Ellie Solem completes four decades of accounting services in Chinook
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Steve Edwards
Ellie Solem, a certified public accountant in Chinook, recently retired after a 48-year career as an accountant and CPA. She stands before a display of recognitions she received for her professional and community service during her career. She was honored with a reception at the office on Ohio Street where she and her husband, Bill, have their respective offices.
Ellie Solem, CPA, has retired effective the end of December. She's been a practicing accountant since graduating from the University of Montana in 1968. She passed the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam in 1974. Ellie recalled, "When I received notification that I'd passed the CPA exam the accompanying letter noted I was one of about 4,000 female CPAs in the U.S." She added, "When I was studying at U of M the gender ratio was typically two women to 50 men in accounting classes." The national group that oversees the certification of accounting professionals in the U.S. estimates 63% of accountants and auditors (about 420,000) are now females.
Describing what certified public accountants do, Ellie said, "CPAs produce financial statements that show the condition of businesses and organizations. They prepare tax returns, do estate planning and conduct audits." Licensure requirements include 150 semester hours of college level classes, basically five years of college, and successful completion of a 14-hour computer-based exam that covers the major aspects of the accounting function. Each year CPAs must complete 40 hours of continuing education to maintain their license.
Ellie said, "The nature of accounting work allowed me a variety of ways to work and also be involved with my family, especially doing activities with our children." She explained that many new accountants work for the 'big four,' the major national accounting services, but there are now more regional firms that hire accountants and many CPAs start their own businesses and operate independently. She said, "It's a profession that's not going away. There will always be clients that need help with financial reporting and interpretation."
From pathology to accounting
Ellie grew up in Havre and graduated from Central High School (a parochial high school that closed in the 1960's). Husband Bill was attending law school of U of M and she began a course of study to eventually become a pathologist. She explained, "I wanted to study medicine but was most interested in what caused people to die." Her major was microbiology. With a growing family to take care of she soon found the time demands, especially for the labs required in science classes, were overwhelming.
As an alternative course of study, she began taking accounting courses. She noted, "I had taken bookkeeping in high school and when I began taking college accounting it was like being on vacation. It just came naturally to me." She finished her degree in three years. Shortly after their respective college programs the Solems settled in Chinook where Bill began practicing law and Ellie started her accounting business. She passed the exam to become a CPA in 1974.
A career of professional and community service
In addition to operating her own accounting service, she was also active in the accounting profession and her community. At the national-level she served as a member of the AICPA Council. The Council is the governing body of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the largest professional organization representing the accounting profession. AICPA sets ethical standards for its 400,000+ members, defines U.S. auditing standards for private companies, nonprofit organizations, federal, state and local governments and develops and grades the Uniform CPA Examination (the licensing exam).
At the state-level she was active in the Montana Society of CPA's, serving on the board of directors and holding several state level offices, including President. Prior to holding offices in the society she was active on a number of committees that carried out the work of the organization. In 1995 Governor Mar Racicot appointed Ellie as a member of the Montana State Board of Accountancy. Now titled the Board of Public Accountants, the group oversees licensing and business standards for the profession. She also was a member of the Business Advisory Council for the School of Business at the University of Montana.
Closer to home, she was a member for 22 years of the Diocesan Finance Council for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Great Falls and Billings. She's shared her accounting knowledge on many local finance committees including St. Gabriel's Church, the Lloyd D. Sweet Educational Foundation, Sweet Memorial Nursing Home, Sweet Medical Center and Sweet Park Board. She taught accounting one semester at Northern Montana College (now MSU-Northern) and served on the board of directors at the bank in Harlem.
During most of the 1980's she was an Emergency Medical Technician on the Blaine I Ambulance Crew. She explained that owning her own business allowed her to make many of the day runs while other crew members were less flexible.
Reflections of a career
Asked about the biggest challenges in her profession, Solem said, "It used to be a matter of getting all the tax returns filed by April 15. It was nearly impossible to get an extension to file so the time before tax filing was very hectic." She went on to say that changes in tax law, with allowances for different tax filing deadlines, has helped solve that problem. "And," she said, "it's much easier to get an extension to file taxes than it used to be."
She cited two trends that affected the profession during her working career. First was the increasing numbers of women who are now accountants and CPAs. And she believes accounting is a great choice for women as it gives them a lot of flexibility as to when and where they practice their accounting skills.
The other major change involves the changes in technology. She laughed when she said, "In college we never used adding machines, much less calculators. We did all the math with paper and pencil." Now, with the use of computers, fax, email and other technological aids, the sharing and processing data is faster and more efficient. She said, "Even how clients keep their own books has improved. Now many bring their tax work to me on some sort of a computerized program. It's a far cry from years ago when I would get boxes full of scraps of paper I'd have to sort through to file taxes."
Bill and Ellie Solem have three grown children. A fourth, Timothy, died in 2014. Daughters Liz Lybeck, who worked as a CPA, and Eloise Jergeson, a CPA and a lawyer, live in Missoula. Their son Ted lives in Spokane and is a captain, flying for Southwest Airlines. Bill and Ellie have several grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
Asked about retirement plans, Ellie said, "I've always been a community volunteer, a wife, mother and now am a grandmother and great grandmother. I'm pretty sure I'll never be bored taking care of my family and staying involved in my community." The "Journal" wishes Ellie a long and happy retirement.
