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I’ve never had someone try to slip a modified rep letter past us but I’ve had several instances where the one legal guy at a small company we’re auditing for spare change tries to make several dozen redlines to our engagement letter, including changing the jurisdiction, which always gets a hearty lol
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Aug 6, 2021 20:21
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No audit/assurance experience but I kinda feel like I'd cancel the engagement if I saw poo poo like that.
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Aug 6, 2021 23:35
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Hellblazer187 posted:No audit/assurance experience but I kinda feel like I'd cancel the engagement if I saw poo poo like that. This is right at the end of the engagement, this was the last piece of paperwork holding it up and if they had just signed it and turned it over without incident we’d probably have delivered the final copies today. No hint of foul play before now, but since it’s a review rather than an audit, it’s based mostly on inquiry and analytical review rather than direct evidence of balances/transactions. (This is for better and worse - we’re less likely to catch non-obvious errors or fraud, but we also have less liability because it’s a lot lower bar to clear to issue an opinion.) We’re still likely to issue at some point, but we’re gonna have some more conversations with some additional people first to figure out what the hell is going on here. We’re talking to the executive director (who also supposedly signed the letter, and is the boss of the other person who actually handled production of the letter and sent it to us) next week to see how much of this he knows about. Strange thing is the guy who did this started right at the end of the year under review, he barely had opportunity to do anything illicit. I wonder if he knows about someone else’s actions that he doesn’t want to tell us about, because if the guy himself had committed fraud, why not just lie about it and keep those bits in the rep letter? So we’ll see how this shakes out next week, but either way I think we’re gonna have some long conversations about whether we want these people as clients anymore.
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Aug 7, 2021 01:07
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You’ll never want them as a client again, but the Partner will.
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Aug 7, 2021 01:50
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Hellblazer187 posted:Edit: At a former employer I used to do payroll manually for clients too, it sucks. And for whatever reason back when I did that our firm wasn't able to efile the 941s. So it was a big loving headache printing, signing, scanning 100 of those every quarter. And then if you ever made a mistake on a 941, like transpose two digits on an EIN or something, lmao good luck rip. It's because every client has to sign a separate form authorizing e-filing of 941s because the IRS requires this one quarter before you start e-filing. If the clients predate the e-filing system for 941s, it can be like pulling teeth to get them to sign that drat paper, for some odd reason.
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Aug 8, 2021 19:46
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Had a 3rd round interview for a CFO position yesterday...They said to expect an offer letter today or Monday at the latest so guess I'll just sit here refreshing my inbox for the next 72 hours! Edit: Alrighty, got the offer letter last night. I figure someone might be interested in how the process went, and honestly, I'm obviously very excited about it so here's some elaboration: For a bit of background, I've worked at the same company for nearly 10 years, started as a staff accountant right out of college. I never had much interest in doing public accounting though I certainly applied to every Big 4 back then, but the only interview I got in the 2012 was with a local real estate firm so I got in there and just stuck with it ever since. Pay was never great, but last year I was promoted to Controller (pay still wasn't amazing but with bonuses could scrape through the six figure mark this year). A CPA in our network contacted me and said they had a client who was growing and looking to hire a CFO so although I wasn't necessarily looking for a job, I went ahead and sent them an updated resume. Pretty quickly got a phone screening interview, and then scheduled an in person interview. Before that I had to do two online assessment quizzes, one was like 10 minutes long, one of those kinda rapid fire esoteric quizzes that will supposedly give them insights into your personality. The second quiz was longer but more of the same "what would you do in this situation sort of thing". First interview was with COO for 30 minutes and then the owner for 60 minutes. I wore a suit but as I sat down in the lobby to wait I stared at a poster of Biggie Smalls and thought "I may have over dressed for this". After this interview they sent me a 3rd assessment test to do online. This one was much longer, about two hours. It was four sections, one section was about 200 questions of stuff like "do you often feel sad or angry?". There was also a lengthy section of actual accounting questions. Think like really basic FAR stuff. Second interview was a week later with their accounting team, that ended up being about two hours. Then this week I met once again with the owner and a couple other executives for two hours and then went to lunch. Owner and I discussed pay a bit, but I left it at here's where I'd like to get too, send me an offer letter you're comfortable with and we can discuss and punch it up as necessary. So starting offer is a 60% increase in comp from my current job..Everything else (pto, health care, 401K etc) seems like a wash so sounds like after 10 years I'm actually gonna take a new job! Anyways, sorry for the wall of text but figured the accounting thread was the place to dump all this! untzthatshit fucked around with this message at 13:49 on Aug 21, 2021 |
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Aug 20, 2021 18:52
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Congrats! Sounds like a great opportunity.
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Aug 24, 2021 15:13
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If an accounts manager were to get defrauded in a BEC scam to the tune of £300k, but that money was all recovered, how likely do you think dismissal would be?
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Sep 1, 2021 11:57
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!Klams posted:If an accounts manager were to get defrauded in a BEC scam to the tune of £300k, but that money was all recovered, how likely do you think dismissal would be? No idea, let us know how it turns out for you
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Sep 2, 2021 01:57
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Hello Klams Since everyone in the office is working so hard lately I wanted to get everyone a present. Please purchase 300,000 in target gift cards and send me all the numbers on the back Thank you Mr CEO
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Sep 2, 2021 02:22
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Sitting for REG tomorrow 0_0 Only studied ~55 hours for this one but got a 79 on my practice exam If I don't pass I will be very upset
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Sep 2, 2021 19:58
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black.lion posted:Sitting for REG tomorrow 0_0 REG is the easiest one IMO, but I had 3 years of work experience in tax and and EA when I took it so YMMV. Best of luck, though! Is this your first section?
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Sep 2, 2021 20:09
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No I've passed AUD and FAR so far - and I've been a tax preparer for 4 years so I'm hoping it's my easiest too  But the anxiety has a new flavor in that I really REALLY feel like I have to pass this one first time or change careers, bc I've been a tax preparer for 4 years D:
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Sep 2, 2021 20:26
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Sat for FAR today and coulda gone worse Was sure I failed Audit and got a 78 so hopefully this is a good sign
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Sep 3, 2021 02:31
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When I took the test back in 2013 I felt progressively worse and worse about my performance on each part but ended up getting better and better scores on each part so 
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Sep 3, 2021 17:23
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Ungratek posted:Sat for FAR today and coulda gone worse Sat for REG today, feel like it coulda gone either way. Made the mistake of looking up a couple things I wasn't sure of, which has now made me think I was wrong about everything. But I also thought I failed both AUD and FAR
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Sep 4, 2021 00:50
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black.lion posted:Sat for REG today, feel like it coulda gone either way. Made the mistake of looking up a couple things I wasn't sure of, which has now made me think I was wrong about everything. For the Canadian exams I always tell my staff writing exams/modules that if you think you failed you probably did passably well because you knew what you didn't know and understood why the questions were tricky. In my experience it's generally a subset of the dumbasses that come out feeling great about everything. That said, ours are designed such that it's almost unheard of to get a perfect score. I don't know how that translates to the US exams.
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Sep 4, 2021 14:20
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MrAmazing posted:For the Canadian exams I always tell my staff writing exams/modules that if you think you failed you probably did passably well because you knew what you didn't know and understood why the questions were tricky. In my experience it's generally a subset of the dumbasses that come out feeling great about everything. Yeah, I know my Core 2 practice cases are getting better and better, and yet I keep noticing more and more things I missed after I submitted them. On the plus side, I have two more practice cases and integrated problems (and the stupid module workshop assignments due Friday) before my exam on the 23rd. After that, I hope to never need to remember much about cost and management accounting. Instead, my next module will be tax.
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Sep 8, 2021 21:38
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Crushed FAR. Gotta finish busy season then it’s BEC and REG this winter and I’m DONE
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Sep 15, 2021 01:47
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niceu bud!!! i passed REG, now just BEC and im finally done! we da best
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Sep 15, 2021 11:27
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Congrats, folks!
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Sep 15, 2021 16:24
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Congrats on passing the exam parts!
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Sep 16, 2021 01:54
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I am trying to figure out how I hosed up today. My junior quit after just 8 days. I wrote up a summary of the situation here and responded to all the comments. A lot of people said I overdid the training and scared them off. I think they're right. I was told ro really focus on training before my boss hired someone with no experience and they wanted them ready for returns by February. Well, here's the full writeup. All I know is she suddenly quit today, convinced she didn't have the ability to do this job. https://www.reddit.com/r/taxpros/comments/ppl75w/my_junior_just_quit_did_i_mess_up
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Sep 17, 2021 00:18
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Hiring someone during busy season just seems cruel
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Sep 17, 2021 00:39
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Ungratek posted:Hiring someone during busy season just seems cruel It's not busy season for us. We get 95% of our taxes done by tax day. I haven't stayed late since May. I just need time to do my normal 9 to 5 work. I know that's not universal and comes down to how I pace things. Like I do 100 business clients by myself so I kind of learned balance. But I was getting calls for help from two other offices who were clearly in panic mode.
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Sep 17, 2021 00:43
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Covok posted:I am trying to figure out how I hosed up today. My junior quit after just 8 days. I wrote up a summary of the situation here and responded to all the comments. A lot of people said I overdid the training and scared them off. I think they're right. I was told ro really focus on training before my boss hired someone with no experience and they wanted them ready for returns by February. Well, here's the full writeup. All I know is she suddenly quit today, convinced she didn't have the ability to do this job. Hiring a first year and not being right next to them and ready to answer all questions in the nicest way possible is a recipe for disaster in basically all accounting jobs. Almost all first years spend the entirety of their first few months staring at their computer in deep imposter syndrome induced existential dread or finding new and creative ways to break your spreadsheets. You need to coax them into competency like skittish woodland animals. Yeah it sounds like you scared her away.
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Sep 17, 2021 00:56
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Good Citizen posted:Hiring a first year and not being right next to them and ready to answer all questions in the nicest way possible is a recipe for disaster in basically all accounting jobs. Almost all first years spend the entirety of their first few months staring at their computer in deep imposter syndrome induced existential dread or finding new and creative ways to break your spreadsheets. You need to coax them into competency like skittish woodland animals. Just for the record, because you bring up spreadsheets, this is not a big or midsized firm, this is just a small regional office of 5 people.
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Sep 17, 2021 01:00
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My mind can't comprehend how it is possible to work without spreadsheets haha. I'm in international, so every return I work on is on extension, just finished three weeks of 16 hour days, only thing keeping me going was the direct deposit yesterday.
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Sep 17, 2021 01:29
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Wait a second.... someone who doesn't know what an EIN is, didn't know what a 1099 was.... how do you make it to adult life without knowing what A RENTAL(!) is... this person receives compensation of 60k, with 401k and benefits? Is that normal? My first accounting job paid... 30k. It wasn't until year 7 or 8 of my career that I was making 60k. I think my viewpoint of salaries is all messed up (partly that's not living in the US for like ten years, I don't even know what anything is like anymore). Did this person have an accounting degree? A business degree? I know this was meant to be "entry level" but wow this is wild. I think you're probably being too hard on yourself. This was never going to work out. Even if you were gruff and frustrated with the new hire... you kinda gotta be able to deal with gruff and frustrated in this business. Also, even if it is your fault, all that means is you've kept one person from throwing their life away on accounting. It's a public service.
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Sep 17, 2021 02:39
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Hellblazer187 posted:Wait a second.... someone who doesn't know what an EIN is, didn't know what a 1099 was.... how do you make it to adult life without knowing what A RENTAL(!) is... this person receives compensation of 60k, with 401k and benefits? Is that normal? My first accounting job paid... 30k. It wasn't until year 7 or 8 of my career that I was making 60k. I think my viewpoint of salaries is all messed up (partly that's not living in the US for like ten years, I don't even know what anything is like anymore). In New York they pay you 60k so you’re just barely exempt from overtime laws lol
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Sep 17, 2021 02:51
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Good Citizen posted:In New York they pay you 60k so you’re just barely exempt from overtime laws lol I was about to say. This is Long Island, that's just the minimum in NY to keep you exempt from overtime. It Isn't an amazing salary in NY. COL here is unreal. A 60k salary is middling to low for an entry level accountant. It's just above overtime exemption of 55k. And next year that becomes 58k. It's literally just what you expect for an entry level person with no accounting experience, only worked in payroll, and got her bachelor's 6 years ago. It's like 35k in most other areas. Like a lot of people on reddit are losing their minds over this salary and just do not know the NY accounting market. Covok fucked around with this message at 02:59 on Sep 17, 2021 |
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Sep 17, 2021 02:56
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Covok posted:I was about to say. This is Long Island, that's just the minimum in NY to keep you exempt from overtime. It Isn't an amazing salary in NY. COL here is unreal. Yeah it’s really not that crazy. I was making about that as a first year in another less expensive major city like 6 years ago
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Sep 17, 2021 02:59
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Good Citizen posted:Yeah it’s really not that crazy. I was making about that as a first year in another less expensive major city like 6 years ago I think a lot of people don't get CoL adjustments because, especially on reddit, some people are calling her an entitled idiot because they only made 40k in rural Alabama and do not realize they make like 2-3 times more than her post COL adjustments.
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Sep 17, 2021 03:03
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Oh, yeah. NY. I don't know poo poo about NY, excepts it's expensive enough that I'd never want to live there.
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Sep 17, 2021 03:42
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Man I'm severely underpaid, I'm finally making $60K base, and I've been doing this for 10 years. I'm on Long Island as well but I'm at a mom and pop shop dealing with extremely blue collar families and small businesses, and you're at like an H&R or something right? I don't think you handled the teaching thing great, you started her on too many things at once. You both overestimated and underestimated her ability to learn what she needed by February. You assumed she couldn't learn everything in time so you tried to teach too much at once. You should have focused on just one task for a few days to a week at a time before adding different things. Everyone learns differently so I can't say that lectures are unequivocally poo poo, but for me that would have just been information overload that I wouldn't retain and for the people I tutored in college and the random interns we've had at my office over the years I think it was the same. Accounting in my experience works best when you learn by doing. For your next hiring attempt have a plan of what work you will be feeding them. If you want them to sit with people get them comfortable with the program you use and the workflow of entering the information so they can worry about the actually interviewing the client part by February. My office hired another person to be a tax preparer this past year who is a similar profile to your person, 6+ years out of college, worked at a payroll firm, actual tax prep experience was one tax season doing VITA and one tax season shadowing at an H&R Block. I set the goal of her working on data entry for me and the senior accountant at the firm and working up to her independently finishing mailed in returns by the end of the season, with our final approval of course. I didn't gently caress around with teaching her corporates or bookkeeping until the summer because I wanted her to get competent and comfortable at one aspect before introducing the next. Next tax season I expect her to be able to assist in preparing both business and personal returns and at a quicker pace than she was capable of last season.
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Sep 17, 2021 03:49
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Just buy a current edition PassKey EA study guide and have the next hire read the individual section. I started my first job in accounting with "you can stay if you get your EA within 4 months" but there was enough downtime in the office that I could study a lot of the work day. Probably better training than a lecture.
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Sep 17, 2021 03:55
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Epi Lepi posted:Man I'm severely underpaid, I'm finally making $60K base, and I've been doing this for 10 years. I'm on Long Island as well but I'm at a mom and pop shop dealing with extremely blue collar families and small businesses, and you're at like an H&R or something right? Part of the problem is that I am the only accountant in the office due to understaffing. My boss doesn't touch anything but her clients. It's hard doing 700 tax returns and 100 business returns, bookkeeping, payroll, and sales tax by myself. When I asked for a new hire, I demanded 3 years experience and be able to hit the ground running. I didn't want to teach. I need someone who can help me with my work in the short term too. But I guess it is what it is. I need to suffer longer if I want this to work out, I guess. Also, seriously, you are underpaid for a 10 year tax preparer. Also, I don't work for H&R. I work for a major securities company. Covok fucked around with this message at 04:12 on Sep 17, 2021 |
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Sep 17, 2021 04:09
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If you’re making 60k a year with 10 years experience and a cpa you are underpaid in this market. I don’t care where you live. Fully half the recruiter emails I get these days are completely remote anyway
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Sep 17, 2021 04:25
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Yeah it's lovely but the senior accountant will be retiring in the next few years and the practice will be mine so I can live with it. I can afford the mortgage on my condo so I'm cool.
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Sep 17, 2021 04:30
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Whats the practice worth? I'm kinda trying to do the same thing - they just put me in the partner program, but I still need to get the revenue of course - the head of the international practice is retiring in the next year, so I should inherit some of his book, but it is a grind for sure in public.
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Sep 17, 2021 06:51
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