Minding Her Business

Growing up in Gallipolis and being the daughter of one of the town’s only CPAs, Shayna saw the ins and outs of a professional practice from an early age, and she says she didn’t want anything to do with it. “I remember watching my dad and mom work these awful hours, sometimes starting around 4:00 a.m., especially during tax season. I just knew that there had to be something better.”

So when she left for college at Kentucky and then Marshall University, her plan was to pursue a law degree, but then a peculiar thing happened. “I started taking a few accounting classes because it was easy for me and actually even fun,” she said. “It’s like a puzzle, finding the right pieces and making them fit. That’s when I realized that an accounting degree made sense for me because I loved the work.”

Shayna also developed an interest in international business, studying Japanese language throughout college and spending six months focused on Japanese studies at Temple University’s Tokyo campus. After college, her studies abroad and an internship for a U.S. Congressman in Washington, D.C., Shayna interned at an accounting firm in Huntington, West Virginia, before taking positions working on the accounts of Japanese manufacturing clients while a staff accountant for a large firm in Charleston, West Virginia.

Within a few years, however, she saw that it was the right time to go home and join her father in the practice he and her mother had run for more than 35 years, building the respect of the community in the process. Before opening his own firm, her dad, Steve Chapman, had previously worked for Coopers and Lybrand.

Shayna is now the managing partner of the practice, Chapman & Burris CPAs, LLC (www.ChapmanBurris.com), and has been progressively taking over the firm, although she jokingly notes that the initial three-year plan is now in its eighth year.

The firm, which has a total of eight staff including Shayna, her parents and Jon, primarily focuses on tax compliance and planning, write-up, estate and trust returns, and consulting for many of the local small businesses. With a recent emergence of Japanese-owned manufacturing companies in the area, she has also started putting her foreign language and cultural knowledge to use in building potential client contacts.

In addition to diversifying the firm’s client base, Shayna has been focused on adopting technologies that can help the practice run more effectively. Since joining in 2002, Shayna says she’s managed to make a lot of significant advances that have helped pull it out of “the stone age.” For instance, gone is what she calls the “sneaker-net” method of file transfer, where clients would put data on a disk and walk it to the office. Another major milestone was moving her father away from “greenbar and red ropes.”

One of the biggest transitions came after she attended an accounting vendor’s user conference about three years ago, returning with desktop scanners and a mission to take the practice paperless, which she succeeded at in a few months. Other changes in the office have been the implementation of a server, laptops and multi-screen monitors at all desks, including a triple monitor for Shayna.

Although her dad (she calls him the “dinosaur”) hasn’t always been enthusiastic about some of the changes, he’s been accepting of her decisions and sees the positive changes the new processes make. And he still manages a few of the firm’s older clients, especially those that he has special relationships with, but for the most part he is out of the client service side now.

She also knows that technology plays a critical role in the performance of her clients and that improving interaction with them can result in streamlined service. On this front, the firm is currently working toward getting its clients to use online portals, but this has proven to be a little more challenging because of a general lack of technology skills in the area. Another technology challenge that complicates things is with the availability of high-speed Internet access. While the firm has DSL and cable connectivity and is considering moving toward more web-based /SaaS programs, many of her clients don’t have access to the same business class Internet. This limits their adoption of web-based portals, online collaboration tools and web-based programs that Shayna knows could help them and her practice be more efficient.

“I am always looking for ways to use technology more productively, and there will always be issues we have to overcome. But over the last eight years, and especially the last three, we’ve made the firm a lot more technologically savvy and are probably the most advanced in the area.” Shayna has also been actively rebranding and marketing the firm, including use of Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites and online professional communities.

Due to Shayna’s technology focus, her firm scored a 338 on The CPA Technology Advisor’s Productivity Survey (www.CPATechAdvisor.com/productivity), a free online tool that helps professional practices assess their workflow practices and use of technology.

Since the firm closes at noon on Fridays (except during tax season), she and her staff have a little extra time for family and travel. So with her new iPhone 4 in her hand, technology also helps her stay connected when she escapes to enjoy quality time with her six year-old son Brayden, a budding tee-ball star who’s already learned to switch hit thanks to coaching by mom, who played softball for the University of Kentucky. Brayden is also starting first grade, where he’s sure to have a knack for math, considering his CPA-credentialed linage. Shayna and her family enjoy occasional vacations in Florida as well as skiing and biking at nearby Snowshoe, West Virginia.

When not focused on her number one and two priorities in life (Brayden and the practice, in that order), Shayna also partners with her sister on their “retirement plan,” a collection of commercial and residential real estate. She’s also active with the Gallia County Chamber of Commerce and the Junior Womens’ Club, an organization that helps with educational and community projects, including a much needed backpack lunches program. She sits on the board of the Holzer Foundation, which supports the advancement of healthcare in the region. Since her 1864 home is one of the original town residences, it is especially fitting that Shayna is also on the Gallipolis Historical Preservation Board.

“Coming back to Gallipolis after working in large cities was an eye opener,” says Shayna. “Almost everything is different, and sometimes they look at a professional woman a little differently, but that’s because the people genuinely care about each other and look out for each other. That’s what makes this home.”

 

Infobox

Shayna Chapman-Burris, CPA

Managing Partner, Chapman & Burris CPAs LLC

Gallipolis, Ohio

www.ChapmanBurris.com

Productivity Score: 338

Practice Specialties: Tax Compliance & Planning; Business Consulting; Estate/Trust Planning

College: Marshall University; Temple University Japan

Civic Involvement: Junior Womens’ Club; Gallia County Chamber of Commerce; Gallipolis Historical Preservation Board

Social Networking: Twitter — @ShaynaCPA