Technical Accounting · Finance Leadership · Assurance

The CPA you call when the accounting gets genuinely hard.

Leal CPA advises PE-backed and founder-led companies through complex technical accounting, finance transformation, and independent assurance — and builds the finance functions that let them scale. We also handle tax for business owners and individuals who want a senior advisor, not a filing service. Rare in one place: deep GAAP and real finance-leadership experience.

For companies For business owners
Technical Accounting

When the GAAP question is too hard

Deep technical accounting for the situations a stretched team can't resolve alone.

  • Purchase accounting (ASC 805)
  • Revenue & consolidations
  • Carve-outs & audit readiness
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Finance Leadership

The finance function sponsors ask for

FP&A firepower and reporting automation from someone who's led finance at scale.

  • Cash forecasts & board dashboards
  • Reporting automation (Power BI / Python)
  • Rapid multi-entity consolidation
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Tax for Owners

Tax strategy that plans ahead

S-corp and complex-return tax from a senior advisor who explains what's going on.

  • S-corp & owner strategy
  • Basis, distributions & gains
  • Year-round planning
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Plus independent assurance & agreed-upon procedures from a licensed, peer-reviewed firm.

Georgia CPA LicenseLicensed in Georgia
Illinois CPA LicenseLicensed in Illinois
AICPA Peer Review ProgramPeer Review Program
AICPA MemberAICPA Member
AICPA SOCAICPA SOC
Why we are different

There are thousands of CPAs and thousands of FP&A professionals. Very few do both at a senior level.

Most technical-accounting help comes from big firms at big-firm rates — or from advisors who've never actually closed the books on a $600M, multi-entity, PE-backed business. We've done both: the technical GAAP and the operating seat.

$600MRevenue scale led across 28 sites
$240M+M&A integration, public & PE-backed
CPALicensed in GA & IL, peer-reviewed firm
Fortune 500Advisory roots at Alvarez & Marsal
How we engage

Scoped cleanly, priced clearly.

Advisory

Project or ongoing

Technical accounting delivered as a defined project — a memo, a fix, a deal — or ongoing support as questions arise.

Attestation

Independent by design

Attest engagements are kept separate from advisory and tax work for the same client, so the independence holds up.

Tax

A year-round relationship

Owner and individual tax handled proactively across the year — clear scope, agreed pricing, no April surprises.

What clients say

Trusted by the people we work with.

Technical Accounting & Transactions

When the accounting question is too hard for the team you have.

Growing companies hit accounting questions that don't have a clean answer in the manual — a complex acquisition, a financing structure, a messy post-deal consolidation. We bring the technical GAAP depth and an operator's judgment to resolve them, document them, and make them audit-ready.

Schedule a consultation Finance Leadership & Transformation →
What we handle

Technical accounting, transaction support, and cleanup.

The complex GAAP situations where getting it right — and documenting it defensibly — actually matters.

Transactions

Purchase Accounting

Business-combination accounting: opening balance sheets, fair value, intangibles, and goodwill — with support your auditors will accept.ASC 805

Revenue

Revenue Recognition

Applying the five-step model to real contracts, plus policy memos and implementation for complex or changing revenue streams.ASC 606

Structure

Consolidations & Carve-Outs

Multi-entity consolidations, non-controlling interests, and stand-up / carve-out financials for divestitures and new platforms.ASC 810

Financing

Debt & Equity Treatment

Accounting for financing arrangements, instruments, and modifications — getting debt-vs-equity and the disclosures right.ASC 470 / 480 / 815

GAAP

GAAP Conversions & Memos

Cash-to-accrual and other GAAP conversions, and clear technical memos that document a defensible position.

Deal support

Post-Deal Cleanup & Audit Readiness

Fixing the books after an acquisition, standing up reporting, and getting a company ready for its first or next audit.

Who we work with

Growing businesses, across industries.

  • PE-backed & growth-stage companiesControllers and CFOs who need senior technical depth on demand without a big-firm engagement.
  • Founder-led businessesCompanies that have outgrown their accounting and need the hard questions answered right.
  • Acquirers & deal teamsBuy-side accounting for the transaction and the messy integration that follows the close.
  • Companies heading into an auditGet the technical positions documented and the books ready before the auditors arrive.

Industries we've served: professional services, construction, manufacturing, technology, real estate, and financial services.

A note on independence: where we provide this advisory work, we don't also attest to it. Assurance engagements are scoped separately to keep our independence intact — so the assurance actually means something.

Have a technical question that's been sitting unresolved?

Tell us what you're dealing with. If it's the kind of thing we do, we'll scope it clearly; if it isn't, we'll say so.

Schedule a consultation Discuss an engagement
Finance Leadership & Transformation

Not just a CPA — someone who has run finance.

There are thousands of CPAs and thousands of FP&A professionals. Very few people do both at a senior level. Leal CPA builds the finance function PE sponsors and founders actually need — cash forecasts, board dashboards, automated reporting, and clean consolidation — from someone who has led FP&A for a $600M, multi-entity, PE-backed portfolio.

Finance Leadership & Transformation Consultation ← Technical Accounting
What sponsors & founders ask for

The finance firepower a growing company needs — on day one.

Built fast, built to scale, and built by someone who has actually sat in the seat and answered to a board and a sponsor.

Liquidity

13-Week Cash Flow & Forecasting

The single most-requested tool in PE — a living short-term liquidity model for tight-cash or leveraged companies, plus the long-range plan and scenario cases lenders want.

Reporting

KPI Architecture & Board Dashboards

Designing the metrics that matter and building the Power BI dashboards that show them — from raw data to board-ready views.

Automation

Reporting Automation

Turning a manual close-and-report scramble into a repeatable, automated monthly package using Power BI, SQL, and Python.

Integration

Rapid Multi-Entity Consolidation

Pulling multiple entities and systems into one clean, consolidated view — fast — instead of fragile manual spreadsheets.

Structure

Chart of Accounts & Process Redesign

Redesigning the COA and month-end process so reporting is consistent, faster, and actually scalable as you grow.

Systems

ERP & System Support

Optimizing and getting more out of the accounting/ERP systems you already run — with sound controls and better reporting on top.

Systems & tooling we work in
  • Power BI
  • SQL
  • Python
  • Advanced Excel
  • NetSuite
  • SAP
  • Microsoft Dynamics
  • Workday
  • Hyperion
  • Planful
  • QuickBooks
  • Salesforce
Modern finance

Not a traditional CPA.

The advantage isn't just experience — it's tooling. We use automation and AI-assisted workflows to do in days what manual finance teams take weeks to do: consolidating disparate systems, standing up dashboards, and automating the reporting that used to eat a controller's month. That's what lets a lean company get big-company financial visibility without a big-company finance department.

Need finance that keeps up with the business?

Whether it's a cash forecast, a board dashboard, or a reporting mess to untangle — let's talk about what you need.

Finance Leadership & Transformation Consultation Discuss an engagement
Attestation · Independent Assurance

Independent validation from a peer-reviewed firm.

When a lender, investor, board, or counterparty needs an independent set of eyes, we perform the full range of assurance through our licensed, peer-reviewed firm — reviews, compilations, agreed-upon procedures, and audits — matched to what your situation actually calls for.

Schedule an assurance consultation Request an engagement
Engagement types

The right level of assurance — not more than you need.

Most firms sell the engagement they want to sell. We start from what your lender, investor, or board actually requires, and match it to the right level of assurance — often less than a full audit.

Reviews

Analytical procedures and inquiry to provide limited assurance on financial statements — a strong middle ground when an audit is more than a stakeholder needs.AR-C 90

Compilations

Preparing financial statements in the proper form for third parties, where an audit or review isn't what's required.AR-C 80

Agreed-Upon Procedures

You define the specific procedures; we perform them and report the findings — ideal when a stakeholder needs a defined fact verified rather than a full audit.AT-C 215

Audits

Full financial-statement audits under GAAS, taken on selectively where the engagement is the right fit for our firm and yours.AU-C

We commonly support companies preparing financial statements for lenders, investors, and Regulation CF offerings — and also perform attestation engagements (examinations of a specific subject matter or management assertion) under AT-C 205 where needed.

Why independence matters here

We don't audit our own homework.

The value of attestation is that it's independent. So when we perform an attest engagement for a client, we don't also do the underlying advisory or tax work that would compromise it. That separation is deliberate — it's what makes our sign-off worth something to the lender, board, or investor relying on it.

Need something independently verified?

Tell us what needs validating and who's relying on it. We'll tell you the right engagement type.

Schedule a consultation Request an engagement
Tax · Business Owners & Complex Returns

Tax handled by someone who actually understands the business.

Whether you run an S-corp or juggle income from every direction, you deserve more than a once-a-year filing. We explain the parts nobody walked you through — basis, distributions, capital gains — and plan ahead all year, backed by the same senior judgment we bring to complex corporate work.

Book a consultation Technical advisory →
The gap we fill

You built something that works. But nobody ever explained your basis, your distributions, or what a capital gain will actually cost you — until it was too late to plan for it.

Most tax preparers file and disappear. We make sure you understand the moving parts of your own money, so you can make decisions with your eyes open — and stop overpaying for a lack of a plan.

What we do

Clarity first, then a plan.

Clarity

Understand your numbers

Basis, distributions, and what you can actually take out — explained until it clicks. And how a capital gain works before you sell, not after.

S-corp

S-Corp & Owner Strategy

Reasonable compensation, distribution planning against basis, entity-structure review, and quarterly estimates handled proactively.

Individuals

High-Income Individuals

Multiple income streams — equity, real estate, 1099s, investments — pulled into one coherent, optimized picture.

Planning

Year-Round Planning

Estimates and projections all year so decisions get made while they can still change the outcome.

Gains

Capital Gains Planning

Timing sales of a business, stock, or property so gains are planned for — not discovered with the bill.

Multi-state

Multi-State & Complexity

Exposure across states, entity layers, and the situations a standard preparer isn't equipped to handle.

Start with what you don't fully understand yet.

A free first conversation. Bring your questions about basis, distributions, or a sale you're weighing — you'll leave understanding more than you did.

Schedule a call Book a consultation
About

A CPA who's spent his career in the operator's seat.

The reason clients trust the technical work is that it comes from someone who has actually led finance through growth, acquisitions, and board scrutiny — not just studied it.

Who you're working with

Technical depth, earned in the seat.

Aldo Leal

Aldo Leal, CPA, MBA

Co-Founder

Aldo is an Atlanta-based finance executive and CPA (Georgia & Illinois) with more than 13 years across private-equity–backed and high-growth, multi-site businesses. Most recently, as VP of Financial Planning & Analysis at Precision Aviation Group, he built the FP&A function from inception across a 28-location, ~$600M platform — and supported the company's ~$2.025B sale to VSE Corporation (NASDAQ: VSEC), which closed in May 2026, contributing to the financial diligence response, Quality of Earnings workstreams, and the long-range model underpinning the sell-side process.

He has led the financial integration of multiple add-on acquisitions (roughly $240M+ in combined deal value across his career), partnered directly with PE sponsors and boards on long-range planning and capital allocation, and held senior FP&A roles at REPAY, GreenSky, and Nalco Water (an Ecolab company). He began in advisory at Alvarez & Marsal, leading workstreams for Fortune 500 clients. That combination — active CPA, GAAP close and policy design, real M&A integration, and years accountable for a company's numbers — is what he brings to complex accounting today.

He holds an MBA in Corporate Finance from Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business (cum laude) and a B.S. in Economics, is a licensed CPA in Georgia and Illinois, and runs a firm enrolled in the AICPA Peer Review Program. Bilingual in English and Spanish.

  • CPA — Georgia & Illinois
  • MBA, Notre Dame (cum laude)
  • Ex–Alvarez & Marsal
  • ~$2B sponsor exit (2026)
  • PE-backed FP&A
  • Six Sigma Green Belt
Alexi Leal

Alexi Leal

Co-Founder & General Manager

Alexi is an accomplished customer success leader with nearly a decade at Relativity, where she specialized in e-discovery software, client engagement, and cross-functional collaboration. A graduate of Georgia Tech, she draws on a consulting background from Alvarez & Marsal to build strategic partnerships, guide business transformations, and drive data-informed decisions. At Leal CPA she runs the client experience and operations — making sure the work is not just technically excellent but genuinely well-run for the people we serve.

  • Georgia Tech
  • Ex–Relativity
  • Ex–Alvarez & Marsal
  • Client Success & Operations
Follow Aldo

Insights on accounting, FP&A, transactions & AI.

Aldo shares practical lessons on technical accounting, finance leadership, and modern finance — plus two published books. Follow along or explore the resources.

See the books →
How we work

Senior, straight, and scoped clearly.

Senior

You work with the principals

Not handed to junior staff. The people doing the work are the ones with the experience.

Straight

Honest answers

If something isn't our work, we say so. If a position is aggressive, you'll know. Clarity over comfort.

Clean

Independence respected

Advisory, tax, and attestation are scoped so the assurance work stays independent and defensible.

Georgia CPA LicenseLicensed in Georgia
Illinois CPA LicenseLicensed in Illinois
AICPA Peer Review ProgramPeer Review Program
AICPA MemberAICPA Member
AICPA SOCAICPA SOC
Books

Complex finance, explained.

A growing book series that puts technical accounting and finance into language anyone running a business can use — the same approach we bring to every engagement.

Books by Aldo Leal

The Plain English Accounting series.

A two-book series (with more on the way) that strips the jargon out of accounting and finance — written for owners, operators, and anyone who wants to actually understand the numbers.

Plain English
Accounting

Plain English Accounting

A 2-book series explaining accounting and finance concepts in plain language — no jargon, no assumed background. More titles coming.

View the series on Amazon →
Get in Touch

Tell us what you're dealing with.

A technical accounting question, an attestation need, or tax for your business or household — start here and we'll respond within one business day.

Prefer to just grab time?

Book a slot directly on my calendar — the fastest way to talk.

Schedule a call on Calendly

Or start a conversation

Confidential. We'll point you to the right kind of engagement.

🔒 Confidential. Your information is never shared.

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