-
March 2024 by John Hippe
I just called and they said they are not taking new clients. I also asked about retirement planning, which they advertise on their website, but was told that they do not do retirement planning.
-
July 2021 by Tom Johnson
This is a Professional Small Business Accounting firm. They are certainly not the cheapest, and I am very glad for that. They are extremely thorough and thoughtful. You get exactly what you pay for. Well educated professionals, doing their job properly. I wouldn't want the cheapest doctor just like I would never use the cheapest accountant. I have been well satisfied for 20+ years! They do a great job!
-
September 2020 by Travis Olesen
Overbilled / Lack of transparency!!!!This CPA who was recommended to me by a family member who has used their services for many years, so I was willing to make the trip up to Ham Lake to have my taxes prepared. I called before my tax appointment to verify that everything was good-to-go and I mentioned that I was thinking about starting a business with a friend. They scheduled a meeting for 2 hours, explaining that they wanted to get to know me as this was my first visit (awesome). We discussed my taxes and had an enjoyable conversation about my personal goals as we got to know each other (again, awesome). I was feeling really good about my trip.We got through my taxes and with ~15 minutes remaining the CPA said "we are running out of time so, tell me about this business that you mentioned". I gave her the elevator pitch, and she handed me a pamphlet from the front waiting area, explaining that I would have to pick an entity (which of course is the first step to starting any business, common knowledge). We discussed this for no more than 15 minutes, and I even stopped her from writing anything down because I wanted this to be informal. There was really no knowledge gained from the discussion, but I was excited to come to them in the future once I was more prepared to get the ball rolling on the business.A few weeks go by and I receive a call saying that I was to drive back up to Ham Lake to pick up my tax documents, sign a form and pay. Now, I have never paid more than a couple hundred dollars for my tax preparation as I have a very simple tax profile, and that is why I was surprised when I was handed a bill for $700! My heart dropped into my stomach. $300 for tax preparation (a bit steep, but understandable), and $400 for business consultation!? I could not believe it. I immediately asked for an explanation but the CPA who helped me was not on site and the front office explained that I was to pay in order for my taxes to be filed. I called said CPA and eventually received a call explaining that I was paying for them to arrange everything, and send me emails, and for their knowledge, and experience etc.Absolute lack of transparency. I feel like I was robbed. I will not do business again with this CPA. I have now read others reviews and I will agree with others that you are getting hamburgers for the price of filet mignon.I hope this helps for anyone deciding to do business with Sannerud Savarese & Associates. I really want to give more stars here, but I feel like they did me dirty. Demand transparency if you choose this CPA, they are nice people, but they will charge you for the most minimal of services.
-
May 2020 by Gwendolen Powell
We had been seeing Sue for several years and thought we had a good relationship, although their fee was rather steep we thought, they had expertise we were looking for. Recently I asked a fairly straight forward question but received a lengthy and unhelpful response via e-mail. Since it wasn't the advice I needed I didn't reply again. Two weeks later I received a bill for $87 for this worthless e-mail. I called right away to figure out what this charge was because I had heard nothing about anything billable in the e-mail interaction, come to find out Sue was well aware she was going to bill me and didn't bother to say anything. When I said that I didn't agree to such a charge and it seemed high given the content of the e-mail, which didn't answer my question, she basically told me to get lost. I'm extremely disappointed. We have been working with this group for 5 years and pay a pretty steep percentage of our (usually significant) tax returns as a fee, and to be treated this way is beyond hurtful. I would not recommend this company which would apparently rather make $87 than come to an agreement with a client about fees. If she had even apologized for not giving me a heads up that her e-mail response would require billable hours I would have been understanding, but she was rude. So my husband and I will be taking our business elsewhere.
-
October 2018 by B Fields
They're pretty busy. If you're a smaller client, then you have a lower priority...similar to the E.R. Makes sense, so just gauge where you're at, and perhaps ask whoever is assisting you what their biggest client pays. Nice people overall though.
-
October 2018 by Thomas Ruwart
This firm has been keeping me out of jail for at least 30 years. Fantastic people and great work!
-
April 2018 by Tom Yarbrough
I am and have been satisfied with them for many years. When I first hired them I had a couple of small business interests. Not real complicated, but more than I wanted to deal with. Now my tax account is pretty simple, but I still enjoy having Sue put it together and double check my record keeping. She has done my work since the beginning and she has always had plenty of time for me. When I utilize the services of a highly competent professional, I expect to pay a fair price. If I wanted cheap, I would go to one of the budget services that advertise on TV. I have always gotten more than my money's worth at Sannerud, Savarese, & Assoc.
-
March 2018 by C B.
Outrageous fees for work that was done minimally in person, and was ready the following week when she filled out the forms in front of me. I did not have anything hard to file, I just wanted them to look professional and a backing it was done correctly. My fees have almost doubled from the start and there is no ramification, as I have less write offs and filing then I did from the start. Although the office looks nice, I don't spend enough time there to warrant $200+/hour when I can go elsewhere for less and same quality. When confronted with the fees, they kindly said I could go elsewhere because their fees are fair market. THEY HAVE A BUSINESS IN HAM LAKE, NOT WAYZATA!!
-
December 2017 by Bill Fields
They're pretty busy. If you're a smaller client, then you have a lower priority...similar to the E.R. Makes sense, so just gauge where you're at, and perhaps ask whoever is assisting you what their biggest client pays. Nice people overall though.
-
November 2017 by Judy Rygh
They are all in the name of Jesus. The Jesus I know taught me grace, compassion and patience. I don't think we believe in the same Jesus.
-
October 2017 by Mark Sutton
They operate more like an assembly line tax service where you drop off paperwork and right or wrong they do your taxes for a huge fee.
The problem with how they operate is they don’t allow you to sit down with your tax preparer and have a dialog. If you don't sit down with your tax preparer in person, in their office, and go over things before your taxes are done, then as time has proven the accountant will get things wrong. And you're the person who pays the price for their ineptness.
My recommendation is to not use this company. Find a CPA or preparer who will give you the personal attention to get things right.
I paid them roughly $2,000.00 to do taxes over the course of 3 years. I went to a new CPA who sat down with us and had a dialog with us and literally within about 15 minutes we found major, major issues with mistakes that Sannerud's made. Just one example, about $50,000 in depreciable assets for one of our companies was not being depreciated. Other assets that were being depreciated should not have been until the other company of ours started generating income.
Moreover, the way the business and books were structured was wrong because the multiple companies we have should have had their own bank accounts and books and we were never advised of this. We did not receive the professional advice that we expected when hiring a service that charges top dollar.
When I brought these issues to the attention of the owner of Sannerud's, rather than an offer to make things right I basically was given the impression of don't let the door hit you in the backside.
The moral of the story is to take your business elsewhere. Find a company that will spend the personal time with you to make sure things are done right because in the end it will cost you money -- not only for the cost of the services you paid for and didn't receive, but it will also cost you when you have to pay someone else to fix the mess and it will cost you when you don't get the refunds you should have received due to errors in how the taxes were done.
-
April 2017 by Dave B
They operate more like an assembly line tax service where you drop off paperwork and right or wrong they do your taxes for a huge fee. The problem with how they operate is they don't allow you to sit down with your tax preparer and have a dialog. If you don't sit down with your tax preparer in person, in their office, and go over things before your taxes are done, then as time has proven the accountant will get things wrong. And you're the person who pays the price for their ineptness. My recommendation is to not use this company. Find a CPA or preparer who will give you the personal attention to get things right. I paid them roughly $2,000.00 to do taxes over the course of 3 years. I went to a new CPA who sat down with us and had a dialog with us and literally within about 15 minutes we found major, major issues with mistakes that Sannerud's made. Just one example, about $50,000 in depreciable assets for one of our companies was not being depreciated. Other assets that were being depreciated should not have been until the other company of ours started generating income. Moreover, the way the business and books were structured was wrong because the multiple companies we have should have had their own bank accounts and books and we were never advised of this. We did not receive the professional advice that we expected when hiring a service that charges top dollar. When I brought these issues to the attention of the owner of Sannerud's, rather than an offer to make things right I basically was given the impression of don't let the door hit you in the backside. The moral of the story is to take your business elsewhere. Find a company that will spend the personal time with you to make sure things are done right because in the end it will cost you money -- not only for the cost of the services you paid for and didn't receive, but it will also cost you when you have to pay someone else to fix the mess and it will cost you when you don't get the refunds you should have received due to errors in how the taxes were done.
-
April 2017 by Dave B.
They operate more like an assembly line tax service where you drop off paperwork and right or wrong they do your taxes for a huge fee. The problem with how they operate is they don't allow you to sit down with your tax preparer and have a dialog. If you don't sit down with your tax preparer in person, in their office, and go over things before your taxes are done, then as time has proven the accountant will get things wrong. And you're the person who pays the price for their ineptness. My recommendation is to not use this company. Find a CPA or preparer who will give you the personal attention to get things right. I paid them roughly $2,000.00 to do taxes over the course of 3 years. I went to a new CPA who sat down with us and had a dialog with us and literally within about 15 minutes we found major, major issues with mistakes that Sannerud's made. Just one example, about $50,000 in depreciable assets for one of our companies was not being depreciated. Other assets that were being depreciated should not have been until the other company of ours started generating income. Moreover, the way the business and books were structured was wrong because the multiple companies we have should have had their own bank accounts and books and we were never advised of this. We did not receive the professional advice that we expected when hiring a service that charges top dollar. When I brought these issues to the attention of the owner of Sannerud's, rather than an offer to make things right I basically was given the impression of don't let the door hit you in the backside. The moral of the story is to take your business elsewhere. Find a company that will spend the personal time with you to make sure things are done right because in the end it will cost you money -- not only for the cost of the services you paid for and didn't receive, but it will also cost you when you have to pay someone else to fix the mess and it will cost you when you don't get the refunds you should have received due to errors in how the taxes were done.
-
February 2017 by Rebecca Iverson Nixon
I had always done my own taxes, since I turned 14 and got a part-time job. But I started buying investment properties, so I needed to find someone to handle my much more complicated tax situation. I used a neighborhood tax preparer one year, and never again. I came here last year, and they found errors that he had made, which we were able to fix going forward. Betsy's time is not cheap, but competence is worth paying for.
-
October 2015 by David M
If you want to be over billed for very little productive work this is a great place to go. They certainly over charged for anything, and will make you pay for even initial consultations and any task that is their expense for just doing business. It happened to me and would never use them again. It would have been different if what they provided was of a similar value they charged, but they did not and I was given excuses when I tried to reason and complain of the lack of performance. If you like to pay $100.00 for a hamburger then these are the accountants for you.
