Meet The Face Behind Morley CPA Professional Corporation

I’m Theresa Morley, proud owner of Morley CPA Professional Corporation.

I look forward to sharing my story. I hope that you will enjoy getting to know me better.

Owning a business was something very natural for a person like me as I come from a long line of entrepreneurial women who utilized their talent and gift to better the world. For example, my maternal grandmother was a nurse who ran a home to provide safe delivery for mothers during a time when babies were born at home, which more often than not would lead to serious delivery complications.

From childhood, I always knew what I was aiming for. I studied hard and made sure that I was accepted to the best schools and workplaces. It was important for me to stay on top of my game and that hasn’t changed since. Every year I spend at least three to four weeks updating myself on the new trends in accounting and tax, and technologies in my industry. I also make sure to understand the things that my community gives importance to.

I have always loved numbers and keeping things in order. My first unofficial accounting job was helping my dad with his weekly payroll on the farm in Zimbabwe! This helped me realize that accounting helps everyone in an organization to grow, prosper and reach their potential.

My love for science and farming made me take a side trip in my first degree and obtain my Bachelor of Science in Agriculture with a major in Chemistry and Genetics. The scientific method of hypothesis, experimentation, evaluation, and summation of results has been very useful in my life.

After working hard to complete my designations and a significant career with a few of the most respected names in the business, I opened my accounting practice in 1988 after my daughter was born. We later relocated to Muskoka in 1994 after my third child was born. For six years, I continued to work at the municipal government as their Budget Office and later as their Director of Finance.

In 2001, I established Morley CPA Professional Corporation. I live in a smaller community where people need to start a business to stay here. I take it upon myself to ensure that the business owners in my community benefit from my professional expertise by prospering and enjoying a better quality life. I owe the current success of my business to my staff and clients, to whom I will be forever grateful. Today, I am proud to be a member of the business communities of Muskoka and Barrie.

Over the past couple of years, I have noticed that all your hard work and commitment towards your career by itself, does not guarantee success. The present business environment is so dynamic and volatile with business owners at the receiving end. A generation ago, during my mother’s time, what was in your bank account was yours to spend. However today, it is anything but this simple for a business owner. Government taxes, workers insurance programs etcetera require considerable amounts of funds to be kept aside for.

Besides this, unless a business implements sound pricing and payment practices, clients take their time to pay and inevitably, one large client could land an entire business in financial distress. Since the government concentrates more on the employee’s benefits and our banks use lending ratios more appropriate to large corporations, a business owner needs to be able to finance their own growth and save for contingencies. Therefore we study and analyze the factors affecting small businesses including our business as well as our clients’ businesses so as to be a key resource partner.

While we at Morley CPA Professional Corporation always look forward to an accounting or tax challenge, solving your accounting and tax challenges and a good outcome is what makes us feel most rewarded. We help our clients set up their accounting in QuickBooks Online (QBO) and create their accounting workflows using the apps that work best for their business so that they can efficiently carry out their accounting work while we still maintain access to troubleshoot and review their books. We also get immense satisfaction while helping our clients solve an administration issue with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). When people come to us because they find themselves years behind on filing their taxes due to unresolved issues with the CRA, we are able to get them caught up and we organize messy filing systems into a well-ordered set of books ready for CRA scrutiny. Our happiest client interactions are when we tell them that they have to pay less tax than they expected! And finally, we feel truly rewarded when our clients are happy with the professional services they received.

It is obvious to us from our conversations with business owners that most business owners began their business operations so as to ensure freedom in their work and home life. The business philosophy we operate on is to make sure that we pass on the skill and technology of how to be successful in your business to all the business owners we meet so that they can experience the much-valued freedom that they expected to operate with in the beginning.

As an individual, I believe what sets me apart from the others is the respect with which we treat every client. We do not just reflect this respect in a physical form but in the way we carry out our work too. We make sure that every deadline is met, attention to detail is given, work is thoroughly accomplished, finding the root problem whenever a situation demands the same, accommodating unique challenges of each client and finally documenting and recording all client-team discussions to ensure consistent service regardless of whoever the client interacts with. My team and I pride ourselves on keeping up to date on all the aspects of our business – tax legislation, accounting policy changes, new technology, better ways to relate and communicate with our clients. 

Over the years, we have received many referrals to fellow business owners, family and friends from our happy clients and this gives me immense satisfaction as it is an indication that we are moving in the right direction.

When I am not at work, I read, a lot! I have been with a book club for 30 years and we read one book a month. As you can imagine, I have read a lot of books. Besides reading, my grandchildren take up most of my time and I value every minute of it. My husband and I have a bucket list of the countries we plan to visit over the next few years.

I am a huge advocate of educating women both in Canada and other countries. Unfortunately, women do not receive the required education to help their families in counties like  Zimbabwe (where I was born) and other impoverished countries. The lack of basic education puts women and their families at huge risks of perpetuating the cycle of poverty. If a country seeks to progress, it needs to ensure that its women are educated to the highest degree. I believe that we can no longer afford the politics of poverty and I believe that organizations like Rotary International are making a significant impact on the worlds women. I am a member of Rotary and hold the ideals of Rotary in high esteem and contribute to the good work that Rotarians do throughout the world.

I have enjoyed sharing my story about the things that matter to me and how they influence the way I do business.

If you or someone you know could benefit from our expertise in accountancy, I invite you to get in touch. Please visit our website at www.morleycpa.ca.

Sincerely,

Theresa