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PEP is the same as PREP where you need 75% in the course deliverables to take the exam right? cause to be brutally honest my prep strategy has been to just do the minimum effort to get that 75% then go back to studying my own way and its probably going to be the same approach I take for PEP and the CFE. I wouldn't feel bad for a second about skipping deliverables cause its the exams that matters most. It's funny you mention the corporate tax stuff because that's exactly what one of the questions had us do in the Tax PREP exam I took lol. I have a feeling a lot of people ate poo poo on that and the personal tax questions though because I was not feeling good about putting that stuff together and ended up with a 93% on the written portion of the exam.
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Apr 27, 2023 04:45
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tony quidtana posted:PEP is the same as PREP where you need 75% in the course deliverables to take the exam right? cause to be brutally honest my prep strategy has been to just do the minimum effort to get that 75% then go back to studying my own way and its probably going to be the same approach I take for PEP and the CFE. I wouldn't feel bad for a second about skipping deliverables cause its the exams that matters most. Yeah, you need a 75% in the module itself (and participation in the weekend-long workshop is mandatory and counts as 10% I think), but you get a 1/2 on submitting the assignment and 2/2 if you get an overall grade of C or CD on the assignment. It's not hard to qualify for the exam, and the whole point of the work is to see where you're going in terms of learning what they look for during an exam. One of our other staff members recently failed the Core 1 exam so it's possible, but Core 1 has the lowest overall pass rate (I assume it's because enough people aren't quite into the groove of case-based writing), and also English isn't her first language so maybe she struggles with communication. It does seem easy, but IME more than a handful of people struggle with it outright. There are probably multiple reasons, but I still remember people in the workshops having trouble that seemed very obvious to me. Like, honestly, they'd have questions about presentations that are answered by simply asking yourself, "Is a client going to care about that?" If not, don't worry about it. If so, you might have to explain this. I think I said this before, but in the Capstone 2 workshop I did last month, the SAME GUY that was in the Capstone 1 workshop must've asked 15-20 questions each day, most of which were obvious. "To qualify for writing the CFE, you need a 75% in Capstone 2 module. You will receive 2/2 as long as you make a reasonable attempt upon submission." "Uh, how are we being marked on our submissions?" Not "how are we assessed?" But the actual marks themselves. Buddy, it's obviously a participation mark. tony quidtana posted:It's funny you mention the corporate tax stuff because that's exactly what one of the questions had us do in the Tax PREP exam I took lol. I have a feeling a lot of people ate poo poo on that and the personal tax questions though because I was not feeling good about putting that stuff together and ended up with a 93% on the written portion of the exam. The Tax PEP exam didn't ask me about that. They just wanted me to compile information about separate issues, like principal residence exemptions, income attribution rules, or calculate individual dividend refund balances, that kind of thing. Oh, and I had to learn divorce rules from scratch because I NEVER touched on it at all in my studying. I mean, they know that a lot of that stuff is done by software in the real world so you don't need to know the specifics, but you should know how dividend refunds work, or RRSP rules, etc. It's two cases, somewhere between 90-120 minutes long (I think mine were 100 and 80 or something), and they don't want you spending a half-hour creating a chart to sit there and calculating federal taxes from scratch. I think the practice cases are purposefully made harder to make the exam easier. Edit: I also didn't find this out until like, earlier this year, but if you want the Public Accounting Licence (to sign off on financial statements under an assurance engagement), there are specific PEP requirements: you need to take both Assurance and Taxation elective modules, pick the Assurance role for the Day 2 CFE exam, and also get a "Competent" designation in both Assurance and Financial Reporting. Also a minimum of 425 hours of audit PERT experience. I picked Taxation because I have no real-world audit experience so I'll just pick it up with an extra course after. If not, guess I won't be a partner in an audit firm. mojo1701a fucked around with this message at 20:06 on Apr 28, 2023 |
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Apr 27, 2023 16:02
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As a real estate accountant not a tax accountant I still pay someone else to do my taxes, just got call from new tax people I'm using because my brother did. I'm getting no refund besides like $60 for 2022, and somehow I owe money for 2021. In the past guy I used got me $3k+ on a return, and before that got nice returns of thousands of dollars. I'm not making over $89k to enter a new tax bracket or anything ($85k at the moment) so I can't really think why I wouldn't get any refund at all. His bullshit explanation for 2021 was I worked two different jobs (I left a position and took the higher paying one I am still at now) and something about the withholding. Anybody here able to punch out a super basic return for me to see if these people are valid or should I just use TurboTax or someshit myself to confirm.
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Apr 28, 2023 20:27
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knox posted:His bullshit explanation for 2021 was I worked two different jobs (I left a position and took the higher paying one I am still at now) and something about the withholding. Why do you think his explanation is bullshit? A tax refund is when you’ve paid in more throughout the year than was ultimately owed. I wouldn’t be surprised that you filled in the post-2019 style W-4 at the new job and that you no longer were overwithholding like you were under the pre-2020 style W-4 at the old job. What was your income in 2020 and 2021, and what were your withholdings in each year?
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Apr 28, 2023 21:12
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knox posted:As a real estate accountant not a tax accountant I still pay someone else to do my taxes, just got call from new tax people I'm using because my brother did. I'm getting no refund besides like $60 for 2022, and somehow I owe money for 2021. In the past guy I used got me $3k+ on a return, and before that got nice returns of thousands of dollars. I'm not making over $89k to enter a new tax bracket or anything ($85k at the moment) so I can't really think why I wouldn't get any refund at all. His bullshit explanation for 2021 was I worked two different jobs (I left a position and took the higher paying one I am still at now) and something about the withholding. This literally happens all the loving time. Both of your jobs are withholding based on what your income will be for that job. Guess what, when you add two W-2s together you probably end up in a higher effective rate than each job was withholding for. That's besides the fact that the withholding tables keep getting tweaked every year since Trumps abortion of a tax plan so that people "see more money in their paycheck" which they never notice and then cry to me when they don't get the same refunds they got pre 2018.
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Apr 29, 2023 03:06
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Rip I had an interview with a few cpas. I ended up filling up an accounting test. Hope that doesn't mean anything and I gdt the job.
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Apr 29, 2023 04:20
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knox posted:As a real estate accountant not a tax accountant I still pay someone else to do my taxes, just got call from new tax people I'm using because my brother did. I'm getting no refund besides like $60 for 2022, and somehow I owe money for 2021. In the past guy I used got me $3k+ on a return, and before that got nice returns of thousands of dollars. I'm not making over $89k to enter a new tax bracket or anything ($85k at the moment) so I can't really think why I wouldn't get any refund at all. His bullshit explanation for 2021 was I worked two different jobs (I left a position and took the higher paying one I am still at now) and something about the withholding. I don't get a chance to say my honest opinion of this kind of thinking in real life, so thanks to SA I get to tell you that you have a baby's brain.
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Apr 29, 2023 05:20
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Gabriel Grub posted:I don't get a chance to say my honest opinion of this kind of thinking in real life, so thanks to SA I get to tell you that you have a baby's brain. Happy for you the anonymous internet provides that opportunity. I have a baby's brain. The guy was rude on the phone, has taken longer than they told me, and I assumed my returns would be in-line with the 10 years of experience I've had. I just have to get in touch with the old guy my friend put me on to again, he confirmed for me he's still working so I let them know to stop any additional work and let me know what the fee is. knox fucked around with this message at 07:04 on Apr 29, 2023 |
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Apr 29, 2023 06:58
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It sounds like you don't even know how much your taxes were, because you just talk about how much the refund is; the jangling keys of the adult world. There's a chance he's being rude to you because he wants you to go away. It's very common in the tax prep industry, and it works.
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Apr 29, 2023 10:00
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This is up there with the time I had someone complain that they withheld a higher percentage of a bonus cheque they got. Buddy, if you want the same rate of withholding then you're gonna get one hell of a surprise come tax-time unless you plan on depositing that into a tax-deductible account.
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Apr 29, 2023 17:47
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Anyone have experience with asc 842 operating Leases? I think we're late but Private company with 10+ Leases, ~3 new planned this year with scattered abatement and ti allowances Read a few articles. Wrapping my head around the month to month and effects on ebitda / working capital. How big of a project is this? Software recommendations? Is this enough for a fte hire? Is this a project I should jump into for a promotion or is more tedious project and should be avoided/ pushed onto someone else?
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Apr 29, 2023 19:59
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I hate doing taxes as much as the next guy but my immediate thought was that you hosed up filling out the tax forms when you changed jobs because payroll is usually accrued on the assumption that you're sticking with that job throughout the year unless you indicate otherwise. Not pinning all of societies woes directly on you dude but I do think it says something about why its basically impossible to get infrastructure projects done or turn a large business around when as a society you can just black box something and ship it off to "your guy" and if you get a result that isn't exactly what you wanted back there isn't any critical thinking as to why you got a different result, it has to be 100% "your guy"s fault that he didn't magically conjure the outcome you wanted.
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Apr 29, 2023 21:50
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Emandesunu posted:Anyone have experience with asc 842 operating Leases? I think we're late but I have tons of experience in this area. It’s honestly not that bad except for two areas. The first is the Incremental borrowing rate. Thats usually a pain to develop and update but you’re a private company so you can just use the practical expedient and utilize the risk free rate. The second issue is testing for embedded leases, to ensure that some production line or warehouse you’re storing some goods at doesn’t need to be classified as a lease now. This requires monitoring new contracts for lease language At the end of the day though it’s really just a balance sheet exercise and most auditors have moved on from caring all that much about it. Make sure to use all the practical expedients like for IBR as mentioned above, the short term lease exception, and the lease/nonlease component shortcut and you’ll be alright. There’s some software out there that can help but even when I ran the program at a big public company with more leases I just did it in an excel file with a few macros. Feel free to PM me if you’re getting stuck somewhere, or read the free Big 4 explainers on the topic since they’re really comprehensive
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Apr 29, 2023 22:50
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knox posted:His bullshit explanation for 2021 was I worked two different jobs (I left a position and took the higher paying one I am still at now) and something about the withholding. Gabriel Grub posted:There's a chance he's being rude to you because he wants you to go away. It's very common in the tax prep industry, and it works.  i mean, it's possible he's being rude and it's just a coincidence that OP is a bad client, but usually that's not a coincidence
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Apr 30, 2023 00:00
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Gabriel Grub thread MVP, keeping it real.
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May 1, 2023 18:21
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mojo1701a posted:This is up there with the time I had someone complain that they withheld a higher percentage of a bonus cheque they got. When they stop complaining is when you know you’re in trouble. That’s because they realized that they can just go on their employer’s W-4 online portal and they can just claim exempt on their bonus check!
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May 1, 2023 18:48
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God I hate some of these Capstone 2 practice cases. They're meant to prep you for the CFE but one of my AO's literally requires me to research Non-GAAP Measures and the online discussion board confirmed what I knew: none of that poo poo was ever studied or in the e-books. I mean, for a stand-alone assignment it's fine, because sure, in the real world you'd have to do research. But if it's meant to be exam prep and you'll only have access to financial reporting standards and the ITA, then, uh... what the hell?
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May 3, 2023 15:22
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knox posted:As a real estate accountant not a tax accountant I still pay someone else to do my taxes, just got call from new tax people I'm using because my brother did. I'm getting no refund besides like $60 for 2022, and somehow I owe money for 2021. In the past guy I used got me $3k+ on a return, and before that got nice returns of thousands of dollars. I'm not making over $89k to enter a new tax bracket or anything ($85k at the moment) so I can't really think why I wouldn't get any refund at all. His bullshit explanation for 2021 was I worked two different jobs (I left a position and took the higher paying one I am still at now) and something about the withholding. Are you sure you're an accountant at all
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May 3, 2023 16:04
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mojo1701a posted:God I hate some of these Capstone 2 practice cases. They're meant to prep you for the CFE but one of my AO's literally requires me to research Non-GAAP Measures and the online discussion board confirmed what I knew: none of that poo poo was ever studied or in the e-books. Every educator thinks they're some galaxy brain super genius for putting some niche difficult concept on their assignments that has like a 1.7% chance of actually being a question on the exams. When I did CFA the guy I used for mock exams had quite an ego and just made brutally hard mock exams on niche concepts and I literally just stopped halfway through the second one because it was loving pointless and wasn't going to meaningfully prepare me for what the exam actually is. If you're in education at all and reading this put actual loving effort into your test bank. Have challenging questions relevant to the material with wrong answers that you could realistically arrive at by misunderstanding the concept and then loving explain what was wrong with the answer you arrived at and explain FULLY how to arrive at the correct answer. If I have to look up addition crap for your explaination for the correct answer then your test bank blows. That's my test bank rant
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May 3, 2023 19:24
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tony quidtana posted:Every educator thinks they're some galaxy brain super genius for putting some niche difficult concept on their assignments that has like a 1.7% chance of actually being a question on the exams. It's not the first time that I've seen questions that make me go, "What the gently caress?" but this is the first time it's actually been outside of the scope of what we've been asked to study. Like, there was one assignment where the facilitators admitted that it's a weird assignment, but this is like getting an assignment that asked me about 1040 filing implications. Not "this person declared $X on their 1040 and paid $Y to the IRS," but "Does this qualify under the tax treaty as exempt income?" That's something you do in real life, but that's not something they expect you to know in the exam. I haven't been getting nearly as good results on my practice cases as I'd hoped, but the same thing also happened in pretty much every other module I did and exam marks were always better-than-expected (it has a 75-80% pass rating, FFS). I only need a "competent" in both Financial Reporting and Taxation. I'm more worried about PERT and trying to get an auditing job in a year for my practical experience. Edit: one of the parts of this assignment had me break down R&D costs and whether or not it could be capitalized. Except instead of giving me specific expenses ("research", "sales salaries", "prototypes", etc.) they had it broken down between drug trial phases and a few notes about expenses. I'm not confident in my answer but whatever, I just need to submit it. mojo1701a fucked around with this message at 20:55 on May 3, 2023 |
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May 3, 2023 20:48
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I'm not sure I believe this or not - is NASBA really changing the testing window to 30 months? I'm set in my current job for the next 3-5 years at least so I'm in no rush, and the only reason I hadn't started yet was putting off having to juggle work/family/study etc.. But shoot if I can do one exam every ten months that'd be perfect. It looks like states still need to vote to implement the same rule, is there any indication out there when those decisions are being made?
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May 4, 2023 17:53
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Looks like it, and the states will probably accept it since it’s not like you’re geographically bound to your testing site anyways. I did all my tests in DC but did VA as my board.
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May 4, 2023 18:03
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tony quidtana posted:Every educator thinks they're some galaxy brain super genius for putting some niche difficult concept on their assignments that has like a 1.7% chance of actually being a question on the exams. I got burned on this for BEC when Gearty or whoever recommended to read through the more niche economic concepts, but focus intense study time elsewhere because they’re historically a small percentage of the MC questions. A majority of my second MC module was economic math questions. Still passed, but the wait for results was way more stressful than I thought it would be based on BECs reputation at the time.
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May 4, 2023 18:53
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untzthatshit posted:I'm not sure I believe this or not - is NASBA really changing the testing window to 30 months? NASBA has approved this for the model accounting act. Thankfully, it is with the state boards of accountancy to make the change, not the state legislatures. Makes it much more likely this gets more rapid traction.
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May 5, 2023 01:41
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Democratic Pirate posted:I got burned on this for BEC when Gearty or whoever recommended to read through the more niche economic concepts, but focus intense study time elsewhere because they’re historically a small percentage of the MC questions. A majority of my second MC module was economic math questions. The questions ramp up in difficulty if you are doing well, but the score weights this. It's a good sign if you start getting difficult/obscure questions. I knew FAR was going well when pension accounting questions started showing up.
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May 5, 2023 04:47
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Going on the accounting job grind again. Hopefully get lucky. So far been trying to be nice and honest and willing to learn. Just wanna finally have a mentor to show me the ropes and get paid for that. Got a handful of interviews lined up on my last week of work with this nonprofit. Hoping that it all works out. Gods I'd rather be sleeping in or studying for my CMA/CPA but responsibility comes first. Annointed fucked around with this message at 04:11 on May 9, 2023 |
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May 6, 2023 04:11
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Started my 4 month co-op term with an accounting firm. Everyone seems super nice and helpful but man am I overwhelmed with these practice files in Caseware. I understand what most of these numbers are and how they're supposed to work together, but its like going from a 100 piece puzzle to a 10,000 piece puzzle and also some of the pieces don't fit or are just missing when comparing from school to this. I hope I can find my way into some level of competency, though thankfully the firm has some amazing learning resources and I intend to use them as much as I can.
Overdrift fucked around with this message at 04:13 on May 11, 2023 |
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May 11, 2023 04:11
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Overdrift posted:Started my 4 month co-op term with an accounting firm. Everyone seems super nice and helpful but man am I overwhelmed with these practice files in Caseware. I understand what most of these numbers are and how they're supposed to work together, but its like going from a 100 piece puzzle to a 10,000 piece puzzle and also some of the pieces don't fit or are just missing when comparing from school to this. I hope I can find my way into some level of competency, though thankfully the firm has some amazing learning resources and I intend to use them as much as I can. That feeling is completely normal and it’s because new staff are essentially worthless until they’ve spent a lot of time learning on the job. As long as you’re starting out with a good attitude and a team willing to spend time helping you then you’ll learn to be productive and jaded like the rest of us soon enough
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May 11, 2023 04:34
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yeah. any regimented new job will do that. i worked at the post office and it took me 8 months to attain basic competence at sorting mail and hauling boxes to where i felt like i was at a good position.
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May 11, 2023 04:58
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God I hate CaseWare. Literally the slowest program in existence, especially if there is more than one person in the file. We moved to CCH engagement and I like it a lot better, but we still have a bunch of legacy tax stuff on CW.
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May 11, 2023 21:31
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On last day of job. Hoping that I will get new job soon. Been applying fof accounting many times and so far only got a few interviews.
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May 11, 2023 23:32
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Nea posted:yeah. any regimented new job will do that. i worked at the post office and it took me 8 months to attain basic competence at sorting mail and hauling boxes to where i felt like i was at a good position. Took me a long while to understand this stuff, too. I used to ask a lot of questions that I now just do intuitively. As long as you ask questions and let your supervisors know where your weaknesses are so you can grow and/or they can plan around it is best, assuming they're worth a drat. When I first got hired, I started working two weeks after someone else I went to college with started. She was let go a few months later because she wasn't nearly as inquisitive or open as I was, despite having way better marks than I did in school. We had a coop student last year or two years ago whose work we ended up having to fix a lot of when we carried it forward to the next year. Wasn't his fault, though. One of my coworkers who was briefly a partner ("mutual decision" from what they told me) was supposed to train and supervise him, but didn't really do much of that. Just kept trusting him to do the job instead of actually looking over his stuff from that year.
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May 12, 2023 16:28
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I just got a "conditional fail" on my CFE Day 1 practice case because I didn't put in enough "relevant case facts" into my analysis. God, I'm dreading that Day 1 case because you're judged "holistically" so it's not something you can really study for. I mean, I'm just going to keep going over the assessments and just try to remember what kind of structure they're looking for, but it's still got me spooked nonetheless. Thankfully if I do fail it but pass Days 2 and 3, I only need to redo Day 1 on its own.
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May 15, 2023 18:06
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Been hearing from companies that they prefer contract to hire for accounting? Is this true or a lie? I don't want to work contract for a 1099 and end up paying more in taxes alongside no unemployment.
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May 15, 2023 22:10
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Annointed posted:Been hearing from companies that they prefer contract to hire for accounting? Is this true or a lie? I don't want to work contract for a 1099 and end up paying more in taxes alongside no unemployment. youve heard companies prefer to hire accountants on a contract basis? or are you asking if its cheaper for a company to hire contractors vs employees? trying to parse your phrasing
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May 15, 2023 22:29
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black.lion posted:youve heard companies prefer to hire accountants on a contract basis? or are you asking if its cheaper for a company to hire contractors vs employees? trying to parse your phrasing I have heard from recruiters that companies prefer to hire accountants through contract to hire. Is this true? Honestly I would rather go for a different better position and already have, just wanted to check to make sure.
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May 16, 2023 00:43
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Annointed posted:I have heard from recruiters that companies prefer to hire accountants through contract to hire. Is this true? I think what they mean is that you are hired by the recruiting firm, and are a W-2 employee for them, and if you work out the actual company will convert you. I've done it before. It's a good way to see if someone will work out without committing to them as an employer, or if you have a temporary need that might last, or many things. It would be hard for them to treat a staff accountant as an Independent contractor, though I wouldn't put it past some firms.
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May 16, 2023 04:59
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Having been in industry for a decade+ this entire thread is an enormous pile of Moon Language. A few years ago, I'd have felt like a lesser person. Now? I feel like I dodged a hail of bullets. . . . I'll probably still end up getting a cert or two soon tho~
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May 16, 2023 07:57
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Yet another update: I talked with the partner at the other office who wants me to transfer over once mine's downsized. Turns out he's actually signed an agreement to lease more space, which means that as someone in a more senior position, I'll still have my own office (currently I have my own in this office, but everyone else works in a main area like a bullpen other than him). Furthermore, it sounds like he's going to be hiring at least one or two more people so I'll probably be more supervisory as well. Now I just need to pull a raise from him between the additional responsibility, having to move into an area with a higher COL, and I just got the official notification that I passed Capstone 2 so I'm officially getting to write the CFE in two weeks. tony quidtana posted:When I did CFA the guy I used for mock exams had quite an ego and just made brutally hard mock exams on niche concepts and I literally just stopped halfway through the second one because it was loving pointless and wasn't going to meaningfully prepare me for what the exam actually is. To go back to this, a word of warning: Do all of the Day 1 practice cases if you enter Capstone 2. The Day 1 exam is way different than anything else because they're assessing you "holistically", which means that even though it's a continuation of the large Capstone 1 case and there's a format they expect you to learn ahead of time, there are "other operational issues" you need to identify and address that aren't directly given. The reason I got a "conditional fail" on the one I submitted is because I missed this. If I'd at least gotten a "partial", I would've gotten a conditional pass.
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May 19, 2023 17:11
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What is the job market in NYC looking like?
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May 20, 2023 00:40
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