Assurance
Audits that hold up — to your board, lenders, and acquirers.
Assurance · Tax · Advisory — partner-led, coast to coast
Clarity,compounded.
A national, partner-led firm for companies that treat their numbers as an asset.
01 / What we do
Three disciplines. One standard.
Tax
Planning the other eleven months, not just April.
Advisory
Audit-grade rigor for the decisions that define a decade.
Most firms sell hours. We sell standing.
The standing a company earns when its numbers are beyond argument.
Audit, tax, and advisory under one standard — partners who stay in the room.
9
Offices nationwide
Coast to coast
480+
Professionals
One standard
14
Industry practices
Depth over breadth
96%
Client retention
Earned annually
The Firm, at home
Where the work gets done.
Nine offices, one standard of calm.
03 / In depth
The disciplines, up close.
Assurance & Audit
Confidence, certified.
An audit should end with answers, not just an opinion — partner-led and built to hold up.
- Financial statement audits
- Reviews & compilations
- Employee benefit plans
- SOC & controls reporting
Tax
Strategy before April.
The real work is the planning that happens the other eleven months.
- Business tax planning
- Private client & estate
- State & local tax (SALT)
- R&D credits & incentives
Advisory
The numbers behind every decision.
Audit-grade rigor for the moments bigger than the month — transactions, turnarounds, transformations.
- Transaction advisory & M&A
- Outsourced & interim CFO
- Valuation & disputes
- Restructuring & turnaround
04 / Where we work
Fluent in your operating language.
Fourteen dedicated practices — you should never explain your industry to your own accountants.
Construction & Real Estate
WIP, cost certs, 1031s
Healthcare
Reimbursement, M&A
Life Sciences
R&D credits, milestones
Technology & SaaS
ASC 606, cap tables
Manufacturing
Inventory, costing, tariffs
Financial Services
Funds, RIAs, dealers
Private Equity
Fund audits, portfolios
Not-for-Profit
Single audits, Form 990
Hospitality
Tip credits, multi-unit
Professional Services
Partner comp, succession
Energy
Project finance, credits
Government & Education
Uniform guidance, GASB
“A clean opinion is the floor. The ceiling is what you do with it.”
Jordan Sumner — Managing Partner
Advisory, in person
Advice, face to face.
Thirty minutes with a partner — never a salesperson.
05 / Why Sumner & Hale
Firms don’t switch accountants for fun.
They switch when the answers slow down. Four reasons it sticks:
Partner-led, every engagement
The partner who wins your work does your work.
Depth, not coverage
Fourteen practices run by people who speak your operating language.
Technology that shows its work
Every automation reviewed, documented, and signed by a human.
Advice that survives scrutiny
What we would do with our own capital — in writing.
06 / How engagements run
From diagnosis to compounding.
Diagnose
Sixty days of listening before a single recommendation.
Stabilize
Clean opinions, filed on time, no surprises.
Optimize
Structure, credits, working capital, close velocity.
Compound
Each season starts from a stronger position.
07 / Technology
Automation you can audit.
Secure client portal
One encrypted home for every request, document, and deadline.
AI-assisted tie-outs
Machines reconcile the haystack; our people judge the needles.
Continuous evidence
Support gathered all year, so year-end is a review.
Live dashboards
Status, open items, and fees in real time.
Engagement — Q2 close Live
Revenue tie-outSigned
Inventory & costingIn review
SALT exposure mapIn progress
Open client requests3 of 41
Days to close5.0
Open exceptions2
Sumner & Hale client portal
08 / Client outcomes
The work, in the numbers it moved.
Anonymized at our clients’ request — the result that made each relationship.
Multi-state logistics
-4.2 pts
Effective tax rate
Situation
Forty-one filings, zero strategy, an unmapped nexus footprint.
Move
Full SALT restructure and a standing quarterly cadence.
Series C software
5 days
Close, from 19
Situation
A team of four drowning in spreadsheets, board asking weekly.
Move
Outsourced CFO: re-architected the close under ASC 606.
Family manufacturer
11×
EBITDA exit multiple
Situation
A third-generation transition with no audit-ready financials.
Move
Two years of quality-of-earnings prep and clean audits.
Regional health system
$8.4M
Recovered reimbursements
Situation
Margin by service line was effectively unknowable.
Move
Forensic cost mapping and dashboards operators actually use.
Drag or scroll sideways
08 / Live working session
The Year-End Close, Uncluttered.
December shouldn’t be a scramble. In forty-five minutes, a Sumner & Hale partner walks your team through the exact close we run for our own clients — the calendar, the reconciliations, and the paper trail. You leave with a working method, not a highlight reel.
- A close calendar that actually holdsThe two-week runway that keeps December off your desk.
- The reconciliations that break firstWhere books quietly drift — and the order to catch them.
- Accruals & cutoffs, without the guessworkA repeatable standard for what lands in which period.
- A binder your auditors won’t questionWhat to keep, how to label it, and why it saves you in Q1.
09 / Leadership
The people who sign their names.
The names that go on the opinion — and answer when you call.
Jordan Sumner
Managing Partner
“A clean opinion is the floor.”
Elena Hale
Vice Chair, Advisory
“Every deal has a number that decides it.”
Avery Cho
National Tax Leader
“The tax code rewards the prepared.”
Marcus Bell
Assurance Leader
“Rigor is a kindness. Surprises are not.”
10 / Insights
Thinking you can take to the board.
The 2026 tax landscape: what changes, what just got louder
AI in the audit: what “assisted” must never mean
May 2026 · 7 minSelling in 24 months? Diligence started last quarter
May 2026 · 6 minNexus after the boom: a state-by-state field guide
Apr 2026 · 11 minThe five-day close: an operating manual
Apr 2026 · 8 minNew thinking from our partners, every month.
11 / Held to a higher standard
Peer-reviewed
Independent peer review of our audit practice, every cycle.
PCAOB-registered
Registered and inspected for public-company work.
SOC 2-aligned
Encryption in transit and at rest; access logged.
Global reach
An independent network across 80+ countries.
Perspective
The view from higher ground.
12 / Coverage
Nine offices. One standard.
Partner-led service in every market we enter, coast to coast.
- Seattle
- San Francisco
- Denver
- Minneapolis
- Austin
- Chicago
- Atlanta
- New York — HQ
- Boston
13 / Ways of working
Engagements, priced like promises.
Flat annualScoped once
Fixed-fee compliance
Certainty, priced like it
Audit, review, and tax compliance scoped once and priced flat.
- Fixed annual fee, in writing
- Named partner & manager
- Guaranteed deadline calendar
Monthly retainerSame partner
Advisory subscription
A standing seat at your table
CFO-level counsel on a monthly cadence, from a partner who knows your numbers.
- Monthly strategy sessions
- Quarterly tax projections
- Board & lender support
By milestoneFixed stages
Project engagements
For the defining moments
Transactions, disputes, migrations, restructurings — scoped and staffed.
- Scoped deliverables & timeline
- Milestone billing
- Post-close support
14 / Common questions
Answered straight.
The questions every prospective client asks.
Ninety days after year-end is ideal — though we’ve rescued engagements in February.
It depends on complexity, not size — and you’ll know before we start.
Our favorite configuration: the outside bench for a strong internal team.
Discovery within the week; onboarding in three to four weeks.
Yes — a global network across 80+ countries, coordinated by your U.S. team.
15 / Careers
Build your practice here.
We hire people who want their name on the work. Four rules we keep:
Introduce yourself- 01
Say the hard thing early
Bad news ages terribly. We deliver it fresh, with a plan.
- 02
Teach as you go
Every deliverable leaves your team a little smarter.
- 03
The client’s clock is ours
Deadlines are promises. We keep promises.
- 04
Leave the ledger cleaner
Work papers, processes, people — in every sense.
16 / Next step
Clarity starts with a conversation.
Thirty minutes with a partner — not a salesperson. Leave with a straight answer and a plan.