Ashley Wagner took a concentration of accounting class in high school and took a couple of positions as bookkeeper. She finally landed a job as bookkeeper for a CPA (Certified Public Accountants) and caught the accounting bug. She started at the local community college and got her Associates in Accounting. Then she went for Bachelor of Business Administration at Averett University in Danville, Virginia. As an adult getting advanced education, she found Averett University to have a great program that worked with her schedule.
She is enrolled in a Masters of Forensic Accounting program. The CPA who hired her was her mentor and he gave her excellent training. She has a 10 year experience in public accounting and 10 years in private accounting. She has done accounting for manufacturers, doctors, lawyers, restaurants, retail, and A&E firms. She and her mentor would have rubber band shootouts during tax season to cut the tension and have some fun. They would also have water gun showdowns. He was the anti-typical accountant and she has followed in his footsteps in that regard. “By the end of tax season, the typical accountant will work an average of 70 hours a week, if the accountant,” she said. Sometimes, she doesn’t get a day off during tax season and, by April 15, she is a bit happy. The crazier tax returns tend to pop up in April. Usually, she takes an extension on any returns that come into the office beginning April 1 just to be on the safe side. This helps cut some of the stress for her.
Once the deadline has passed, the office hours ease up, but since she owns her own firm, she still works quite a bit. “The advantage to owning my own firm is that I can take off on Fridays and take yoga lessons,” she said.