Can you share a bit about your background and what motivated/inspired you to join the Leafguard team?
I joined Leafguard in 2022, when the previous Accounting Manager reached out to me. We had worked together previously, and he believed I would be a good fit for the open Senior Accountant role. Eventually, the Accounting Manager moved on to another company, and while the role was open, I took on more responsibilities. It allowed me to learn more and work closely with the Controller. After some time, the position remained vacant, so I requested to be considered for the role. I continued to work in my capacity, along with those additional responsibilities, and got the role. I believe with my work ethic and attention to detail, they saw the potential for me to step into the role, which is something I’m very proud of.
How would you describe to your friends and family what it’s like to work here?
In Accounting, we have a hectic first two weeks of every month. We spend our days compiling the necessary information to close the books and preparing financial statements for all our stakeholders. We aim to operate on a five- to six-day workday close. Those first two weeks are critical to making that happen. After that window, I prepare and send the report to management, and they use that information to make many decisions, such as those related to marketing and production. After those two weeks, we focus on process improvement and mid-month reporting.
Outside of that, we ensure that weekly financial reports, including payroll, are submitted accurately every week. Additionally, we conduct regular audits throughout the year. We also tend to be busier approaching the end of the quarter and the end of the year, as we must ensure that all reporting is accurate.
Tell us about a professional success story that you’re proud of.
Along with the promotion, some of my biggest successes were in reporting and providing information in a clear, concise summary that is both readable and digestible. A key aspect here is ensuring that we’re not just plugging numbers into a spreadsheet and sending it out, but rather making it clear to the user what they’re looking at without causing information overload.
Most recently, we have updated the format of all our reporting and financial statements. That was an enormous undertaking for many people. FP&A did a great job of getting everything set up for me to read and understand it. What I did next was extract the information from our system and format it in this new way. I created a report that is configured to output the information in the exact format we need. By streamlining this process, we can now spend our time analyzing the information instead of formatting it.
What are some important lessons you’ve learned throughout your career?
When you start your career and are eager, you want to progress your career as quickly as possible. What I’ve learned is that having a good foundation (your team, work-life balance, confidence level with your work) is sometimes more important than climbing that corporate ladder as fast as possible.
I think one of the greatest things that we have here at Leafguard that’s kept me here for almost four years now is we’ve got a talented group that’s a pleasure to work with. It’s nice to have a good foundation that includes a great team you can rely on.
Do you have any advice for colleagues or individuals aspiring to advance their careers within the organization?
If you’re working on something and think it probably isn’t as good as it could be, take the initiative to think of ways to improve it. That gets appreciated and noticed. I think that somewhat happened to me when there was a vacancy in the Accounting Manager position. Initially, I wanted to step up to learn for my own development, but fortunately, I was able to secure the position myself. Always be on the lookout for ways to improve processes or assist in other capacities.
