During her time as a property manager, she discovered she needed better accounting skills. She attended several classes in accounting and with this knowledge she was able to prepare budgets and cash flow projections for each project.
She also was working part-time as a bookkeeper, using the skills learned at her full-time work. This part-time career continued for the next 30 years, until it became full-time.
Next she decided to learn more about human resources, since with 125 employees, the key seemed to be to KEEP employees, rather than simply re-hiring all the time. She then took those skills to owning a recruiting firm. With 9 recruiters in the firm, she was able to specialize in sales, accounting, computer technology, engineering, geologists, and support staff.
Several years later, she moved to South Texas, with a job as Sales Manager for the Hilton Hotel on South Padre Island, which had just added a new conference room to the hotel. Her job was to travel to the populations centers in Texas and sell conference space to corporations. Within months, she had booked several very large conferences. One of her clients, a time-share firm, was having trouble controlling their sales staff and couldn’t quite get their offices opened at another location on South Padre Island. They hired Ms. Montgomery as Manager of both the building and the office. This job ended up being all about the inventory, which she double-serialized both in her office and at the title company. The project was the best on the Island, with happy owners. She also was the President of the Merchant’s Association and a Board Member of the Chamber of Commerce.
Ms. Montgomery moved to Houston and acquired a job working for a CPA. She installed manufacturing software: shop floor control, inventory, bills of materials, and large payrolls. From that she opened up a payroll processing firm, with $26 million annually in payroll. There she learned how to reconcile payroll tax payments, as there was a payroll run every day of the week.
Fast forward several years, and Ms. Montgomery took a job at Hidalgo County, Texas, as Risk Manager. Incidental on the job description was Emergency Manager. Ms. Montgomery managed the workers compensation policy and the safety function for 92 locations, with six safety officers reporting to her.
Ms. Montgomery found that there was actually no Emergency Plan recorded with the State of Texas, and therefore the County could not tap into state/federal emergency funds when there was a hurricane. She wrote the Emergency Plan, sponsored it through Commissioners Court and the State of Texas. Subsequently, she opened up an Emergency Center, and staffed it with volunteers (who she trained) from various departments in the County. This became a well-oiled system within the County structure.
And then – disaster. She literally worked herself into the hospital with an adrenal collapse. She loved the work and had to quit it. She went to bed for 3.5 years.
Recovery was slow, but steady. She found the right help. Then she went back to work.
She opened up her own bookkeeping firm. She went to CPA firms within driving distance from her house and asked them to refer their potential and current clients whose bookkeeping systems were so bad the CPA couldn’t prepare a tax return.
She was surprised at the response. Within three months she had 18 clients. She continued in this work for 15 years.
That is where she started meeting Pickpocket Bookkeepers. The first several clients were anomalies; then it became a pattern of theft and fraud.
At age 74, Ms. Montgomery decided it was time for a new career. Back to school, this time for digital marketing. She is still offering those services to referrals only. She also is found from time to time to assist small business owners in assessing their bookkeeping systems to determine theft.
“36 Ways Your Bookkeeper Steals From You” took many years to write, because every time she thought she had seen it all, another way to steal was found.
“How to Hire and Manage a Bookkeeper” stems from 45 years of management experience.
“Blueprint for a Successful Pickpocket Bookkeeper” is a compilation of experiences showing how a company owner is groomed for theft from their firm.
If you are a company owner with the possibility of theft and fraud, these three small books can tell you whether you can trust that key employee who manages your bookkeeping systems. These books can save your company if you are in fact experiencing theft.
Good luck, and good hunting.
