Brandy Buckler of Forvis Mazars on Audit, Financial Services and Building Client Trust

We asked Buckler about her work in auditing, how clients can be more prepared and what small steps anyone can take to feel more in control of their finances.

Biz 417: Many people associate accounting with taxes or bookkeeping. What’s one thing you wish more people understood about audit work?
Brandy Buckler: If people aren’t at a company that gets an audit, oftentimes they might even think we work for the government. So, we don't work for the government. Clients actually hire us to come in and perform their financial statement audit, many times because they need or want one. One thing I would say maybe people don't understand is that really a key part of auditing is our personal and business relationships that we build with our audit clients, in order to make sure that while we're accomplishing what they have to have done, which is to have an audit, but we’re also able to provide the best service experience and bring best practices to their organization by being a trusted advisor.

Biz: What’s one thing that makes a client stand out as particularly prepared or forward-thinking?
B.B.: Forward-thinking clients are ones that are asking us what trends we’re seeing in the industry. That’s one of those things that we’re able to provide to our client base as an additional client service while we’re performing an audit. As far as being particularly prepared, I feel like it’s when clients ask a lot of questions. As auditors, we prefer to have a lot of frequent communication throughout the year with our clients. As long as we are in contact frequently and they are asking us questions anytime there’s a new transaction or something is different, it’s much easier to help them at that point to get to the right answer. 

Biz: As someone in the financial industry, what’s one small change someone could make this week to feel more in control of their business or personal finances?
B.B.: Taking some time to understand how to read and interpret financial statements. Once basic knowledge of financial statements is understood, you can understand what adjustments or changes may need to be made in your business to meet your end goal. And then, from a personal standpoint, just reviewing your personal finances to ensure that all of your accounts are in the most advantageous place. Even just to earn you the most money in the time frame that you want to invest it. 

Biz: What keeps the work interesting after years in the field?
B.B.: In audit, specifically, we go out to clients a lot and travel quite a bit. What keeps it interesting is that when you work with a whole bunch of different clients, even though they’re in the same industry, they’re always doing new and different things. It’s the people, it’s the clients that we work with every day that keep it interesting,  and having conversations as we go to each of those clients. We get to meet people with varying personalities, backgrounds and different levels of education. It’s always new and different. 

Biz: What’s a skill or mindset shift that’s helped you succeed in a highly technical field?
B.B.: I like to think I am pretty good at knowing that I don’t know everything, and that it's okay to not know everything. Sometimes it’s more about just knowing that I have the ability to research and find an answer. Then, most importantly, when you work with a larger organization, like Forvis Mazars, we have people in every industry, in every niche, we have consultants, we have loan review, we have IT professionals, we have wealth advisors. Just knowing that I have this large base to reach out to and be able to help find the answer to whatever question my client had is certainly a key component to how I succeed.