Our History and Philosophy

The founders of Keller & Owens first brought ‘The Important Plus’ to the Kansas City community more than thirty years ago. The firm began with two partners, two professional staff and a secretary. During the next decade, the firm doubled in size, both in personnel and clients. By the end of the second decade, the firm had doubled again.

From the start, the founders had a desire to serve individuals, businesses and not-for-profit organizations in need of high-quality, timely and broad-based professional services. They were committed to using experienced professionals to provide these services at a reasonable cost. They were convinced that these attributes combined with individual attention would mean success for both their clients and the firm.

Today, our mindset remains the same. Our clients continue to receive quality service, which comes from years of advanced training and technical expertise. Our ongoing investment of time and resources in professional continuing education, computer technology and network relationships reveals our strong commitment to excellence.

We believe traditional values such as integrity, excellence, hard work and personal involvement are essential to the high standard of service and strong working relationships that our clients seek. Those values have been and will continue to be the basis for success.

Our qualifications to serve you

The quality of our work is important. This is why we have created an intricate quality control system that incorporates staff supervision, several levels of management review, annual self-inspections and a triennial ‘peer review’ by an independent CPA firm.

We understand that every client’s situation is unique, so we provide staff that has the experience and expertise required for every engagement. All services are supervised by owners of the firm and many engagements have the direct involvement of a Keller & Owens partner. Most of our professionals are licensed Certified Public Accountants and members of national, state and specialty associations. They have extensive experience in public accounting, and several of our professionals have held management positions in commercial and not-for-profit organizations.

All of our professionals meet the rigorous continuing education requirements established by the firm and the profession to ensure that we keep abreast of new developments and issues. We are continually adding to our technical resources so that we will have the tools needed to help you respond to the challenges you face.

Providing value

Critical to our clients’ success is our role in helping them stay informed. We sponsor informative seminars and publish periodic newsletters, special alert releases and a year-end tax-planning letter. Our website provides useful calendars, alerts, articles, tools and links. Of course, we are always available to answer your questions by phone, fax or e-mail.

We are sensitive to the cost of professional fees our clients may face. Accordingly, we work to keep our fees reasonable and competitive without sacrificing the highest quality of service. Our objective in every engagement is to be the ‘important plus’ that adds value to the service beyond its actual cost.

Seizing opportunity in today’s world

We are based in the Kansas City area, yet we also serve clients located elsewhere in the country. Many of our clients serve customers and constituents throughout the world. We assist them locally and, through correspondent firms and contacts, virtually anywhere. In today’s world, technology and innovation are providing new possibilities every day. We are here to help our clients seize as many of these opportunities as possible.

Committed to your success

Because today’s choices have long-term implications, selecting a CPA firm should be made with many factors in mind. The firm’s philosophy, stability, involvement, qualifications, services and value are key considerations. Keller & Owens, LLC offers a unique combination of these factors – all intended to contribute to your success.