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Governmental accounting sucks and I hate it.
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Feb 2, 2014 19:37
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Might be the wrong place to ask, but... I'm a BA econ grad working as a market research analyst for a medical company at the moment. I want to break into financial analysis but I'm unsure of any good books to get me on the path to a job in this field. Any good books to help me swim when put on the spot about why my fairy tale of a past somehow helps me with a profession I've never dabbled in?
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Feb 4, 2014 09:54
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Took FAR today. Wasn't too stressed since it's basically my third time taking it this week with the Becker practice tests. Banking on those and the hundreds of practice questions I did to get the passing grade. Oh my god my buddy lives across the street from a specs and all the bars in Houston this is glorious. Democratic Pirate fucked around with this message at 23:17 on Feb 7, 2014 |
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Feb 7, 2014 22:10
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Is FAR your last part?
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Feb 7, 2014 23:27
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Democratic Pirate posted:Took FAR today. Wasn't too stressed since it's basically my third time taking it this week with the Becker practice tests. Banking on those and the hundreds of practice questions I did to get the passing grade. Living in Houston means you live across the street from a specs.
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Feb 7, 2014 23:34
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ThirdPartyView posted:Is FAR your last part? Nope, first. But it's my birthday this weekend so I'm taking the next two nights to get drunk before ramping up for taking BEC on the 27th.
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Feb 7, 2014 23:55
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Any UK accountants able to help me/point me in the right direction? I'm a recent UK uni grad who was unable to decide what he wanted to do as a career 3 years ago so he decided to play it 'safe' and do a degree in mathematics and astrophysics rather than specialize in engineering or economics or accounting or what have you.(though the astrophysics part was mainly as I'm just interested in the subject and not as a career). After doing some thinking, I've decided that i would like to pursue a career in accounting as I generally enjoy doing mathematics. However, I ended up with a 2:2 instead of the 2:1 I was hoping for and finding a grad job has been a nightmare, all the nearby graduate intro jobs require specialized degrees and all the nearby graduate training courses require a 2:1. I live with my girlfriend in the Staffordshire area while she studies for her PhD so moving is out of the question. I currently have a full time job, but it's little more than factory work and i don't want to spend the rest of my life doing something that isn't what I enjoy. So i was just wondering what the best course of action would be and if anyone had any similar situations.
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Feb 10, 2014 16:09
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Xovaan posted:Might be the wrong place to ask, but... Haha, you're hosed. As am I 
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Feb 11, 2014 15:27
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Just a heads up that, from my experience, accounting doesn't have to much maths heavy stuff (just mostly staring at excel). You might be more interested in actuarial studies or finance if you like the maths, however they generally require a commerce background. Would doing a masters in accounting / relevant field be on the cards, so you can get a bit of experience with a local firm to make graduate positions easier to achieve?
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Feb 13, 2014 04:26
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Holy gently caress, launch ProSystem fx into the goddamn sun.
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Feb 15, 2014 03:43
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scribe jones posted:Holy gently caress, launch ProSystem fx into the goddamn sun. Look at this guy who never had to use GoSystems before. It's cute.
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Feb 15, 2014 03:50
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So has anyone done the move in tax from a big public firm (big 4 or other huge national firm) to industry? I've been thinking about making the move purely for financial reasons. Sure the hours suck, but I'm 27 and can handle it. My wife and I want to start a family and I feel like I don't make enough to comfortably support us and kids on just my salary. It looks like I can get a 20-30k pay bump easily if I leave. I don't do just compliance at work, I do a lot of specialty tax services like cost segregation and r&d tax credits which keeps public very interesting. I'm a bit worried I'd be super bored. Fake edit: Woops double post
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Feb 15, 2014 13:22
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Bloody Queef posted:So has anyone done the move in tax from a big public firm (big 4 or other huge national firm) to industry? I work in industry, although I went straight into industry out of college. I can't give you any perspective on the transition, but I can say I only work 40-45 hours a week (sometimes less) and am on track to be making $72,000 a year this year. I'm 26 years old. I don't know what you're making now, or how competitive that is.
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Feb 15, 2014 17:14
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Pretty much the same thing as Bugamol for me. I think the most I've had to work is 50 hours. I don't have anything to do with the tax side, but I believe that's in even higher demand than financial work.
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Feb 15, 2014 17:43
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Bugamol posted:I work in industry, although I went straight into industry out of college. I can't give you any perspective on the transition, but I can say I only work 40-45 hours a week (sometimes less) and am on track to be making $72,000 a year this year. I'm 26 years old. I don't know what you're making now, or how competitive that is. I graduated pretty old at 24, so I've been in public for 3 years. 72k is the low end of where I've seen recruiters telling me. Are you in tax? And at what level? Senior Staff? Management? How much do you do prep wise versus review?
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Feb 15, 2014 20:28
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Bloody Queef posted:I graduated pretty old at 24, so I've been in public for 3 years. 72k is the low end of where I've seen recruiters telling me. Oh don't say that . . . I graduated in May 2013 at 29. Had to finish off an obligation to my current employer due to the Tuition Assistance Program, and now they're not hiring for entry-level accounting. So filling out applications I go! I have a strong background in customer service (had a paper route from 10-16, then worked at a movie theater up to management level from 16-22) and manufacturing (maintenance mechanic for one year at a small company, then 6.5 years of everything from machining to process control documentation at a Fortune 500). My ideal position would be some sort of Rotational Development program at a large company, but it seems like a lot of them are asking for December 2013 grads or later (just barely cutting me off, kill me now). What are the chances I can land something like that? Or am I doomed because I'm old? What about any sort of Accounting?
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Feb 16, 2014 02:27
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Bloody Queef posted:I graduated pretty old at 24, so I've been in public for 3 years. 72k is the low end of where I've seen recruiters telling me. I also graduated at 24. I've been in industry for 2 years. I'm on track to become a "senior accountant" this year followed by "accounting manager" in a few years. I do a lot of general accounting. Everything from GL reconciliations, intercompany transaction reconciliations, sales/use/cat tax reporting for several states, to report writing, cost accounting, assisting with payroll, etc., etc., etc. If you have your CPA you will probably command a premium. However I guess it really depends on what you mean by "Getting into industry".
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Feb 16, 2014 02:39
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Edit: wrong thread, moving
Zarin fucked around with this message at 20:41 on Feb 17, 2014 |
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Feb 17, 2014 20:18
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I overlooked something in review cause it was something I would've done, but one of my audit interns explained the variance between rent expense and rent liability as a tax refund of $X amount. I would've assumed the intern got the check and vouched the payment just to get the amount correct, but now the partner is asking did we get the support and vouch... The intern says: No, I didn't do it. I thought about it, but didn't ask. What a joke. You're trying to be an auditor and you're going to take someones word for it? Learning point - we have audit evidence for a reason. /rantoff
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Feb 18, 2014 21:50
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That sounds about right for an intern - they aren't going to do everything perfectly even if it's "copy and paste the py workpapers into the new database"
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Feb 18, 2014 23:19
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fuseshock posted:I overlooked something in review cause it was something I would've done, but one of my audit interns explained the variance between rent expense and rent liability as a tax refund of $X amount. Wait,  ? How would a tax refund explain the difference between rent expense and liability? Did the intern never take a taxation course (or hell, a basic financial accounting course) before? I mean, I don't get how tax refunds relate to rent expense and liability... 
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Feb 19, 2014 02:55
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The issue is that you trusted an intern to follow the logical leap. Hell, I constantly have to tell this one A1 that the reason we don't have ending property appointment is that the company liquidated. He asks for every state return he does, like it's going to change somehow.
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Feb 19, 2014 03:59
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ThirdPartyView posted:Wait, Good point. I think the lessor pays the taxes so the co. as the lessee lumps it as part of their rent expenses since they do not technically owe the tax liability. Maybe I make no sense at all.
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Feb 19, 2014 06:47
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fuseshock posted:Good point. I think the lessor pays the taxes so the co. as the lessee lumps it as part of their rent expenses since they do not technically owe the tax liability. Maybe I make no sense at all. Well, the rent expense at least implicitly (and if it's a net lease of some sort, explicitly) contains part of the taxes, etc. costs as a pass through, but even so, it's going to be treated as a rent expense by the lessee for GAAP/IFRS and tax purposes, so I don't get how the rent liability (which is what is due to the lessor) would ever be reduced by any tax refunds, whether on a GAAP, IFRS or tax basis. I mean, to me, it doesn't even seem to be in the same ball park where it can be conceivable to screw up the relationship because tax refunds don't relate to rent expense (although I can see the argument of assessing a tax liability item for the portion of property taxes paid in a net lease, but that's not a refund and the lessee is committing to pay the lessor's expenses so it's a pass-through rather than some weird rent expense adjustment). Horseshoe theory fucked around with this message at 12:50 on Feb 19, 2014 |
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Feb 19, 2014 12:47
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I guess since this is where all the accountants congregate, I'll ask here. It's not about a career, if there's a better place point me to it. Basically, I'm working at a small time computer repair shop. I've been hired in as the "general manager" and I'm getting things into the 21st century with poo poo like a POS system and a cash drawer. Our previous system was this: A customer would come in with a computer, drop it off, fill a form out, we'd do the work. We'd open up a new excel spreadsheet that was nice and pretty that served as the invoice. Once the customer was paid, we'd mark the spread sheet as such, and save it as a new file (So each work order had a separate spreadsheet). At some random point in time, they'd tally the work orders, count the money, do a deposit. Each customer got their own line item in quickbooks, name and all that jazz as a separate client. Since I've come in, I've forced the owner to get a till, a point of sale and other things (Scanners for inventory, etc). The POS system I ended up with is LightSpeed, it's pretty good, a few minor nitpicks, but whatever. Now, each night I count the money down, keep a certain amount in the till for change, rest goes into the deposit. Now, Lightspeed has an export function, but the export function doesn't include anything about the customer, only X amount of money was paid on Y transaction as Z type of payment (Cash, check, card). Now, the owner's wife does his bookkeeping. She also does it full time for a furniture frame shop. Her problem is our POS doesn't export anything but the deposit data. Now, my wife took some business classes in college (She was doing art, but did business on the side). I was talking to her about it, and she basically said that our quickbooks software has no need to have that information in it. It's in the POS now, and any customer related searches should be done through said POS. So my question is this, is the POS exporting data properly? Should they be keeping all that client data in quick books? Is there a better way to handle all of this? Should *ANY* data be kept in quick books now with the POS in operation? Should I be doing something totally different?
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Feb 21, 2014 03:07
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I'm sure someone with experience in this will chime in, but why didn't you just go with a QB-compatible POS system?? That seems so much easier. I dislike non-integrated systems myself. I run an extremely small QB setup and not having all transactional and customer data would drive me insane.
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Feb 21, 2014 03:48
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SiGmA_X posted:I'm sure someone with experience in this will chime in, but why didn't you just go with a QB-compatible POS system?? That seems so much easier. I dislike non-integrated systems myself. I run an extremely small QB setup and not having all transactional and customer data would drive me insane. Unless someone can chime in with more details on the Quickbooks POS, all the reviews I've read are pretty much trash. One of the biggest reaons for using lightspeed, however was making the workorder system flow better, most basic POS systems don't have any form of work orders in it.
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Feb 21, 2014 04:27
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I'm trying to imagine how an audit trail would work through this process and it's making my head hurt
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Feb 21, 2014 04:42
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Cyrezar posted:I'm trying to imagine how an audit trail would work through this process and it's making my head hurt This is why I'm trying to fix it. I want it to be at least somewhat right.
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Feb 21, 2014 04:54
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If they're doing it cash or modified cash basis, I don't see a problem with the system. As long as there's no AR, quick books doesn't really need to know the customer data. Also, the audit trail problem is taken care of by not having auditors.
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Feb 21, 2014 17:15
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Any fellow accountants fancy discussing the truth/bitterness behind this http://audit.wordpress.com/2006/11/10/holy-crap-this-really-sucks/ ?
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Feb 23, 2014 13:02
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Something lawful posted:Any fellow accountants fancy discussing the truth/bitterness behind this http://audit.wordpress.com/2006/11/10/holy-crap-this-really-sucks/ ? While I have no personal experience to lend to this, I've heard enough variations of it that I'm really only targeting entry-level corporate/manufacturing type accounting positions. Then again, I've spent so long in manufacturing now that I'll probably always be more comfortable in boots and earplugs than dress shoes and a tie.
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Feb 23, 2014 16:19
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Something lawful posted:Any fellow accountants fancy discussing the truth/bitterness behind this http://audit.wordpress.com/2006/11/10/holy-crap-this-really-sucks/ ? This guy sounds like a whiny little bitch. Was it a surprise that he would work those hours? It also might vary based on what exactly he's doing, but he's 2 months in and this was posted in November (of 2006, maybe he killed himself by now). It'll get way worse for him. For what it's worth, I generally have some sort of existential crisis once each busy season. I actually respond to the recruiters calls/emails, etc. and then about a week later I realize that I'm not actually that miserable and I'd probably be more miserable out of public. I'm also in tax and not audit. I went to audit for a week to help them with a major personnel crisis they were having and I felt like what I was doing was quite literally the most worthless job in the world.
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Feb 23, 2014 17:33
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Bloody Queef posted:I went to audit for a week to help them with a major personnel crisis they were having and I felt like what I was doing was quite literally the most worthless job in the world. I don't know if you meant worthless as in the easiest job in the world, or the most mind-numbing job in the world. For me it would be the latter. Much of the work is bullshit created by the PCAOB, firm initiatives, and other crap from Partners. So imagine 70-80 hour weeks of being short staffed, doing the most worthless job in the world and you'll understand the auditor's plight.
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Feb 23, 2014 18:19
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r/accounting is just a cycle of circlejerks where from like June-December you'll be a complete and total loser if you don't work in public accounting and then when busy season hits they all cry about how hard the work is and if it's really worth it.
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Feb 23, 2014 18:24
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Harry posted:r/accounting is just a cycle of circlejerks where from like June-December you'll be a complete and total loser if you don't work in public accounting and then when busy season hits they all cry about how hard the work is and if it's really worth it. That's pretty accurate. I'm just waiting until summer when I can brag about how much PTO I have.
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Feb 23, 2014 18:27
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fuseshock posted:I don't know if you meant worthless as in the easiest job in the world, or the most mind-numbing job in the world. Worthless as in both most mind-numbing job in the world AND the feeling of what you're doing literally has no worth. None of my audit friends have found any material differences in the financial statements of the companies we audit. I have, however, found several in tax provision review.
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Feb 25, 2014 04:20
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FAR results are scheduled to come in tomorrow, oh boy.Bloody Queef posted:Worthless as in both most mind-numbing job in the world AND the feeling of what you're doing literally has no worth. None of my audit friends have found any material differences in the financial statements of the companies we audit. I have, however, found several in tax provision review. On my risk assurance internship, the first question of the first client interview I did resulted in an exception. Not material, but it was exciting. I had a  moment when I realized another busy season had come and gone and other associates/interns had leveraged my py workpapers. At the time I thought I was doing a good job, but I'm sure they looked at my work and thought "what on earth was this clown doing."
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Feb 25, 2014 05:47
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Democratic Pirate posted:FAR results are scheduled to come in tomorrow, oh boy. How'd you do? I got a 72 on BEC, my first exam. Pretty upset, but then I looked at my study log and I logged a solid 8 hours, so probably need to actually study for this.
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Feb 26, 2014 03:20
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Bloody Queef posted:How'd you do? I got a 72 on BEC, my first exam. Pretty upset, but then I looked at my study log and I logged a solid 8 hours, so probably need to actually study for this. Edit - Score came in, got a 90 
Democratic Pirate fucked around with this message at 15:41 on Feb 26, 2014 |
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Feb 26, 2014 05:02
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