Forbes is a friendly team of experienced accountants, delivering a highly-personalised service to our many happy customers. Because we are a small company, when you partner with Cynthia Forbes, you deal directly with the accountant handling your audit and accounting requirements. This close working relationship gives you the security of knowing your accounts are being looked after by experts you can trust.
Cynthia Forbes
Principal
Bachelor of Management Studies, Chartered Accountant
"It's really important to clients that I'm very hands-on with their audit. We use the latest technology and we are a strong technical team."
I like to think I make the audit process easy for clients. They feel comfortable asking questions and will always get a simple and straightforward answer. I am flexible, and while we’ve always got deadlines to meet, I try to take the pressure off them as much as possible.
My team and I assist personal and general business clients from a range of entities including not-for-profits. While audit is my specialist activity, I also have a select group of clients to whom we provide a range of accounting and taxation advice.
I started my career in what was one of the “big eight” accounting practices, Ernst and Young. More recently, I have been involved in smaller accounting practices of between two and seven partners. It’s given me a good overall understanding of all accounting and audit issues which enables me to offer a very comprehensive service.
I have been involved with the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants before it became the Chartered Accountants of Australia and New Zealand. My roles included Chairperson of the Auckland Branch, a facilitator of the professional competency programme for graduates, and Chair of the Public Practice Special Interest Group.
Outside work I am a keen athlete, although I now spend more time encouraging my son. I also love to travel. My current focus is on Spanish-speaking countries, having lived in Spain briefly and enjoyed learning a new language.
Email: cynthia@forbesca.co.nz
Svetlana (Lana) Petrukhina
Senior Auditor
Master of Finance, PGDBA, Diploma in Financial Reporting ACCA
I’m experienced auditor in both internal and external fields.
I started my career with Tax Authorities in Russia and, more than 10 years ago I moved to the audit field. During the course of my life, I was involved in the auditing of a range of industries and company sizes. As well as providing external auditing and tax advice, I spent some time working as an internal auditor, so I can understand a company’s processes from the internal perspective.
I love auditing and accounting as well as I love to bring additional value to the clients. I also like when I can simplify the processes or make them more effective. I believe that auditing may be an easy thing to undertake and not stressful neither for a client or an auditor.
Outside work I am keen on travelling and dancing. Also, I’d love to spend my time with my lovely daughters and support them to reach success in different areas. I dream to visit South America and Antarctica as well as I’d like to learn Spanish and improve the yachting skills.
Alena Dubrova
Junior Auditor/Accountant
Master of Professional Accountancy and Finance, Diploma in Accounting, Analysis and Audit, pursuing CPA Australia and NZ
I am an experienced accountant with more than 6 years of experience in all facets of accounting, payroll administration, financial analysis within multinational oil and gas companies, such as Halliburton, Shtokman and Lukoil in Russia and UAE. I was involved in technical SAP (ERP) system testing and project implementations with successful results on payroll bonus schemes policies and global equity tax projects. Also, I was a team leader accountant in the Auckland Community Accounting (ANCAD) project on a volunteer basis for Tier Four organizations which gave me professional experience and a sense of community by bringing results and value to our clients.
I am passionate about audit and accounting by solving problems, analysing, participating in strategic decision making, collaboration with different clients, process improvements, providing assurance that keeps the job interesting and diverse.
Outside of work I love to spend quality time with my family. Besides, my focus is on developing the strongest sides of my daughter’s and son’s skills. I also enjoy travelling and hiking. My plan is to visit Japan and Italy (particularly the Tuscany region). As a long-term plan, I’d like to learn the Mandarin language.