Meet Trey Michael

The Alabama Society of CPAs has four membership categories: Public, Business and Industry, Government and Education. Business and Industry members make up 28% of ASCPA’s total membership. Trey Michael, CPA is one of those members.

Michael went to the University of Alabama, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting, then earned his master’s degree in tax. After a few years in public practice with EY’s tax department in Nashville, he got the opportunity to return home to Dothan and work for a small public accounting firm. After two years of broadening his expertise, a new opportunity presented itself with a local company called SpectraCare, and nine years after making the switch from public practice to industry, he has not looked back.

SpectraCare, a community mental health center, was created by Act 310 of the legislature and formed in 1968. Since it was legislatively created, the state of Alabama is split up into catchment areas for mental health needs and SpectraCare was designated to serve five southeastern counties in Alabama: Houston, Dale, Geneva, Barbour, and Henry counties.

“We’re basically the safety net of the state’s mental health needs,” said Michael. “We have 10 residential facilities, we have beds at Dale Medical, and we have semiindependent living.”

Michael has been working for SpectraCare for almost nine years, and has served as CFO since January 2020 – right before COVID.

“I remember back in March/April of 2020 there wasn’t a lot of information about anything,” said Michael. “Not just on the financial side, but I mean, people were scared, my staff were scared. And, of course, we’re a mental health company. I think now everybody’s recognizing that mental health really exploded during COVID.”

SpectraCare is a 24/7 facility and, much like many businesses, they had to figure things out on the fly.

“And we didn’t stop,” said Michael. “We didn’t get to stop doing what we do. So that was a big challenge.”

The Road to CFO

“I started out as the assistant CFO,” said Michael. “They had just gone through a big growth phase and needed additional staff. They created my position and when the CFO, who had been here for 28 years, retired I advanced up into that role.”

While there is a certain sense of flexibility working with the business and industry realm, Michael says the challenges that each industry faces are becoming more and more similar.

Another silver lining?

“There’s something new every single day,” he said. “The department’s always coming up with new stuff, whether it’s new regulations, social security, or CMS, all these things impact us.”

Especially in the face of pipeline issues, Michael says staying competitive is key.

“We’ve got to be competitive with everybody, not just nonprofits, not just with health.”

What makes an organization competitive?

“We’re not going to be able to compete on salaries all the time,”said Michael. “But there are other things - benefits, retirement, those kind of things - we can really have an impact on.”

Another example he used was paid time off.

“I think people are wanting that because they want that time to be with their family and you need time to recharge.”

“We have the same staffing shortages that I know CPA firms are having right now. That labor shortage just in accounting in general is, I think, is more and more prevalent.”

What keeps Michael coming back?

Flexibility

“I do enjoy industry accounting,” said Michael. “There’s certain things I miss, probably about the public accounting really, because there’s that support system. If you don’t know something, or you have a question, you can ask.”

But Michael’s not on an island by himself. His company, SpectraCare, is part of a coalition, or a group of mental health centers, called The Council for Mental Health for the state of Alabama. This group includes all the CEOs of each one of the mental health facilities.

“We are able to talk about all these different things,” said Michael. “If something new is coming up, then we connect with the Department of Mental Health if we need something explained.”

“My wife and I have four kids,” said Michael. “I coached T-ball last year. I never missed a game.”

>> To read the full interview, visit alabama.cpa/Meet-Trey-Michael.