Bucknam & Conley is a leading-edge, cloud-based firm focusing on tax and business advisory services for domestic companies and their owners. We are headquartered in Saratoga Springs, NY and have the technology and resources to service our clients no matter where they are located.
Melinda Bucknam, CPA, Co-Managing Partner
Melinda brings over 30 years of experience as a CPA advising small-to-medium businesses and their owners on tax planning, tax strategy, accounting, and business operations. Her extensive work with restaurants, real estate firms, construction companies, veterinary practices and other specialty retail has given her a well-rounded business perspective. Melinda’s clients benefit from her broad view on the impact of accounting, tax and general business financing issues on overall business operations and strategy.
Carissa Conley, CPA, Co-Managing Partner
Carissa serves as the head of the tax department, utilizing her strong technical knowledge of the tax code and IRS rulings, to assure our clients of the very best tax guidance. Her focus is on providing clients with relevant tax services by taking time to understand their business, staying current with seemingly constant changes in multi-state and federal law, and using this combined knowledge to provide proactive planning and advisory services that reduce taxes, maximizes profit, and enables growth.
Matt Parker, Senior Tax Manager
Matt joined our firm in 2023 and brings with him over 25 years of accounting experience. He has extensive experience in the construction and healthcare industries, and multi-state taxation. His experience allows him to help clients in complex personal and business tax situations. Over his career, Matt has also helped clients with bookkeeping preparation and trained clients in various types of software. Matt is involved in managing tax engagements, reviewing returns, and providing tax and business advisory services to clients.
Daulton McHale, CPA, Supervisor
Daulton joined our firm in 2020. He has been a public accounting professional since 2018. He has experience with all types of tax returns and prepares the returns of clients in a wide variety of industries with complex tax situations. He oversees the return preparation of many of our small business clients and works with them to effectively reduce tax.
Wendy Gifford-Garnsey, Supervisor
Wendy joined our firm in June 2023 and brings over 15 years of experience as an accountant. She has experience with all types of tax returns and is excellent with accounting concepts and using accounting software. She is responsible for preparing business and individual tax returns along with assisting clients with their accounting/bookkeeping needs and training clients in accounting software such as QuickBooks.
Megan Hatton, Senior Accountant
Megan joined the firm in 2023. She began her public accounting career in 2019 and has experience with both business and individual tax returns in a variety of industries, as well as providing accounting services to business clients. She provides both tax preparation and accounting services to our clients.
Tori Trerise, Staff Accountant
Tori joined the firm in 2021 and provides tax and advisory services to our business and individual tax clients. In addition to providing tax services, Tori manages many of our clients’ accounting engagements which involve weekly and monthly accounting services, payroll, and sales tax advisory, and accounting record maintenance. She is an intricate part of the expansion of our accounting offerings to clients, including preparing investor reports and handling more of the internal accounting functions for our clients.
Riley Markle, Operations Manager
Riley joined us in October 2022. Prior to joining the firm, Riley worked in operations for three years and HR for one year. She has experience developing and streamlining processes and procedures for firms to increase efficiency and overall performance. She is responsible for management of the firm’s administrative functions, onboarding clients, project management and client billing. She works to build and maintain strong client relationships and continuously improve our client experience.
Sophia Tagliafierro, Administrative Assistant
Sophia joined our firm in January 2023 and while she is currently handling the administrative functions of the firm, she is also one of our accountants. Sophia handles the monthly accounting for our clients, provides sales tax and payroll tax assistance, and assists with other business filings. She also collects all client tax documents, prepares individual tax returns, and advises clients on other tax issues such as PTET (Pass Through Entity Tax) and estimated payments.
What Our Clients Are Saying
“When I met Melinda it was at a critical point in my business career. I had several businesses all in need of accounting and organization in order to go to the next level. Melinda dove right in and learned about all my companies and how I could maximize them. She has always been there for me over the past 10 years and I truly view her a partner in all my companies.”
Owner of The Bunker (virtual golf), CM Fox Real Estate, and Troy Miller Construction