Team
Denise Mitra
My name is Denise Mitra. I was born and raised in Edmonton where I still live with my husband and daughter. I come to Always Bookkeeping with over 30 years of experience in the workforce. I have worked in a variety of different positions. I have worked in a laundry mat, worked in a concession booth at Fort Edmonton Park and have even worked as an EMT-A. The majority of my working career has been as administrative support. When I graduated high school, I started working as a receptionist at a busy neurology clinic. I worked for 12 years at a prominent tax law firm where I was an assistant to two partners and numerous associates, I provided payroll and payable services and I also was the office manager for some of those years.
In 2008 my husband and I adopted a baby girl and I was able to take some time off to stay at home with her. I was able to find various jobs that I could do from home and in 2012 I found myself working at a public accounting firm, Spurrell & Associates. I loved being able to work around my daughter’s schedule. I have learned so much through my experiences in the public accounting firm, not only have I become proficient in bookkeeping, but I also have the knowledge and understanding to read and interpret financial statements. I have become a Certified Advanced QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor. I have been able to advance from being an associate to a manager at the accounting firm.
As entrepreneurs ourselves, my partners and I started Always Bookkeeping to work alongside the accounting firm in order to help other small businesses succeed at growing their businesses. Industry Canada states that 15% of businesses fail in year 1, 30% fail by year 2 and 50% fail by year 5. At Always Bookkeeping we are always up to date to help change these odds. Most small business owners don’t understand their financial statements and don’t review them until they have to at their yearend. In some cases, major decisions have already been made that may not be the best for the business. At Always Bookkeeping, we feel that it is important for small business owners to know and understand their financial statements in order to make better business decisions. The owners of Always Bookkeeping are working hands on to make sure that our clients’ financial statements are up to date on a bi-weekly basis so that business owners can make informed decisions on a day to day basis. I am looking forward to seeing our business grow as we help your business grow too!
When I am not working at Always Bookkeeping or at Spurrell & Associates, I love to hang out with my husband and my daughter. I love swimming, reading, watching movies and being outside. I also am an active member in my church and have held many leadership positions there.
Yahweh Matuguinas
Hello! My name is Yahweh Matuguinas and I am one of the co-owners of Always Bookkeeping Ltd. Canada became my second home when I moved to Edmonton with my parents in 2010. My journey to the accounting industry is such a roller-coaster ride. I was already in my second year of University, majoring in accounting, before I moved to Canada. This really hurt me when I was told that I couldn’t transfer any of my university courses here and that I would have to go back to high school because I was only 17 years old. Luckily, my passion for numbers helped me overcome this challenge and my drive to achieve my dream of becoming a Chartered Professional Accountant is still going strong.
In 2013, I received my diploma from MacEwan University for Accounting and Strategic Measurement. In 2016, I finally received my Bachelor’s degree in Commerce with an accounting major. That same year, I started working at Spurrell & Associates. Working at a public accounting firm is a lot different than most of my previous jobs. I learned so much about different industry standards and business management techniques, and I am still learning! At the moment, the firm is supporting me on my journey to becoming a CPA by giving me an opportunity to enter the CPA Professional Education Program.
The biggest lesson I have learned from Spurrell & Associates is how you always have to go above and beyond your clients’ expectations. We were taught that meeting the client’s expectation is the quickest way to lose business, there is always something you can do to make an entrepreneur’s life easier. Whether it is to help them set up their POS registers or just lending your ear to a client’s non-accounting problems. If it will help them grow their business, we should be helping them. Our work does not stop at just delivering financial statements and tax returns.
Being in a public firm, you also get to review some of the work of other “professionals” in the accounting field. It always bothered me how much a business owner can spend on an hourly bookkeeper that will provide reports that will turn out to be irrelevant for a small business owner. Ironically, the cheapest bookkeepers are normally the ones that end up costing the clients the most. Also, since bookkeepers are not highly regulated, the level of service and quality of work highly fluctuates. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of bookkeepers that are really good at what they do. However, most of the time, small business owners only get accurate numbers at year end. However, at this point , wrong decisions have already been made and there is often nothing you can do to reverse it.
This is the main reason why our journey to found Always Bookkeeping Ltd. began. In 2018, the owners of Always Bookkeeping decided to build a system where we could provide useful and relevant reports and advice that can be used to track small business performance. We have always been passionate about helping small businesses beat the odds and we do not intend to stop. We plan to help 1,000 small businesses to make a meaningful impact on the local economy, a better life for their families, and ultimately achieve a scalable business that will survive the odds of failure.
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