Accounting it be like that |
- it be like that
- NASBA’s score release timeline email had me like
- fieldwork -> wrap-up -> review points
- True Enlightenment
- Public accounting - my experience working at small, medium, and large firms
- I did it! I signed up for college! First step to my CPA!!!!
- I did it! I signed up for preschool! First step to my CPA!!!!
- The time has come....
- Big 4 and my Dying Cat
- One last pic before I toss them in the blue bin.
- I finished a pen today. Whats your greatest accomplishment?
- cAn yOu dO mY tAxEs???
- [CAN] Solo practice report - @2 yr
- Thanks Accounting! A quick reflection
- [CAN] My experience with recruiting with Accounting firms
- Managers love him!
- FAR tomorrow
- Final Mock: 64. Take REG tomorrow. FML.
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- Currently a chemist, want to be a CPA. Where do I start?
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- JOURNAL ENTRIES| HOW TO PASS A JOURNAL ENTRY? BASIC RULES
| Posted: 06 Dec 2018 09:38 AM PST
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| NASBA’s score release timeline email had me like Posted: 06 Dec 2018 04:29 PM PST
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| fieldwork -> wrap-up -> review points Posted: 06 Dec 2018 06:34 AM PST
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| Posted: 06 Dec 2018 10:47 AM PST
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| Public accounting - my experience working at small, medium, and large firms Posted: 06 Dec 2018 09:55 AM PST Hey guys, I'm wrapping up my last week in public accounting before I take 6 months off to travel and figure out what I want to do next. I've been a public accountant in tax for 6 years but spent 2 years each at a small, mid-size, and Big 4 firms. Just wanted to give my thoughts on pros and cons of working at these firms. Please note that my experiences are solely my own although I bet people that have made the switch can relate in some ways. I'm also a bad writer so please excuse the spelling mistakes. I also won't really be checking this account anymore in a few days since I just used it at work (sup IT team).
Small Firm I was a staff at a small firms (<30 people) for 2 years.
Pros: -Most autonomy – very little standardized practices. Engagement letters would go out without a lot of fuss or internal review. -Clients – clients weren't accounting savvy but we worked directly with people that seemed to sincerely appreciate your work. -Hours – easiest busy seasons by far – capping out at 60 hours a week at its worst.
Cons: -Work quality – there was very little consistency in our workpapers. Looking back, there were probably things that were being done wrong across the firm. -Technical skills – big gap here. The most complex return I did involved 3 state filings. No international or complex work here. Most partnership returns were pro-rata. No c-corp work due to size of client's businesses. -Work-life balance – this might surprise you but this firm had the worst work-life balance. They didn't allow working remotely and had mandatory weekend hours during busy season (like 8:30-1:30 on Saturdays). Only 2 weeks of vacation time. Slow times during the summer I had to scan and digitize their old paper records. -Salary – it sucked - I was making $15k less than people starting at larger firms. Bonuses were like $1,000 a year. -Fulfillment/growth and overall happiness - I was the youngest at this firm by 7-8 years so I never really connected with my co-workers. We literally didn't have happy hours. I felt like I had maxed out what I could learn from the partners here in a short amount of time. Very little room for promotion so I would always be at the bottom of the totem pole unless someone quit.
Mid-Size ("Large regional") I was a staff then senior in a specialized tax group at a "large regional" (>200 people).
Pros: -Salary – salary was very competitive (even amongst Big 4). I got the highest bonuses of my career here ($5-8k annually). -Work-life balance – So-so but I'll list as a pro. 3 weeks vacation. I had the worst busy seasons of my career here, I think that's mostly due to having to re-learn things at a new firm and being a first-year senior here. Summers were fairly slow and we could take Fridays off we we work 4 10 hour days. -Work quality – Probably better than Big 4 to be honest. Most of the partners/managers had big firm experience which helped here. -Technical skills – I learned the most in my career at this firm – lots of talented people. However, there were some areas in my specialized group that were only handled by Big 4 so felt somewhat limited in that way.
Cons: -Fulfillment/growth and overall happiness – This is more neutral but I think my main negative is that I never felt like people wanted to be here. This firm wasn't most people's first choice since no one other than public accountants in my city knew the name. I felt like staff weren't super motivated which meant it was easy to shine here. With the said, I was actually the happiest in my career at this firm due to the connection with my co-workers and I genuinely enjoyed my clients and the work I was doing. I did noticed that at least 80% of people manager or above had either large national or Big 4 experience and there were things they could bring to the table that I couldn't which is the main reason I left. I also felt like the exit opportunities were severely limited here due to name recognition.
Big 4 I was a senior then manager.
Pros: -Name recognition – everyone knows them. -Talent – These firms tend to attract type A people with lots of drive and motivation. There's something really exciting about working on an engagement where people are firing on all cylinders. -National tax – Really nice to have these guys as a resource when complex issues come up. Was always impressed with this group.
Cons: -Salary – On par with mid-size but worse bonuses. More work with same pay. -Work-life balance – Lots of vacation time that was impossible to use. We worked with India a lot which meant either very late or very early calls. Stressful to wake up with 20+ unread emails from clients/India every day. Felt like I always needed to have my phone and checking emails – even on holidays and weekends. -Clients – For some reason most of my clients were assholes and never really seemed to appreciate how much work we were doing. -Autonomy – literally could take a month to get an engagement letter together for a client to sign. Lots of extra steps to do something simple (ex. it took a week for me to set up a new client on GoSystem due to slow and unresponsive admins right before a deadline). -Fulfillment/growth and overall happiness – By the time I started at Big 4 I was already starting to feel burnout. I did feel like I grew a lot as a manager here as the engagements I was on had huge groups (20+ sometimes which is rarer in tax). The "pride" of working at Big 4 went away pretty fast though. I would say I was the least happy working here - the mix of hours and never being able to unplug just wore me down over time. Ultimately, I'm glad I'm ending my public career here since I know the name brand goes far. [link] [comments]  | ||
| I did it! I signed up for college! First step to my CPA!!!! Posted: 06 Dec 2018 02:02 PM PST | ||
| I did it! I signed up for preschool! First step to my CPA!!!! Posted: 06 Dec 2018 09:23 PM PST | ||
| Posted: 06 Dec 2018 12:19 PM PST
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| Posted: 06 Dec 2018 08:10 AM PST So I posted earlier about my cat. She had seizures last friday so I missed work to bring her to ER vet. They found out she is in congestive heart failure due to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. I stay home from work on Monday because I was devasted and wouldn't be able to concentrate at work and would probably spend most of my time crying in the bathroom. I go to work Tuesday and the partner chews me out saying that he is not going to have some cat stop him from making his millions. I wanted to tell him where he can shove his millions but I didn't because I just spent $2000 in vet bills. Weds. my cat has breathing problems and take her to ER again. She had to get a surgical procedure done to remove excess fluid from her abdomen. Vet tells me she can breathe much better but I need to monitor her for 24 hours to make sure she remains stable. So here I am afraid to tell the partner that I need to work from home b/c of surgical after care. Now you say, why don't you put her down? My cat is stll being her cat self with a voracious appetite. She is still doing her cat thing other than the excess fluid. The vet says she is nowhere near the end...yet. I can't give up on my cat. She was there for me when my mother was dying from cancer. I can't abandon her. She is my fur baby. It's not likework is not getting done. It is. Partner is just antsy. He expects me to just go to work and leave my cat to die or put her down cuz its inconvenient for him? What would you do? [link] [comments]  | ||
| One last pic before I toss them in the blue bin. Posted: 06 Dec 2018 09:07 PM PST
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| I finished a pen today. Whats your greatest accomplishment? Posted: 06 Dec 2018 02:39 PM PST This pen put in 3 years of client service auditing the shit out of financial statements, delicately editing footnotes, drafting review comments (Soooo many review comments), documenting client conversations and painstakingly taking notes during CPE. Pour one out for your favorite pen, Bois!. Here's to hoping it's colleague can follow in it's ink trails. [link] [comments]  | ||
| Posted: 06 Dec 2018 11:54 AM PST
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| [CAN] Solo practice report - @2 yr Posted: 06 Dec 2018 08:43 AM PST Hi /r/Accounting / My fellow black tar heroin users. It's been a while since I've posted an update, so I will apologize to the forum for my tardiness. This last year has been an interesting one to say the least, but I can report I'm still alive, haven't been sued (yet), haven't jumped off a bridge, and the practice is still making a bit of money. Having said that, it seems the theme of this year was mostly a mix of "Streamlining Processes" and "The Universe Is Exploiting My Lack Of Experience" (aka me screwing things up I didn't know could be screwed up.) So here's a bunch of random pointers from the last 12 months that I think are worth listing. -- Streamline everything. The more you can repeat the same thing over and over, the faster it becomes. You'll find that as you handle more files, you can cut out a bunch of needless steps and paperwork involved in the flow of work. This last year for me was finding ways of being more efficient on a file. -- A mentor told me that our work is "A series of barely repeatable steps." Use this to your advantage. 80% of what we do is always the same, and the other 20% is the panic stuff. Complete the "80%" stuff the same way EVERY SINGLE TIME. That way when you review it, you can trust that the work presented was done correctly. On the opposite side: Review the heck out of the 20%. I'm talking print out the working papers, get highlighters out, and start adding up everything manually. The 20% needs to be perfect every time. -- Admin is hell. You need to get admin under control as quickly as possible. Organising, filing deadlines, file flow, checklists, billings. These need to be dealt with. The longer a file sits incomplete (in terms of admin) the more you risk something going sideways. A good example: You don't follow your file closing checklist cause you're in a hurry, and you risk forgetting an efile deadline. Another one: You don't scan in a PBC document, and now you need to access it at a client lunch meeting... Stay on top of admin, and be a nazi about it. No exceptions. -- Everything is your fault. As a solo/small shop, everything is your problem. The files, the clients, the coffee machine, the plants in the board room. If something goes sideways, there is nobody to point the finger at other than you. Accept this, fix and adjust things accordingly, and move forward. -- Staff are helpful. When you are a solo/small shop, any time you spend yourself on something is time you're not spending somewhere else. In other words, when you are working on File A, Files B, C, and D are just sitting. Bringing on staff will let you do A, while B, C, and D also get worked on. This will free you up to get face-to-face time with your clients, which is extremely important. -- Staff are f*cking awful. Excuse the language, but this last year was an exercise in patience with staff. They will find absolutely every single way to screw things up and make you look dumb in front of clients. Your job is to mitigate the damage they can do, and find a way to productively direct the chaos. (Remember the 80% rule above? This is where having checklists and standard procedures helps immensely. If you have really good procedures, you can efficiently direct staff in the right direction. They have a roadmap for how to do things.) -- Fire fast/Have standards. Looking back on this year I made a huge mistake with my staff. I had a big heart, enjoyed their personalities, and when combined with the point above about how "Everything is my fault" I looked at my staffs' mistakes as a failure of my leadership. "If I had only explained this a certain way." Or "if only I had a checklist for that." I had an excuse for every screw-up they made, and put the mistakes on me as sucking as a leader. What I realised way too late in the year was that at some point, it stops being your fault. If you are giving your staff every opportunity to to succeed, giving them every resource needed, supporting them with good and constructive feedback, and they are still making the same mistakes, you need to fire quickly and find someone who can do the job properly. You need to be ruthless here, because I learned the hard way that it will NOT get better. There isn't enough cash flow in a small practice to carry unproductive staff. On top of that, the enormous amount of time you spend correcting/coaching/reviewing bad work takes you away from more productive things you could be doing. In the end, this cost the firm about $45,000 in wasted WIP and opportunity costs. -- A "Why Aren't We Doing This" control. I don't really know what else to call this, but basically you need to have a check on why you are NOT doing something. For example, say you filed a T5 slip for a client last year, but this year you aren't. You need to make a note on the file for why you are NOT filing a slip this year. A simple "Client is filing own slips for 2018" is all that's needed. For example, in my practice, I have a spreadsheet with all of the client names/values for filing t-slips. I specifically have a column for "Filed?" which is just a yes/no. However, if it's a "no", you need to have a big explanation there as to why you aren't filing a slip that year. This does two things: (1) Makes sure you are actively thinking about files and not missing anything (2) Makes a really easy self-check. Anything with a blank space there means "not done". Anything with a note means done. There will be all sorts of "Why aren't we doing this" items that will be unique to your practice, so make sure you have something in place as a "tickler" to make sure you don't forget to file something. (Another one to watch that can really wreck your day: T1135's.) -- The Cloud. All of your work needs to be cloud-accessible. (This is just a fancy way of saying you need to be able to access files/documents for the times you aren't at your desk.) Don't get sucked into the Thomson Reuters/CCH offerings that are extremely pricey. Box.com or Dropbox work just as well, if not better, and are way cheaper. Make sure you have a consistent file structure for every single file, archive things in a coherent fashion, and that's all you need. I can't count how many times I've had to access client stuff from my phone. It sure saves having to drive back to the office at 10pm at night because a client requested something that is only available on your work machine. - Our Institute. They suck in terms of support for small practices. You need to look elsewhere. (I would highly recommend any of the provincial law societies. They do a great job of supporting their smaller members. https://www.lawsociety.ab.ca/resource-centre/key-resources/practice-management/ ) Unfortunately to date my experience with our Institute has been one of shitty commercials, shitty magazine, bloody expensive dues, flippant emails about not paying insurance when I did (because of their own staff incompetence) and an expensive practice review. All of my research and small practice support questions have come from either US resources, or places like the Law Society or medical colleges. NUMBERS Anyway here are the basic numbers for the year. Revenue: - Fees $212,000 - T1 Fees $52,000 - WIP $ 9,000 Expenses: - Staff $127,000 - Computer and IT $11,100 - Promotion $2,200 - Office rent $33,000 - Insurance $2,500 - PD & courses $3,600 - Office $3,500 So give or take the practice netted about $90k. A FEW OTHER POINTS - If I'm being honest, one of my faults is I am lazy. If I were more focused, I could maybe cut back on staff, and pocket more money myself. But I'm trying to balance work and life, and also don't want to fall into the solo trap of "I have to work all of the time, because if I don't work, then work isn't getting done." If you have staff, you can avoid that trap (But you wind up trading one headache for a different headache. So try to find balance.) - This year was hard. I'm borderline burnt-out. Juggling the practice, plus my personal life (marriage, new house, mortgage issues, money, new baby on the way, elderly parents, crazy siblings) has been really freaking hard. So if this update comes across as negative, I don't mean it to. There's a lot of positives to this lifestyle (I'm posting on reddit right now in the middle of a Thursday workday) but it's not a cake-walk or anything glamourous. Lots of days it is a grind, and when shit goes wrong, you can't take a sick day. Filing deadlines don't just disappear because you're having a tough life. GOALS FOR YEAR 3 This year seemed to be one of eating shit, streamlining shit, and hopefully seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. My goals for the next year: -- Assemble a small, good team, to take some of the day-to-day pressure off of me; -- Get file turn-around time down. This is killing my practice. It is taking too long to take a file from start to finish. Clients are grumpy. This is due to (I believe) workflow being affected by "putting out fires". I jump from one fire to the next, which means I have 10 files on the go, with not much being done on any one file. I need to focus on doing one file from start-to-finish, and eliminate bouncing from fire to fire. -- Similar to above, I've been reading a lot on "Lean" production, so my motto for 2019 is going to be "Be ruthless with WIP". In other words, no juggling files. Get a file through the pipe as quickly as possible. (Good resource: "Lean Law Firm" from the American Bar Association.) -- Write more. I've been falling behind with writing helpful FAQ's / newsletters for my clients. This is cheap and easy PR. I need to consistently produce content. Anyway that wraps things up. All the best to everyone in 2019. [link] [comments]  | ||
| Thanks Accounting! A quick reflection Posted: 06 Dec 2018 02:12 PM PST I'm about to head off skiing and wanted to do a quick reflection and appreciation post to the accounting career and what it's done for me. Just after my 16th birthday I got kicked out of school in the middle of nowhere backwater I grew up with nothing to show for my first 16 years apart from a few grams of weed and some bad life decisions. Just after my 22nd birthday I got offered a £60k+ FP&A job at a Fortune 10 company in London. Now admittedly there was a fair amount that happened in between but little did I know that applying for that accounts assistant apprenticeship would be the best choice I ever made, but it was. Now I get to go on cool holidays! (sorry I know a lot of you are busy at the moment) Thanks accounting! PS. for anyone out there wondering if this is the right thing for them, give it a shot. And if you're struggling, keep going. It's worth it. [link] [comments]  | ||
| [CAN] My experience with recruiting with Accounting firms Posted: 06 Dec 2018 03:41 PM PST Hello everyone, I've been a lurker for awhile and gained a lot of valuable tips from people going through recruiting. As the recruiting season has ended, I wanted to provide little tips for people who come behind me. Self Intro: I attend target-school in Ontario and had 16 month coop term plus decent extra curricular activities under my belt. I knew that after my 16 month coop, I wouldn't/shouldn't have issues with being hired. (Me just being cocky a bit) Step 1: My school has CPA networking session where B4 + National firms (BDO/MNP) shows up in early Sept. I went to it and talked to 4- 5 people and left with good impression with one of the national firms. In Aug, I did get invited to the office tour of that firm even though it was meant for a specific school. I just applied anyways thinking what's the worst that could happen and I actually got in. There were 15 students and I was the odd one out. Step 2: When it actually came time to apply, I applied to all B4 + National firms. BUT EY: I submitted my application late, PWC: I didn't pass their online test, KPMG: nothing, Deloitte: nothing. So at this point I was lowkey freaking out since I thought I would get an interview at least. So I started to apply to other firms and streams in case I didn't get an offer from anyone. Interestingly enough, in mid-Sept, I got interviews from one of the National firms, consulting from one of the B4. and forensic accounting at a national firm. Step 3: I did interview with the public audit @ national firm and consulting @ B4. I did not get an offer from the consulting interview but I did it just to get an experience on case interview since I've never done it. I did get a call back from the consultant who did my interview and he gave me feedback and areas of improvement which I really appreciated. As for the public audit interview, I did get an offer with them and decided to sign since I liked the people there and really felt like they wanted me. So the take aways here: - don't get fluster if you don't get B4, the pay is low and the hours are long everywhere. (funny fact: I actually get paid more than B4 friends and I get overtime). Just because you get smaller firm offers doesn't mean that you are lessor than people who make it. Try to think of the breadth of work you get and the personal connection you can make at a smaller firm vs. B4 where they make you specialize. - go to office tours and such to meet people there. If you make some connections there, its easier during recruiting and also interview. - go to recruiting sessions and talk about culture, experience, extra-curricular activities, etc. I don't ask any questions about the application, CPA, or work during these events since I heard most people don't like to talk about their jobs outside of work. (im sure some people enjoy this tho) I just try to be casual and try to find something in common. (also no to weather talks) - if you have time, I highly recommend applying for 8+ month coop since that's really the best way to learn. My coop only does 8+ since training alone takes like 2 to 3 months. - just be ballsy and apply to anything you want, who knows what will happen. If you have any questions please feel free to message me! [link] [comments]  | ||
| Posted: 06 Dec 2018 10:42 AM PST
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| Posted: 06 Dec 2018 03:18 PM PST I am really hoping I don't have to study after this. Y'all my anxiety is so high please calm me down and tell me it's really not as bad as I'm picturing. Been using Becker and still trying to keep all this shit and info in my head has been a nightmare. [link] [comments]  | ||
| Final Mock: 64. Take REG tomorrow. FML. Posted: 06 Dec 2018 05:12 PM PST Took off 3 days of work, made a huge stink about needing to pass REG, studied for the past month and a half in all of my free time while working full-time. Took all of my mock exams within this past week, I've gotten 1. 67%, 2. 60% (was very tired), 3. 64% (just finished) The SIMS kill me, on average 50-55% each time. Every. Single. Time. 75% on average for MCQ's but for the love of god please let me pass. FML. [link] [comments]  | ||
| Posted: 06 Dec 2018 05:48 PM PST I am feeling a little nervous about starting my tax internship in January. This is my first accounting related internship and I fear that I may not know enough about tax to perform well. Can you guys share your experiences/advice on how to prepare and succeed in an accounting internship? [link] [comments]  | ||
| Posted: 06 Dec 2018 07:23 PM PST
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| Currently a chemist, want to be a CPA. Where do I start? Posted: 06 Dec 2018 06:29 PM PST Sup accountants? I am looking to get a few questions answered and would also appreciate general advice. I am 25, graduated with a B.S. Chemistry in 2016. If you have experience making a career change to accounting I would love your input. Based on the info I've gathered, GMAcc programs are generally designed for students that have completed an undergrad in something other than accounting. Would you recommend going through a GMAcc program, and would this be a good first step towards becoming a CPA? What are my other options? [link] [comments]  | ||
| Posted: 06 Dec 2018 01:14 PM PST | ||
| JOURNAL ENTRIES| HOW TO PASS A JOURNAL ENTRY? BASIC RULES Posted: 06 Dec 2018 09:54 PM PST
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