This post is part of our Behind the Books series, where we introduce you to the incredibly talented and hardworking people that make up the Acuity team. We’re excited for you to get to know them. To watch the full interview, check out the video at the bottom of this post.  

Hi, this is Sammy with the cloud accounting team lead here at Acuity. We’re very excited to have Stephanie Barnett here today, one of our cloud accounting specialists, so that we can learn a little bit more about her. Thank you so much for being with us Stephanie.

Oh you’re welcome.

So tell us, how long have you been in Acuity?

About 5 years.

Oh wow, very exciting. How did you get into accounting and finance?

The earliest I remember is 11th grade, I took an accounting class in high school and I don’t know, something about it just clicked with me. I had a great teacher, she was very enthusiastic, and from that point on I decided I wanted to go into accounting.

That’s awesome — and similar to my story. Who is your favorite current or former client?

Hmm, that’s a really hard one. I’ve enjoyed working with a lot of people, some clients are obviously more challenging than others — either from a personal standpoint or a technical standpoint. But one of my favorites is Ship Junction. They’re a small but interesting company, and Jason is always very responsive. He seems to be a great guy and I’ve enjoyed working with them. 

They’re all kind of unique in their own special way, right?

Yeah, in their own way. I’ve actually been lucky that I’ve never had anyone who is like oh, please go away. You know, I’ve enjoyed all of my clients to some degree or another.

That’s awesome. So tell us what a normal day looks like to you.

Well, I am a recent empty nester, so that has been interesting. I don’t have to get up at a certain time in the mornings and that’s been really interesting. Usually I have my coffee first thing in the morning, and begin to think about my day. I’ll answer all my emails and do what I need to do for the day. Sometimes I’ll take lunch and go out with my husband, but I typically finish up my day in the late afternoon. I’m kind of part time so it depends on what my client’s need for the day.That’s usually what determines how much I work each day. 

That makes sense, sounds really nice. Who do you think needs Acuity’s services?

Small businesses, where the owners have limited financial experience. You know, I have some clients that barely understand a sheet and a P&L. They’re great at their business, and at what they do, but they really don’t understand the ins and outs of accounting, and certainly not the debits and credits of accounting. So, I think those are the most important. I think these small businesses often just need to focus on growing their business as opposed to worrying about the details behind the business. So, that’s what I usually focus on; trying to help them so that they can focus on guiding their business.

Sound accurate. Yes. I think a lot of people don’t realize that we can actually help as they grow right? That’s I think something we have seen.

Exactly, exactly.

So how do you feel like Acuity is different from other places like you have worked in your career.

Well Acuity is a fantastic company. I started at Acuity when I felt like I needed to get back to work. I wanted something that was flexible, and that I could do from any location. So one of the big things is that because we’re fully remote employees — which obviously has changed for a lot of people — we know that we can take our work with us wherever we go. 

The other thing is that the owners of the company, Kenji and Matthew, are so transparent and open; they include us as part of the company. We are not just employees, we’re a big part of the company. So those are probably the two biggest things that I can think of. Acuity is very supportive also. Anytime I have an issue, we are set up in a great way to not only support our clients but to support each other as employees, which is wonderful.

That’s awesome, I know Kenji and Matthew really are amazing. You’re right, it is different this year. I know 5-7 years ago it was a very unique thing to work fully remote. But it was nice that we never had to get in the group, we were just automatically used to it, but there are companies who are trying to transition to work from home.

Yeah, so for us, our work really continued pretty seamlessly. Unfortunately for some of our clients that didn’t, and hopefully we’ll be able to bring their businesses back.

So what didn’t I ask you? That I should have asked that people wouldn’t know about you?

Well we recently moved into a lake house in Alabama that we bought a few years ago, and have renovated it, so that’s gonna be our forever home, hopefully. I have 3 kids, the youngest is at Auburn University, and we’re very close to there so I get to see her a lot, which is fun. My other two are in Atlanta. My husband is also a remote worker so it has allowed us to relocate pretty seamlessly. I love college football, so we’re very happy college football came on this year. Other than that I think that’s it.

That’s awesome, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me. We are so grateful to have you as a team member Stephanie, can’t thank you enough.

Thank you so much, I appreciate it. Talk to you soon.