Janelle’s goal when she earned her Accounting Degree was to be able to work from home so she can take care of her kids. Fifteen years after earning her accounting degree she has achieved that goal. She worked for a law firm in the Salt Lake Valley for four years before joining Backyard Bookkeeper. She enjoys the black and white of numbers and the flexibility of accounting.

Kristen is a true accounting nerd. She loves to reconcile accounts and problem solve with financial information. Job cost accounting is her favorite accounting topic. With an MBA and an undergraduate degree in Accounting from Westminster College, she feels right at home doing your bookkeeping.

When she isn’t working you will find her at the soccer field watching her boys play comp soccer. She enjoys hanging out with her dogs, crafting, and watching her boys play soccer. GOOOOAAAALLLL!!!

Cassandra is fairly new to the bookkeeping world but has years of customer service experience along with a love of making all her numbers add up and checking off all the boxes! She loves to travel with the hubby and or her siblings. She loves to be in the mountains whether it’s hiking or skiing. Her favorite hiking spots include mountain tops where the vista alone has increased her appreciation of the opportunity to even be there. Oh, and you will probably find her reading a good romance novel and munching on Funyuns in her spare time.

Jamey loves puzzles and finding the missing piece. Math has always been her favorite subject. She would gladly take two math classes if she could skip out of some of the other required subjects.  Jamey earned a bachelor’s degree in Finance from Southern Utah University and has nine years of experience in owning her own business. Jamey enjoys cycling with friends, kayaking with family, and spending time with her husband and kids. 

Julie-Ann has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management.  Even though she is somewhat new to the accounting industry, she feels like this is home.  Working behind the scenes to make sure everything is in its place and accurate is a great satisfaction to her.  She has an eye for detail and loves keeping her schedule tidy and organized. 

Outside of work Julie-Ann spends her time chasing her kids around, traveling, eating brownies, watching professional soccer, and dreaming of the beach.

Aaron holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Utah. Before returning to school to finish his degree, he ran a sole proprietorship (self-employment) in the mortgage field services industry in Las Vegas. While in school, he became a certified Microsoft Office Specialist and competed in the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Case Competition.

Aaron loves being meticulous, detail-oriented, and thorough. He has been with Backyard Bookkeeper since 2021 and does bookkeeping for a variety of industries including internet/I.T., real estate, and law (including trust accounting). Aaron is an aspiring film actor and is proud to be a nerd. He enjoys reading comic books, playing old video games, studying superhero/sci-fi movies, and building computers.

Nancy gained a great amount of bookkeeping experience as she did the books for a landscape business that she owned with her husband. Her 20+ years of experience as a talented bookkeeper and as a successful business owner is invaluable to her clients. She enjoys structure and organization in life and accounting. Her focus as a bookkeeper is to build good relationships with her clients and help them organize and grow their businesses.

Nancy loves spending time with her family. Her favorite role is to be Grandma to 3 rambunctious little boys. She loves to cook, work with resin and sew leather handbags. She also enjoys anything chocolate, naturally!

Nicole has always been at home with numbers and how to use them. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Statistics from Brigham Young University and has experience in business analysis and product management. She’s new to bookkeeping and loving every minute of it.

Rebecca discovered her talent in accounting while taking a course through Salt Lake Community College during high school, and pursued a Bachelor of Science from there. Her experience started in the corporate world but now helping out smaller businesses is where she shines.

When she’s not playing around with numbers, she spends her free time playing video games and sewing dresses for her daughters.

Lynette has 30+ years accounting experience in a variety of fields, but bookkeeping, hands down, is her favorite part of the process.  She enjoys getting a set of books that have never been touched and bringing clarity to chaos. She also likes to assist small business owners with understanding and using their Financial Statements to grow their businesses.

Lynette loves strategy games and is a beast at Sudoku.  What can we say?  She just loves numbers!  She also enjoys reading Indie books.

Emily has an associates in Sociology but comes from a long-line of family in finance and decided to keep the tradition going through another generation. She has worked in the finance world for 6+ years and enjoys the facts and problem-solving of it all. Throughout this time she has gained experience working in Quickbooks, spreadsheets, doing bank reconciliations, AR/AP, collections, and 1040 tax returns in Lacerte as well as Bill.com and Procuredesk.

During her free time, she enjoys baking sweet treats, reading, camping, and spending time with her family. If she’s not home watching her favorite shows for the 100th time she is most likely out trying a local bakery or at a farmers market for some fresh produce.

Elisa has a BA in Humanities with an English emphasis and a French minor. She also has an accounting certificate and is one of those nerdy people who think accounting is fascinating! She has experience as a bookkeeper for property management and retail companies. Squeaky clean and balanced books make her happy, and she loves gaining new skills and organizing.

Outside of work, she writes, reads, runs, hikes, bikes, sings, acts, and spends time with her family. She also loves English medieval history, trying new foods, watching chick movies, and laughing at nerdy memes and gifs.

After graduating high school 20 years ago Kirstin’s work world has been nothing but accounting and finance. She thinks playing Sherlock Holmes is the most fun part of creating and maintaining your books. When she isn’t reconciling and doing AR/AP you’ll find her traveling with her hubby or hiking with her kids. She is a collector of hobbies but her favorites are sewing, gardening, playing board games, drinking Coke, and binge-watching Netflix (yes, those are hobbies), reading, and exercising.

Jenn has always loved numbers, lists, and helping others so bookkeeping is a great fit for her. While taking an accounting class through Ensign College she realized how much she loved keeping track of finances. She greatly enjoys accounting for all the details and making sure everything balances correctly. Her favorite thing about bookkeeping is the clack the keyboard makes as she is inputting data… it is very satisfying.

When not at her computer you can find her spending time with her husband and two kids, teaching kids how to read, or reading books herself.

Kim loves everything about accounting and has worked in many industries.  She has worked in the legal, service, small retail, and manufacturing industries.  The best job that she had was helping her sister with her books for her small store and watching it grow and have many successes.  Kim finds it rewarding to see businesses flourish and grow and to be a part of helping them along the way.

Outside of work, Kim loves traveling out of the United States and learning about other countries and their cultures.  When in the United States, you will see her traveling in the West from the Canadian Rockies on down on her Harley Davidson.  When enjoying the staycation, she’s off to the lake with her paddleboard, hiking with the dog, and throwing Corn Hole contests with her friends in the backyard.  Laughter is her mojo and her family is her anchor.

Aubrey holds an associate’s degree in Accounting. Over the past 25 years, she has built a solid foundation in the financial industry. With a keen eye for detail and a passion for problem-solving, she has played an instrumental role in guiding her family business, Everspire Financial, through multiple transitions, including upgrading to better broker-dealers, custodians, and CRM platforms.

Aubrey thrives in environments that allow her to leverage her strengths in budgeting, organizing, and achieving goals. She’s the type of person who loves checking off tasks. Over the past year, she’s found great satisfaction working with Backyard Bookkeeper. Here, she primarily supports businesses across healthcare, consulting, nonprofit, sales, and real estate sectors.

Her affinity for order extends beyond her work in finance, which led her to pursue a side passion as a professional organizer. With seven years of experience, she’s helped clients implement systems that bring clarity and efficiency to their daily operations.

Outside of work, Aubrey enjoys spending quality time with her family, playing games, and unwinding in her hot tub. She also has a love for puzzles, reading, and traveling, which fuels her curiosity and sense of adventure.

Yohana has joined our amazing team at Backyard Payroll that provides outstanding payroll services.  She embarked on her career journey at a young age. By the time she entered college, she knew the path she wanted to follow. Accounting, with its clear structure and the beauty of balancing numbers, was her first choice. Over the years, her passion for accounting has only deepened. She spent nearly a decade working in the Salt Lake City area, after starting her career at an accounting firm in California.

The transition to specializing in payroll came after she became a mother. This shift allowed her to combine her love for meticulous detail with the joy of ensuring people are compensated for their hard work. There’s something incredibly rewarding about the precision payroll services requires and the direct impact it has on making people happy.

Outside of work, Yohana’s heart belongs to music and quality time with her family. Whether it’s exploring new tunes or enjoying simple moments together, these are the things that replenish her spirit and inspire her in everything she does.

Mary Ann’s interest in business organization and bookkeeping spans back to as long as she can remember. She has an AAS degree in Graphics and Commercial Art from UVU along with many classes in accounting, bookkeeping and federal tax code. She has 20+ years of individual and small business tax preparation experience and 8 years of bookkeeping and payroll experience. Many of her tax clients have been with her from the start and she has had the pleasure of taking on their family and friends as well over the years.

Mary Ann has worked in many different types of business and finds them all interesting and intriguing. But, above all she loves to see the passion and excitement of talented business owners and enjoys helping them understand that good books help them make good decisions about their time and business and makes tax prep a breeze. She has had the opportunity to see many individuals achieve their small business goals and thinks it is way fun.

When she is not behind the screen managing numbers, Mary Ann loves being with her family, traveling, paddleboarding, riding her four-wheeler and basically just looking for the next adventure.

Lori’s love for organization carries over into her bookkeeping.  For over 20 years, she has helped business owners maintain clean and accurate books.  She recognizes the importance of good client relationships. She always strives hard to exceed expectations.

Being a wife and mom are still Lori’s favorite roles.  She enjoys cooking for her family, exercising for her peace of mind and traveling to take a break from it all.  She never met a piece of chocolate that she didn’t love.

Chrissy is the Chief Technology Officer here at Backyard Bookkeeper. She is “the man in the chair”.  She works behind-the-scenes to make sure that our bookkeepers and clients can access and software they need to get the job done.

Her educational background shows how much she loves learning! In and out of the classroom, learning new things fascinates Chrissy and she never wants to stop growing. She has an associate’s degree in general education, a bachelor’s degree in speech language and technologies, a master’s degree in theater. She also has a handful of certificates, including one for interpreting in American Sign Language. While her degrees aren’t what you would expect at a bookkeeping company, they serve her daily.

Her degree in education taught her the importance of being well-rounded and constantly being aware of new growth opportunities. As technology options are always evolving, her job is to be aware of new technology options.  She focuses on how it might serve those around her. It is also important to be aware of the dangers and protecting vital information in the process.

Her training in speech and interpreting allows her to see more than just words. What is the root of the problem? Who needs this information?  What are we trying to say? What problem are we trying to solve?

Her degree in theater allows her to see the bigger picture and the steps needed to get there. Just as a director can break a production apart into pieces of costuming, sets, scenes, etc. she can look at a project at work and see the necessary steps to get from A to B or how decision A will impact things in the future.

While she doesn’t have more than a certificate for her time in Excel, she answers to Excel Ninja or Wizard. Her husband even jokes that Excel is her love language. She thoroughly enjoys numbers and being able to manipulate data so that she can find the information that truly makes a difference. Chrissy focuses on efficiency to make sure the company can identify areas that could use support before they become an issue.

In her downtime, she enjoys puzzles and games. Chrissy loves facing new challenges and figuring out how to use the tools at her disposal to get the desired outcome. Her favorite projects and puzzles are the ones that most people would shy away from. Whether it is an all-white puzzle or a tricky Excel question, Chrissys loves a good challenge!

Kait is the Business Development Specialist.

Kait comes to Backyard Bookkeeper with experience in media, networking, HR, and administration.  She is trained in mind reading to be able to keep Backyard Bookkeeper afloat. She is our Hawk Girl, taking Backyard Bookkeeper to new heights.

Kait loves climbing, traveling, billiards, and chocolate-covered fruit.  Need anything she will get it done but never offer her cucumbers soaked in evil (pickles).

Liz is originally from Florida, then Wyoming, and eventually put down roots in St.George. Liz comes to Backyard Bookkeeper with a varied and diverse background. She has experience in customer service, clerical, coordination, and management experiences.
Stepping into the Billing Specialist position has been a natural progression for her.

Liz enjoys all the warmth and recreation that Southern Utah has to offer. She relocated to St George in 2018 with Wade, her husband of ten years. Between the two of them, they have 2 elderly dogs and nine grown children. Life is quiet and
happy in their empty nest. It affords ample convenience and ability for her to work from her home office. Her skills and experience are highly valued. We are happy to have her as the Billing Specialist here at Backyard Bookkeeping Team!

With 15+ years of project management experience, Rendy played a pivotal role in establishing our first law firm team, training them in CosmoLex during her previous 3 years with our company. In her current role, she leverages her expertise to refine and streamline our processes. Outside of work, her passions include camping, golfing, family and friends.

As the CEO, Alex is the glue that holds the company together. Responsible for marketing, client relations, and business development, she ensures that Backyard Bookkeeper offers consistent, reliable, and friendly service to all its clients.

Alex has been working most of her life and has a knack for knowing what people need. She keeps our bookkeepers in line when they party too hard. Alex loves Coke, Tom Cruise, and Mini Coopers, and won’t eat anything she can see onions in.

Julie is an expert bookkeeper and accountant. Since the founding of Backyard Bookkeeper in 2008, she has worked with over 500 different companies in a wide variety of industries, including construction, nonprofit, health care, consulting, retail sales, online sales, legal, entertainment, real estate, and many more. Her latest interest is bookkeeping for businesses that involve cryptocurrency and digital assets like NFTs.

Julie also does most of the actual number crunching for the business and would rather play on Quickbooks than Facebook. She has a weakness for superhero movies, Rachmaninov, and chocolate, and loves reading in her spare time.