Frost, PLLC: Specialists in Irrigation District Accounting
Romaine lettuce being grown using furrow irrigation.
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Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.
22 | IRRIGATION LEADER | June 2020
Doug Snell: I was born and raised on a family farm in northeastern Missouri, which is where I got my firsthand knowledge of the operations of farms and agriculture. I got my bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Northeast Missouri State University in Kirksville, Missouri. Then I went into public accounting, first working for a large, Missouri-based regional firm and eventually making my way to Arizona, which is where I am now. I became a certified public accountant in 1991 and spent about 9 years of my career in industry, working as a controller and chief financial officer for a couple of different organizations. I’ve spent the remaining 20 years in public accounting, providing audit, tax, and consulting services. Irrigation Leader: When did you start working with Frost? Doug Snell: In 2009, I started working for a firm called Gray & Terkelson, where I became a partner a couple of years later. I left in 2014 and went to work for a firm in irrigationleadermagazine.com
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE.
rrigation districts have distinctive tax and accounting requirements. Many are small special districts organized under state statute that are required to use governmental accounting standards and require audits that are performed under governmental auditing standards, even though their operations work on something more similar to a commercial fee-for-service model. Auditing firms that focus either on governmental clients or on commercial clients may not have the specific expertise necessary to address their issues. Further, because they often bill for annual water assessments before they are provided, irrigation districts must be careful about how they report their revenue. Frost, PLLC, is a full-service accounting firm that focuses on agriculture-related clients nationwide, including many irrigation districts. In this interview, Frost Senior Manager Doug Snell tells Irrigation Leader about the idiosyncrasies of irrigation district finances and how his firm helps them with audits and reporting.
