About the Firm

Established in 1984, Bruce T. Andersen CPA is a  full-service accounting practice, located in Woodland Hills, California.

Services provided include:

Please give us a call at (818) 225-8022, or drop us an e-mail bruce@andersencpa.com, to discuss your needs.

About Bruce T. Andersen, MBA, MS (Tax), CPA

I hope this will provide a background on who I am so my clients will better know me and prospects can learn about me before becoming my clients.

I have emphasized the logo of the firm “BTA” repeatedly through the website.  I thought it would be best to also provide a bio with the pieces in a similar fashion: B – T – A, except I am going to do the “B” last.  So here it goes…..

TAX

• I started my CPA career in Bakersfield with a National Firm which, at that time was tenth largest in the USA.  I was primarily on audit staff, but did special tax research projects including obtaining investment tax credits for a central valley based bank.
• I got my Masters in Taxation from Golden Gate University.  I used my GI Bill for this.  I could have gotten it through my CPA firm, but they said I had to work for five years at the firm and be selected for the program.  I didn’t have that much time to wait, so I drove to Los Angeles weekly from Bakersfield and completed this program in about three years.
• I worked for three  firms in Bakersfield and two in Los Angeles before opening my own practice in 1987 in Woodland Hills. My first tax returns were prepared by hand in pencil and xeroxed for filing. This was in 1986 before I opened my “shop”.
• I have used electronic tax software since then and generally maintain about eight years of tax programs on my computer, just in case I get a non-filer who has to go way back in time.
• I currently do several hundred individual returns and over a hundred business tax returns.
• I do all forms of business returns including corporations, LLC, LLP, partnership, S Corporations.

ACCOUNTING

• I started my CPA career in Bakersfield with a National Firm which, at that time was tenth largest in the USA.  I was primarily on audit staff.  Because of my prior experience as a Regular Army Officer, the firm put me on engagements at “rookie rates” while functioning as engagement supervisor.  I did audits of banks, S&Ls, county governments, farm co-ops, and farm-related businesses, like “Rain for Rent.”
• I worked for two firms in Bakersfield and two in Los Angeles before opening my own firm.
• Prior to starting on my CPA career path, I worked for a national plastics company in Bakersfield as Financial Analyst and Assistant Controller.  I did all the financial project work to take the plant from three to ten product lines during my two years with the company.
• After the plastics plant and before my first CPA firm, I worked for family-owned leasing company in the Central Valley.  The company leased ag equipment, oil field equipment, computers and commuter aircraft.  During this time, I attended Cal State in Bakersfield and got an MBA.
• I moved the family to L.A. when I got a job with a national computer distributor. It was a publicly traded company on the US stock exchange with headquarters in London.  I was hired the Systems Accountant where I had a $1,000,000 budget to upgrade and buy software for the new IBM mainframe.  This was a two year position.  I did all the systems work, only spent about $280,000 and was done in nine months.  They created a position called Manager of Leasing and Maintenance which evolved into General Manager.  With my leasing background, I took a portfolio of old, worthless monitors and printers, being leased to Fortune 500 companies, like B of A, Caldwell Banker, and Host International, and developed leasing programs.  These companies could not afford to get rid of the equipment.  Huge ROI for our company, and a really good deal for our customers.  I left that company when they moved to Torrance.  My family was in Woodland Hills and the commute would have killed me.
• I moved on to become the Controller of a aerospace subcontractor that designed, manufactured and distributed fasteners.  The company had a plant in North Hollywood and Turkey.  It sold its products across the US and in several foreign countries.  I stayed with the company for over twelve years.  During this time the company moved from a TRS-80 Radio Shack computer to a DG mini running Thoroughbred Basic, to a ten user PC based system running SBT and TIW manufacturing software.  In addition to system development, I was responsible for cost analysis, pricing for thousands of products, and implementing an ESOP.  During the last three years, I managed to work this position into a part-time arrangement through adjusting the staffing.  This allowed me to open my own CPA firm.
• From the early days of my practice I seemed to always have some Controller/CFO type of positions. This continues to this day.
• My own practice started over twenty years ago, and since then I produce monthly, quarterly and year end financial statement for my clients.
• I have been doing QuickBooks training for more than 20 years.
• I also taught several accounting, finance, and systems classes courses for University of Phoenix for 15 years.

BUSINESS CONSULTING

This area of my practice has been an evolutionary development and logical extension from my corporate positions in plastics manufacturing, equipment leasing, computer distribution, and metal manufacturing, as well as my work at my first CPA firm in Bakersfield.