About Jennifer Young
Jennifer's Journey to Here
When Jennifer was 15 years old, she was in a major car accident that changed her life. She graduated high school at 16, and after several years of changing her major, she went to school at National American University in accounting. After graduating from NAU she went on a business adventure. Jennifer realized that owning a business was not as easy as she thought so she went back to school and gained another degree in business from Black Hills State University.
Later, Jennifer moved to Rapid City and started working for Harley Davidson in their Accounting department. On the side, she was also helping friends and family with their business finances and fell in LOVE with small and medium-sized businesses. She also realized she was finally really good at it. After a few years, Jennifer made the jump and fully opened Jennifer Young’s Bookkeeping Service in 2019.
Throughout the last couple of years, Jennifer has successfully grown her business to offer a variety of bookkeeping, taxes, payroll, and consulting services. She now employs several people and is looking to continue to expand her services and business.
Each employee is trained in all areas, but they work in a specialty. They do the client work, pass it on for a peer review, and then it goes to Jennifer for a third and final look. That’s how they maintain their accuracy. So when you sign up for Jennifer, you are signing up for at minimum three bookkeepers reviewing and doing your work!
Jennifer’s ideal customer is someone who is kind of a mess you could say. She loves helping people who have messy books or feel like they’re losing control of their finances. She loves helping businesses grow, she loves getting them organized, and not only giving them a sense of comfort by managing their books but helping them take their finances to the next level. She loves giving entrepreneurs time back in their day, by taking the bookkeeping, taxes, and books off the owner’s hands, so they can get back in their business and do what they love and are good at!
Jennifer's Why
With more than 20 years of experience in Quickbooks, Jennifer’s favorite thing to do is taxes. She loves it because she works for the taxes all year long for her clients, and basically spends the entire year preparing for them. Then at tax time, it’s like she’s doing her final for her final grade on her work and gets her score. She loves the checks and balances and the accomplishment she gets in providing the most cost-effective and accurate tax returns for her clients. She loves finding grants and funding and providing savings to her customers through write-offs and tax incentives.
Jennifer Young is spiritually and family-dedicated. She thinks of her customers more as a family than as clients and is there to help businesses grow and reach their full potential financially.
Her goal is to make your financial dreams come true with proper guidance and discipline.
Jennifer admires her Grandfather most in life. He basically raised her and always told her she wouldn’t go anywhere without hard work. Listening to that advice, Jennifer not only owns Jennifer Young’s Bookkeeping but also owns Belly Brothers Auto, Prestige Investments, and Dog Pound Property here in Rapid City. She has five children and two grandchildren. If you come in be sure to say Hi to Calypso, Jennifer’s office Frenchie.
We are:
- Family, you’re not just a client
- Making your financial dreams come true
- Experienced, well-trained
- Triple checking work
- Providing continued guidance
My Professional Journey
People often ask whether I am a CPA. The answer is no—but not because I lacked the education, experience, or desire to become one.
I completed all of the educational requirements necessary to sit for the CPA exam and accumulated the professional experience required as well. Early in my career, I worked under licensed CPAs who were prepared to verify my experience when the time came for me to pursue licensure.
Like many professionals, I chose to continue gaining hands-on experience before taking the next step. During that time, I built my expertise working directly with businesses, bookkeeping systems, payroll, financial reporting, tax preparation, and consulting. I eventually launched my own firm and have now spent more than ten years serving clients throughout our community.
Unfortunately, by the time I was ready to move forward with the final licensure process, the CPA who had planned to verify my experience had retired. Because of the timing, I no longer had access to the supervision required to complete the final sign-off. Today, obtaining that verification would require stepping away from the business I have spent years building and working under another CPA for an extended period of time—a difficult and impractical path for a business owner with established clients and ongoing commitments.
While I am not a CPA, I believe honesty and transparency are important. I have the education, training, and experience that have allowed me to successfully serve clients for more than a decade. When a CPA’s services are legally required—such as audits, reviews, or certain attestation engagements—I work with qualified CPAs and other professionals to ensure clients receive the services they need.
Over the years, I have been honored by the trust our clients place in us and the support of our community. I am proud to have been recognized as one of the most reliable accounting professionals in Rapid City through local community voting and client recommendations. Those recognitions mean far more to me than any title because they reflect the confidence real clients have placed in my work.
Professional regulations govern how certain accounting-related titles and representations may be used by non-CPAs, and I fully respect those requirements. My focus has never been on the letters after my name, but rather on providing accurate, dependable, and ethical financial services to the individuals, families, businesses, nonprofits, trusts, and estates that rely on us.
At the end of the day, my clients are not hiring me because of a title. They hire me because they need someone who is knowledgeable, experienced, responsive, and genuinely invested in their success. For more than ten years, I have built my business one client relationship at a time, and I am grateful for the trust that continues to make that possible.
The letters after my name may not tell the whole story, but my education, experience, dedication, and commitment to my clients do and I am so thankful for each and every one of the clients that I have had the pleasure to help.