James D. Hagestad

CPA

Audit Senior Manager 

Jim is an Audit Senior Manager in Blackman Kallick’s  Not-for-Profit Practice. He has served a wide variety of not-for-profit organizations during his tenure with the firm, developing a particularly deep level of expertise in issues affecting trade and professional associations. 

He serves his clients by:

• Supervising and managing financial-statement audits
• Helping clients understand financial-statement disclosure requirements
• Providing guidance on proper accounting for transactions that affect clients’ financial reporting, such as consolidations, revenue recognition, and capitalization issues
• Performing trend analysis and benchmarking of key performance indicators
• Providing guidance on leading practices in internal controls and board governance

Jim takes the time to understand his clients’ missions and how they serve their members. He provides his clients with the accounting and tax ramifications of their critical initiatives and ideas on how to most effectively move them forward. He views the audit process as an opportunity to help clients improve their overall operations and internal-control structure. Jim frequently identifies opportunities to better safeguard his clients’ assets and improve efficiency, and he immediately brings those ideas to management’s attention. 

Jim is a presenter at the firm’s semi-annual Not-for-Profit Accounting and Audit Update seminars. Jim also is one of the firm’s continuing education instructors, training other professionals on not-for-profit topics.

Credentials and Professional Involvement

Jim’s involvement in the not-for-profit community includes his role on the Not-for-Profit Committee of the Illinois CPA Society, membership in the American Society of Association Executives and the Association Forum of Chicagoland, as well as ongoing speaking engagements for CPAs for the Public Interest. 

Jim also serves as treasurer of Music at Trinity, a charitable organization affiliated with Trinity Episcopal Church that provides concerts that enrich and educate local faith-based communities as well as the public at large.

Jim earned a BA in Accounting with honors from Concordia University.

Articles by Jim Hagestad

• Audit Committee Self-Evaluations
• Effective Dashboards for Not-for-Profit Boards
• Nonprofits Need Innovative Thinking to Survive the “New Normal”
• FAS 124: Guidance on How to Report Gains/Losses on Endowments
• Operating Reserves

News about Jim Hagestad

• FORUM Magazine publishes Hagestad's "Using a Balanced Scorecard to Manage Risk"