When Spokane accounting firm Anastasi & Moore PLLC moved into its current office space on the periphery of downtown, the principals put a pool table, dart board, and a few other recreational items in a big room in the back. After all, if their growth projections were correct, they weren't going to need that space until the last year of their five-year lease.

But the company's principals, veteran Spokane accountants Paul Anastasi and James Moore, didn't calculate this one quite right. Eighteen months after moving into the 7,000-square-foot office space at 104 S. Division, the company has filled nearly all of its space with accountants and staff, including two cubicles in its pool room.

"Our growth has just been through word of mouth," Anastasi says. "We get referrals, and we add value to the relationship."

Founded in the fall of 2002, Anastasi & Moore currently has 14 certified public accountants and 25 employees in total. At that size, the company ranks fifth on the Journal of Business' 2011 Largest Accounting Firms list, up two spots from the previous year. Six of its staff members currently are studying to take the Washington State Board of Accountancy's CPA exam, and Anastasi expects the firm to have a total of 18 CPAs a year from now.

As the firm's staff size has increased, its revenues have grown as well. The company reports gross revenue of about $2.1 million in 2010, up 31 percent compared with $1.6 million in gross revenue the previous year.

In seven of its eight years in business, the firm has reported a double-digit increase in revenue, typically ranging from 28 percent to 43 percent. The only exception was 2007, when the company's revenue fell 5 percent after a partner left the firm in late 2006. Since then, Anastasi and Moore have remained the firm's only principals.

The firm offers tax services and small-business accounting, as well as independent financial-statement audits and reviews. Anastasi & Moore has more clients on the tax side, but its audit side generates more revenue, which is a typical dynamic for firms that offer both services, Moore says. Tax services can cost anywhere from $200 to a few thousand dollars, Moore says, whereas audits and reviews typically range in price from $5,000 to $50,000.

What has distinguished Anastasi & Moore, the two principals say, is that they've offered both services since the firm's inception.

"What we're able to do isn't typical for a small firm," Anastasi says.

The approach has worked, they say, because, while Anastasi and Moore followed similar paths in many aspects of their lives—they both went to Central Valley High School, played on the same Spokane Hoopfest team for 12 years, and started their careers at LeMaster Daniels PLLC—they took different paths when developing their accounting expertise. Anastasi spent nine years working on the audit side of the business at the regional firm, which is now known as LarsonAllen LP. Moore spent seven years at the firm on the tax side.

"We got to touch a lot of things and see a lot of industries," Anastasi says of their tenure at LeMaster Daniels.

Anastasi & Moore continues to work with companies in a diverse range of industries, including construction, retail, food service, manufacturing, and nonprofits, among others.

One somewhat unconventional market for the firm has been other accounting firms. Anastasi says that from the beginning, firms that don't offer audit services have contracted with Anastasi & Moore to provide such services for their clients. It often is uncomfortable for an accountant to refer business to another firm, Anastasi says, because the referring accountant fears the client will begin doing work with the referred firm exclusively. He says, however, Anastasi & Moore has protected its relationships with accounting firms that hire it by not fostering relationships with the clients for which they do specialized work. He says the firm has gone so far as to rebuff overtures from companies that have wanted to leave the original firm and work exclusively with Anastasi & Moore.

In addition to its work with other accounting firms, Anastasi & Moore has developed name recognition with Spokane-area commercial bankers. Such bankers frequently require annual, independent audits of the financial data of the companies to which they lend money. Anastasi says most bankers want such audits performed by an accounting firm with which they are familiar, and the firm has been around long enough now to earn the trust of many people in that industry.

On the tax side, Moore says the company started out taking on many startup businesses as clients. In some cases, the firm chose to work with those clients who didn't have the means to pay the firm's full rate.

Now, he says, "A good number of those clients turned out to be great tax and small-business clients."

Anastasi and Moore say there are a few intangibles they believe have contributed to the firm's growth, one of which is the culture they've worked to create. Moore says he and Anastasi started the firm in large part because they had small children at the time and wanted a better work-life balance.

"We didn't know what kinds of means we'd have, but it was important for us to create an environment where we could spend time with our families," he says.

Anastasi agrees, adding they wanted to "be great at what we do, but have a happy balance."

He says he believes that outlook has contributed to the company's growth as well as its ability to attract and retain employees.

The firm hasn't had any turnover in its staff for the past four years, and it's been able to attract experienced CPAs.

"We don't take ourselves too seriously," Anastasi says. "From a recruiting standpoint, they see we're having a good time and want to be a part of that."