The Harding Group

What The Harding Group does

The Harding Group, Inc. is a privately held CPA firm founded in 1995 and headquartered at 2028-B Industrial Dr., Annapolis, Maryland, operating under Maryland CPA-Corporation License #37157. The firm delivers five integrated service lines — Business Advising, Tax Planning & Preparation, Bookkeeping & Accounting, Payroll Services, and QuickBooks Training & Support — to small businesses across Anne Arundel County, Baltimore, Columbia, Bowie, Pasadena, Severna Park, Odenton, and adjacent Maryland communities. All work is completed in-house by a team of CPAs, accountants, professional bookkeepers, and QuickBooks Pro Certified professionals, with a dedicated professional assigned to each client.

The underlying technology stack is built on third-party SaaS rather than proprietary systems: QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop (hosted by RightNetworks) for accounting, Canopy and TaxCaddy for secure document exchange, Receipt Bank for document management, InvoiceSherpa for billing automation, and Fathom for financial reporting and analytics. Client engagement is delivered via direct professional relationships, supported by secure portals and scheduled video meetings. The firm holds no patents, has no disclosed API or SDK, and reports no AI/ML capabilities.

The business model is fee-for-service professional services, with quote-based engagements and no publicly disclosed pricing. Revenue is generated through ongoing advisory, compliance (tax preparation and filing), and recurring monthly work (bookkeeping, payroll) for SMB clients. Customer acquisition is sales-led, drawing on local SEO, an active content marketing blog, organic social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn), email newsletter, and community reputation built over more than two decades. The firm is independently owned with no parent company, no private equity backing, and no institutional investment disclosed.

Name

The Harding Group

Legal name

The Harding Group, Inc.

Website

https://thehardinggroup.biz

Company type

Private

Founded year

1995

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Harding Group is a privately held CPA firm in Annapolis, Maryland, founded in 1995, providing tax preparation, bookkeeping, payroll, business advising, and QuickBooks training to small businesses across Anne Arundel County and surrounding Maryland communities.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Annapolis

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Professional Services Fees: The firm generates revenue through service fees for comprehensive accounting, tax preparation, tax planning, payroll services, and bookkeeping services. Services are provided to small businesses on an ongoing advisory basis.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

The Harding Group is a full-service CPA firm providing Business Advising, Tax Planning & Preparation, Bookkeeping & Accounting, Payroll Services, and QuickBooks Training & Support to small businesses and their owners in Maryland. All work is performed in-house by a dedicated team of CPAs, accountants, professional bookkeepers, and QuickBooks Pro Certified professionals, with clients accessing documents and data through secure online portals (Canopy, TaxCaddy, QuickBooks Online/Desktop, Receipt Bank, InvoiceSherpa, Fathom).

Product overview

The Harding Group is a full-service public accounting and consulting firm offering a unified suite of professional services for small businesses. The core offering comprises five integrated service lines: Business Advising (providing strategic guidance from start-up through retirement), Tax Planning & Preparation (handling both business and personal tax compliance and planning), Bookkeeping & Accounting (maintaining accurate financial records with monthly reconciliations), Payroll Services (managing employee setup, tax deposits, and W-2/1099 preparation), and QuickBooks Training & Support (providing certified support for QuickBooks setup, training, and ongoing integration). All services are completed in-house by a dedicated team of CPAs, accountants, bookkeepers, and QuickBooks-certified professionals.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Business Advising Comprehensive ongoing small business advising for owners at all stages of development, covering start-up, compliance, growth strategy, retirement/sale transitions, and advice tailored to Maryland's local economic landscape.
• Tax Planning & Preparation Business and personal tax return preparation combined with proactive year-round tax planning, designed to minimize liabilities, maximize returns, and align tax decisions with long-term business and personal financial goals.
• Bookkeeping & Accounting Ongoing monthly bookkeeping and accounting services including bank and credit card reconciliations, sales tax reporting, accounts payable management, bill paying, and advanced bookkeeping support to maintain accurate financial records; includes catch-up bookkeeping for late filers.
• Payroll Services Full-service payroll management for small businesses, including new employee setup, payroll data entry, payroll tax deposits and filings, preparation of W-2s and 1099s, retirement fund remittance, and support for multi-state operations and remote workers.
• QuickBooks Training & Support Setup, training, cleanup, and ongoing support for QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop, delivered by QuickBooks Pro Certified professionals, with support for QBO app integrations and QuickBooks Desktop hosted via RightNetworks.

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration8 records

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Bench.co: Tech-enabled monthly bookkeeping platform for small businesses — directly substitutes for Harding's bookkeeping offering for SMBs that prefer a fully digital, lower-cost service.
• Pilot.com: Tech-enabled bookkeeping and CFO services for SMBs and startups — competes directly with Harding's bookkeeping and small business advisory services through a software-plus-service model.
• Botkeeper: AI-powered bookkeeping platform serving SMBs and accounting firms — threatens to automate the manual bookkeeping workflows that anchor Harding's recurring service revenue.

Broad incumbents

• CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA): Top-10 U.S. accounting firm with strong Mid-Atlantic presence serving privately-held businesses and individuals — offers overlapping services at varying firm sizes and competes for the same Maryland SMB market.
• BDO USA: Top-5 global accounting network with a significant U.S. SMB practice in Maryland — broader portfolio than Harding, but competes for the same privately-held business clients with overlapping tax and advisory services.

Direct peers

• KatzAbosch: Maryland-based CPA, wealth management, and advisory firm serving businesses and individuals across the Mid-Atlantic — directly comparable in service mix (tax, accounting, advisory) and SMB/mid-market client focus.
• Gross, Mendelsohn & Associates: Mid-Atlantic regional CPA firm providing tax, accounting, and advisory services to closely-held businesses — comparable service mix and Mid-Atlantic SMB target market.
• Ellin & Tucker: Baltimore-based CPA and business advisory firm serving privately-held companies in the Mid-Atlantic — comparable service breadth (tax, audit, advisory) and SMB client focus.
• Councilor, Buchanan & Mitchell (CBM): Maryland/DC-area CPA and advisory firm serving privately-held businesses and individuals with comparable tax, accounting, and consulting services — overlapping client base and service model with Harding.

Regional players

• Withum: Northeast-based CPA and advisory firm with SMB and technology-industry practices — comparable service mix and tech-firm specialty, but geographically focused outside of Maryland and DC.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/TheHardingGrp
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCM9doV6VGsDmZsaiK_fyPDQ
• Facebookfacebook.com/The-Harding-Group-Inc-138031596244002
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-harding-group-inc.

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Harding Group