About Us

To meet the needs of our clients, O'Connor & Ward CPAs, LLC was established as a Colorado CPA firm to provide accounting, tax, and business advisory services to corporations, small businesses and individuals throughout the Denver area. Recognizing that each client has unique goals, we tailor our services to meet your specific needs. To better meet the needs of our clients, we have individualized services for clients in industries like private aviation, retail, legal, professional services and various consumer services. These individualized services have enabled us to address their industry specific challenges, compliance needs and standard tax practices.

Donna J. Ward, CPA - Call 303-333-5700, Ext. 1

Donna has more than 30 years of entrepreneurial experience in both private and public accounting. She started her public accounting and tax practice in 1977. She has been a Certified Public Accountant since 1990; she has been registered with the IRS since 1983 as a tax return preparer. And she has been a member of the National Association of Tax Practitioners since 1985. Donna is a "QuickBooks Certified Pro-Advisor”, mostly recently certified for Versions 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011. She works closely with her clients to design and implement a customized accounting system that reflects each client's specific financial goals, provides meaningful decision-making reports, and expedites the preparation of the client's business sales, payroll, and/or income tax returns. Donna provides QuickBooks software instruction and training services, data entry assistance, and most importantly, she teaches her clients how to interpret the many valuable performance reports that QuickBooks can produce. Donna focuses her professional education on the accounting rules and tax laws related to individuals and closely held business entities. Donna has testified as a litigation expert witness in cases in Colorado and Utah. She has been a public speaker at legal and taxation seminars in the Denver Metro area, and she has served as a voluntary board member for several local non-profit organizations. Her clients are located throughout the United States.

Donna's professional Business Mission since 1977 has always been to provide compassionate financial care-giving utilizing her expertise, experience, talents and skills. Her professional philosophies to accomplish her Business Mission are: 1) to provide personal attention to each client through the establishment of a long-term working relationship, and 2) to assist each client in making informed financial decisions through the creation of financial choices that can help avoid unwanted financial consequences.

Donna graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree from Colorado State University (Fort Collins, CO) in 1972. Because of her innate fascination with numbers and the financial stories they tell, Donna majored in Business Administration, with an emphasis on cost accounting and managerial accounting. From 1972 to 1977, she was Vice President and Treasurer of Globe Construction Company, a general contracting firm with national headquarters in Aurora, Colorado. Globe's annual gross revenues typically exceeded $10 Million, and by today's standards, such volume equates to more than $100 million annual gross revenues. Globe directly employed more than 200 administrative and construction personnel and the company built projects in more than 10 states. That incredible experience provided Donna with a strong background in project cost accounting, inventory controls, federal certified payrolls, multiple project scheduling and crew management, as well as invaluable experience working with federal, state and local government agencies, such as the Department of the Interior, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Oklahoma City Housing Authority, to name a few.

Finally, on a personal note, Donna believes that balancing family, work and play is an absolute "must” to remain a healthy human being. She is an avid golfer and a recent two-time club champion at her home course of Fossil Trace Golf Course in Golden, Colorado. She rides her mountain bikes in the foothills of Jefferson County, plays bridge with a passion, and adamantly roots for her beloved Colorado State Rams teams.

Patricia O'Connor, MBA, CPA - Call 303-333-5700, Ext. 2

Tricia graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1980. Since then she has amassed 30 years of experience in public accounting, auditing and tax preparation. Certified in 1982, she started her career with Ernst and Young and KPMG Peat Marwick, two of the then Big 8 accounting firms. After being hired by a client (AMR Corp/American Airlines), she spent 10 years in a fast track management development program that had her changing positions every 6 to 18 months. Her experience and expertise were built in a variety of management level positions with Internal and External Auditing departments, Business and Marketing Planning, Competitive Analysis and Business Acquisitions and Development. Her last position was as Chief Financial Officer of a subsidiary with 10 locations around the country. The Denver location had $70 million in annual sales and hundreds of employees. She also holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration.

The variety of positions held and experience gained through her 10 years with AMR Corp make Tricia much more well versed that the run-of-the-mill CPA with no other experience than Public Accounting. She has gained the kind of experience that can only come from having held many different positions, having reported to the highest level of Management and having dealt with the many issues which today's small business owners are confronting.

Tricia specializes in General Business Consultation for businesses needing to focus on profitability, the management of staff, and the development of effective and efficient policies and procedures. Her approach is to first assist each client in identifying a clear vision of their goals and then designing an approach that stays true to their goals while prioritizing the issues that need to be addressed in order to affect dynamic and progressive change.

Tricia was the recipient of two awards in 2009 and 2010. She was named one of the 50 "Top Wealth Managers” for tax preparation by ColoradoBiz as reported in the November 2010 copy of 5280 Magazine. She and the firm were also received the 2009 and 2010 "Denver Award” for Tax and Accounting Services. These awards are a testament to the care and attention she believes every client should receive and how important the total financial health of her clients is considered to be.

Tricia has been a QuickBooks Certified Pro-Advisor for more than 15 years. Her expertise includes the design of accounting systems specific to a client's unique requirements, the training of clients to use their system effectively and the design of reports they can be taught to use to manage their business goals and focus on the financial barometers that will drive their ability to achieve more success. Tricia was a columnist for The Denver Business Journal for 9 years during which time she wrote articles on every aspect of owning and managing a business. Topics included Bookkeeping, Time Management, Retirement Planning, Budgeting and Business Planning and Inspiring and Retaining Key Employees.

Beginning her own practice in 1993, Tricia now has 18 years of experience preparing Tax Returns for Individuals, C and S Corporations, Partnerships, LLC, etc. O'Connor & Ward was created in 2004 as the obvious collaboration between Tricia and Donna who met in 1993, knew their individual practices were similar and knew that they would work well together and enjoy growing their combined practice.

Tricia's, as well as the firm's, mission is to build long-term relationship with our Individual and Business clients through personal attention. The combination of her years of experience and varied expertise applied to each client's specific situation make for a powerful team-approach toward every client's future goals. She likes to be engaged with her clients throughout the year and encourages discussions about the financial and tax decisions that arise outside of the annual preparation of tax returns.