Day in the Life Archives

I've been working at Beall Barclay now for more than 10 years in various roles. I joined the firm soon after I graduated summa cum laude from Arkansas Tech University with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting. One of my professors told me about the firm. He thought Beall Barclay was a very special firm and thought it would be a good fit for me. He was right!

What I enjoy most about working at Beall Barclay is the quality of people I get to work with every day. It is wonderful to be surrounded by intelligent, quality coworkers who challenge you to be a better person.

In my role, at Beall Barclay, no two days are ever the same and I love it! As accounting and audit director, I work with our audit partner to ensure the quality of the firm's attest work. This means anyone who has technical questions or issues that need to be researched come to me. I also get a chance to teach and present at some of our in house CPE classes and monthly accounting and audit meetings. In addition, I maintain the information on our internal website that our staff uses in accounting and audit work.

As an audit manager I run several audits, reviews and compilations. I also perform engagement quality reviews and am part of our internal inspection team. My management duties also include services for specific clients on behalf of some of our partners. I'm part of our recruiting team, so I get to represent the firm at some of the "meet the firm" events, conduct campus interviews or speak to campus organizations.

It is hard to say which tasks I find most rewarding in my roles at Beall Barclay. It's extremely rewarding to mentor staff and enjoy their success in the firm. Two of our current audit managers started at our firm when I was a senior accountant. I was responsible for helping mentor them and feel as proud of them for making manager as I am of my own children's successes in life. I also enjoy hearing my clients say that they don't know how they would be able to run their business without my help. Comments like these are definitely high on the rewards list!

The greatest benefit of working for Beall Barclay is simple: family. I tell one story in particular that really reflects this point. I started for the firm in September of 1997, and my mother passed away in Texas in October 1997. Beall Barclay not only gave me standard time off, but when I needed to help my dad deal with some things, they allowed me additional time off to take care of the situation. I was the new kid on the block, but when I returned to work, my desk was covered with cards and well wishes and there was never any "consequence" for the additional time I missed.

I was inspired to pursue a career in accounting by my grandfather, who was a registered accountant in California before the public accounting designation existed. I still have his registration certificate. Also, the controller at the company I worked for during high school helped me see my true passion for numbers. He loved accounting and enjoyed teaching others about the profession.

As I mentioned earlier, family is very important to me. I grew up in Lubbock, Texas and currently live in Bentonville, Arkansas with my husband, Tom, and dog, Harley. We have two children, Casey and Nichole. Casey is married to Amy (my third child) and they live in Springfield Missouri. Casey and Amy will graduate in December 2010 with teaching licensures in English. Casey will have a minor in Kinesiology and Amy in Speech Pathology. They are planning to attend graduate school at Drury University to get their masters in school administration. Nichole just completed her freshman year at the University of Arkansas majoring in BioChem. She plans to go on to Pharmacy school focusing on Pharmaceutical research.