Employee Spotlight: Beth Wakefield

Beth Wakefield, one of our senior staff accountants, recently celebrated her one-year anniversary with PBO Advisory Group. Beth was initially drawn to PBO Advisory’s culture that allowed her to establish a healthy balance between her personal and professional life during the pandemic and is still enjoying that flexibility today.

Applying her mixed background in HR, operations, and finance and accounting, Beth manages the daily accounting of clients, tracking income and expenses with proper classification, running payroll, reconciling bank accounts, determining commission bonuses, forecasting cash flow, producing financial statements, and assisting with special projects as needed. Her favorite parts of her job are setting up systems for businesses to ease their burden of managing their money, creating spreadsheets, and suggesting tools that make accounting less daunting for the client.

Beth has recently begun to work in PBO Advisory’s Human Capital Consulting division, which complements her diverse background in finance and accounting, operations, and HR.

She feels fulfilled when she receives comments such as, “you’ve made my life easier” or “we don’t know what we would’ve done without you,” as that serves as proof that she continues to meet her overarching goal of allowing business owners to breathe easier and proceed with running their businesses.

With four kids, ages 3, 5, 7, and 9, Beth runs her family like a business. She is currently reframing her family’s mission statement and strategic plan, and is excited to apply the wonderful things she’s seen businesses do to ensure successful operations in her personal life.

In her free time, Beth enjoys spending time in the mountains and at the lake paddle boarding and kayaking. Drawing from her and her husband’s shared background in hospitality, Beth is also passionate about planning events and hosting friends and family at her house for celebrations with great food.

If Beth had to choose a favorite quote, it would be:

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of the intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the beauty in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that one life has breathed easier because you lived here. This is to have succeeded.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson