Porterfield Opening Accounting Office in Fayetteville

Lured by the region’s teeming business climate and strong prospects for a healthy clientele, Harrison-based Porterfield & Co. CPA is opening a new office in Fayetteville.

Firm owner Tom Porterfield, a native of Tulsa who matriculated to Harrison 13 years ago, said the pull of Northwest Arkansas was just too strong to ignore.

“We like the market and we love the people, and the more people we meet, the more we want to do business there,” he said. “We’re excited about the prospects.”

The firm does the standards — audit, tax and accounting — and has four CPAs and two more currently sitting for the exam. While the move to Fayetteville is assured, the firm has yet to lock down a brick-and-mortar office. However, Porterfield already has clients in the area, and two new hires for the Fayetteville office are in the works.

“Our ideal client would be a small growing business that we could give tax and accounting advice to and help them grow,” Porterfield said. “We want to be selective in the types of clients we acquire.”

In 2002, Porterfield left his position as director of operations for Ranger Boats in Flippin and bought the Harrison piece of Ervin & Co., an accounting firm owned by Fayetteville CPA John Ervin.

“I was ready to make a change, and a friend of mine introduced me to John,” he said.

He renamed the business Porterfield and Co. CPA, and in 2013, acquired another Harrison firm, Medley and Co. Looking at his entrée into Fayetteville, Porterfield said yet another acquisition could be in the offing.

“I wouldn’t rule it out,” he said.

Porterfield has had his eye on Fayetteville for a few years, but with the Great Recession and the resultant recovery, the time just didn’t seem right. But with Northwest Arkansas seemingly back at full strength, Porterfield is confident the stars are aligned for a successful move.

“Fayetteville is just the logical place to be,” he said.

The housing market in both Benton and Washington counties is surging, and in Fayetteville, uptown is about to erupt with commercial development. The University of Arkansas and Fayetteville are both as big as they have ever been, and the city’s ongoing infrastructure and rezoning program is opening up over 600 acres along Rupple Road for mixed-use and residential development. As Porterfield said, Fayetteville is “robust.”

Porterfield has worked with everything from startups to publicly traded corporations. In terms of audit, his experience includes rural development projects, HUD multifamily and public housing, nonprofits, water districts, municipal governments, and A-133 federal funds. His tax experience is focused on S-Corp and partnership taxation. Porterfield is also a certified QuickBooks advisor.

Porterfield plans on traveling between Harrison and Fayetteville, a trek greatly aided by four-lane improvements along U.S. 412. Back in Harrison, he said he has a great team, a team that will allow him to conduct business development in the new market.

“This is all about having good people in place,” he said.

Porterfield, 49, is a graduate of the University of Tulsa. He and his wife, Susie, also a graduate of the University of Tulsa, have two sons, J.A., a sophomore at Harrison High School, and Zach, a freshman at Kansas State University.

Asked if the Porterfield family would consider moving to Fayetteville, Porterfield wouldn’t say.

“We love Harrison, but we love Fayetteville, too,” he said.