesses that we work with in Big Sky is the seasonal fluctuations in revenue. Seasonal businesses require a measured approach to cash flow planning. We work closely with our clients to document seasonal factors that impact the financials and analyze seasonal patterns and create an actionable plan to help level out the impact of fluctuating revenue and expense cycles.
EBS: How do you build trust and long-term relationships with your clients?
AS + JH: While working at bigger firms we saw clients who were so underserved – they would get their tax returns done at tax time and that was all of the interaction that they’d get with their CPA – oftentimes submitting documents and then receiving their returns without so much as a phone call. We build trust and long term relationships by proactively approaching each client engagement – it’s vitally important for us to understand our clients operations and goals in order to identify tax savings and opportunities for growth.
EBS: How does Elevated Tax and Accounting contribute to the Big Sky community outside of business operations?
AS + JH: We’re brand new to the community here but we’re looking forward to some of the events this coming year with the Big Sky Chamber! We’re excited to get more established locally so please reach out to us with any volunteering opportunities.
