CAROL ESPINOZA
Los Angeles
Summary
Senior accounting professional managing full-cycle accounting operations and month-end close for a diverse portfolio. Expertise in GAAP compliance, multi-entity reconciliations, and audit liaison roles, ensuring accurate financial reporting and strengthened internal controls.
Overview
17
17
years of professional experience
Work History
Staff Accountant – General Ledger Accounting
Cesar Chavez Foundation
Los Angeles
09.2025 - Current
- Manage full-cycle accounting and month-end close schedules for a high-profile 13-property portfolio, guaranteeing precise and time-sensitive financial reporting across corporate entities.
- Execute and post complex journal entries, adjustments, accruals, and property reclassifications adhering strictly to GAAP.
- Deliver clean multi-entity balance sheet and trial balance reconciliations to systematically eliminate variances.
- Function as the principal audit liaison for 9 individual properties, organizing supporting documents and managing auditor requests to ensure swift completions.
- Expanded operational scope to provide accounting support for Chavez Media, enhancing closing tasks and producing financial statement packages for VP and board-level review.
- Collaborated with property management, construction, and legal divisions to manage restricted funds, track capital expenditures, and ensure compliance with metrics.
- Established a communication framework with property managers to enhance timely cash deposit records and maintain monthly reconciliation accuracy.
Staff Accountant
Puffco
Los Angeles
01.2021 - 04.2025
- Maintained general ledger integrity and facilitated prompt month-end, quarter-end, and year-end close workflows.
- Formulated financial documentation packages, prepared detailed variance analyses, and delivered reporting assets utilized by executive management for core business decisions.
- Supervised high-volume accounts receivable (AR) structures, transitioning from transaction matching and discrepancy tracking to full general ledger ownership, enhancing accuracy in financial reporting.
- Conducted multi-entity intercompany transaction tracking, balance adjustments, and routine bank reconciliations.
- Managed corporate fixed asset schedules, monitoring depreciation cycles and equipment disposals to ensure accurate asset valuation.
- Standardized internal accounting SOP frameworks, minimizing manual transaction errors and improving reporting consistency across financial group.
- Uncovered system bookkeeping anomalies that exposed internal asset fraud, successfully arresting further financial leakage.
Accountant
Cannex Holdings California
Commerce
09.2019 - 03.2020
- Monitored bank holdings, authorized wire transfers, and verified intercompany reconciliations to maintain financial accuracy.
- Input monthly journal entries and facilitated AP/AR processing, supporting leadership with financial oversight routines.
- Structured accounting controls and workflows, ensuring compliance and operational readiness during corporate pre-operational rollout.
Bookkeeper (Promoted from Hostess)
Taix French Restaurant
Los Angeles
06.2009 - 09.2019
- Directed full-cycle bookkeeping tasks including daily sales verification, cash flow balancing, payables, and receivables.
- Established partnership with external CPA to streamline year-end financial reporting and regulatory submissions.
- Executed tax return documentation for sales and use tax, distributed annual 1099 formats, and facilitated workers' compensation audits to ensure compliance.
Education
Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) - Management
California State University, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA06-2019
Skills
- GAAP Compliance
- General Ledger (GL)
- Month-end close
- Trial balance reconciliation
- Multi-Entity Intercompany Transactions
- Fixed Assets & Depreciation
- Internal Controls
- Fraud Detection
- Corporate Audit Liaison
- Sales tax compliance
- Advanced Excel
- Financial Reporting Software
- QuickBooks
- Payment Processing Systems
- Transaction Management Tools
- Credit Risk Assessment
- Operational Risk Mitigation
- E-commerce Accounting
Accomplishments
- Fixed Asset Restructuring, Rebuilt the comprehensive fixed asset tracking structure across 13 distinct properties, significantly driving reporting consistency, long-term audit readiness, and balance sheet accuracy.
- Discrepancy Resolution, Successfully resolved a complex $46K prepaid accounting discrepancy tied to a legacy tenant benefit program by driving alignment across external vendors, property management, and corporate legal stakeholders.
- Internal Controls Optimization, Identified critical AR control gaps involving duplicate and split credit card transactions that artificially inflated sales metrics and bonus pools; developed and launched new cross-departmental SOPs with Sales Operations to protect revenue and prevent thousands in excess bonus payouts.
- Process Efficiency, Designed and implemented standardized reconciliation templates and general ledger workflow modifications that drastically reduced manual research timelines and maximized month-end close speeds.
Core Competencies And Technical Skills
GAAP Compliance, General Ledger (GL), Month-End/Year-End Close, Trial Balance Cleanup, Fixed Assets & Depreciation, Multi-Entity Intercompany Transactions, Internal Controls, Corporate Audit Liaison, Operational Risk Mitigation, Fraud Detection, Sales & Use Tax (1099s), Yardi, Acumatica, QuickBooks, Salesforce, Shopify, Square, Authorize.Net, AFRM, Microsoft Excel (VLOOKUP, XLOOKUP, PivotTables, Complex Data Reconciliations)
Timeline
Staff Accountant – General Ledger Accounting
Cesar Chavez Foundation
09.2025 - Current
Staff Accountant
Puffco
01.2021 - 04.2025
Accountant
Cannex Holdings California
09.2019 - 03.2020
Bookkeeper (Promoted from Hostess)
Taix French Restaurant
06.2009 - 09.2019
Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) - Management
California State University, Los Angeles