About Us
Meet the Team
Tom Porter, CPA
Partner
Paul S Hintze
Accounting Manager
Scarlette Cruce
Projects and Office Manager
Lacey Huddleston
Accounts Manager
Elaine Peltcs
Enrolled Agent
Sydney Jones
Staff Accountant
Heath Locklear
Staff Accountant
This Could Be You!
Are You Our Next Proactive Pro?
Pam Burns
Founder and OG
If you are an experienced, Florida-licensed CPA or an experienced accountant or bookkeeper and are passionate about helping others, you might just love it here. To be considered for a position in our firm, please email your resume and a letter of interest to tom@proactivecpas.com – we would love to talk with you about our shared future.
Thomas E. Porter, CPA
Tom joined our firm in 2014 and assists clients with tax planning, payroll, tax and accounting issues and QuickBooks training, in addition to preparing tax returns for individuals and businesses. He has extensive experience in the banking and financial service industries and also served as CFO for a mobile development firm.
Tom is a double-Gator, receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in accounting right here at the University of Florida. He’s a parishioner at Holy Faith and a team booster at Buchholz High School.
When not solving problems for ProActive clients, Tom enjoys music (Springsteen, Petty and Dylan are favorites), reading, sitting on the front porch with his wife, playing with his five kids and watching as much college football as he can get away with. Tom has lived in Gainesville almost all his life and is *still* stunned every year at just how incredibly hot it gets in August! Tom has visited 16 of the 50 United States so far and hopes to visit all of them one day. Well, not in one day…but you get the point.
Firm Profile
We are a ProActive tax and accounting practice focusing on tax strategies saving thousands of $$$$ for business and individual clients. We are large enough to offer a full array of services, but small enough to know you personally and respond to your needs.
What makes us different? We don’t wait until April 15th to start work on your taxes. We work proactively, year round, to minimize your taxes before it’s too late. That lets you reap the benefits when your taxes are prepared. We offer these services both to individuals and businesses.
Are you in trouble with the IRS? Call us! “Enrolled Agents”, like us are the only tax professionals licensed directly by the IRS. We specialize in taxes and we can represent clients from any state. “Certified Public Accountants” adds professionalism and financial knowledge that you can expect to receive.
Do you use QuickBooks? We earned the QuickBooks Certified ProAdvisor for both the QuickBooks Online and Desktop versions, which lets us help you make the most of your system. We can set up your books, train you and your employees, manage your payroll, compile your quarterly and annual statements, and prepare your tax returns. If you don’t want to handle your own accounting, we can do that for you as well. Our objective is to provide the services that you want us to provide for you.
We are a paperless office, so we computerize your records. This includes all invoices, billings, interest statements, etc to support your tax returns. This saves you from having to store your records, let our office keep them for you.
Our firm provides outstanding service to our clients because of our dedication to the three underlying principles of professionalism, responsiveness and quality.
Do you run your own business or professional practice? Are you working to secure your family’s financial future? If so, you know how important it is to find the right business financial partner. You know how important an accountant can be. But not all accountants are created equal!
Most accountants do a fine job recording the history you give them. They compile monthly, quarterly, and annual books and records. At tax time, they put the “right” numbers in the right boxes on the right forms. But then they call it a day.
We’re different. We don’t just record history. We help you write it, with a proactive attitude and complete menu of tax and accounting services. It doesn’t matter how good your accountant is with a stack of receipts on April 15. We’re not just any accountants, we are ProActive accountants!
To minimize your taxes, you need a plan. You need concepts and strategies that leave more on your bottom line.
- Have you organized your business right?
- Do you have the right benefit plans for yourself and your employees?
- Do you have the right retirement plan to prepare for your future?
- Are you taking advantage of all the legitimate deductions, credits, loopholes, and strategies the Tax Code offers?
We give you the plan you need to minimize your tax. Without “red flags,” “grey areas” or “aggressive” strategies. We partner with business owners, professionals, and families throughout Gainesville and all of Florida. We have the experience — and more important, the proactive attitude — to give you more than just a history lesson.
Call us at 352-333-7880 to schedule your free Tax Analysis. We’ll find the mistakes and missed opportunities that can cost you thousands, then show you how proactive planning can rescue those wasted dollars.
Dear Friend,
It’s one thing to manage a business; it’s quite another to grow it.
If you’re reading this, you know what I’m talking about.
It seems like the books are being handled properly. It seems like payroll is (mostly?) under control. It seems like the IRS is okay with how we’re handling our taxes. It seems like the financial reporting is in place.
We’re flush … most of the time. But we’re certainly not growing. We’re not prospering.
What are we missing?
This is a common story that we hear when we first start talking to business owners. The boxes are checked; the people are in place … but the fact is, they’re not quite sure how to optimize the financials for performance and growth.
Our specialty is in reading between the lines of the systems, the softwares, and the financial statements to see the true financial story being told … even when the reports all “seem” okay (for now).
The fact is that the Federal Government would love to have more of your business’s hard-earned money in their accounts. Your employees probably don’t care about cost control as much as they should. Your sales team might need to focus their efforts in a new direction.
But you don’t have to hand more dollars over to the government than they require just because you don’t know their rules as well as they do. You don’t have to live in a constant state of anxiety over the state of your books. The future of your business doesn’t have to be a question mark.
Let’s get a real-time reading on your business’s financial health with our bookkeeping services. Answer a few questions below to get started.
Click the button above to take your first step, and we’ll be in touch soon to follow up about your specific needs.
And of course, feel free to poke around our site and discover why we’ve been called “The Most Trusted CPA in the Northern Florida Area.”
Talk again soon,
Thomas E. Porter, CPA, CPA
PS — When you fill out the form, we’ll also add you to our weekly email series on “Real World” Strategy for small business owners. Our readers enthusiastically forward these to their colleagues and peers all the time because they’re not your standard “bookkeeping tips.”
PPS — Already want to come in? I don’t blame you … many people are fed up with trying to manage their books and financials on their own. Our schedule is very full … but if you call us at (352) 333-7880 or Email Us, we’ll give you two options for coming in right away. We will NOT make dealing with a business advisor as painful as dealing with your books has already been!