Charlene Booher has always been a busy gal, from the corporate climb to small-town accounting services. Her career led her to open her own business a few years ago —something she never expected to do. 

Those who visit Booher for her accounting services will walk through her new boutique on the way to her office. It’s called 406 Underground, featuring a selection of black, crystal studded T-shirts and a wall of dangling earrings. 

“Somebody told me one day that it was like a country hot topic,” she smiled. 

The name of her accounting business, “It Figures Bookkeeping” is illuminated in hot pink neon toward the back of the room — a reminder that Booher is just as much about business as she is about fun. 

When she takes on a new client, they are required to meet her in person. 

“I want them to come in and meet me and get a sense of my personality and who I am. I’ve got that mother hen complex, where I treat my clients like they’re my children, meaning, I said I’m going to call you and say, ‘Look, you need to have this [document] in yesterday. I’m not going to sugar coat it,’” Booher said. 

She tries to stay down to Earth with her clients and keep her rates low, sometimes offering advice for free, she said. It’s all about making sure the customer feels taken care of —which shows in her all five-star online reviews.

Booher’s journey in finance started 35 years ago. After going to college for accounting, she worked a job at a Fortune 500 company as a financial administrative manager, where she reported to four supervisors and managed 35 employees. 

After a decade spent at the large company, she and her husband moved to Montana to be closer to grandchildren. She got a job as a senior accountant at Mann Mortgage in Kalispell, where she did payroll for 500 employees across 15 states. It was at Mann that she would dive into software development by working with someone in the IT department. 

“We wrote programs that helped our timecard and accounting programs talk to each other,” she said. “So then everything was sent electronically to the branch managers, and they were able to approve their commission calculations and payroll through electronic communication.”

After leaving Mann Mortgage, Booher went to Express Employment Professionals for guidance on what to do next. They directed her to a receptionist position at Alpine Tax, so she applied.

Booher had previously always had jobs that made six figures and came with a lot of responsibility, so her new employers inquired about why she would want to work a receptionist position. 

“The position only paid $12 an hour, they said ‘Why would you want to work here?’ And I said, ‘Because I don’t know what I want to do and I don’t have to work,’” she said. 

But Booher wouldn’t stay away from accounting services for too long, going on to work for Tim Dilworth, a Certified Public Accountant and Enrolled Agent. Booher said he had a specialty of “taking on all of the problem children during tax time.” Dilworth would help them get their ducks in a row for taxes, then advise them to start working with a bookkeeper to continue getting their finances in order. 

After some time working there, Booher asked her boss if she could offer bookkeeping services. 

“I said ‘I can do bookkeeping.’ Bookkeeping is easy, it’s easier than accounting, it’s easier than taxes, and I’m good with numbers. So nine years ago, I started It Figures Bookkeeping,” Booher said. 

It was around 2020 that life interrupted business as usual for Booher and her coworkers. First, Booher survived a crash on an all-terrain vehicle going through a windshield without a helmet. Recovering kept her indoors during the start of the pandemic, which would soon cause a tragedy close to home. 

She said Dilsworth died of Covid-19 after a 30-day hospital stay. It was a traumatic time for Booher, who was close to her boss. 

“I just loved picking his brain about everything. And he sat on the board with a group of enrolled agents, so he just was very, very knowledgeable. I loved spending time with him and learning all different kinds of things,” Booher said. 

She helped Alpine Tax get through the tough transition period following the death of her boss, which is when some of their clients became familiar with her services at It Figures. 

Since then, Booher’s business has grown out of her home to a new office space, located at 490 E. Montana St., Suite 1, in Kalispell. She’s also hired a remote CPA to help provide tax filing services. 

Even though Booher didn’t expect to start her own business, she said it makes a lot of sense for her, given her career path.

“I embrace change in my life. And after so many years of working for someone else and trying to meet their guidelines ... that’s hard sometimes, especially if you have an entrepreneurial heart, right?” Booher said. “Life’s too short to end up giving so much of your energy and time to somebody else. Why not just make your own way and set your own hours and go to work when you want to?”

She hopes the business will offer her some flexibility heading into retirement too. Not one to sit still very long,  she could see herself keeping a few select clients and working part-time — more than likely on a beach somewhere. 

“I can do your bookkeeping while I’m sitting on a beach in Florida somewhere, like I can be anywhere,” Booher said. 

Wherever she chooses to go, it’s guaranteed Booher will be wearing something hot pink for the occasion. 

For more information on It Figures Bookkeeping, visit itfiguresbookkeeping406.com. 

Reporter Taylor Inman may be reached at 758-4440 or [email protected].