“You can’t grow a business if you don’t have the right people working for you and the right advisers helping you. When I hire somebody, I’d like it to be somebody I can depend on that I don’t have to watch over or worry about. That’s how I view (PCO Bookkeepers). They’re a very well-oiled part of the machine.”

Richard Monastero says his company, Amtech Personalized Pest Management, had a phenomenal January. 

“That’s kind of an oxymoron in a seasonal business like pest control,” he says, emphasizing that he’s not bragging. He’s simply pointing out how much he’s learned about managing his Brookfield, Conn.-based company by the numbers since he started it in 1990. He says he owes much of that knowledge to his accounting firm PCO Bookkeepers.

“They tend to be business advisers, and they really hold your hand and explain where you should be, what you should be doing, what your targets are for expenses, profits, losses and more,” Richard says.

He began working with the firm more than a decade ago after reading trade magazines articles written by PCO Bookkeepers Managing Member Dan Gordon. PCO Bookkeepers works with more than 300 pest control and lawn care companies across the U.S. to provide accounting, bookkeeping and CFO services; tax preparation and planning; and accounts payable management. PCO Bookkeepers also provides in-depth monthly benchmarking reports that compare clients to other firms in the industry.

Richard had been through several local accountants who did not understand the pest control industry. “I just felt like the expertise of these other accountants wasn’t quite there,” he says. In fact, one of them recommended a change to Amtech’s corporate structure, which had major tax consequences. At the time, he didn’t even realize he had a problem on his hands.  

“As soon as we started working with PCO Bookkeepers they caught it and said, ‘You owe a lot of money in income taxes,’” Richard says. “If it wasn’t found in a timely fashion, it could have become a monster. It was just a matter of paperwork, but the bottom line is it was a big mistake and it would have added penalties and interest over time.” 

Richard worked with PCO Bookkeepers to correct the issue quickly and hasn’t looked back on its relationship with the accounting firm, which does accounting, bookkeeping and accounts payable for Amtech, on top of tax planning and preparation. 

In addition to getting reliable information and monthly reports from PCO Bookkeepers in a timely fashion, Monastero appreciates the pest control industry-specific management advice he gets from the firm.   

For example, at their advice Amtech reduced the number of services and frequencies it offers.  

“I used to have many different services,” Richard says. “They said, ‘You may want to shrink it down to the most profitable — don’t be everything to all people.” 

Today, the company only offers quarterly and one-time service for homeowners and monthly service for commercial accounts. 

“There isn’t a smorgasbord of items on our service list,” he says. “It’s the same type of service, which makes things run much smoother, so we can all focus on being more profitable.” 

Accessibility is another thing Richard appreciates about working with PCO Bookkeepers. 

“They’re just good, sincere people, and I can pick up the phone and ask them a question and they’re there,” he says. “They’re business advisers as opposed to strictly accountants. That part is big for me.”