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renholder posted:ah, ok. what kind of issues do you come up with fin 48 implementation at private companies? just curious Most private companies aren't dealing with the same kind of sophisticated tax structures (read: overseas trusts, variable interest entities, etc.) that are in a more "gray" area that some of the larger companies do. (Disclaimer: Some private companies do it as well, most do not). Circular 230 has dampened the "go for it and let the IRS figure it out" attitude at a lot of firms. Putting a FIN 48 disclosure on your financials is a wonderful roadmap to point the IRS to your audit risk areas. Hence, I make sure all our financials issued are FIN 48 free for our clients, and that has involved making them change their accounting in certain areas.
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Feb 5, 2010 02:48
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Does anyone know a nice clean guide of CPA experience and other requirements state by state? My google skills are failing me. Also, pretty awesome how this thread has died since early Feb, just like my social life edit Or if anyone happens to know this. In North Carolina do you only need one year in a CPA firm after passing the exam and meeting education requirements now? It was two years and I think everyone still thinks it is, but I just saw two separate places online it was only one year now. http://www.aicpa.org/download/states/require_pract.pdf That is what that link is saying right? So if I have 18 months, passed the exam, and meet the education, I'm good to go now? Just need to get the experience affidavit signed? This is an awesome surprise if true Ribsauce fucked around with this message at 02:30 on Feb 26, 2010 |
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Feb 26, 2010 02:24
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Ribsauce posted:Does anyone know a nice clean guide of CPA experience and other requirements state by state? My google skills are failing me. Becker CPA review has a pretty good listing of state by state info on the exam - http://www.beckercpa.com . They also have a really good review program, albeit very expensive (I think around $3k) if your firm doesn't pay for it. I'm not sure about NC, but in MA I think it's a certain number of auditing hours. That means even if you work for a Big 4 or something, if you're in tax you still need to work some audit engagements to get your hours for certification. I don't remember the specifics because I'm in audit and don't really think about that aspect too much.
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Feb 26, 2010 02:45
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Ribsauce posted:Does anyone know a nice clean guide of CPA experience and other requirements state by state? My google skills are failing me. Like the poster above me said, Becker keeps track of all that. Your firm's HR department should know that too though, considering they need to send in the experience documentation and whatever else.
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Feb 26, 2010 03:02
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I took Becker and passed all 4 on the first try. I just thought I needed 2 years of experience as well but it looks like it somehow changed to one year in NC. Man this is awesome, I might already have my requirement for work experience satisfied
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Feb 26, 2010 03:32
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I honestly don't understand how this is possible. The North Carolina experience requirements are apparently one year and have been since 2001 (the lady on the phone told me this but I don't believe her, there is just no way as you will see.) This means I started school after they changed and still all I have ever heard was 2 years. I asked roughly 20 people in two offices at my firm and only one of them said it wasn't 2 years (and for the record he thought it was one with a masters and 150 hours, also incorrect..only 150 hours required.) Every professor I had always said 2 years. I asked the intern who is in school now and he said his professors all say 2 years. I asked 3 people who graduated last year from 3 different colleges and they all said 2 years. How can no one know this? It blows my mind that a total of 4 different recent graduates and an entire staff of CPAs and no one knows, including myself. I'm convinced the lady at the office was wrong and it is a recent change. I should have bet everyone this, I could retire. Anyways, who gives a gently caress, I just pounded out my ethical CPE required to apply and am shipping off the entire packet tomorrow!
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Mar 2, 2010 02:16
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We just changed from 2/public or 5/private to one year of either for experience requirements in Georgia. Fortunately for me this means I'll have the experience requirement done right after graduating, but our state board's website still says two years. I sort of feel like I cheated, expecting 5 years and all. Oh well. These guys need to do a better job getting the word out!
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Mar 2, 2010 02:37
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One might say they need to... Audit their reporting process.  YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
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Mar 2, 2010 03:35
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rockin peanut posted:One might say they need to... Gotta love accountant humor...
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Mar 2, 2010 04:12
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I laughed!
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Mar 2, 2010 04:22
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I used Rogers instead of Becker. Becker gives you way too much stuff thats virtually never seen tested. Both are good, although Rogers is cheaper. I also used yaeger crams and they were very helpful.
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Mar 2, 2010 04:50
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Afro Thunder posted:I used Rogers instead of Becker. Becker gives you way too much stuff thats virtually never seen tested. Both are good, although Rogers is cheaper. I also used yaeger crams and they were very helpful. I kind of agree with this (I've used becker on 3 parts so far, passed two and waiting for the third score). I ended up getting the Becker Final Review as well and with the shorter lectures (20 minutes vs 3 hours) I feel its much easier to retain what is really important. I don't even bother with the normal lectures now.. just the quick lectures and a lot of multiple choice drilling.
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Mar 2, 2010 05:15
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so I have been told that a CPA and financial advisor (I guess a CFP?) team up is pretty common, what about a CPA and Lawyer team up? Hellblazer I know you were talking about doing both a few posts back but what I referring to would be a partnership.
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Mar 2, 2010 06:47
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Brother Michael posted:so I have been told that a CPA and financial advisor (I guess a CFP?) team up is pretty common, what about a CPA and Lawyer team up? Depends on the state, some have ownership requirements (here in OR they relaxed the non-cpa owner rules a few years back). Besides that, you might want to separate the two for liability purposes.
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Mar 2, 2010 08:07
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So, I have a bit of a dilemma. I have two basic choices as a new graduate, a job in audit/assurance, or a job with my current (private) employer. I really want to move into audit, but this private employer has offered me a job as the corporate controller. ~20mil in revenue/yr, 75 people, mid-sized I guess. My question is, if I take this job, would it be harder for me to transition to audit later on? For example, if I hated it, in two years would the CPA firms laugh me away? Or would they see a controller's experience as a plus?
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Mar 3, 2010 17:10
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Desertfox621 posted:So, I have a bit of a dilemma. I have two basic choices as a new graduate, a job in audit/assurance, or a job with my current (private) employer. I really want to move into audit, but this private employer has offered me a job as the corporate controller. ~20mil in revenue/yr, 75 people, mid-sized I guess. My question is, if I take this job, would it be harder for me to transition to audit later on? For example, if I hated it, in two years would the CPA firms laugh me away? Or would they see a controller's experience as a plus? No, the experience would look good but you would still have to start as a staff1 most likely. A lot of people hate audit, I'd take that private position if it pays more.
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Mar 3, 2010 19:08
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Desertfox621 posted:So, I have a bit of a dilemma. I have two basic choices as a new graduate, a job in audit/assurance, or a job with my current (private) employer. I really want to move into audit, but this private employer has offered me a job as the corporate controller. ~20mil in revenue/yr, 75 people, mid-sized I guess. My question is, if I take this job, would it be harder for me to transition to audit later on? For example, if I hated it, in two years would the CPA firms laugh me away? Or would they see a controller's experience as a plus? Why on earth would you want to take an audit staff position over this position?
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Mar 4, 2010 02:30
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Desertfox621 posted:So, I have a bit of a dilemma. I have two basic choices as a new graduate, a job in audit/assurance, or a job with my current (private) employer. I really want to move into audit, but this private employer has offered me a job as the corporate controller. ~20mil in revenue/yr, 75 people, mid-sized I guess. My question is, if I take this job, would it be harder for me to transition to audit later on? For example, if I hated it, in two years would the CPA firms laugh me away? Or would they see a controller's experience as a plus? In my experience, people in public accounting and auditing go into it for two reasons. Some want to become a partner at a firm or eventually start their own, and some use it as a launching pad to something better. Corporate controller is definitely a position that people I work with would love to have after they leave public accounting, so if the money is there then I would suggest going that route.
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Mar 4, 2010 04:30
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Can you still get your CPA designation? I would feel like such a jerkoff if I got an accounting degree and never passed the CPA exam and met the requirements.
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Mar 4, 2010 04:53
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Ribsauce posted:Can you still get your CPA designation? I would feel like such a jerkoff if I got an accounting degree and never passed the CPA exam and met the requirements. This was kind of a similar situation to what I was hoping to do and I am curious about this answer as well. As I understand it, if you have the requirements met you can sit for the CPA and earn the designation, but you wouldn't be licensed. I suppose it would be like getting an MD but then not doing a residency and becoming a practicing doctor. Am I right or wrong here?
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Mar 4, 2010 05:44
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Brother Michael posted:This was kind of a similar situation to what I was hoping to do and I am curious about this answer as well. As I understand it, if you have the requirements met you can sit for the CPA and earn the designation, but you wouldn't be licensed. I suppose it would be like getting an MD but then not doing a residency and becoming a practicing doctor. I believe this varies from state to state. For example in LA you need to work one year directly supervised by a CPA. You can get this in both public accounting or industry. gmilo fucked around with this message at 07:22 on Mar 4, 2010 |
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Mar 4, 2010 07:20
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Thanks for the advice guys. Yes, I would still be able to get my CPA designation. Supervised by a CPA and all. My main concern is something like this...If I take this job and lose it a year later, would my prospects be as good as taking an audit job and losing that a year later? I am aware that controller is a much better position than a staff I  . Most job openings I see are asking for "2 years at a big 4 or large cpa firm." as background experience. Is the audit experience worth a 2 year (or more) pay cut? Just trying to think beyond my first college job...
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Mar 4, 2010 18:42
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If you are in a decision making accounting area of a substantial sized private firm you are in a better position then a recent graduate wanting to get into public accounting. I would be wary of a firm wanting to hire a recent graduate as a controller unless they have some fraud they are looking to dump on some fall guy. It may just be that I am skeptical of everything.
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Mar 4, 2010 21:04
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Desertfox621 posted:Thanks for the advice guys. Yes, I would still be able to get my CPA designation. Supervised by a CPA and all. My main concern is something like this...If I take this job and lose it a year later, would my prospects be as good as taking an audit job and losing that a year later? I am aware that controller is a much better position than a staff I The audit experience is not worth the pay cut. You would also probably hate your life working for big 4 audit in comparison to working for industry.
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Mar 5, 2010 04:06
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Northeastern University has a dual MS Acct / MBA program that's just 15 months long. It's for non-accounting undergrads to boot. When I visited last month (I was at Sloan and saw an ad for this program in the Sloan paper), the NEU recruiter bragged about their 99% placement rate. I don't know how much a NEU MBA is worth in Boston, much less my home state of California. Still, for someone like me who only took a two accounting classes in college, this might be a relatively quick way to CPA-land... http://www.cba.neu.edu/grad/accounting-mba/
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Mar 5, 2010 09:16
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I don't understand how that program is possible. I do have an accounting undergrad degree and as far as I know I can't get a masters and an MBA in 15 months anywhere. Let me be clear I have done no research on this so I am probably wrong
Ribsauce fucked around with this message at 00:02 on Mar 6, 2010 |
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Mar 5, 2010 23:58
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Ribsauce posted:I don't understand how that program is possible. I do have an accounting undergrad degree and as far as I know I can't get a masters and an MBA in 15 months anywhere Yeah, I don't get it either. They even stick a 3-month internship in the middle. (guaranteed) Does the prestige of a Masters of Accounting school matter?
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Mar 6, 2010 00:01
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Mandalay posted:Yeah, I don't get it either. They even stick a 3-month internship in the middle. (guaranteed) Yes. But only for the first job and it won't get you a higher salary. That program confuses me too. How do you get 72 hours and an internship in 2 semesters plus 2 summers? Btw, they have to be lying about the 99% of interns get an offer. Yes chances are good that interns will get offers, but 99% is ridiculous.
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Mar 6, 2010 03:42
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Mandalay posted:Yeah, I don't get it either. They even stick a 3-month internship in the middle. (guaranteed) In my opinion, a Masters of Accountancy isn't a very useful degree in general so I don't really think the school's prestige is much of an issue. Sure, if you have your MSA from a really good school as opposed to a crappy one, it is going to look better. However, the main reason (around here in MA, anyway) why people get their MSA is to get enough credits to become certified. Some people, such as myself, had enough extra credits from undergrad to take a couple of additional courses after graduation and not having the MSA hasn't hurt me a bit.
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Mar 6, 2010 08:41
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BelgianSandwich posted:Btw, they have to be lying about the 99% of interns get an offer. Yes chances are good that interns will get offers, but 99% is ridiculous.
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Mar 6, 2010 16:55
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Cicero posted:99% of interns that responded back to us about whether they got a job got a job! well, at least they teach creative accounting 
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Mar 6, 2010 22:15
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Mandalay posted:Yeah, I don't get it either. They even stick a 3-month internship in the middle. (guaranteed) I disagree with the guy who says it matters. Sometimes it even helps to be a big fish in a small pond. I'm just finishing up a MAcc at a mediocre at best (but an AACSB accredited) school and there are about 15 people in the program who landed jobs with big 4's (including myself) out of a class of about 50. It's just the people who are on the ball about internships and co-op's.
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Mar 6, 2010 22:56
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There were 203 people in my intern class, and only one didn't get an offer. That person didn't get an offer because he allegedly sexually harassed a senior associate (it is said that he told her "drat, you white but you got a black rear end!") but he was still allowed to finish out his internship.
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Mar 7, 2010 09:15
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hellboundburrito posted:In my opinion, a Masters of Accountancy isn't a very useful degree in general so I don't really think the school's prestige is much of an issue. Sure, if you have your MSA from a really good school as opposed to a crappy one, it is going to look better. However, the main reason (around here in MA, anyway) why people get their MSA is to get enough credits to become certified. Some people, such as myself, had enough extra credits from undergrad to take a couple of additional courses after graduation and not having the MSA hasn't hurt me a bit.
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Mar 7, 2010 11:17
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hellboundburrito posted:There were 203 people in my intern class, and only one didn't get an offer. That person didn't get an offer because he allegedly sexually harassed a senior associate (it is said that he told her "drat, you white but you got a black rear end!") but he was still allowed to finish out his internship. Well, we accountants are not known for our people skills.
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Mar 7, 2010 20:09
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Mandalay posted:well, at least they teach creative accounting No lie, CMA's, an alternative designation in Canada, literally had the slogan 'creative accountants' 2 years ago. Not sure what they were thinking...
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Mar 7, 2010 20:11
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Just posting to echo the sentiment that a masters in accounting is just for people that had undergrad degrees that didn't give them enough units to take the CPA exam. Most CPAs I know at higher levels have their MBAs but the few that I know that have MAs had undergrad majors like marketing/advertising/business with the bare minimum of accounting units. Also, does anyone have any experience with the FCPA? I've been looking into going into Forensic Accounting.
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Mar 8, 2010 02:24
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Afro Thunder posted:Just posting to echo the sentiment that a masters in accounting is just for people that had undergrad degrees that didn't give them enough units to take the CPA exam. Most CPAs I know at higher levels have their MBAs but the few that I know that have MAs had undergrad majors like marketing/advertising/business with the bare minimum of accounting units. I don't have any experience with the FCPA, but I too am interested in forensic accounting. I had a professor in college who was a CPA and a CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner), and had worked as a CPA at E&Y, US Attorney, Special Agent with the FBI and ultimately ended up as a DCIS special agent with the DoD. He used to emphasize that the CPA/CFE combination was an excellent thing to have and could make you a lot of money and open a lot of doors.
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Mar 8, 2010 04:39
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hellboundburrito posted:I don't have any experience with the FCPA, but I too am interested in forensic accounting. I had a professor in college who was a CPA and a CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner), and had worked as a CPA at E&Y, US Attorney, Special Agent with the FBI and ultimately ended up as a DCIS special agent with the DoD. He used to emphasize that the CPA/CFE combination was an excellent thing to have and could make you a lot of money and open a lot of doors. I've heard the CFE is a very easy certification to get. Getting a lot of good experience actually using it seems much harder.
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Mar 8, 2010 07:11
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gmilo posted:I've heard the CFE is a very easy certification to get. Getting a lot of good experience actually using it seems much harder. I don't know much about the CFE so I'm not sure how easy it is to get, but I agree the experience to use it is pretty hard to get. It seems like it takes a while to move up in a Big 4 to the point where they would let you transfer into a role like that, and obviously there are a lot of hurdles in becoming a federal agent that would allow you to use it as well.
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Mar 9, 2010 04:40
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