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Audax posted:Fully licensed! Drinks on me... in 6 weeks. Scary that you said this about 6 weeks ago and then posted the above.
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Sep 24, 2014 05:54
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Sorry in advance, this is kind of a long/specific question. I already asked the NASBA contact for CO, and he just said "apply for a pre-evaluation screening so we can determine your eligibility." But I can't exactly submit transcripts for courses I haven't taken. I'm trying to figure out which combination of courses I need to take to meet the CPA requirements. Here are Colorado's requirements according to NASBA: 33 semester hours of non-duplicative Accounting coursework at the undergraduate or graduate level which must include: 27 semester hours in specialized accounting courses, The 33 semester hours must include 27 semester hours of accounting courses, excluding introductory accounting courses, covering the subject areas described in Rule 2.4.A.1 [list of accounting topics] Of the 27 hours above, 6 semester hours concentrating on auditing, at least 3 hours concentrating on U.S. GAAS. So my questions: I'm not 100% clear what "non-duplicative coursework means." Does that mean the same course number, the same content area, or exactly the same content? For instance, could I take 4 different "Financial Reporting and Analysis" courses, if they were sequential with unique course numbers? Would a 2000-level "intermediate accounting" course count as "introductory" with regard to the "introductory accounting courses" exclusion? Thanks in advance
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Sep 27, 2014 22:11
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posh spaz posted:I'm not 100% clear what "non-duplicative coursework means." Does that mean the same course number, the same content area, or exactly the same content? This, more-likely-than-not. quote:Would a 2000-level "intermediate accounting" course count as "introductory" with regard to the "introductory accounting courses" exclusion? No, it's an intermediate accounting course, since it goes into more detail than covering in Financial Accounting I (or whatever your school calls the Intro to Accounting course) - in fact, lots of schools split it into 2 semesters.
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Sep 28, 2014 00:51
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posh spaz posted:I'm trying to figure out which combination of courses I need to take to meet the CPA requirements. Here are Colorado's requirements according to NASBA: Did you go to university in CO? My university publishes a list of all counts that towards our state's req and specifically denotes if a class won't, so you may be able to check there. I mean my Intermediate I and Intermediate II were 3000 level courses and are fine for me, so it stands to reason. You could also find and read the rules to see what the intent was, but it may be better just to ask your university accounting adviser as they should at the very least have that info available for you.
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Sep 28, 2014 02:12
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posh spaz posted:
Usually what they mean is you can't count both Introduction to managerial accounting and managerial accounting.
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Sep 28, 2014 02:58
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Thanks for the feedback. My MBA is from a different state, but I more than meet the business course requirements portion of the CPA with that, even if some don't transfer. I'm looking at taking some courses online from different schools, most of which aren't in CO, but I'm also looking at MAcc and MPAcc programs in CO. It's just kind of a pain trying to figure out what will work and what won't, and I'd rather not waste a lot of time/money taking courses that won't work. I've read the actual law stating the requirements, but it just gives the credit hours and a list of like two dozen categories of classes that are acceptable, plus "other topics as approved by the board" or something to that effect. posh spaz fucked around with this message at 03:37 on Sep 28, 2014 |
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Sep 28, 2014 03:33
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Anyone have experience with MS Dynamics GP? I just applied for a staff accounting position for a company, that's going to be mostly AP/AR and reconciling expenses. Easy poo poo, and they just want a HS diploma+some experience, which I have, but it's been a while since I had to do it. I do all the traffic/billing at my current job (running a broadcast station) but that's just simple data entry. They said experience with GP is a plus, and from my digging about for it it just seems like an accounting front-end for MS SQL, which I am familiar with just from mucking about making websites and poo poo for fun, and i know how to use data mining/analysis with straight SQL. I was hoping to land another job in broadcast, but accounting has always been my fall back, just because i come from an entire family of accountants and my highest GPA was in all the accounting/biz classes I took in college. It's something that just clicks, and while AP/AR is boring as poo poo, it'll be a nice pay increase from where I'm currently working, and I can totally handle it with the help of excel. Also, anyone have a good crash course in pivot tables/macros for accounting? When I was doing the budget/AP/AR/expenses for a company I worked for in high school/summer in college, I know i made my life a whole lot easier through excel's nifty features that made data entry a whole lot easier, but it's been 5 or so years since I've had to do it, so I'm not super familiar with it, and most of my excel use was tracking client status and my earning for the firm at my last job.
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Sep 28, 2014 18:53
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If you're moderately adept at computers, it shouldn't take long to be moderately comfortable in in Dynamics. For excel, by far the biggest time saver for me is using macros/formatting to upload journal entries as well as invoices. Figure out what format you need to use to upload stuff into Dynamics, and then go from there.
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Sep 28, 2014 19:46
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Sorry if this is hijacking, but since accounting & finance are so often paired in job searches, and as someone who wants very much to put a Finance degree I got three years ago to some use someday, if even in a humble way, I kind of need some advice on where to start. I've been struggling for a bit so my resume is very humble- a bachelor's in finance, a few months experience balancing invoices manually before medical leave, some work I did last year for a restaurant doing what is probably primitive cost variance stuff and redesigning the COO's spreadsheets, and the studying I've been doing in data analysis along with an Access course I'm taking on udemy are all I really have. I seem underqualified for almost every finance job I find on boards except for teller and occasionally credit analyst. I was wondering if I should look for contractual or temporary assignments nearby and kind of hopscotch across those for awhile.
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Sep 28, 2014 20:57
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Harry posted:If you're moderately adept at computers, it shouldn't take long to be moderately comfortable in in Dynamics. awesome. This is what I was hoping to hear. I hope I hear back from them, I work with the company as it is buying advertising from them, and I signed up to volunteer to teach guitar with the music school they opened for underprivileged kids, so I hope that's a good foot-in-the-door for the company. I've never been hugely fond of AP/AR, (I find tax...relaxing in a strange way, and prepare taxes for friends for fun, including a friend's business) but a better paycheck/benefits is a better paycheck/benefits. If I snag this job I'll see if I can get tuition reimbursement as a benefit and see about finishing my accounting degree. I dropped out because I thought accounting would mean being chained to a desk all day, and then i got out in the real world and discovered that...all jobs are being chained to a desk all day, and my dream of a "fun" job was a pipe dream. I like broadcast, but accounting just has more jobs out there, an I sure as hell don't hate it, and if I'm going to be behind a desk all day, I might as well go back and get my degree to go into a sector of accounting I enjoy. (IE tax or forensic)
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Sep 28, 2014 21:16
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Pegged Lamb posted:I seem underqualified for almost every finance job I find on boards except for teller and occasionally credit analyst. I'm in a similar boat, if it makes you feel better. I'm definitely underqualified for controller-type jobs, and I don't have enough of a modeling background to do the real mathy analyst stuff. A lot of the analyst positions I've found on Linkedin or whatever prefer or require CPAs, so my solution is to go back to school to be able to get my CPA. I won't be able to tell if that's a good idea or not for a few years, though.
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Sep 28, 2014 21:31
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AA is for Quitters posted:Anyone have experience with MS Dynamics GP? I just applied for a staff accounting position for a company, that's going to be mostly AP/AR and reconciling expenses. Easy poo poo, and they just want a HS diploma+some experience, which I have, but it's been a while since I had to do it. I do all the traffic/billing at my current job (running a broadcast station) but that's just simple data entry. They said experience with GP is a plus, and from my digging about for it it just seems like an accounting front-end for MS SQL, which I am familiar with just from mucking about making websites and poo poo for fun, and i know how to use data mining/analysis with straight SQL. We use a modified version of Dynamics and yea it was really easy to learn. I don't use it for AP/AR but if our computer illiterate AP/AR lady can work with it fine you will have no trouble picking it up.
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Sep 28, 2014 22:23
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I need some advice on switching jobs. I'm currently in my late 20's and I have a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics. After graduating into the 2008 mess and being unemployed for a little over a year I basically tripped into an entry level accounting position at a local company with ~100 people. Fast forward close to 5 years later and I've been the financial controller of this company for close to a year now. Unfortunately I'm not very happy here. I really like *what* I do, and I am enjoying being a manager a whole lot more than I thought I would. However, as the days tick by I find myself more and more frustrated and annoyed with the people running the company, as they waffle between clueless, offensive, and borderline abusive on a weekly basis. The vast majority of our employees feel the same way, and we've seen about 25% of our positions turned over in the last year. To add fuel to the fire, due to a variety of past mistakes and external forces we're losing money and there's a chance we won't be around by the end of next year. Morale is in the toilet here, I'm not being paid a competitive wage, I'm less able to deal with the people running our company as the days go by, and we're in a stall that we might not be able to pull out of. I was aware of most of this when I accepted my promotion to financial controller, and I figured I'd get a good two years in and then move on. But as the days tick past me I'm less confident that I'll be able to last that long. What are the employment prospects for someone like myself, with a math degree, about 5 year's staff accounting experience, and about a year's worth of financial controller experience in my late 20's? I would be perfectly happy to work as an assistant controller or mid level accounting manager somewhere more stable and sane, but would companies or organizations be interested in me for such a position? Additionally, I'm concerned about references. I can likely scrounge up 1-2 references from people I worked with as a staff accountant who have since left the company, but if the people currently running the company find out I'm looking around I'll be dealt with harshly. Does anyone have any advice for trying to scrape together references without letting your current employer know you're searching for a new position? A GIANT PARSNIP fucked around with this message at 03:47 on Sep 29, 2014 |
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Sep 29, 2014 03:45
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I think it depends on the industry you're in and what industry you're looking for. There are definitely industries out there were the accounting isn't complex, and there isn't much reporting to institutional investors. In those, it's acceptable not to have a CPA. If you're looking to work at some kind of commodities trading firm, not going to happen without a CPA.
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Sep 29, 2014 04:06
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Time to start networking. My local IMA chapter is seems like it's mostly made up of people with your background: controllers and managerial accountants at local businesses I've never heard of (and in unsexy industries to boot). The remainder is made up of some CPAs, students, and recruiters.
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Sep 29, 2014 05:47
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Mandalay posted:Time to start networking. My local IMA chapter is seems like it's mostly made up of people with your background: controllers and managerial accountants at local businesses I've never heard of (and in unsexy industries to boot). The remainder is made up of some CPAs, students, and recruiters. I've been interested in the CMA designation, but I never thought to start by becoming a member and attending some meetings. My local IMA chapter looks very active and appears to have an interesting speaker once a month. I also checked out the linked in thread, and I will definately be creating a profile and maximizing my recruiter views based on the tips in the thread. If anyone else has any suggestions I'd really appreciate it, and I'm sorry if I got a bit E/N in my last post. I think I just needed a jolt of frustration to get myself planning for my career's future.
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Sep 29, 2014 19:01
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A GIANT PARSNIP posted:Changing Jobs Can I ask what you were doing as the "financial controller" for this company? That's going to have a huge impact on where you can go and what you can do. If you are going to go to any decently sized company not having your accounting degree, cpa, or cma is definitely going to hurt you. I would be pretty surprised if you could find another job as a controller or accounting manager at even a similarly sized company, but without knowing your history and experience it would be hard to tell. It was always my understanding that typically to get to the controller position you are looking at 7-10 years of experience: I believe a somewhat typical path would be the following: 1-2 Years as an Accountant 2-4 Years as a Senior Accountant 3-5 Years as an Accounting Manager Controller It seems odd that you don't have an accounting degree, don't have your CPA, don't have your CMA, and don't have your MBA but happen to be a controller. Not saying it's impossible, but seems strange. EDIT: At my last company (75-100 employees). I was on a 7 year path to be a controller but it involved getting my CMA and MBA. I also already have an accounting degree. I left before any of that materialized (similar situation to what you described). EDIT: It also seems like you're stretching your job experience. Fast forward close to 5 years later followed by 5 years staff accountant + 1 year controller. Do you have less than a years experience as a controller and it's 4 years staff + 1 year controller? Did you jump straight from staff accountant to controller? Bugamol fucked around with this message at 21:01 on Sep 29, 2014 |
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Sep 29, 2014 20:52
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I understand the confusion - it's a strange situation and I'm not 100% sure what to make of it myself.Bugamol posted:Can I ask what you were doing as the "financial controller" for this company? That's going to have a huge impact on where you can go and what you can do. If you are going to go to any decently sized company not having your accounting degree, cpa, or cma is definitely going to hurt you. I would be pretty surprised if you could find another job as a controller or accounting manager at even a similarly sized company, but without knowing your history and experience it would be hard to tell. I reconcile our bank statements, create our monthly financial reports, post any non routine journal entries to the general ledger, oversee the staff members who are in charge of our billing, A/R, and A/P, and I also share in some of the general accounting work load by having some generic A/R, A/P, billing, and payroll functions. I am our point of contact for our CPA, and at year end the CPA and I do a joint review. Once the review is done the CPA provides me with year end journal entries and our tax information, and I close out the year and make sure all of our taxes get filed. The rest of my time is split between looking for and correcting anomalies in A/R, A/P, and our G/L, and combing through our expenses looking for ways to save money. quote:It was always my understanding that typically to get to the controller position you are looking at 7-10 years of experience: I agree 100% with all of this. quote:EDIT: At my last company (75-100 employees). I was on a 7 year path to be a controller but it involved getting my CMA and MBA. I also already have an accounting degree. I left before any of that materialized (similar situation to what you described). I spent two years in college doing accounting work part time for my university, so I count that as one full year of basic accounting experience. Of my 5 years working at my current employer, I'd say the first 2.5 years would also be considered "accountant", with the next year and a half somewhere between "senior accountant" and "accounting manager", as staggered turnover issues meant I was learning all of our accounting functions, and then teaching them to new hires. About a year ago our controller was promoted to a newly created CFO position, and they decided to bump me up to controller instead of bringing in an external candidate. I'm well aware that this is a mixed blessing and that I have a lot to be thankful for. My main concern is finding the best way to develop myself professionally, as I love what I do and I can easily see myself in managerial accounting for the rest of my life. My original plan was to wait until I have been a controller for 2 full years before looking around, and I think I'm going to stick to that. I also plan on taking both parts of the CMA exam next year, and by the time I finish the second part I will have the 2 years of management experience required to obtain the CMA. I am not happy where I am, but I agree 100% with the concerns you have over my relative lack of experience in the field, and I hope this plan would help alleviate any such concerns future recruiters would have. I also have no delusions that I'll leave this position and become a controller at a larger company - I would be completely ok with becoming an assistant controller/assistant accounting manager at a larger company. Also if you don't mind, can I ask how things worked out for you? I'm sorry to hear that you also had to endure a dysfunctional company.
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Sep 30, 2014 01:04
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A GIANT PARSNIP posted:Also if you don't mind, can I ask how things worked out for you? I'm sorry to hear that you also had to endure a dysfunctional company. I love my new job. It was a huge culture shock for me though. Going from being the smart IT kid (who was also an accountant) that could write reports in Excel, SSRS, and Access to working for a company that has a separate department with multiple employees for each of those functions is a huge change of pace. Can't beat the benefits though. It helps working for a corporation that has a reputation for treating it's employees well.
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Sep 30, 2014 16:10
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I'm at a big crossroads in my life, working as an accountant in a company that I enjoy with potential growth to move up in the years to come but all I have is a 2 year business diploma plus working experience. Unfortunately the college I went to was privately owned and therefore none of the courses are transferable to a university, I occasionally do courses at the local university here as I can get 1 free course/semester (currently have 12 courses completed) but trying to get a degree (BBA) part time when you're 30 is painfully long/annoying. I'm thinking about moving out west (Alberta/BC) but will not having a degree hurt my chances of a getting a good job? If I'm not mistaken you can't enrol as a CGA/CMA/CPA student unless you have your degree first and at this rate would be until I'm in my late 30s unless I decided to quit my job and go back to school full time. Any advice?
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Sep 30, 2014 18:37
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whatupdet posted:Any advice? What's stopping you from working harder on your degree? I did a full-time MBA while also working 40+ hours a week. It sucked and I basically didn't see any friends for two years, but it's doable.
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Sep 30, 2014 19:23
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whatupdet posted:Any advice? If you want to stay in accounting not having your degree is going to be a huge hindrance to your growth potential and/or ability to find another job. Get your degree while working (see if your company will pay for it, you won't know unless you ask). Then you can always considering moving/finding a new job. Unless you have a family + kids your excuse for not going back to school is pretty weak.
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Sep 30, 2014 19:28
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posh spaz posted:What's stopping you from working harder on your degree? I did a full-time MBA while also working 40+ hours a week. It sucked and I basically didn't see any friends for two years, but it's doable. I'm stopping me, no kids or spouse but I'm involved with several extra curricular activities that occupy 2-3 nights every week that I'm guessing I would need to give up for the next 3-4 years assuming 3 courses/semester plus full time job. Company won't pay but our relationship with the university is what gets me the one free course/semester and I'd need to get a LOC or student LOC if I started doing that many courses.
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Sep 30, 2014 21:01
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Does anyone have any experience with the IMA provided study materials for the CMA exams, as well as third party study materials? I'm looking at taking part 1 next spring and I'm very interested to hear people's experiences with different study materials.
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Oct 1, 2014 00:29
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I've got the books for parts 1 and 2. I haven't taken the test yet, but they're really handy. I use them all the time as references. I don't think they cover the topics well enough to learn them if they're completely new to you, but I think they're pretty concise refreshers.
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Oct 1, 2014 01:08
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posh spaz posted:I've got the books for parts 1 and 2. I haven't taken the test yet, but they're really handy. I use them all the time as references. I don't think they cover the topics well enough to learn them if they're completely new to you, but I think they're pretty concise refreshers. Do the IMA supplied materials explain the topics at all, or is it literally just a large amount of example questions?
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Oct 1, 2014 16:52
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A GIANT PARSNIP posted:Do the IMA supplied materials explain the topics at all, or is it literally just a large amount of example questions? I think the book part of the CMA Learning System is pretty light on sample questions. Good enough for review, and identifying weaknesses, but I'd want a lot more practice problems to actually learn the stuff. They have online practice problems through Wiley, but they're kind of expensive. Here's an example: "Standard Costs for Direct Materials and Labor - Direct cost items such as direct materials and direct labor are measured by determining the number of units of each type of input required to get one unit of output. This amount is multiplied by the standard cost per input unit. For example: If three input units are allowed for producing one output unit and an input unit costs $10, then the standard cost would be $30 per output unit. For direct labor, if 0.7 manufacturing labor hours of input are allowed for producing one output unit and labor hours cost $10, then the standard cost would be $7 per output unit." I think that's a good, brief summary, but it's not nearly enough to go on if you've never learned how to do standard costing before.
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Oct 1, 2014 17:49
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What's the opinion about MAcc/MPA/MS-Accounting program rankings? Do they even exist? I can't really find any. I'm looking at programs in CO. I graduated in the top 10%-ish of my dismally-ranked MBA program, so I have automatic admission to Metro State, but that got me thinking I might be competitive applying somewhere better. My options are CU Boulder, UC Denver, University of Denver, and Regis University. For personal reasons I'd prefer to stay in the Denver metro area, but CSU Ft. Collins and UNC Greeley are options too. DU costs about 3x what Metro costs, and 2x CU Boulder, and I'm wondering if that's worth it for some reason I'm missing? Even at Metro they do on-campus recruiting with mid-size firms like BKD, so it wouldn't be a horrible choice, I don't think. I just wonder how much of a difference a "better" school would make.
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Oct 1, 2014 22:32
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I realized I updated my LinkedIn header to reflect my job at a Big 4 firm when I started work a few months ago, but I didn't actually update my job section. I updated the job section of my profile and got a ping from a recruiter 2 hours later. An experienced associate on my current engagement averages 4-5 pings a day via various communication channels.
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Oct 2, 2014 01:30
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I've always wondered if I should sign up to LinkedIn, probably a good idea.
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Oct 2, 2014 14:50
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Democratic Pirate posted:I realized I updated my LinkedIn header to reflect my job at a Big 4 firm when I started work a few months ago, but I didn't actually update my job section. I updated the job section of my profile and got a ping from a recruiter 2 hours later. An experienced associate on my current engagement averages 4-5 pings a day via various communication channels. When you hit senior, that will be double digits during the big recruiting seasons. It's loving exhausting.
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Oct 2, 2014 16:20
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Does anyone here know much about tax-exempt fixed-income security accounting? I had a job interview at an arbitrage compliance company, and the interviewer acted like calculating arbitrage rebates and yield restrictions was The Most Complicated Math Thing Ever and he doubted my ability to do it with *just* a master's in finance, despite being in the top 10% of my class. I've read through IRS publications on the subject, with examples, and it seems like it's mostly fairly straight-forward, netting discounted cash flow schedules. Am I missing something here? It was a really weird interview, especially since I was interviewing for a customer-facing role, not a calculation role. posh spaz fucked around with this message at 16:09 on Oct 18, 2014 |
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Oct 18, 2014 15:46
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posh spaz posted:Does anyone here know much about tax-exempt fixed-income security accounting? Sound like it was just a strange interview. That's pretty much the gist of the 8038t.
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Oct 18, 2014 16:16
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himurak posted:Sound like it was just a strange interview. That's pretty much the gist of the 8038t. Thanks, that's good to know. I talked to my recruiter about it afterwards and she was basically like "wtf? you're totally the best candidate for that position." She said she'd talk to them and get in touch next week. I'm not really sure how much faith to put in her as advocate for me, but even if I end up with an offer, I'm having second-thoughts about working for someone who apparently has no faith in my abilities. It also sounds like they don't know what they want, since on paper the duties/responsibilities/pay look entry-level, but from the interview it seems like they want someone with quite a bit of experience.
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Oct 18, 2014 16:59
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Just got a call from the recruiter, she said they really liked me and they'll make me an offer today or tomorrow. So now, my question is, would this experience be useful? I don't want a dead-end job, or a job so specific I'm stuck in that track forever. I know some of the bigger firms do arbitrage rebate calculation stuff too. I just don't have a sense of where this job could lead. They also said they were really supportive of me getting my CPA, with a 2-year commitment they pay for the Becker and CPA tests, prorated if I leave before the 2 years are up. They'd work with me as far as flex time around school and testing, as long I'm just doing part-time school. I'm always worried about taking the first reasonable opportunity that comes along, in case I'm missing out on something better. But, I also kind of doubt I'll be able to get a better accounting job with my current background.
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Oct 20, 2014 21:43
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Watching dozens of nervous college kids in their best suits wandering the office between interviews is good fun on a surprisingly easy Friday. Way more fun than being one of those kids.
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Oct 24, 2014 19:24
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Good Citizen posted:Watching dozens of nervous college kids in their best suits wandering the office between interviews is good fun on a surprisingly easy Friday. Way more fun than being one of those kids. I couldn't agree more. Bonus that I'm wearing jeans.
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Oct 24, 2014 19:30
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How slow are all of your various work computers/systems?
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Oct 24, 2014 21:12
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Dengraz posted:I couldn't agree more. Bonus that I'm wearing jeans. I'll be like you after next week. No official dress code at the office, although apparently jeans and Keens are the uniform. I don't think I was one of those nervous college kids though, which is probably why I got the job.
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Oct 24, 2014 21:16
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SiGmA_X posted:How slow are all of your various work computers/systems? Reasonably fast until it comes time to expense two weeks worth of travel expenses and then suddenly slow as ballllllllllllllssssss
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Oct 24, 2014 21:21
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