Windes is a Southern California-based accounting and advisory firm that has been operating since 1926, when founder William Norment Windes opened a practice on Pine Avenue in Long Beach.
One hundred years later, the firm has grown from a two-person shop into one of the top 100 accounting firms in the United States, with more than 250 professionals, 30 partners, offices in Long Beach, Los Angeles, Irvine, Dayton (Ohio), and a dedicated tax office in the Philippines.
For businesses searching for a firm that handles everything from basic tax preparation to fractional CFO services and cybersecurity compliance, Windes puts a wide menu on the table.
Key Takeaways
- Windes has operated continuously since 1926 and ranks among the top 100 accounting firms in the country.
- The firm serves privately held businesses, nonprofit organizations, and high-net-worth individuals across more than a dozen industries.
- Beyond traditional audit and tax work, Windes offers advisory services including fractional CFO, mergers and acquisitions strategy, cybersecurity compliance, and wealth management.
Firm Background and Growth Timeline
The firm's trajectory is worth understanding because it shapes how Windes operates today.
What started as a solo CPA practice weathered the 1929 stock market crash, the Great Depression, and the 1933 Long Beach Earthquake before growing into the region's largest local CPA firm by the 1950s.
When seven of the Big Eight accounting firms approached Windes & McClaughry (the firm's name at the time) about mergers during the 1970s, the partners declined each offer, choosing independence instead.
That decision stuck. The firm joined Allinial Global in 2021, the second-largest accountancy association in the world, with $7 billion in collective revenues across 270 member firms in 112 countries.
This gives Windes clients access to international expertise without the firm being absorbed into a large national brand.
Recent years brought further expansion. Mergers with Allen, Haight & Monaghan (2018) and Smith, Linden & Basso (2020) added significant headcount and client depth.
The Philippines office opened in 2022 to expand capacity across time zones. A partnership with national RIA firm Integrated Partners launched Windes Wealth Management in 2024.
By 2025, Windes had professionals working across 24 states.
Services: What Windes Actually Offers
The service menu is broad. Here is how it breaks down:
Audit & Assurance
- Audits, Reviews & Compilations
- Employee Benefit Plan Audits
- Nonprofit & Compliance Audits
- Special Reports
Tax Services
- Business Entity and Individual Tax
- International Tax
- State & Local Tax (SALT) Compliance
- Tax Credits & Incentives
- Cost Segregation
- Estate & Trust Planning
- Succession Planning
Advisory Services
| Category | Services Included |
|---|---|
| Client Advisory | Fractional CFO, Fractional Controller, Business Process Outsourcing, Outsourced Accounting |
| Technology & Risk | Cybersecurity Compliance, IT Governance, Risk Management, Advisory Analytics |
| Transaction | Mergers & Acquisitions Strategy, Wealth Management, Value Acceleration & Exit Planning |
| Specialized | ASC 740 Income Taxes, ASC 842 Leases, Employee Benefit Services, Human Capital |
The fractional CFO and fractional controller offerings are worth highlighting separately. For small to mid-sized businesses that need senior financial leadership but cannot justify a full-time hire, these services can fill a real gap.
Windes positions these as a flexible alternative to building out an in-house finance team, which appeals to the privately held businesses that make up a large share of the firm's client base.
Industries Served
Windes works across 13 distinct industry verticals:
- Automotive
- Construction
- Energy
- Hospitality & Leisure
- Manufacturing
- Medical Practices
- Nonprofit Organizations
- Professional Services
- Real Estate
- Retail & Consumer Products
- Technology
- Transportation, Trade & Maritime
- Wholesale & Distribution
The breadth here matters because industry-specific accounting knowledge (depreciation rules in construction, unrelated business income in nonprofits, inventory costing in manufacturing) is meaningfully different from general practice.
A firm that claims expertise across this many sectors should be pressed on where it has the most depth, and Windes has enough history in Southern California's industrial economy to back up several of these verticals credibly.
Global Reach Through Allinial Global
Membership in Allinial Global is one of the more practical differentiators for Windes clients with cross-border needs. The association includes 44,000 professionals across 112 countries.
For a business dealing with international tax exposure, transfer pricing questions, or operations in multiple jurisdictions, having a local firm plugged into that network matters.
Windes does not have to be in every country; it just needs access to vetted local partners who are.
Workplace Recognition
Windes has accumulated a notable list of employer recognition awards in recent years:
- Best Places to Work for Women (2025)
- Best Place to Work, Los Angeles (2025)
- Best Accounting Firms to Work For, National (2025)
- OC Business Journal Best Places to Work (2025)
- Best Places to Work, SoCal (2025)
- California Best Workplaces (2025)
- Companies That Care Honoree (2025)
- Civic 50 Orange County (2025)
- IPA Top 100 Firms
These awards come from different organizations and use different criteria, but the volume of recognition across categories (gender equity, regional workplace quality, national accounting firm rankings) suggests the internal culture is something the firm has actively built and maintained.
Technology and Infrastructure
Early adoption of technology has been part of Windes's identity since 1968, when the firm purchased one of the first IBM 360 computers in Long Beach, a machine that occupied 2,200 square feet and made Windes one of the city's first data processing centers.
That appetite for technology continues today.
The firm's advisory practice includes IT governance and cybersecurity compliance, and the Philippines office was explicitly established to leverage multiple time zones, a structural choice that reflects operational rather than just cost-cutting thinking.
Client-facing technology includes a secure file transfer portal, online payments, TaxCaddy integration for tax document management, and a dedicated client portal for document access.
These are standard across larger CPA firms now, but their presence matters for clients who prefer managing financial documents digitally.
Who Windes Works Best For
Windes's positioning is clearest when looking at three client types it explicitly names: privately held businesses, nonprofit organizations, and high-net-worth individuals.
The firm is not set up as a mass-market consumer tax preparer.
The depth of advisory services, the international network access, and the specialized industry knowledge are built for organizations that have complexity worth managing year-round, not just at tax time.
For a growing private company that needs audit work, multi-state tax compliance, and is starting to think about an eventual sale or succession, Windes offers the ability to handle all of it under one firm relationship.
That continuity has practical value: advisors who understand a business's history make better recommendations than those who come in cold each engagement.
Conclusion
Windes enters its 100th year as a firm that has grown deliberately, declined buyout offers from the Big Eight, and built a service platform that covers far more than traditional accounting.
For privately held businesses, nonprofits, and high-net-worth individuals in Southern California and beyond, it is a firm worth a direct conversation.