Tennessee Road Builder Magazine Recognizes DGL as TRBA Associate of the Year

Dedicated Returns - Davidson, Gordon & Lundy, P.C.,

Continues To Provide Exceptional Service To Road Builders

Tennessee-based CPA recognized as TRBA Associate of the Year

Ask any contractor, and many will tell you that actually building the road project on which they are working is the easy part of the job. The real headaches come with the paperwork – items such as payroll, taxes and any number of other accounting functions can be more cumbersome than laying hundreds of tons of asphalt.

Thankfully for many TRBA members, Davidson, Golden & Lundy, P.C. is available to help them deal with all of their accounting troubles and assist them in reaching their financial goals. The firm’s success in these endeavors has not gone unnoticed – TRBA members voted the company as the inaugural “Associate of the Year” award winner at the Annual Meeting earlier this year.

Founded in 1987, DGL is a certified public accounting firm based in Brentwood, Tennessee. The firm offers extensive audit, tax, information technology and consulting services to a full range of construction and real estate companies. 

“We have been servicing the construction industry for 20 years, and in particular road building contractors,” said Robert Davidson, managing partner for the firm. “We represent roughly 350 contractors, and 150 of those are heavy/highway companies.

That dedication to the construction industry did not come about by chance. Rather, it was based on Davidson’s previous work experience prior to starting his own firm.

“Going back to 1977, I have worked with firms that have been involved with TRBA. I’ve also been on various committees and boards and have become very familiar with the positive things coming from the road building industry,” Davidson said.

Concentrating on a specific industry has also made DGL unique among other CPA firms.

“Most CPA firms are generalists, serving all sorts of industries such as hospitals, government, restaurants – you name it,” Davidson said. “But by focusing on the road building industry, we’ve been able to find our niche and become successful at it.”

While dedication to an industry is one thing, it is also important to provide quality services that clients are seeking. DGL offers a complete range of standard CPA services (taxes, auditing, consulting, etc.), but also services specifically for contractors such as DOT prequalification reports, claims & change order consulting, merger & acquisition advice and evaluations of construction companies.

In addition, the firm takes pride in keeping up-to-date with issues in the construction industry while pursuing active leadership roles in financial and contractor network organizations. In the accounting realm, DGL is a member of the Tennessee State Board of Accountancy, the American Institute of CPAs and the Tennessee Society of CPAs. In terms of construction associations, along with being a member of TRBA, the firm belongs to the Construction Financial Management Association, ARTBA, AGC and NAPA, as well as the Florida Transportation Builders Association (FTBA). Their success in the Sunshine State led to the opening of an office in Orlando two years ago.

Davidson gives credit to the principal officers in the company – Greg Golden and Jim Lundy in the Tennessee office, and Whitt Forehand in Orlando – as well as to the 35 employees in Brentwood and three in Florida for the success of the company.

“Our greatest asset is our people. We look beyond what is traditionally offered by a CPA firm to provide value-added services to our clients,” Davidson said. “Not only are we all very supportive and active within TRBA, but we also realize how important road building is. And I’m not talking about how important it is to our firm, but the benefits it brings to our state, to the economy, and to the country.”

The work also provides a sense of accomplishment for DGL. “Let’s face it – accounting firms aren’t known for building things. We’re more of a paper shuffling industry,” Davidson said. “It’s rewarding for us to help an industry that goes out and builds things, like a road building contractor. Even though we didn’t actually build the project, we feel like we contributed in our own way, and that gives us a sense of accomplishment.”

“It’s fun to be involved in something you truly believe in,” he added.

DGL continues to give clients a reason to believe in the firm with its quality services and continued commitment to the heavy/highway industry. Davidson notes that all companies want to be recognized as hard working, dedicated and honest, and DGL is no different.

“We want our clients to feel like we go the extra mile for them while still maintaining those basic principles,” he said.

The firm is working hard to make sure those core values don’t change in the future. In looking at the next 10 years, Davidson and DGL are “…working hard on developing the next generation of our firm. We want to build a solid infrastructure of young people who will continue not just our practice but our principles as well, and will continue to develop the same productive relationships with road builders.”

Those future goals of continued growth and quality client relationships are represented succinctly in the company’s motto: ‘Your success is the measure of ours.’

“We tell our clients ‘we are committed to your business, your industry and your time frame,’” Davidson said. “And if we can help our clients succeed, then we have succeeded.”

That success was demonstrated two-fold at the TRBA Annual Meeting this past February. Not only was a DGL client, Ray Bell Construction, voted as Prime Contractor of the Year, but DGL itself was recognized as TRBA Associate of the Year for 2006.

This is the first year the association has presented this award, which was voted upon by the Prime Contractor and Subcontractor members of the TRBA.  Criteria for the award included customer service, promptness of delivery, quality of product, product knowledge and support of TRBA.

“Just knowing that the TRBA membership voted on this award and selected DGL makes it that much more special to us,” Davidson said.

A measure of the importance of the award can be found in a story from the actual presentation. Not only was the TRBA Annual Meeting held in February, coming at the height of tax season, but it was also held in Carlsbad, Calif. – not an easy trek from Tennessee. And yet because of the importance of this award to the company, Davidson personally flew out the night before to be on hand to accept the award, and promptly boarded a red-eye flight back to Nashville after the ceremonies to get back to work.

“I can tell you to this day, that award has a special place among all of our other awards, and we will continue to display it prominently,” Davidson said.

Yet again, Davidson credits the team at DGL for being recognized with the TRBA honors.

“It’s a reflection on the good people at this firm that our clients in the industry have picked up not just on the services we provide, but also the passion we have for their industry,” he said. “I think that combination of energy and expertise played a very large role in our being recognized.”

“It’s the most rewarding and satisfying award we’ve ever won.”

Thankfully for TRBA members, DGL continues to deliver rewards to the road building industry as well.

To learn more about TRBA, visit www.trba.org.