Who am I and why did I become a bookkeeper?

My name is Todd Barrett. I am also a community organizer, resident of Oakland, and a father with a young son attending OUSD. My career path has taken a few turns over the years, and my most intentional decision in that was to leave to focus on something that I love, numbers and bookkeeping.

Back in 2008, when I provided a service as a Chief of Staff, I was invited by one of my clients to co-found a non-profit, now called InterCulture Foundation. In my COO duties, I took on the bookkeeping role, and having the hands on experience of doing the books was fun and satisfying.

I put the non-profit on the back burner in 2016 as I focused on building a career in design, and spent roughly a decade managing contract bookkeepers. I cycled through a lot of them in frustration, partly because I was an entrepreneur and was busy operating an organization and I learned that most bookkeepers did not have the experience to understand what my needs really were.

So in 2025 I left my career in design, traded out my trackpad for a number input pad, and got back to work building my bookkeeping business. In addition to returning to the books for the non-profit and other clients, I am also pursuing my bookkeeping certification, Xero certification and training as a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor.

You can learn more about InterCulture Foundation and the fiscal sponsorship we provide, here.

You can find my LinkedIn profile here.

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