New Bean Counter on Board

Hello accounting aficionados! I wanted to take a minute to introduce myself. I’ll be your new bean counter in residence and I hope you’ll join me in exploring the sometimes strange and always wonderful world of accounting. Thanks to Mr. Ren Garcia. He’s done a great job giving you a lot of insight into the world of accounting and I hope to build on that, expanding your knowledge and getting to know you all in the process!

In addition to accounting you can expect to see all kinds of financial matters discussed here, both personal and on a larger economic scale. If it has to do with money, or counting money, it’s fair game for Accounting Solver!

If ever, EVER, you have a question – shoot! My very first order of business here at Accounting Solver was to change the tag line for this blog. It now reads:

Deciphering the language of business. And making accounting fun again!

I mean it. Look for a post in the next few days that’ll serve as a glossary of accounting terms so that we can all start speaking the same language.

How I Got to Be an Accounting Solver

It all started with this guy: The Little Professor. Sad huh? What can I say. A calculator game was my favorite toy as a child. My first ‘real’ job was on the teller line in a bank. I was introduced to formal accounting in a night course put on at the local technical school by the American Banking Association. Soon I got my number crunching self into the accounting program at the University of Washington and graduated Magna Cum Laude, thank you very much.

Internships with an international trade organization, a franchise start-up, and a boutique consulting firm gave way to a coveted spot in Arthur Andersen’s Economic and Financial Consulting group, where I performed economic analysis. I basically created and manipulated lots of Access databases and Excel spreadsheets to make pretty PowerPoint presentations. I learned a lot. (This was in Seattle, pre- Accenture spin-off, pre-ugly new logo, pre- Enron. It was an amazing experience.)

After my first child was born, I mommy-tracked myself into the tax department with its ever-so-predictable deadlines, mostly sane hours, and zero percent travel. Then I up and jumped the track, following my husband halfway across country for a job opportunity. And again, and again. (I’m called a trailing spouse – attractive, no?)

I took on limited client loads in the tax departments of regional public accounting firms in the cities we relocated to. But after a few years I realized that a part-time career in accounting wasn’t going to fulfil me. Besides, there was this nagging desire to write…

I started freelance writing and never looked back. Now I’m a regular on Business Pundit and Business School Journal. I also write on parenting at HubPages, and humor for the local family rag and my own blog, After the Bubbly. Some people say I’m multi-lingual – with words and numbers. All I know is I like them both.

Enough about me already. Won’t you share a bit about you? I’m dying to know!