We are thrilled to highlight our Accounting Manager, Kimberly Catap. Kimberly has been a valuable part of Kranz Consulting since December 2020. Read the full interview to learn more about Kimberly’s expertise, her passion for her work, and how she helps her clients thrive.
What is your hometown? I was born and raised in Angeles City, Philippines and currently reside in Anaheim, California.
What is your alma mater? I finished my BS Management Accounting and BS in Accountancy at Angeles University Foundation and got my Philippine CPA license thereafter.
What are your hobbies? Watching cooking videos and then recreating the dish for my loved ones.
How has your background impacted your experience as a consultant? I started my career as an offshore accountant in the Philippines serving US clients. I’ve been working remotely for the past 10 years, and being in that environment has helped me stay disciplined at work and responsive to clients and people I work with, as I believe communication is the key in consulting.
What’s a typical workday like for you? It’s hard to come up with a description of daily life as an accounting consultant, especially dealing with various clients. Usually, I allot an hour or two to read and respond to emails. From there, I plan my day and focus based on urgency and on the most demanding tasks. If needed, I work at night as some of our clients are from different time zones, some clients just prefer to work at night, and I like it since there are less distractions.
What motivates you to wake up and go to work every day? Cliché as it may sound, but my goal is to make clients satisfied and happy with the work I’m doing. It motivates me when I know I earned their trust. The same applies to the people I work with here in Kranz.
What kind of work have you been doing? Depending on the client’s needs, most of the work I’ve been doing is end-to-end process accounting where I review transactional work, process payroll, file taxes, period-end closing, preparing financials up to presenting to the board. In some cases, I assist clients with due diligence for sale transactions, VDAs, and systems implementation, to name but a few.
Linking data to finance and accounting, explain environments that have had lack of reporting infrastructure/inefficiencies and how have you brought organization and solutions-implementation. Account reconciliation is part of the financial package we deliver. Clients may or may not have an existing account reconciliation file. One of my recently onboarded clients has an existing one, and it’s evident that the reports were downloaded directly from their ERP and copy-pasted in. I prepared an account reconciliation in Kranz’s format to ensure it was presentable and valuable. The client loved it, and said, “your account reconciliation is so beautiful and clean.”
What’s your process like? As part of the onboarding process, I exert an effort to understand not just the client business but also their reporting needs. Some clients want to retain their current reports, and some are open to changes. Regardless, I present the account reconciliation and explain the value of it. Once we get the green light, we prepare an account reconciliation in the typical Kranz format. And clients find it useful as it summarizes the transactions that go in and out of each account that ties out to the trial balance.