Meyer Frers & Co

There is a version of accounting that happens close to home, at a desk rather than in a tower. Meyer Frers & Co keeps an office at unit 205 on 2264 Elgin Ave in Port Coquitlam, the kind of practice where the person who prepares the return is the person who answers the question. Practices like this tend to serve the people and small businesses around them: the sole proprietor sorting a first year of expenses, the family filing around a house sale, the tradesperson whose paperwork never quite fits a template. Elgin Ave runs through the central part of the city, past City Hall and the old downtown on Shaughnessy Street, so the office sits where the errands already are.

No phone number or website is included, so a first step is to note the Elgin Ave address and watch for the suite directory at the building entrance. Before engaging, a sensible client asks what the practice covers: personal returns, corporate filings, bookkeeping, advice through the year or only through tax season. Bring the last two years of filings to a first meeting; it gives the accountant something concrete to react to. In a city of about 62,500 people, keeping the books in the hands of someone down the street has an obvious appeal.