About Us
We combine the experience of a large firm with the personal attention that only a small firm can provide. Our clients come back to us year after year because they know they are in good hands. We work to develop long-term relationships; whether your needs are simple or complex, we can help.
Our People
Karen McDougal, CPA
Karen has been with us since 1990. After graduating from UC Davis with a Bachelor of Animal Science, she returned to California State University in Sacramento to complete the necessary coursework to sit for the CPA exam. Although her first love was horses, she was raised in a family business, Sacramento Barber and Beauty Supply, from an early age. Well versed in general business, by the age of sixteen Karen was stepping in for the company bookkeeper on a regular basis. Karen continues to enjoy working with the McDougal & Co. family of clients, following in Bart's footsteps of pursuing interesting, creative, and entertaining solutions to business problems. In her spare time, she enjoys horseback riding, swimming, saving the World of Warcraft, and trying to keep up with runnings around of her loved ones.
Sheral Danque, EA
Sheral joined the firm in 2011. She graduated from the University of California, Davis, earning a Bachelor's of Science in Psychology with an emphasis in Biology. After a year as healthcare administrator, she decided to further her education and discovered the exciting field of accounting and taxes. While earning an accounting certificate from Sacramento City College, she participated in American River College's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program. Sheral is an Enrolled Agent. Her outside professional interests include traveling, reading, pilates, and baking.
Tonia Martin
Tonia joined us midyear in 2021 as a well-experienced administrator coming from much larger accounting firms over the last 20+ years. She has a substantial amount of expertise in accounting firm operations and is adept at keeping our staff in line and on task. She has implemented greener workflow methods and increased our efficiency. Tonia is actively studying for her Enrolled Agent Certificate and the rest of the staff is looking forward to sharing the wealth of tax compliance work with her later this year. In her leisure time, Tonia enjoys teaching Sunday School and spending time with her daughter, extended family, and friends.
Natalie Monterrey
Natalie joined McDougal & Co. in early 2022 after graduating from California State University, Fullerton, and getting her Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting. She is curious to learn more about tax guidelines and the systems they create, and applying these to the unique cases our clients bring us. This is especially true following the start of her journey studying for the Enrolled Agent exam to become licensed with the IRS and discovering that the tax world was vaster than she could have imagined. While challenging, learning new things and seeing how they apply to a given scenario is very satisfying for her. The same is often the case for things she does outside of work, primarily when it comes to video games and board games such as Final Fantasy and Dungeons & Dragons. She also enjoys reading and writing stories associated with these properties as well as others, although the main genre focus is fantasy.
Phred
Phred moved from his home in China to California in 2005 to become a part of the McDougal & Co., family. Phred is an example of one of approximately 8,000 "after life guardians" buried in the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China.
Barton McDougal, Founder
Founder of the firm, and now moonlighting as an overseer from above. Prior to establishing McDougal & Co. in 1987, Bart worked with Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. for fifteen years, leaving as a partner, and spent an additional seven years with Price Waterhouse. Bart excelled and thoroughly enjoyed contemplating, planning, and resolving "interesting" tax issues. The transition of ownership to Karen in 2010 has allowed the family tradition to continue.
Our History
Established in 1987, our firm specializes in client-specific transaction planning and compliance work for all types of entities. We provide personal attention to all clientele in order to help them best manage their individual situations. Our clients include Corporations, S-Corporations, LLCs, Partnerships, Tax-exempt organizations, Trusts, and, of course, the individuals that keep all the others running.
Karen McDougal purchased the practice in the Spring of 2010. Karen began her career with the firm in 1990 and has managed the compliance work since 2006. Bart's legacy continues to influence our unique slant on transactional planning and business development.
Our Philosophy
At McDougal & Co., we think in terms of opportunities. Acting as "gatekeepers" for client services, we often team with professionals skilled in other areas of interest, including marketing, computer technology, legal, capital formation, and strategic planning. Thus, we are not only actively helping our clients, but are also involved in a greater variety of issues than would be the case if we were simply providing accounting services. We take pride in our commitment to provide that extra dimension of thinking, effort, and serivce, which is essential to our objective: to help our clients succeed. To do so we provide personalized, innovative, high-value services at a competitive cost.
We are constantly working to expand our practice. As our clients come from referrals, we strive to consistently provide the types of services that leave people wanting to brag about us!
Our Areas of Specialization
We provide services to clients in a wide range of industries, entity types, and income levels. Our specialty is building personal relationships with our clients on an ongoing basis. We find creative solutions to interesting tax issues. We are available year round for sound advice and reality checks for all of our clients. We are not an April one-stop shop.


