At LLME, we love hearing, and sharing, the diverse stories of what lead people to our firm. It’s these varying journeys through life that make our team so dynamic and well-rounded.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more interesting career track than that of client accounting services specialist Dana Mekler, whose career began in the world of New York fashion merchandising with Lord & Taylor, Bloomingdale’s and Ann Taylor before evolving into accounting. For the past seven years at LLME, she’s brought her passion, creative eye and unwavering dedication to helping our clients.
Below, she shares her path to LLME, her thoughts on career reinvention and a peek into her love of all-things Star Wars.
Your background is fascinating. Starting in fashion and retail merchandising, then transitioning into accounting, can you walk us through your journey?
I’m a New Yorker, born and raised, and it’s a very natural progression to end up in the fashion biz.
In New York, fashion and finance are as inherent as entertainment is to California. I worked as a fashion merchandiser, which is essentially a buyer at the epicenter of the entire team or the glue that held the design, production and store planning teams together. I worked with the production team to decide what factories things would be made in, handled quotas for materials like cotton or cashmere and worked with planners managing hundreds of U.S. stores across time zones, climates and demographics. Then had to present the team’s vision to the board, which meant sharing the glory and/or taking the fall.
It was both a creative and financial process from birth to product, from an idea board when designers came back from Italy or France to seeing a final product in stores. It’s amazing how many people, countries and moving parts went into the process. It was high pressure, but incredibly collaborative.
Eventually, we moved to California where my parents lived. I decided to stay home with my kids for a while, which I don’t regret, but do regret not keeping a toe in my career. Because once you step out, it’s incredibly hard to get back in, especially when you’ve left New York. When I tried to return to work, it was impossible to break back into merchandising. So, I reinvented myself. I started doing bookkeeping and just kept building. That led to bookkeeping for a firm downtown and eventually to LLME.
How did your past experience in fashion influence the way you approach accounting today?
Accounting is a lifelong apprenticeship. You are constantly learning — and you can only learn by getting your hands dirty, like in cooking or gardening. You can read all the books and know the principles, rules and guidelines. You can even practice it on paper. But when you work with live clients, numbers, forms, submissions, payrolls and deadlines, that makes it real. And everything I learned in the fashion biz, from my work ethic to the deadlines to my ability to collaborate was applicable or adaptable to this.
What was it that drew you to LLME?
The actual work we do can be stressful, because there are year-round deadlines. It’s a constant repeat cycle. So, there’s no place for additional drama or any toxicity, especially in our workplace. When I was looking to make a career move, that’s what I was looking for. I saw an ad on Indeed and met with the manager of client accounting services at LLME at the time. She’d been here forever, had grown up here. I liked her instantly and guess she liked me too because I was fortunate enough to get into the firm. I honestly didn’t realize how lucky I was at the time. LLME is the largest privately owned CPA firm in San Diego County. That’s no small feat. It comes from years of the firm’s leaders sticking together to cultivate a strong client base and culture that’s committed to growing and keeping great people.
Tell us more about the work you do within Client Accounting Services (CAS).
In CAS, we’re small but mighty. We are a very productive, collaborative team that’s constantly learning and leveling up our collective skillset and acumen to meet the needs of our clients and to support the tax team. We do critically needed tasks, handling the granular work including bookkeeping, payroll, reconciliations, preparing reports and training clients with QuickBooks. We are balance-sheet driven and constantly communicating with the tax team to make sure our clients’ financials are in perfect shape.
What makes this work worthwhile for you?
Every “thank you” with double exclamation points from a client makes all the trouble worth it. Whatever they’re thanking me for, even just for fixing a QuickBooks issue, taking care of an IRS notice or processing a payroll return on time, is rewarding.
What’s something clients might not realize about the way the firm operates behind the scenes?
I’d love our clients to know how cohesive our team is. LLME is one big ecosystem with our tax, audit and client accounting services teams all working together constantly. We’re always communicating, planning ahead and flagging things before they become problems. For example, in October and November, our CAS team starts reaching out to the tax side to identify which clients need year-end projections. If someone’s had a big income change, we want to help plan before tax season hits.
I also want our clients to know that LLME is incredibly benevolent. They organize community work for us a few times a year, and it’s always with organizations like the Ronald McDonald House that do unbelievable work. And there are also plenty of firm events to show us their appreciation.
When you’re not working, what are some of your favorite hobbies or passions?
I’m an unapologetic geek. Star Wars is my DNA. I’m always wearing on donning something that references it, even subtly or in secret. There’s always an Easter Egg. My car’s license plate is “Rogue Two,” which is the call sign of the speeder that finds Han and Luke on Hoth when they’re buried in snow in “The Empire Strikes Back.”
I’m also an avid knitter, but not in the traditional sense. I make 3D projects. There’s a huge, knitted dragon head mounted above my TV, and I’ve made knitted replicas of New York landmarks.
This has been such a fun and inspiring conversation. Thank you, Dana!
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