POULSBO — Nancy Lien might be something of an amazement to anyone for whom creating a budget or even balancing a checkbook is a chore.

Poulsbo’s new finance director says she knows she’s in the right profession because she finds interest and intrigue in numbers that many others might see as stale and impersonal.

“Some have described the budget process as being very colorful. You’re looking at the future,” Lien said. “But it’s also very black and white and I like that. I like that there’s only one right or wrong answer. But the thing I like more than that is analyzing the numbers when you’re all done. It’s the investigation, the challenge of figuring out how we got there and if that’s what we expected.”

Now in her third month as finance director, Lien’s term of office has already been described as having the shortest honeymoon period ever. Kicking off with controversy over department head confirmations, Lien’s first 60 days revolved around a highly-challenged 2005 budget process, a complex financial software package and the upcoming loss of two other department heads. But still, she remains hopeful about the tasks she’s been given and grateful for the opportunity.

“It was an easy transition going in. I already knew all the department heads. They’re a great group to work with,” Lien said. “And the staff I inherited from (former Finance Director Donna Bjorkman) has made it really easy.”

Lien was born and raised in Poulsbo and is very proud of her Norwegian heritage. Her father was one of the men who built the current Sons of Norway hall and she remembers spending weekends at the work site as a child. She married junior high teacher Dan Pascoe 10 years ago. Pascoe once served as a Poulsbo City Council member and Lien said the two are very like-minded when it comes to their feelings about civic duties.

As for the changes she’s seen in her community over the years, Lien said she feels Poulsbo has done a good job keeping its traditional character while adapting to changing times.

“I just see them as positive,” she said. “We love this community. I just see it as a place where people have always wanted to come to live and each time the new group comes, they want to keep it the way they remember it.”

Poulsbo, Lien worked for its insurance agency, which meant she was well acquainted with the city and how it was run. During her 13 years with the insurance company, she was approached twice about considering a job with the city. The first was for an opening in the clerk’s office but Lien wasn’t ready to leave her current position. The second time was for the entry-level cashier position — that time, she made the switch.

Education is an ongoing process for the new finance director. After graduating from North Kitsap High School, she attended the University of Washington for a time but left after her scholarship money ran out. At both the insurance agency and the City of Poulsbo, she’s received countless training hours on the job, but has also recently gone back to UW to complete a degree in business administration.

“I realized you can do on-the-job training but you need some of the theory, too,” Lien said.

Through both commuting to Seattle and taking online courses in her spare time, Lien has been slowly chipping away at her degree. She estimates at the rate she’s going, she has about three years left to go. Though her schooling adds more time commitments to her already busy life, Lien said she enjoys it, especially the classes she’s had at the Seattle campus.

“I tend to be one of the older ones in the classes,” she explained. “It’s exciting to have the younger people there. It’s good to get their perceptions. Just the difference in values and how we see things.”

During her 15 years with Poulsbo, Lien has worked her way up the ranks, serving as cashier, accounts payable technician, budget analyst and accounting manager before being moved into the finance director position. Lien said the emphasis on customer service and staff education in Poulsbo’s finance department were aspects that kept her working for the city all these years. Even before Bjorkman announced her retirement in April, Lien said she knew she’d someday apply for the next step up.

“I think once I moved into the budget analyst job and got the opportunity to work with the mayor and with the council members at the committee level, you’re really working side by side with the finance director, I knew if the opportunity became available that I’d like to serve the city in that capacity,” Lien explained.

Software is one of the more exciting projects for Lien in her first months as finance director. As Accounting Manger, Lien had been advocating for new software for about five years. She had also been intimately involved in the project already and though a great deal of work awaits on the issue, Lien said she’s looking forward to finding new software that will allow the city to better serve the community.

“You know it’s still going to be a challenge but it’s a fun challenge,” Lien commented.

Lien said better communication with the public is an agenda she’s very interested in advancing while finance director. She said she’s especially hoping that technology, including the new financial software and Web capabilities through the city’s Wide Area Network, will be one vehicle to achieve this goal. Lien said she’s also interested in planning a “city university” workshop for citizens where city residents can learn about how their city government works and how they can be involved.

“If you give people the basics, you can be more effective as a government,” Lien said. “You can use that information from them to help more people.”

Lien has two stepchildren, ages 30 and 32, and three golden retrievers at home.