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It seems like this thread has migrated into being almost all public accounting?
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Mar 15, 2022 09:48
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 00:27 |
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Well I consider myself an accountant, but I’m a finance director, did a bachelors and masters in accounting, almost went public as a valuation specialist but I was 2nd choice like 3 times and ended up not. Have HR and info under me, 4 staff/seniors and 2 ap people.
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Mar 15, 2022 18:19
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Good Citizen posted:Sounds like that qualifies to me. Complain away Okay, I just bent over loving backward and spent months positioning and using my political leverage to create a role for someone who was a contractor and I gave her the salary she asked for, even though it makes her the 3rd highest paid person in the org, and she accepted and then it wasn't an easy handover due to political bullshit and she now doesn't want to stay; and wont even stay for a month or two even though I let her be the implementation person for two software projects in order to help secure her role. So now I have to hire a staff accountant and some kind of database person.
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Mar 15, 2022 20:47
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I’m adding another staff accountant to my team I guess I should post that in the jobs thread.
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Mar 16, 2022 21:37
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Beta Alpha Psi Try to do an internship, generally tax is easier to get into than audit but it depends on the market. Also look for industry internships, most of the posters in this thread are in public accounting (the fools) but most accounting jobs are not in public accounting. Bookkeeping can be good experience but imo it’s better if you can work somewhere with full cycle accounting, 3 point match on AP and that actually generates periodic financial statements for some kind of stakeholder.
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May 11, 2022 05:27
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black.lion posted:Thanks y'all! <3 It's pretty mind-boggling to me that so many people take the CPA exam. As someone who hires accountants and supervises 3 of them, I actually consider it a potential liability that someone spent 2 years of their life studying for an exam that doesn't make them better at their job.
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Jun 3, 2022 21:23
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Good Citizen posted:Passing gives you a bonus in most CPA firms and you can't promote to manager without one. Also most job recruiters see it as a positive or offer higher wages if you have one, so you're an outlier If your plan is to stay in public accounting to the manager level and beyond it makes perfect sense. If you want to self-select for the kind of hiring where people don't know what a CPA means, it also makes perfect sense. The other kind is the ones who are CPAs themselves and won't admit what a terrible test it is and how meaningless passing it is as an indicator of anything other than your ability to take tests. So if you want the kind of manager that is into hazing, it's a good way to help you get hazed more.
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Jun 3, 2022 21:33
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Hellblazer187 posted:You are absolutely 100% an outlier on this. I hate to break it to you but I talk to my peers.
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Jun 3, 2022 22:02
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Hellblazer187 posted:Lol. "Getting a well recognized professional designation? Bit of a red flag, if you ask me." Oh, I definitely agree with most people it will help you. Those are just specifically the jobs I don't want, working for the people I don't want to work for.
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Jun 3, 2022 22:34
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When I was preparing Qs I loving hated the people I worked with, and absolutely didn't respect my manager or her boss, and was non-nonplussed that those people thought the CPA was a big deal and a strong indicator of being smart and a good accountant, also non-nonplussed to learn they were all CPAs. The problem with the CPA exam is it doesn't signify what people think it does, and there is a similar problem with attestation services in general. A "clean" audit doesn't signify what people think it does, and for some reason, the people actually offering the attestation services don't even remotely care about changing that public perception, just protecting themselves legally. To me, the two problems seem inextricably linked; and like a useful thought experiment for thinking about what kind of jobs and career you actually want and what kind of people you want to work for and with. When someone applies to work for me and is a CPA I just ask them why they took the exam and what they thought of it, I do the same for people who don't hold it, though a lot less specifically. I think it's a really useful tool for establishing if people can actually reason and reflect.
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Jun 3, 2022 22:52
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PatMarshall posted:lol stop huffing your own farts I just love that episode of the X-files so any chance I get to reference it I can't pass up. Ungratek posted:What do you do when the reason is “to advance your career and make more money”? Which is the answer that all of us here are giving. I think that's a really good answer, and more or less the one I'm looking for.
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Jun 5, 2022 00:50
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Jhordhynne posted:I know the exam is the next step, but the work experience portion is killing me. I have a couple of CPAs who could sign off on my work, but I'm not sure how direct their supervision has to be. If they couldn't, would it be worth leaving and going into a public firm? Otherwise, would I be missing out on anything by not having that public experience? I guess I'm just worried about my boss retiring in the future and how handicapped I might be in applying for the next job. Just ask them if they'd be willing to sign. It's very state dependent on exactly how close that linkage needs to be, and largely up to that CPA to determine if they are comfortable. If you start passing sections and your supervisor won't sign off, there are a ton of public accounting firms that will happily take you on.
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Jun 16, 2022 23:24
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Has anyone taken the CMA? Any thoughts or how long it took you to pass, what sort of managerial experience you had before hand?
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Jun 23, 2022 17:06
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Democratic Pirate posted:For cheating on the ethics exam, lol How do you even cheat on an ethics exam? Hey man, psssst what's the answer? "It's don't lie" Oh right, DON'T lie. Right. Thanks!
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Jun 28, 2022 18:54
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untzthatshit posted:Woo hoo, finally a CMA question! Did you think it was similar to FAR in rigor or the type of questions? FAR was just memorizing a bunch of transactions and rules, and I thought the CMA was more focused on like, actual thinking in response to situations. I know they did a big revamp of the test from 4 to 2 sections and focused it more on management stuff a few years ago. untzthatshit posted:I think the recommendation is 90 hours of study per exam and that's probably about right. I used Gleim, which I can't recommend enough. Between the online resources and the textbook its everything you need Were the questions largely focused on the financial aspects of management? Like the Performance Management and Technology and Analytics sections?
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Jun 28, 2022 19:09
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black.lion posted:Im getting half my CPE this year learning abt weed accounting I tried a couple times to get into that field, but they wanted me to talk about my passion for pot and I was like, uh I don't really like pot for myself personally, I just think it's a really complex fun emerging field with a lot of legal complications. Right but like, what's your favorite strain? It was a really loving Bizzaro world version of a Big 4 interview.
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Jul 14, 2022 19:38
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Hellblazer187 posted:Hahaha what company was it, I'm curious to know for a laugh haha there's so many companies haha I couldn’t say I had a couple interviews in Seattle about 3-4 years ago with pot companies.
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Jul 15, 2022 07:04
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Covok posted:My boss certainly makes it easy to make this decision. She fired her assistant of 1 month for "not knowing enough" when the girl was just out of college and she was only willing to pay sub 40k for the position. Which is awful, even in NJ, for a public accountant. You know she did it thinking "I can just push more work onto [me]." I have two interviews on Friday and this renewed my decision to leave. It actually caused me to panic apply to over 100 job applications seeking senior accountants in the area. Welcome to getting phone calls in thick indian accents for the rest of your life about jobs you would never take.
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Jul 27, 2022 20:46
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Covok posted:I just got a verbal offer and it's even better than I thought: Nice dude, congrats. That's the payoff you're supposed to get from public accounting experience grind.
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Jul 29, 2022 18:01
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I don't want to steal Covoks thunder, but I got promoted from Finance Director to CFO Friday with a 20% pay increase retro to July 1 (though we use a COLA system, so 8.9% of that was pure soda).
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Jul 31, 2022 03:44
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Annointed posted:Should I consider taking up local county accounting internship? I been trying more job hunting but lately the only one I got as possible accept was Robert Half. 40 hours work for 20k a year pay. World I just want some part time internship or starter stuff while I finish college. I worked briefly for Robert Half as an SPS consultant (i.e. like I worked directly for Robert half, got benefits and stuff and then was farmed out to do work for companies somewhere between a real consultant and a contractor worker). They are basically the Walmart of the contract worker world, but they charge insane prices. Their recruiting staff is a revolving door of people who don't give a poo poo and don't know anything about finance or accounting and don't care to learn. The good ones leave RH and go to work for boutique firms. I don't source candidates from RH at this point, I tried, and everyone they proposed to me both sucked and was the most expensive. That being said, you need any kind of experience it sounds like. I would worry less about how much money you are going to get paid and more about how much exposure to full cycle accounting you'll get. You really want to be working somewhere that does "real" accounting, with a true accounting system and a month-end close. Even if you just end up working in AP or whatever, someplace that is doing things "right" and not just QuickBooks or whatever. A county internship would be okay, they do full cycle accounting, but governmental accounting is really weird and is a form of fund accounting, which has a lot of overlap with cost accounting (not cost per unit stuff but allocation stuff). It's also impossible to propose or make changes in government work, generally. Things are run the way they are run. If you like that kind of thing, it might be good exposure, and state or federal accounting jobs have good benefits and you work 40 hours a week and for accounting jobs are generally pretty low stress.
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Jul 31, 2022 19:04
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It's possible to have non-compete and non-solicitation agreements that are exploitive, and it's possible to have ones that are non-exploitative. It seems like both of you are making this more personal than it needs to be and focusing on your personal experience, rather than the industry practice, which does tend towards the exploitative. I applied for a staff accounting position a few years ago, and the partner who owned the firm spent about half the interview telling me how he was spending a million dollars building a bigger building and putting an apartment on top for himself and fighting with the city council about how much parking had to be present and that since he co-owned the restaurant across the street he should get to count the parking for that restaurant. Then when I wanted to negotiate slightly higher wages and some performance rewards into my contract he went insanely hostile. This overachiever failed out of multiple accounting positions and then somehow got hired at his dads accounting firm and somehow kept getting promoted by his dad who then sold him the firm for way less than it was worth. There were crazy non-compete and non-solicitation agreements I would've been forced to sign if I joined that firm. Obviously I'm doing the same thing, focusing on my personal experience, but I think a lot of the industry treats juniors/staff/seniors really badly and managers not much better.
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Aug 2, 2022 19:43
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Blotto_Otter posted:Yeah, I think it's pretty clear that Covok's old boss was an exploitative rear end in a top hat even by the low standards of public accounting. It hardly matters if that agreement was enforceable (I'm skeptical, but I'm not an attorney), the belief that it might be is enough for the old boss to use it to intimidate current and former employees. This legal practice is known as In terrorem. It's used by people with power and privilege and their agents all the time.
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Aug 2, 2022 20:37
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Nea posted:How is the pay getting into govt accounting? I want to do that because my ideal job is to work exactly 40 hours a week, not a second more, and have a union, and that seems like the path for that. Is the pay alright? I know it obviously and assuredly varies heavily by what part of the govt you're in. The pay is low compared to industry/private wages but you work 40 hours a week and once you've been there a while you have very good job security and benefits, and you can transfer back and forth between government positions with ease. If you go to the right state there can be really good pension plans, assuming you can collect a pension while you fight off the raiders and gather bottle caps.
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Aug 3, 2022 18:18
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Covok posted:Heck, want a relatable story? I was in a tabletop game and someone went on a rant about how taxes could be done return-free-filing like in other countries and how our industry were leeches and vultures. He didn't know my occupation. And that really hurt me and made me upset. I brought it up in private and they said "You're cool and we all got to eat and its not your decision to make this the status quo, you're not lobbying congress to make it this way." I then almost felt silly because it's not a bad point. Like, no matter what company I work for, I'm going to be a part of something vile. There are very few exceptions to this fact. But you don't get mad at the part timers frying chickens at Chick-Fil-A or go out of you're way to treat them bad for their homophobic parent company, you just don't buy from the company itself instead, you know? The US tax accountancy lobby spends a lot of money making sure that the US tax code stays complex and the IRS doesn't prepare our taxes for us. You're not a bad person for being a part of that industry necessarily, but if more staff accountants refused to join that profession eventually the pyramid would collapse and the undead boomer pharoahs would no longer have the duckets with which to bribe congress, and like life would just get better for all Americans. The stress most normal people go through with taxes and the amount of poor people who fail to collect their EI credit and stuff.
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Aug 3, 2022 18:28
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nwin posted:Hey figured this might gain some traction here instead of the homework thread. Did you capitalize the costs of getting the equipment ready to service? When you buy a fixed asset any transport costs or repair costs or installation cost are capitalized not expensed. I cant.. if you put it in a google spreadsheet I'll look at it but I'm not trying to blow up an excel screen shot  I do like that you put a notation for each line item on the lefmost column, tbh that methodology of tracking what you're doing is more important than getting the answer right here.
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Aug 5, 2022 18:31
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Covok posted:https://www.reddit.com/r/taxpros/comments/wfhgss/rant_client_has_gone_nuts_since_i_last_saw_them/ This is sovreign citizen stuff.
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Aug 5, 2022 18:53
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Covok posted:I never understood that concept. The person like "renounces" their citizenship and thinks anyone is going to respect that when nations have a complete and total monopoly on violence. If anything, renouncing citizenship means no one will defend them now and they are at the mercy of anyone without rights. It's stupid and a scam and crazy. There's nothing to understand. They think the law is like literally magic: https://albertalawreview.com/index.php/ALR/article/view/2485
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Aug 5, 2022 18:57
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Covok posted:If I understand you correctly, I am horribly overworked especially when compared to my pay. I also don't get comissions. Not anymore because you’re leaving you already accepted an offer. Focus on that, don’t become bitter.
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Aug 7, 2022 17:29
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oh god oh gently caress posted:Thank you! Taking notes I think shenanigans with a sole proprietorship that isn’t real then trying to deduct everything is probably popular. Also having lots of of crypto activity, and then “bartering” things and saying that’s not income.
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Aug 16, 2022 02:55
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Ungratek posted:The new trend of buying fractional shares of private planes I'm actually still waiting on a K-1 for last year because the partnership I'm in has foreign partners, and the IRS changed the rules but didn't release the guidance so... fun times.
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Aug 16, 2022 18:50
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Covok posted:Shrug. It is what it is. I can't exactly drop the job now. I'll have someone look at it before I sign it. If it's bad, I'll see what I can do. And to think I was so happy to be in a job without one of these after I left my old job and its nonsolicitation. Why is this poo poo so common in accounting? If you want to leave and go to a competitor just do it. Just don’t tell them where you went. Non-competes are quite often unenforceable and are typically just meant to try to scare employees, to get what the employer wants.
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Aug 27, 2022 07:23
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Good Citizen posted:If they don’t have someone reviewing the work of a first week accountant then that’s on them It's cool he'll just have to make a bunch of journal entries to fix the errors.
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Sep 18, 2022 00:00
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MrAmazing posted:Best part is that if you make enough corrections nobody can make sense of it and the auditors just take your word that you finally got it right. 🤷🏻♂️ The federal audit clearinghouse deadline is the 30th and we’re just turned in a revised TB for fy 21 and we have like 32 million in debits and credits for a federal grant of about a combined 8 million in expenses. Good loving luck. I’m fully expecting at least a material weakness.
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Sep 18, 2022 22:56
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Do you know any actual good Yardi consultants besides yourself? The 501(c)(3) where I’m CFO is moving into affordable housing development.
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Nov 11, 2022 04:46
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Covok posted:
It sounds like you were treated really badly and you're more or less having to be de-programmed. Give yourself a few months, if you still feel a bit disconnected you could look for volunteer opportunities like VITA, you could join the board of a non-profit, especially a "Working board member" and trust me what you do there will be valuable and impactful. Honestly to me going home and forgetting about work sounds like a dream.
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Nov 15, 2022 04:37
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Public accounting is an obvious pyramid scheme, the payoff is to go into debt in 10-20 years to buy out a firm and then make a lot of money but we’re facing the end of our civilization in 15-25 years so you can see why recent grads aren’t that interested in “paying their dues”.
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Jan 19, 2023 06:35
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It might be rough but it seems like you would want to start getting clients and working on weekends to generate some buzz and what not.
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Jan 21, 2023 06:43
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Actually do any of you goon bookkeepers want a possible goon enterprise (tm) as a client? PM me.
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Jan 25, 2023 04:26
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Hellblazer187 posted:OK, well, that won't work then. I think I'll make them take the intuit course then. I previewed the exam questions and it's pretty basic but I'd be really pleased if these guys could get even to that level. Also the Intuit course is free and the HR Block course is $150. Isn't it like $150 for 80 hours of instructional time? I took the HR Block course when I was a sophomore and I found it really valuable, though the person teaching it had been teaching it for like 20 years.
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Feb 19, 2023 18:29
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