People You Should Know: Tom Fogarty, Audit Partner at Eide Bailly 

Tom Fogarty may be an accountant, but he is far from the introverted, accountant stereotype. In fact, Tom’s social personality has carried him through a rewarding role with Eide Bailly serving the community banking industry in North Dakota and South Dakota for the past thirteen years. If you’ve had the pleasure of working with Tom, you can attest to this. 

As an audit partner at Eide Bailly, Tom oversees the financial institution’s practice in South Dakota, and is responsible for the overall quality of audit and consulting engagements provided by his local office. His sociable, “people person” personality has served him well with business development and staff development responsibilities, too. 

Prior to Eide Bailly, Tom took an unconventional career path into public accounting. After graduating from college at University of North Dakota, Tom started working in the accounting department for RDO Equipment in Fargo, ND. He did not have any intentions of working in public accounting, but after some time with the organization he quickly realized working in private industry had limited flexibility and career opportunities. After a few years at RDO Equipment, Tom decided to pursue public accounting and obtain his MBA and CPA. With his goals set, he was determined to jumpstart his career as quickly as possible. He did so by finishing his MBA in less than a year, and shortly after landed an internship with Eide Bailly.

As a firmAside from its core audit and tax services, Eide Bailly provides a comprehensive catalog of services for community banks, including: income tax preparation and consulting service, regulatory compliance examinations and consulting, internal audits, loan file reviews, IT exams, FDICIA implementation assistance, directors’ examinations, and trust examinations, to name a few. 

“One of our the services that I am most excited about is our core contract review services. This is a service we provide for banks in which we can review a bank’s core processing contract and help negotiate a fairer price, whether you are negotiating a new core contract or an existing contract. In eEach engagement we can save community banks tens of thousands of dollars on their core processing contract,” said Tom. 

Despite having locations nationwide, Eide Bailly is highly involved with rural, community banks and the people they serve on a local level. “Community bankers are integral to the communities they serve. They not only help people buy houses and cars, but they also help business owners and investors fulfill their dreams. They are vital to a healthy economy, and are second to none in volunteering and giving back to the communities they serve. This is what makes them unique.” 

In a normal, non-COVID, day Tom enjoys visiting community banks across the state, meeting new community bankers as well as catching up with others who he has known for years. “Working with banks to me is enjoyable for a number of reasons. One reason is because banks have very clean accounting records compared to other industries, which makes our audit and consulting engagements run smoothly. Also, the personnel at the community banks are great to work with – they are all very friendly, helpful, community focused, they enjoy their jobs, and also enjoy a round of golf every now and then too!”

When he is not working, Tom enjoys spending time with his wife of fifteen years, Tanya, and their five children – Lucas (13), Nathan (11), Landon (6) and twins Arabella and Crosby (4). “I casually play golf and tennis,. and I play in an adult hockey league in the winter, and,. W whenever I find time between work and chasing around 5 kids, I also enjoy playing the electric guitar – 80’s and 90’s rock are my favorite!”