Craig Shaffer And Associates

What Craig Shaffer And Associates does

Craig Shaffer and Associates, Ltd. is a privately-held accounting firm founded in 1983 and headquartered at 2720 S. River Road #109 in Des Plaines, Illinois, serving individual and business clients in the Chicago metropolitan area. The firm delivers six core professional services: tax return preparation (covering individuals, corporations, partnerships, not-for-profits, sole proprietors, sales tax, estates, gifts, and trusts), attestation services for non-public entities (audit, review, compilation, and agreed-upon procedures), full-service payroll processing with quarterly and annual reporting, bookkeeping with QuickBooks setup and support, financial statement preparation, and advisory/planning services spanning tax, retirement, and estate. The professional bench comprises three accountants, one payroll specialist, and several support staff totaling under ten employees, with combined industry experience exceeding 100 years; leadership includes the founder Craig Shaffer (CPA since 1980), Senior Tax Accountant Linda (CPA since 1995), and Karyn Peters (Certified Fraud Examiner since 2012).

The firm's technology stack is intentionally conventional: standard tax-preparation and accounting software paired with QuickBooks for client bookkeeping, plus a Smart Vault-powered secure client portal for encrypted document transfer with multi-device verification. The practice operates on a fee-for-service professional services model, generating revenue through billed engagements for tax, attestation, payroll, bookkeeping, and advisory work; pricing is not publicly disclosed and clients engage the firm directly via phone, email, or the client portal. There are no funding rounds, no parent company, no subsidiaries, and no public ticker; ownership remains with the founding principals.

Go-to-market is sales-led and relationship-driven, relying on client referrals, professional networking, and local community presence rather than digital marketing. The customer base is horizontally segmented across individual taxpayers, small-to-mid-size businesses, not-for-profit organizations, and trusts/estates. Geographic scope is single-country and Midwest-focused (Illinois), with no global footprint claims and no disclosed expansion initiatives, acquisitions, or product launches beyond incremental hires and the Smart Vault vendor integration.

Name

Craig Shaffer And Associates

Legal name

Craig Shaffer and Associates, Ltd.

Website

https://csaccountants.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1983

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Craig Shaffer and Associates, Ltd. is a Des Plaines, Illinois-based accounting firm founded in 1983 that provides tax preparation, attestation, payroll, bookkeeping, financial statement, and advisory services to individuals and small-to-mid-size businesses in the Chicago metropolitan area.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Accounting Services

NAICS

Offices of Certified Public Accountants (541211), Other Accounting Services (541219), Tax Preparation Services (541213)

akta.pro primary industry

Accounting & Bookkeeping Services (BPAHABAC)

Keywords

• Tax preparation services
• Bookkeeping services
• Payroll services
• Attestation services
• Financial statement preparation

Headquarters

HQ city

Des Plaines

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Professional Accounting Services: Fee-for-service professional services including tax return preparation, attestation services, payroll processing, and bookkeeping. Revenue generated through professional service fees billed to individual and business clients.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

Professional accounting firm providing tax return preparation for individuals, corporations, partnerships, not-for-profits, sole proprietors, estates, gifts, and trusts; attestation services (audit, review, compilation, agreed-upon procedures) for non-public entities; full-service payroll processing with quarterly and annual reporting; bookkeeping with QuickBooks setup and support; financial statement preparation; and advisory/planning services covering tax, retirement, and estate matters.

Product overview

Craig Shaffer and Associates, Ltd. is a professional accounting firm established in 1983 that offers a comprehensive suite of accounting and financial services. The firm operates as a single-service practice rather than a platform-plus-modules architecture, providing six core service offerings: Tax Return Preparation (covering individuals, corporations, partnerships, not-for-profits, sole proprietors, sales tax, estates, gifts, and trusts), Attestation Services for Non-Public Entities (including audit, review, compilation, and agreed upon procedures), Payroll Services (full-service payroll with quarterly and annual reporting), Bookkeeping Services (with QuickBooks setup and support), Financial Statement Preparation, and Advisory/Planning Services (tax, retirement, and estate planning). The firm also provides a secure Client Portal powered by Smart Vault for document exchange.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Tax Return Preparation

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights2 records

Emerging players

• Bench: Tech-enabled bookkeeping and accounting platform targeting SMBs with bundled software plus dedicated bookkeepers — competes directly with Craig Shaffer's bookkeeping, financial statement preparation, and SMB tax services via a more scalable delivery model.
• Pilot: Tech-first accounting, bookkeeping, tax, and CFO services firm for startups and SMBs — overlaps Craig Shaffer's small/mid-size business tax, attestation, financial statement, and advisory offerings with a digitally native service delivery model.

Broad incumbents

• BDO USA: Top-tier U.S. accounting and advisory firm providing tax, audit, and consulting for businesses of all sizes — overlaps Craig Shaffer's attestation, tax, and advisory offerings at much greater scale and brand recognition.
• Andersen (Andersen Tax): Global tax and advisory firm with a strong U.S. CPA practice offering tax preparation, audit, and advisory services — provides the same core service categories as Craig Shaffer at significantly larger scale.
• CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA): Large U.S. accounting and professional services firm with strong Midwest presence providing tax, audit, advisory, and outsourced accounting services to SMBs — closest large-scale analog to Craig Shaffer's local full-service CPA model.
• Marcum LLP: Top-15 U.S. accounting and advisory firm with tax, audit, and consulting practices serving SMB and mid-market clients — analogous service mix to Craig Shaffer but with national reach and deeper specialty resources.
• Cherry Bekaert: Mid-market national accounting and advisory firm offering tax, audit, accounting, and advisory services — directly comparable service mix to Craig Shaffer's full-service CPA practice but at significantly larger scale and broader geographic footprint.

Direct peers

• H&R Block: Largest U.S. retail tax preparation chain offering individual and small-business tax filing plus adjacent bookkeeping and advisory services — directly comparable to Craig Shaffer's core tax preparation and bookkeeping offerings for individuals and small businesses.
• Jackson Hewitt: National tax preparation franchise serving individuals and small businesses with similar service breadth to Craig Shaffer, including tax filing, bookkeeping, and small-business compliance support.
• Liberty Tax: Franchised tax preparation chain focused on individual and small-business returns — overlaps Craig Shaffer's tax preparation, payroll, and bookkeeping service lines for the same SMB and individual customer segments.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 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 Craig Shaffer And Associates