Getting To Know You Tuesday: Nicole Davis, CPA

Forbes

02-07-2025

Nicole Davis, CPA Nicole Davis
When you think about tax professionals, you may assume that they are simply number crunchers. Nicole Davis, CPA, explains that her job entails much more. 'I help businesses, medium and small, redesign their business processes by reducing or automating non-value added tasks and focusing on improving productivity and quality,' she explains. Put another way, she advises business owners on operations and accounting.
Davis leads Conscious Accounting and Delite Payroll with the expertise that earned her a place on the Forbes Top 200 CPAs in America. Away from the office, she trades spreadsheets for saucepans and reality TV (a guilty pleasure), and proves her motto that it doesn't cost to have a good accountant, it pays.
Here's what else Nicole had to say:
Where are you now? Currently, I am in transition. We purchased two firms last fall so merging and integrating the two into our larger firm has not come without its challenges. We are also rebranding from Butler-Davis to Conscious Accounting.
What's your job title, and what does it mean? I'm the CEO and, yes, Chief Hello Officer at Conscious Accounting. The CHO badge fits because my focus now is building client relationships, so every day kicks off with a friendly 'hello' that sets the tone for everything that follows.
Tax, law, and accounting are such broad topics. What's your area of special interest? My heart is in accounting since I spent most of my corporate career in this field. Yet, I've become known as a tax expert but that's because I didn't start in tax and had a lot of catching up to do. I had to get up to speed fairly quickly with tax laws, preparing returns, and offering tax advice as a service.
What's the first thing you typically do while at work? The first thing I typically do at work is take off my heels or flats and slip on my compression socks and fuzzy slippers. I get really comfortable.
If you had an extra couple of hours open up in your day—outside of work—what would you do? If I had an extra couple of hours in my day, I would probably take more ME time. More walks, more massages, more doing something that is not work related.
What's one tool or resource that you couldn't live without at work? I could not work without my cell phone. I can practically run my firm from my cell phone. This is why it's always glued to my hands.
If you weren't working in the tax profession, what would your dream job be? I'd probably be a chef at an international restaurant. I love Italian food, so I'd study how to make hand rolled pasta in Bologna and open a restaurant focusing on that.
What's the best tax or financial advice that anyone ever gave you? The best money advice anyone has ever given me was to don't loan money to anyone unless you are OK not getting it back. It saved so many relationships with friends and family.
What books or magazines are on your nightstand? I don't have any on my nightstand. However, on my desk are 'Think Like a Monk' and 'Praying the Names of God for 52 Weeks.'
Who has been the biggest influence on your career? Oh, this is a hard one. I would say it was my manager at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta. My time there was extraordinary. My boss was a Black CPA and before meeting her, I had no intention of becoming a CPA or working in a public accounting firm. That encounter changed everything.
What would I be surprised to know about you? My first name isn't Nicole. It's Laphilia (LUH-FEEL-YUH) and it's as unique as me. I dare you find some other person alive with that name.
If you had the opportunity to make one change in the tax code tomorrow—an extra credit, a disallowed deduction, whatever—what would it be and why? I'd create a refundable credit for healthcare that covers out of pocket expense for healthcare, childcare, or eldercare.
What was the best tax conference, continuing education (CE), or continuing legal education (CLE) event that you ever attended? AICPA ENGAGE but I may be a bit biased since I am on one of the planning committees responsible for programming.
What has been the biggest change that you've seen in the tax profession in the last five years? The biggest change has been how compliance is pretty much a tech product now. We are no longer chained to keyboard cranking out returns. Our job now is reading the story behind the numbers, then translating that into action steps on cash flow, entity tweaks, deal timing, and wealth plays. Firms that buddy-up with the bots and lean harder into human smarts? They're sprinting past the pack.
What are you most concerned about or excited about with respect to the profession moving forward? I am most excited about the possibilities in this profession. There are so many people that see a path to career expansion without being a part of Big 4. Generative AI will speed this up for many since we don't have reinvent the wheel.
If Uncle Sam handed you a huge refund check right now, what would you do with it? I'd probably spend it on grocery shopping and have a big dinner party. I love to shop for food and cook.
You can find Nicole on LinkedIn—you can also find her on our Forbes Best in State Top CPAs List.
This article is part of our Getting To Know You Tuesday series—a chance to get to know all kinds of tax professionals and understand that the field of tax is bigger than April 15. If you'd like to nominate tax professional to be featured, send your suggestion to [e-mail] with the subject: Getting To Know You Tuesday. Forbes Getting To Know You Tuesday: Arielle Tucker By Kelly Phillips Erb