Accounting Firm Marks 50th Anniversary

On Billie Jo Rodriguez’ first day of work at the Oxnard accounting firm of Soares, Sandall, Bernacchi & Petrovich, she was struck by the staff attire.

“I had heard it was going to be a stuffy firm, it had been there for so long,” said Rodriguez, now a partner in the organization. “The doors opened and all these people were walking around with T-shirts on with Tom Petrovich’s face on them--they were clients and employees who were members of the Tom Petrovich fan club and they were celebrating his birthday.”

Rodriguez’s first glimpse of the firm came in 1986, 22 years after Petrovich came on board and 39 years after Frank Soares founded the business.

The firm this year is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

“Part of the reason for [the longevity] is simple competence; part of it is an ability of the principals to get along with one another,” Petrovich said.

“This is a partnership--there’s a lot of give and take,” he said. “If you have personality clashes, you’re not going to last. I’ve been blessed with my partners. We’ve done well. That doesn’t mean there aren’t days when we’d like to nail the other partners’ doors shut, but we are friends.”

Soares, now deceased, and George Sandall, retired, formed the partnership in 1956. Petrovich and Bernard Bernacchi were named partners in 1966, two years after they joined the firm.

Since he arrived on the scene, Petrovich has seen the industry undergo a number of changes--many that have simplified the work of the CPAs, others that have complicated it.

“It used to be a tax return would take six or seven sheets of paper,” he said. “Now it takes a forest.”

But at least the firm now has computers.

“When I first came here, all of our tax returns were prepared manually--now I don’t think I’ve seen a manually prepared return in 10 years,” Petrovich said. “Technology has changed the business substantially.”

It has changed the way customers interact with the firm as well. Petrovich said the firm used to handle the books for many of its clients. But with more and more clients having their own computers and bookkeeping programs, that work has decreased.

“It tends to raise the level of work we do for our client, so it’s positive for us,” he said. “The problem we have found is a lot of people have computer programs, but unfortunately they’re not bookkeepers or accountants. So we [do] some of unraveling of the mystery.”

Another significant change from the early days of the accounting firm is the presence of women among the partnership. Rodriguez and Debra Bettenmayer were named partners in 1992, the first female partners since the operation was founded.

“When I came in in 1986 it wasn’t that bad, but talking to some of the accountants, it had been a closed profession,” Rodriguez said. “This is just one more example that shows that this profession is not closed to women anymore. You don’t need to stay status quo and stay at middle management. You can move to upper management.”

Both Rodriguez and Petrovich said they expect that the firm will continue to progress well into the 21st century.

“I would hope so,” Petrovich said. “I know the other partners who have a lot more hair and a lot fewer wrinkles would like to be here 20 years from now, and there’s no reason why this firm couldn’t be around in 2047.”