When Debbie Koltun asked for me to share some thoughts about our work together and the role she’s played in my business for the last 20+ years, I thought.. “Sure, no problem what an easy task!” After all Debbie not only single handedly, set up our accounting system (which was no easy task) but seemed effortless since Debbie has the patience that Mother Teresa could learn from, the tech savvy of Steve Wozniack, the combined actuarial wisdom and expertise of Mr. Price, Mr. Waterhouse and Mr. Coopers combined, and the style of Coco Channel, all combined in one amazing package.
So to say that Debbie is no “ordinary” accounting consultant is clearly an understatement. But for those of you who may need more specifics to her qualifications, should my glowing testimony not be enough, here are a few highlights:
1. Unparalleled product knowledge of the Mac platform and it’s accounting solutions and software. (Shame on anyone who still thinks Mac’s are for “creatives”!)
2. Real life business experience in range of industries which makes Debbie perfect for start-ups to expanding companies
3. An uncanny ability to “train, teach and instill knowledge” to even the most accounting challenged business owners.
4. A hunger for finding solutions that WORK, make sense (and cents), and that are practical.
5. A connection to the source- (if you happen to be on Account Edge, as one of the nation’s top Account Edge consultants, Debbie’s connection provides up to the minute updates, knowledge base and ability to apply evolving software solutions to the clients she works with)
6. Operationally, Debbie is an active and essential member of my company’s management team, helping guide and direct financial matters, processes, standard operating procedures, etc. She has worked with our accountant, banker as well as the internal team. She’s so much part of our team, she’s featured on our website and even gets invited to company outings. (When was the last time you considered inviting your “accounting consultant” to something FUN?)
7. Her ethics, (remember those?) are unparallel, her accountability and reliability, second to none. Accuracy, is 99.9% (as a test to just to keep me on my toes)
What Debbie can’t do however, no matter how talented, smart or insistent I may be, is to figure out how to get 1+1 to equal 3. When she figures that one out, I’m hiring her full time so I can retire!
Marc Friedland
Founder/President
Creative Intelligence, Inc.
Debbie came at a crucial time, due to the growth of our company we had to rethink and evaluate our workflow, from order taking to accounts receivable, and she brought tremendous experience and knowledge to the table that helped us implement sound procedures, as a result our turnaround time for orders came to an average of 24 hours only.
Debbie was the key to using all the tools of AccountEdge and to train and support our team members in the every day use of the software.
We would have never been able to achieve what we have now without Debbie! What a difference she made…. wish she would have been on board from the get-go of installing the software, it would have saved a lot of time, manpower and money…AccountEdge should highly recommend consulting with an experienced consultant like Debbie before selling such a powerful tool.
We highly recommend consulting with an experienced consultant such as Debbie before setting up AccountEdge as mistakes can be avoided early on, mistakes that are made early on can lead to much bigger problems later.
Do not underestimate the power of AccountEdge, its user-friendly interface works best when installed with expertise from Debbie.
Debbie always sees the context of operations overall, not only within AccountEdge.. Operations have become much smother. A steady and well planned work flow drastically increased our productivity and turnaround.
She has great personality, very good listener and great analytical mind, a pleasure to work with her. Understands the insides of companies and how important confidentiality and trust are to the success of a corporation.
I can gladly give good testimony at any time / admire her discipline in sports / our dog is in love with her dog 😉
AND OF COURSE WE ALL LOVE HER!!!!!
Last but not least:
she has an insatiable appetite for chocolate 😉
Cory Carter
Dream Fish, Inc.
Mac’s Lift Gate Inc. has been a AccountEdge user since 1992 and a client of Accounting Evolutions and Debbie Koltun since 1994. During which time she has proven her extensive knowledge of AccountEdge software and business accounting.
I can’t recall how we found Debbie and Accounting Evolutions but she is a God send. She has helped us organize and reorganize too many times to count. Debbie personally oversaw a data conversion and the creation of a new data file earlier this year that required her to be onsite for more than 7 days. While working on the program Debbie will often show you what she is doing and provides an explanation for it on the accounting side and AccountEdge software side. She teaches as well as fixes and leaves you feeling confident about your success with AccountEdge.
She periodically comes into our office and straightens out bank reconciliations for both Accounts Payable and Payroll Dept. Each year end she closes our books and helps to organize us for the upcoming taxes, as well as be available to come out and help if needed.
Debbie has created every form we use in AccountEdge, Invoices, Purchase orders, email forms and more. She has customized fields to help with reports that are specific to our manufacturing needs. She has taught us to use these reports to great effectiveness as well as the many other reports available within the software. Her knowledge of these AccountEdge matters seems to be limitless.
And all this from a lady who works on Macintosh computers … Yet our business owns PC’s. AccountEdge has a PC version but it is different than the Macintosh which is what AccountEdge was designed for. This however did not stop Debbie from providing A+ service at any time. And if there was a problem she promptly contacted AccountEdge and started working on a solution. I think today we remain one of her longest running client and still the only ones on a PC which can both be accounted to the superior service and dedication you get with Accounting Evolutions!
Mike
Mac’s Lift Gate, Inc.
This is a real pleasure because I have often told others how wonderful you are. When you entered the life of A&B, we had just spent several months and pile of money trying to get our business to move from ledger sheets to a computer with a comptroller guy who claimed to know how to do this, and we finally threw out Peachtree and started over with AccountEdge and I called you. You showed up and said, “Let’s cut to the chase. Start as of today, not trying to recapture the past.” That advice was so right on. Then you showed us how to set up all our paperwork to be sure we were organized and to build in redundancy so we wouldn’t let anything slip by.
You tailored AccountEdge to our needs and In short order we were off and sailing for about a tenth of the price of the previous accounting advisor and about 1000% better result. I can’t think of anything that wasn’t perfect because you are so smart about what you do. Thank you!!
Ceel
A&B Plumbing, Inc.
I had interviewed another AccountEdge consultant re: changing from my previous accounting software to AccountEdge, saying that I needed the process to be as painless as possible. He had assured me of the ease with which this could be accomplished. Fortunately he become so involved in other pursuits that he did not have time to do the job. That’s when I asked my MacTech consultant Paul Cartwright who to call. He recommended Debbie Koltun.
Unlike the previous consultant, she insisted upon taking the time to outline all the reasons I ought to start fresh rather than simply transfer info. I had to concede she was giving sound advice, even though I knew I was in for a supreme challenge and would be spending more time and money than I’d like. I am so glad that I followed her advice. Otherwise I’d never have experienced all the benefits of AccountEdge. Admittedly the process was laborious made my brain ache, and likely drove her to discretion, but with her patience and my persistence, the switch was accomplished, and we’ve benefitted from that process.
I like having Debbie come by once a year, install the upgrade, teach me what’s new, and check everything before we begin income tax preparation. Every year she has to unravel some “entanglement” resulting from something I did wrong and then made worse by trying unsuccessfully to correct. She only mildly chides my ineptitude and carefully thinks through the problem and finds a solution. I’d be lost without her expert understanding of accounting in general and AccountEdge in particular.
I’ve put into practice many suggestions she’s made over the years for improving our accounting practices, such as photocopying every check in a deposit, stapling the deposit receipt to the copies and filing them nearby in case of a problem reconciling the monthly statement. More than once, this has made finding a discrepancy easy. Her advice has turned out to make a real and lasting difference in streamlining record keeping at Playworks.
I am grateful to have her on our team, and I’m certain our CPA would agree.
Christina Wallerstein
Playworks