A Day in the Life at Calibre CPA Group-
Brittany Macomber, Compliance Manager
What is your title? Describe what you do.
I’m a Compliance Manager; our department specializes in performing Payroll Compliance Audits on behalf of various employee benefit plans. In my position, I am responsible for managing our LA clients. This involves making sure that we have reached our deliverable goals each month and working with staff to make sure that the audits they are running are going smoothly.
You just transferred from the Bethesda office to Los Angeles. What has been the biggest challenge?
On a personal level, it was initially challenging to leave my family and friends on the East Coast. However, I have really enjoyed exploring LA and California in general. Plus, I have had visitors literally every month since I have been out here.
Professionally, the independence I’ve experienced has been both challenging and rewarding. I am currently the only manager in LA so it was an adjustment not having other managers to quickly go to for reference. But we are still a team, and whenever I need input I still reach out to my co-workers in Bethesda.
Why did you get into public accounting?
During my senior year, one of my housemates was working at Calibre I thought that seemed like an interesting job, and really thought the travel could be fun. Now, I’ve been with Calibre for more than nine years!
What are three things you do every day? Do you have any morning “rituals”?
I have to have my coffee. I take the bus to work and use that time to go through my emails and see if anything has popped up, since the Bethesda Office is 3 hours ahead. At the end of the day, I like to make myself a daily status report that details what I need to look at the next day.
What are the most challenging and rewarding parts of your job?
Sometimes explaining the results of an audit can be a complex task. However, there are some strategies that can help manage those conversations and I’ve learned a lot from our department leaders.
My co-workers are the most rewarding part of working at Calibre. I really like everyone I work with here.
What advice would you give to someone looking to pursue a role like yours? Are there specific character traits or skills/certifications you should possess?
To do this type of work, you need to have an open mind. This attitude can help you adapt to the various contractors you will be auditing. They often have different workplace cultures and different ways of interacting. You should also be good at multi-tasking and willing to jump from task to task. Lastly, it helps to be really knowledgeable in Excel, Quickbooks, and payroll services like ADP.
If you could take a vacation tomorrow, where would you go?
Wine country in Italy. I haven’t done it yet and it sounds amazing.
