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My tax professor said that as long as there is a Congress, tax accountants will always have jobs.
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Dec 1, 2016 15:18
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| # ? May 11, 2024 18:34 |
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Hey everyone - If you're looking for career/job search advice, check out the podcast I host called The Abacus Show. Each episode is an interview with an experienced accounting professional, industry thought leader, or expert on a specific topic. It's mostly US focused, but a lot of the career/skills advice is applicable to everyone working in accounting. You can listen to every episode from Seasons 1-2 (all free). Enjoy!
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Dec 1, 2016 15:55
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Tax reform is a great opportunity especially for young accountants. 1 - As said before, lots of consulting work. 2 - After the '86 reform came in, a bunch of old accountants said "gently caress it; I'm not going to learn a whole bunch of new rules. Time to retire." Lower supply and higher demand for accountants mean higher wages and faster tracks to higher-level jobs.
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Dec 2, 2016 09:54
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I'm leaving tax for a private company Controller position. Oh happy days! I put in my 2 week notice Monday and next week will be my last, but I'm seriously considering just taking next week off. No tax season for me this year suckers!
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Dec 2, 2016 18:13
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Kinson posted:I'm leaving tax for a private company Controller position. Oh happy days! I put in my 2 week notice Monday and next week will be my last, but I'm seriously considering just taking next week off. you'll be back. they always come back. (congrats!)
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Dec 2, 2016 21:07
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scribe jones posted:you'll be back. they always come back. This is true. I left an assistant controller role to return as an audit senior a few months ago. After just getting home at 11 on a Friday after working, I, reconsidering my choice.
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Dec 3, 2016 05:07
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Democratic Pirate posted:Watching Westworld while testing IT SOX controls is irritating. Delos better be private or they'll have major issues with their administrative access and change management controls I have to say working as an internal auditor really has made me realise how sloppy some of this stuff is. Take Jurassic Park. That one IT dude was able to gently caress over the entire park and, for some reason, had access to the dino DNA room. While system admins sure do have the ability to mess with the software as much as they like, I don't see a reason to not require the top secret dino DNA room to require two people to access it for example. I suspect though in Jurassic Park the creator trusted everyone too much to require an internal audit function, whereas apprently in Westward they probably just get killed by Ford
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Dec 3, 2016 13:32
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Kinson posted:I'm leaving tax for a private company Controller position. Oh happy days! I put in my 2 week notice Monday and next week will be my last, but I'm seriously considering just taking next week off. Congratulations; I did the same thing 2 years ago. (Except I started my own firm on the side. Now I enjoy tax season.)
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Dec 3, 2016 14:26
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I am that pyscho that likes busy season, and its right aroundbthe corner 
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Dec 4, 2016 18:38
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Lord of Garbagemen posted:I am that pyscho that likes busy season, and its right aroundbthe corner Thanks for the reminder, guess it's after noon, better start drinking.
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Dec 4, 2016 18:42
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Lord of Garbagemen posted:I am that pyscho that likes busy season, and its right aroundbthe corner Must be fun working for you!
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Dec 6, 2016 01:43
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Lol @ accountants complaining about busy season when you guys work basically 9-5 the whole year other than like 3 months where you work 9-7.
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Dec 6, 2016 03:14
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That's only true for some tax accountants. I work lovely hours most of the year in audit.
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Dec 6, 2016 03:20
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Working 60 hours a week is the new normal, they say. I left public accounting because I noticed that the hours never actually got better. Corporate is the way to go!
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Dec 6, 2016 07:08
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Our hours are slowly increasing. There's been some initiatives to do more of my stuff (controls) earlier in the year to reduce workload during traditional busy season, but so far that has just meant they can use less staff to do more work during the year while also increasing hour requirements for busy season. Also never work a first year SOX client.
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Dec 6, 2016 10:57
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Democratic Pirate posted:Our hours are slowly increasing. There's been some initiatives to do more of my stuff (controls) earlier in the year to reduce workload during traditional busy season, but so far that has just meant they can use less staff to do more work during the year while also increasing hour requirements for busy season. As long as people are prepared to work in dog poo poo conditions to get their qualifications and public experience on their CV there's no real incentive for them to do things any differently.
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Dec 6, 2016 11:02
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Kitchner posted:As long as people are prepared to work in dog poo poo conditions to get their qualifications and public experience on their CV there's no real incentive for them to do things any differently. This is true. But I also never understood how the managers and above put up with the poo poo hours, too. Like I said in my last post, it seemed like the hours stayed the same or worse as you moved upwards. Only the senior partners seemed to have enough power to delegate the poo poo work to the junior partners. I also noticed that, despite what you think during recruiting, the partners at Big 4 firms aren't actually the best and the brightest. They're simply the ones who could sleep in their own poo poo the longest. All the good people said gently caress this and left years ago, leaving behind the most scummy, ladder climbing trash to hold down the fort. God bless you all for doing the work but holy poo poo I ran so fast from that place. My next job was in investment banking and the hours were poo poo too but the people were 1000x less awful, though that may have been a function of the gig (middle market, a bit less money on the line than say at Goldman). edit: half my job in public accounting was drafting client emails for my manager. lmao haven't done that since
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Dec 6, 2016 17:57
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chupacabraTERROR posted:This is true. But I also never understood how the managers and above put up with the poo poo hours, too. Like I said in my last post, it seemed like the hours stayed the same or worse as you moved upwards. Only the senior partners seemed to have enough power to delegate the poo poo work to the junior partners. It's because instead of doing poo poo you hate, you're in charge of poo poo you hate. That's an improvement. Plus there's the potential to make partner and own some poo poo you hate (but at least are compensated for it).
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Dec 6, 2016 19:24
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What kind of public do (did) y'all do, I partnership tax and if I can make it through April the rest of the year is gravy.
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Dec 7, 2016 01:21
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International tax; our busy season isn't really that bad - August through mid-September typically. Consulting actually keeps me busier throughout the year, no real down time except maybe January and February. If a deal is closing, you're working 70+ hour weeks. Agree that most PPDs are psychos, although I've been pretty impressed with the National Tax folks.
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Dec 7, 2016 02:58
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Hurt Whitey Maybe posted:What kind of public do (did) y'all do, I partnership tax and if I can make it through April the rest of the year is gravy. Risk Advisory, so mostly internal audit with the odd bit of consultancy and controls testing thrown in. My firm's people is OK actually. We aren't big four ("top 6" lol) so things are a bit more relaxed and the people here are a bit more chill. There's only like, one manager/senior manager I actually feel could teach me something. The rest are mediocre at best. The International Head of Risk Advisory is in our office and he's the Partner I respect the most, followed by the female partner who is head of risk advisory who, no bullshit, joined as a PA and worked her way up. Problem is its similar bullshit to big 4, though less of it, but you don't even leave with a killer CV
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Dec 7, 2016 19:46
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Kontradaz posted:Lol @ accountants complaining about busy season when you guys work basically 9-5 the whole year other than like 3 months where you work 9-7. Lol 9-7? Those are partners hours , my busy season hours are like 8 to midnight except on saturday and sunday (8 to 8).
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Dec 18, 2016 16:40
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My CPE cram session is almost over and I'm pleased to report that the accounting standards that would have prevented the 2008 financial crisis will finally become effective in 2018. This is a great time to specialize in accounting for financial instruments (full disclosure: I'm glad to see the old impairment model go). There is probably also some fun to be had in doing compilations and reviews for not-for-profits but I'm not sure it's the good kind of fun. On the other hand, gently caress you very much if you violate ethical standards in a way that results in the AICPA or my state board issuing new guidance I have to learn. We are already well on our way to "independence is impaired if the auditor's online product reviews for the client are significantly positive or negative, whereas 'significantly' is defined as an average of more than 4.5 or less than 2.0 on a 5-star scale. Reviews using other scales should be converted to 0-5 in half-star increments."
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Dec 30, 2016 21:43
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Just found out my client deadline that got pushed from December 1 to December 15 to December 31 got pushed back another week. Which means no more work this year! Shout out to auditors who don't need to make New Years plans, enjoy counting boxes.
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Dec 30, 2016 21:48
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Missing Donut posted:Congratulations; I did the same thing 2 years ago. I had my own firm before starting at my last job. I sold it to them. Now I'm free! No lectures for only putting in 55 hours in a week during tax season regardless of how managed my workload is. No lectures for slacking off during the off season regardless of how little I actually have to do (what am I supposed to make up work to bill the clients for? Do you not want clients?). This year I just have to do my own taxes and that's it. Well, I have to prepare the numbers for the company I work at to hand off to the CPA firm. They'll probably be happy about the state of what they get. Personally I don't think I would have prepared the return last year if I were them considering the state of what they received from the previous controller...
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Jan 11, 2017 21:07
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I'm doing some individual tax returns for clients this year. Any recommendations for small time tax preparer software. I was looking at Intuit. Also, I need to get going on CE. There's so much out there, none of it super compelling for the price. I'm on my own for CE so "just get your company to pay for Becker" doesn't help. My only real requirement is that there be some courses covering international issues and expat taxation. I was also wondering if anyone has any experience learning coding for CE credit.
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Feb 7, 2017 11:42
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sale on Banksy art posted:I'm doing some individual tax returns for clients this year. Any recommendations for small time tax preparer software. I was looking at Intuit. the Intuit cloud software (which used to be Intuit Tax Online and now is called something else) is totally useable and pay-per-return. hard to imagine anything else being a better fit for someone who's only doing a handful of 1040s.
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Feb 10, 2017 03:45
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So, I'm a new hire at my firm. I won't mention the firm for obvious reasons as there is a lot I say here that a company would not want to be associated with. I keep loving up. Like, I really keep loving up. This isn't r/TIFU so I won't go crazy, but I keep loving up reports and the Senior's fix them. Like, a lot. hosed this up, hosed that up, and I really feel it's getting out of hand. Like, I just don't check enough and that is something I'm working on so I can stop loving up, but I really am starting to wonder if I'm just incompetent at my work. Like, seriously, so many careless mistakes being done constantly leading me to have to keep redoing reports and stuff of that nature. I can't imagine that those who work above me and with me aren't getting annoyed at this point. I keep saying "I won't let it happen again" and I keep taking notes and doing checks, but A LOT keeps getting through. My question is, how long do I have to finally stop loving up before this really starts loving me? Like, I realize that today would be the best day to stop and, trust me, I'm trying, but I'm just curious how long I got to stop being a loving moron, because shockingly five years of college apparently wasn't enough time to get that out of my system, before it bites me back hard?
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Feb 22, 2017 17:15
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You will always make mistakes, that’s the point of multiple reviews being performed. Making mistakes is part of the learning process and I generally wouldn’t really stress it. However the tone of your post makes me think that the mistakes you’re making are incredibly frequent and/or significant to the work being performed. It is a bit of a red flag to be making the same exact mistakes over and over again. Has HR spoken to you yet? If not then you got time to tighten up your work. It’s pretty rare for a firm to get rid of somebody during busy season. It’s only happened once in my experience and that person literally did no work. In fact even the people who have been let go after busy season were let go for work ethic/personality reasons, not work quality related. For a new staff, my personal expectations at this point in the season would be for them to be working somewhat independently but having the occasional (new) mistake. However I would expect any staff coming out of busy season to be fairly competent. When I first started in the industry I created a list of everything that needed to be done for a particular task. I would listen to the instructions given, and reference prior year work. I would compile all of my questions, and resolve them with the in-charge. You said that you take notes and a lot gets through. Do you update your notes every time you receive feedback on mistakes? This would essentially fill in the blanks in your initial notes, creating a thorough checklist/instruction to perform your task. If your current notes are not thorough enough, this would help improve them. Do you have any similar work to reference to compare to what you’re doing?
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Feb 22, 2017 21:06
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Covok posted:So, I'm a new hire at my firm. I won't mention the firm for obvious reasons as there is a lot I say here that a company would not want to be associated with. You don't need to worry about mistakes, you need to worry about making the same ones over and over. If you're making the same mistakes over and over or they are beyond the realms of common sense, and for whatever reason you are incapable of preventing these mistakes, then you need to worry.
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Feb 22, 2017 22:29
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Covok posted:So, I'm a new hire at my firm. I won't mention the firm for obvious reasons as there is a lot I say here that a company would not want to be associated with. You're new and its pretty common to feel like a gently caress up at first. re-assess after the season, but chances are you're no worse than your peers.
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Feb 23, 2017 04:19
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New hires tend to be very bad at doing accounting because it's incredibly complex (I do tax), your senior is there to help you and filter out the bullshit you crank out. Do your best to not only understand what you're doing, but why you're doing it. Once you get why, you'll start to get what you're doing wrong and what's important and unimportant. Also CHECK YOUR CHECK FIGURES gently caress.
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Feb 23, 2017 05:19
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Covok posted:So, I'm a new hire at my firm. I won't mention the firm for obvious reasons as there is a lot I say here that a company would not want to be associated with. P sure you're my new staff. Please stop loving up my work papers thanks
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Feb 23, 2017 05:53
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Good Citizen posted:P sure you're my new staff. Please stop loving up my work papers thanks This was my other answer.
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Feb 23, 2017 05:54
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Good Citizen posted:P sure you're my new staff. Please stop loving up my work papers thanks I know you're being facetious, but I did go "it's a non-zero chance people reading my freakout actually work with me" a little while ago. I've come down since this morning, when I was informed of another gently caress up of mine, and have been able to do a better job at work today. I hope it lasts and I continue not loving up.
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Feb 23, 2017 06:05
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Covok posted:I know you're being facetious, but I did go "it's a non-zero chance people reading my freakout actually work with me" a little while ago. I got an associate who can't put PDF pages in the right order and he's been here since July, busy season will forge you into a better accountant. Also tax or audit?
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Feb 23, 2017 06:20
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Staff 1s are universally trash. Keep your support dump organized, make sure you understand the reason we're doing a workpaper, and chill the hell out and you'll be fine. Also double check the order when picking up dinner for fucks sake I said mayo
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Feb 23, 2017 07:27
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Covok posted:I know you're being facetious, but I did go "it's a non-zero chance people reading my freakout actually work with me" a little while ago. As long as you're improving thats the main thing. I personally have almost unlimited patience for someone who is legitimately trying to learn and taking in what I say. I'd happily sit next to them and teach them everything I know if I had the time. As long as you're not repeating the same mistakes constantly you're OK.
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Feb 23, 2017 10:54
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Hurt Whitey Maybe posted:I got an associate who can't put PDF pages in the right order and he's been here since July, busy season will forge you into a better accountant. Tax. I haven't been here as long as that. This is my first busy season and, before it, I literally had no work, despite trying to keep up and get work sent to me. Kitchner posted:As long as you're improving thats the main thing. I personally have almost unlimited patience for someone who is legitimately trying to learn and taking in what I say. I'd happily sit next to them and teach them everything I know if I had the time. I usually don't except yesterday though that was a special circumstance. Basically, I broke something entirely and had to redo it quick. Long story short: misunderstood what someone wanted me to do on a propriety software to fix an issue with spacing and broke the entire thing and needed to start over. Not going to lie about how bad that sounds: thought he was telling me to do one thing when he actually wanted me to do the other so I kind of broke it. Since I copied a lot over from the essentially corrupted file, I thought it was good and assumed things checked like it did before...and didn't notice I missed two lines and one formula got pushed up thus breaking the whole thing. My senior's very chill, but I could tell there was some annoyance on bringing him something worse than the one I sent earlier and he sent me to fix. I should have done one final check and not just assumed the check before the corruption was fine because I copied everything over perfectly. Though, I swear I remember it working out before I sent it to print so I'm perplexed how it looked nothing like I remembered in the morning.
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Feb 23, 2017 15:52
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Covok posted:Tax. I haven't been here as long as that. This is my first busy season and, before it, I literally had no work, despite trying to keep up and get work sent to me. Yeah but that's like one mistake. I mean I'd probably be annoyed if a grad broke something as it means extra work, but as long as you didn't make a habit of breaking things, then I'd soon forget about it. poo poo goes wrong on almost every audit I do, even if this is near the top of the poo poo that goes wrong pile, it's not a big deal. As long as you carry on improving it will just be a "war story" that you talk about with your friends when you're more senior and nothing to worry about. In the future though my advice is to take a notebook down everywhere, write down everything you're told, and even if you're sure you know what you were told, before you go away just say "OK so, just to double check, you want me to X, Y, Z. Anything else? No? Cool".
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Feb 23, 2017 17:05
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