Kim Tomlinson is a principal at Accuity LLP, where she is involved in strategic decision-making at the tax consulting firm.

Q. You began as an intern at the company. Did you think that you'd make it a career there?

A. When I started as an intern, I had no idea that I'd spend such a long portion of my career with, which at the time it was, Coopers & Lybrand. When you're an intern in college you're basically just happy to have a job. I started and everyone was just really great. I really learned a lot, so when they offered me a full-time position I just jumped at it.

Q. What was your first job there?

A. My first position with Coopers & Lybrand would have been as a tax associate, which is the first stage. At that point you're just preparing tax returns and learning as much as you can.

Q. You have since risen to principal. How have your day-to-day responsibilities changed?

A. As you get more experience and as you develop, it's more that different pieces get added on. When you're a brand new tax associate, you're really focused on, "OK, I have to do this project so leave me alone and let me do this." As you get more experience and you start to supervise other people, then you've got people asking you questions and you've got your partners asking you questions also. As you have more and more client contact you have your clients calling and asking you questions. So it just sort of adds on to that and as you develop more as a manager you have more administrative responsibility and oversight on the staff.

Q. Was it an easy progression for you?

A. What we like to do is develop our staff so that by the time you're at the next level you're not just dropped in to try to learn how to swim on your own. We try to have the support so that you learn a little bit before you're at that next level so that you can handle it.

Q. Is it difficult keeping up with changes in tax laws?

A. That's definitely a challenge. It means that I will always have a job because the tax laws are always changing. One of the really good things about working for a firm like Accuity is that we have a lot of assistance and support in keeping up-to-date with all of the new tax laws. We have in-house training, we have a lot of resources for research that update us as soon as it happens.

Q. Do you have to alter your approach to customers when the laws change?

A. Definitely, especially in a year like this when it's an election year and you don't know exactly what's going to be happening next year, whether the tax rates will go up or whether they will go down or whether they will stay the same. It really depends on who's going to end up in office. It's really when there's that uncertainty that there is a lot of room for tax planning.

Q. Are you given the freedom of coming up with your own projections?

A. It's really collaborative. We work closely with our clients to see how their specific business and industry is doing. It's not just me working with my client, but we also have resources in our firm where we have tax consultants who are specializing in certain areas so I'll pull them in to help on some of my client's situations.

Q. Do you still do a lot of hands-on work, or do you do mostly administrative work?

A. I definitely do a lot of hands-on work with the clients and I'm happy about that. I would hate to only be doing administrative work. I'm talking to my clients pretty much every day and I enjoy that.

Q. Do you have a specialty?

A. In Hawai'i, you generally are better off being a bit of a generalist. I know a little bit about everything. I do have a little more expertise in certain areas, like S corporations, and I have a lot of clients who are in real estate. But it is good to know enough to be helpful in a lot of different areas.

Q. When the economy slows and the future is so hard to predict, are there adjustments that you have to make?

A. I would say that you should always be talking closely with your clients and working together to see how the economy is going, how their business is going. But in a time like this when the economy is so uncertain, you really have to stay on top of that and work even more closely with your clients and stay on top of everything.

Q. How would you characterize your approach? Are you conservative, aggressive, or somewhere in the middle?

A. I would say middle of the road in terms of you don't want to be too conservative. You want to do the best you can for your clients. It's also a matter of educating your clients. You have some clients who have a conservative mindset and as long as they know what the potential benefits and downsides are, that's really your first responsibility — to educate them on what are the risks, what are the benefits. So part of how aggressive you want to be and how conservative you want to be is also based on what the client is, what their mind frame is.

Q. What community organizations do you belong to?

A. The Soroptimist International of Honolulu is one organization that I've been a member of for several years. It's a service organization that mostly consists of professional women, but we do accept men into our membership. We give out scholarship award grants. Our main ones are the Violet Richardson Award, which we give out annually to high school young women who have found a need in the community and have proactively found a way to help with that community need. There's also the Womens' Opportunity Award, which is for single women or the main breadwinners in their families who are trying to re-educate themselves to build a better life for themselves and their families. We also do local service projects throughout the year. I am also with Catholic Charities Hawaii, which does so much for the community.

Q. What are your challenges?

A. A lot of professionals are facing the challenge where there's so many things pulling on your time. You want to be able to give back to the community and be a part of the community, but you have a lot of work challenges and of course family. You're also trying to find a little time to yourself to recharge. It's definitely a challenge and I think it always will be.

Q. Where do you go from here?

A. We're very deadline-driven so my short-term goal is to get through the next deadline. My longer-term goals are to continue to develop. In this profession there's always something to learn. You'll never know it all. I don't want to remain static. I want to always progress and learn and become a better professional and a better manager.

Q. Any thoughts of becoming a partner?

A. I don't know what the future will bring, but this firm has been so good to me and they really have my loyalty. I can see myself staying here for a long time and helping to continue to build this practice.