5 Things You Didn’t Know About Annamaria

Annamaria Dugan, who proudly serves as our Senior Accountant, joined Cook CPA Group in 2013. Her friendly and responsive attitude, her knowledgeability of complex California and federal tax regulations, and her professional expertise in account reconciliations, tax return preparation, tax audits, and other matters, all combine to make Annamaria an indispensable member of our Roseville accounting firm. At Cook CPA Group, we believe in building personal connections with the clients and communities we serve, which is why we sat down for an interview with Annamaria. Keep reading to learn more about Annamaria’s professional experience, her advice for small business owners, and how Cook CPA Group can serve your company.

An Interview with Senior Accountant Annamaria Dugan

1. What made you want to be a CPA?

In high school, I took an elective vocational course, scoring 100% on the exit exam and winning an award for it! I didn’t know it at the time, but the accounting language and related tasks came to me as common sense. Since then, while working as a paralegal, I’ve always gravitated toward tax services in Roseville, estate planning services in Roseville, and related projects. I seem to have taken the long route to get to this point, but it was certainly meant to be!

2. What kinds of clients do you like helping?

I’m not sure how to answer this. I enjoy what I do, and really like helping all clients who have a need for assistance with accounting and business consulting services. If I can assist in making their businesses more profitable and less stressful, then I’m in!

3. Please provide your favorite/most fond story where you helped a client.

My most favorite experience was working with a husband and wife team with a very demanding business. The wife was charged with the bookkeeping, and after taking courses and working this way for years, it still seemed like a foreign language.

Working with her, I set up some practical templates to use weekly. For instance, a consistent template for posting payroll journal entries which reconcile to the bank account to connect the dots on what was missing from her book knowledge to the flow through the accounting software. This gave her an understanding of where the figures came from and how they are traced through the entire process. I established the template so that when everything agreed, it highlighted a cell in green telling her “Good Job!”

Even though it seemed slightly cheesy at the time when I was setting up the template, she comments every month when she reconciles payroll, it’s her goal to get that green Good Job! on the first try, like she has a built-in cheerleader. She is also able to understand and explain how the complex payroll post works. That was very rewarding, and continues to be in every challenge she has and we tackle together.

4. What is the most common type of issue that your clients encounter?

The most common type of issue seems to be, simply, clients do not know what they do not know. Oftentimes, clients are distressed over what they contemplate is overwhelming or will create major accounting issues. More than likely there are solutions that the clients are not aware of, because they do not know.

5. Please provide one piece of advice that you would give to a small business.

Delegation! With any small business, the focus of the business owner is running the business: focusing on the services, products and managing their team. Oftentimes, small business owners try to take everything on, which may work short-term, but most successful small business owners immediately understand and leverage the value of delegating those projects which can take time and cause frustration (like accounting). There is absolutely nothing wrong with partnering or hiring someone to take on weaknesses, so they can focus on their strengths in the business.

Bio: Annamaria Dugan, Senior Accountant at Cook CPA Group

Now that you’re acquainted with Annamaria, learn more about her professional background. Some highlights from Annamaria’s impressive career are featured below.

Professional Experience

Annamaria has over 15 years of experience as a business, transactional, estate planning and tax paralegal. Her experience and depth of knowledge as a paralegal brings a detailed and analytical perspective to our firm. As a paralegal, Annamaria excels in the realms of legal research, analyzing estate planning strategies relating to tax implications, drafting estate plan documentation, and working as a communication liaison, as a go-between with clients, attorneys, CPAs, fiduciaries, and financial advisors. Annamaria also provided several years’ experience offering tax practice support, including preparation of income tax returns for trusts, individuals, estates, and various entities, as well as communications with the taxing authorities to establish installment agreements, offers in compromise, and private letter rulings from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Annamaria joined Cook CPA Group in 2013, demonstrating a keen ability to quickly comprehend, adapt and implement audit strategies. She has performed audit support with Cook CPA Group for three years, and is currently working towards her Certified Public Accountant licensure.

Annamaria provides the following services supporting the Cook CPA Group audit practice:

• Responsible for preparing consolidated financial statements, statement of stockholders’ equity, cash flow statement, and statement of other comprehensive income.
• Assist client executives with interpretation of technical accounting pronouncements and required communications.
• Editing technical, industry-specific documents and reports.
• Writing materials for a variety of organizations.
• Audit portfolio includes private and non-profit companies in diverse industries, including non-profit organizations, financial services, and manufacturing.
• Analyzing and extracting data.
• Preparing annual and monthly reports for senior management.

Professional Affiliations

Paralegal, American Bar Association Certified

Education

Bachelor of Science, Applied Economics, University of San Francisco

Community Involvement

Performance Volunteer, California Musical Theatre, Sacramento, California
Performance Volunteer, Chautauqua Playhouse, Carmichael, California

CPA Services in Roseville and Sacramento, CA

To learn more about how Annamaria or other members of our dedicated accounting team can assist your Roseville-area business, call Cook CPA Group at (916) 432-2218 for a free legal consultation. Services we provide include tax audit services in Roseville, bookkeeping, business consulting, CFO services, estate planning, small business accounting, tax preparation services, and more.