Michelle Ahrens has spent 27+ years in accounting and finance, the last 20+ years concentrated in construction, with additional experience in real estate development, manufacturing, and small business. She founded Hugh Ledger Accounting in March 2026, based in Valley Center, California, after working with 150+ businesses across her career.
Certified Management Accountant
in Accounting
In accounting & finance
concentrated in construction accounting
Businesses served
You bought the business, and now you’re looking at the books and wondering how much of what’s in there is actually true. Post-acquisition bookkeeping cleanup is the process of finding out, and it’s almost never as simple as reconciling a bank account and moving on. When you buy a business,
A manufacturing business profitability analysis almost always starts the same way. An owner tells me that revenue looks fine, the crew is busy, and the plant is running, yet the profit at the bottom of the P&L doesn’t reflect any of it. Something is off, and they can’t find it.
If you’ve ever sent an investor update and then spent the next week fielding follow-up questions, the problem usually isn’t the deal. It’s the reporting. Investor reporting in real estate development is often built reactively, in a spreadsheet, on the Friday before it goes out, and that’s where the credibility
