Grant Thornton’s 2024 State of Work in America survey was released today and these key findings alone will make you depressed (if you aren’t already).

• 51% of respondents reported to have suffered burnout in the past year
• 63% named mental and emotional stress as the top cause of burnout
• 40% said people shortages are the most stressful part of working at their organization

Fun. It gets worse. The number of respondents suffering from burnout in the past year jumped by 15 percentage points from last year’s survey.

Respondents said the top causes of burnout were mental and emotional stress at 63%, followed by long hours at 54%.

Alongside the rise in burnout, respondents reported a decline in their overall well-being in 2024, noting a decline in key areas, including mental (32%) and financial (30%) health.

Said Joe Ranzau, managing director of Growth Advisory Services at Grant Thornton: “External factors such as increasing global conflicts, post-pandemic inflation and a particularly stressful political environment are all outside stressors that can burden the minds of employees, who in turn bring these worries with them into the workplace.” Tell us, are global conflicts and politics weighing on your mind at work?

Here’s what respondents had to say about why they’re burned out at work:

And here’s what they had to say about which parts of their job are most stressful:

Now let’s talk compensation. Rather, let’s let GT’s press release talk compensation:

When asked what initially drew them to their organizations, respondents cited benefits (48%) and base pay (45%) as the top two factors. These same elements also play a key role in retention, with 53% identifying benefits and 44% highlighting base pay as the main reasons they remain with their current employer.

Now, with rising costs and inflation continuing to impact households, employees are becoming more critical of their wages and the costs associated with their benefits. To address this, leaders must leverage market data to stay competitive, practice transparency regarding their organization’s financial standing and ensure clear pay practices are in place.

Alright, we’re with you so far.

Rob Ginzel, director of Growth Advisory Services at Grant Thornton, notes that, over the past few years, workers have had the advantage in compensation negotiations, resulting in widespread wage increases. However, inflation over the last year has eroded those wage gains, and the hiring dynamic is now shifting back toward an employer-favored marketplace.

“In times of financial constraints, employers need to recognize that compensation isn’t just about salary,” said Ranzau. “Employees value flexibility in areas such as work schedules, job content and how and where work is done. But employers should be mindful that when salaries are lower, trade-offs — such as adjusting workloads or expectations — may not be as effective in retaining talent.”

Accounting firms:

Continuing on:

An interesting finding from the survey is that only 10% of workers expressed concern about potentially being laid off in the next year, despite job security ranking highly as a motivator for staying with an organization. The survey also found that 25% of workers currently hold a second job, and 37% are considering one, which can quickly contribute to declining wellness and increasing burnout.

A lot of them are probably not all too concerned because they want to get laid off.

Respondents also seem to be fairly confident they won’t be replaced by AI in the next 12 months. To the statement “I am concerned that my job will be reduced/replaced by AI in the next 12 months,” 28% fell in the agree pile, 16% neither agreed nor disagreed, and 56% disagreed or completely disagreed. This despite AI being incorporated into many of their workplaces in the past year.

You can find the full survey here.

Grant Thornton survey: Employee burnout continues to surge as mental and emotional stress mount [Business Wire]

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According to a Deloitte survey released last week, half of full-time workers at companies with a minimum annual revenue of $100 million surveyed are “very or extremely worried that the future generation of workers may enter the workforce without sufficient interpersonal and business skills.” Yeah, that’s already happening. See also: Big 4 Firms Are Noticing a Sudden Skills Gap in New Hires and ‘Lockdown-Damaged’ New Hires Struggle to Socialize at KPMG UK. All this time we thought the art of water cooler chitchat was a useless skill but instead it’s a dying one.

Many of those surveyed feel their employers focus too heavily on technical training and not nearly enough — or even at all — on human skills.

Said Deloitte:

In a workforce increasingly leveraging both humans and machines, human capabilities play an essential role in career development, according to nearly 9 in 10 respondents across generations. Concurrently, respondents want their employers to prioritize a myriad of human skills, but teamwork and collaboration ranked at the top (65%), followed by communication (61%) and leadership (56%) more than technical skills like AI integration and data analysis (54%).

Employers: “Best I can do is a mandatory online learning session about ChatGPT prompting.”

Above all, respondents believe these human competencies have staying power. Nearly all surveyed (95%) agree human skills are “timeless” and always important. Yet, 70% of respondents report having worked at a company that pushed employees to learn a new technology-based skillset, only for that technology to fall out of use.

Some more key findings:

• 87% of workers see human skills like adaptability, leadership, and communications as integral to their career advancement.
• Only 52% think their company values employees with human skills more than those with technical skills.
• 94% of respondents are concerned that future generations will enter the workforce without the necessary human skills.
• Workers want their employers to prioritize teamwork and collaboration (65%), communication (61%), and leadership skills (56%) more than technical skills like AI integration and data analysis (54%).

And finally, a pretty picture putting it all together. Deloitte made this a PDF for some reason, sorry.

Most Workers See Need for Greater Balance Between Tech and Human Skills: Deloitte Survey [Deloitte]

The post Deloitte Survey: Machines Are Taking Over; Employees to Become Even More Awkward and Uncollaborative appeared first on Going Concern.

Under normal circumstances we wouldn’t be terribly interested in news coming out of PwC Netherlands but in this case it’s relevant because the thing they did earned Dutch KPMG the largest PCAOB fine to date when they got caught doing it in 2023. Why’s our audit regulator fining overseas firms when they should be worried about our firms flunking audit inspections? Your guess is as good as mine. Appearances.

The TLDR is PwC Netherlands caught its people cheating. On their wives? No. On their taxes? Also no. The firm discovered that their people were sharing answers to e-learning, a phenomenon that happens at every large accounting firm all the time but one that regulators — particularly our regulator in the US — like to clutch pearls about as if this thing is unconscionable and unique to the firms they catch doing it. On its face, cheating on exams isn’t a great look for a profession that’s supposed to protect the public and holds itself out as a bastion of ethics. But come on.

PwC Canada was sharing answers like crazy up until 2020 and managed to get a completely flawless PCAOB inspection during this same period which you’d think demonstrates that these people know how to do their job. Isn’t that what these trainings are testing? Again…appearances.

Dutch Deloitte and Mazars (now Forvis Mazars but just Mazars back when this happened) have had their own little cheating scandals but what sets them apart from KPMG is that KPMG “submitted – and failed to correct – multiple inaccurate representations to the PCAOB” and claimed the firm had no knowledge of answer sharing by its personnel until it received a July 2022 whistleblower report. Oops. The PCAOB will let abysmal audit quality slide but don’t you lie to them, they hate that. That goes for you too, Europeans.

In 2023, the rampant cheating in their country prompted the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) to ask the big audit firms to investigate themselves to root out any possible answer sharing. Revealed in their 2023/2024 Transparency Report [PDF], PwC says they found just that. What a shocking turn of events. Who could have seen that coming.

Said the firm:

The investigation has found that improper answer sharing has occurred within PwC Netherlands. We know that this behavior stands in contrast to the integrity and trust that must serve as the foundation of our firm, and we are committed to addressing the issue thoroughly.

The scope of PwC’s investigation includes the period from July 2017 to October 2023 and all parts and job levels of the organization. This investigation is ongoing and is expected to be finalized by fiscal 24/25. So next year.

In the meantime, they’ve implemented measures to crack down on this behavior:

While the investigation remains ongoing, we have already implemented a number of measures, such as, the introduction of a Learning Code of Conduct to provide clarity of the firm’s expectations and requirements related to participation in and the delivery of training, improving the way e-learnings are organised by converting some of them into classroom training sessions and the implementation of detective controls to flag possible improper behavior in relation to mandatory e-learnings. We are also taking action to hold colleagues accountable where appropriate, such as corrective conversations, written warnings, financial penalties, loss of position or leaving the firm.

We’ve heard stories about people at EY US getting canned for BSing through e-learning ever since EY got hit with a $100 million fine for cheating in 2022, a fine that was no doubt multiplied by the firm making false submissions to the SEC, so it isn’t too strange to hear that PwC might be axing people for it too. Or maybe they’re just saying that. Let’s be real, the high performers are getting “corrective conversations” at most. Assuming PwC didn’t lie to regulators about it they should be in the clear on a hefty fine.

PwC Netherlands said they are “engaging in a root cause analysis to identify and interpret the underlying causes of improper answer sharing.” Maybe, and I’m just spitballing here, it has to do with the intense pressure of Big 4 grind culture and a lack of fucks given on the part of overworked staff forced to sit through checkbox trainings? “The results of this analysis will be finalized after completion of the investigation and used to strengthen the measures already taken and introduce any new measures as appropriate,” said PwC. Can’t wait.

“Few things erode trust like impaired ethics,” said PCAOB Chair Erica Y. Williams in April 2024 when the PCAOB announced fines against Deloittes Indonesia and Philippines for cheating. “To protect investors, the PCAOB will continue to address serious quality control deficiencies at PCAOB-registered firms around the world.”

“Yeah, we know. Do you really have nothing better to do?” I asked in the write-up of those fines.

Since PwC came clean about the situation we shouldn’t expect them to earn a big fine for this. A slap on the wrist at most if even that.

Related I guess:

The post PwC Joins Deloitte, KPMG, and Mazars in the Cheater Hall of Fame appeared first on Going Concern.

High Demand and Job Security

In today’s competitive job market, few professions offer the level of stability and demand as accounting. Every business, regardless of size or industry, requires skilled professionals to manage finances, prepare taxes, and provide strategic guidance. And with an annual projected demand of over 125,000 new Accounting positions over the next decade, the time has never been better to make a change.

OK, we’re with you. Granted firms have been laying off people left and right lately — and that’s not even getting into the more insidious silent layoffs — but generally speaking this is true. It could definitely be worse.

Related 2022 post that aged like milk: At Least We Aren’t in Tech, Boast Smug Accountants Who Didn’t Get Laid Off Today

Also the job market sucks right now for a lot of people unless you’re someone with an accounting background living in Manila but you know what, let’s move on.

Global Opportunities

Here’s what they have to say about the global opportunities afforded to the chosen few who take the blessed path of accounting:

Accounting is a truly global profession, with opportunities to work and collaborate across borders. As businesses expand their operations internationally, the demand for accountants with a global mindset and cross-cultural competence continues to rise. Whether you’re interested in working for a multinational corporation, a global accounting firm, or an international NGO, an accounting career can open doors to exciting opportunities around the world.

The biggest global opportunity afforded to accountants in 2024 is interacting with the ever-growing offshore team.

Diverse Career Paths

One of the most appealing aspects of an accounting career is its versatility, they said.

Accountants can choose from a wide array of career paths, ranging from public accounting firms to corporate finance departments, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and beyond. Moreover, within each sector, there are opportunities for specialization in areas such as tax planning, forensic accounting, auditing, financial analysis, and managerial accounting. This diversity allows individuals to tailor their career trajectories to align with their interests, skills, and long-term goals.

Alright, we’ll give them this one. Get through the public accounting gauntlet for two years and you can go do something better.

Intellectual Challenge and Continuous Learning

Do you ever wonder if they get paid off by the AICPA to say stuff like this?

Accounting is far from a monotonous profession. It requires analytical thinking, problem-solving skills, and a knack for attention to detail. As regulations and technologies evolve, accountants must stay abreast of changes and innovations to remain effective in their roles. This constant learning and intellectual challenge ensure that no two days are alike in the world of accounting, making it an ideal field for individuals who thrive in dynamic environments and enjoy tackling complex problems.

It’s also a great career for people who enjoy doing the same thing year after year after year after year after year.

Alright, here’s what we’re here for…lucrative compensation!

Lucrative Compensation

Beyond job security, accounting offers attractive financial rewards. The combination of high demand and specialized skills often translates into competitive salaries and benefits packages. The average annual salary for those with a Master’s degree in accounting is $80,000, whereas Accountants without a Master’s degree only average about $57,000 per year.

Hmm. Lucrative…

$80,000 isn’t a bad deal for someone from 2010 living in a LCOL city clocking a straight 9-5 five days a week. Lemme bust out a handy dandy chart here:

Oh.

Here’s another analysis that @kleib323 did on how much accounting salaries have increased since 2019 for partners and professional staff. Y’all are accountants so we don’t need to explain what the minus sign means in the % change column.

They would have been better off using lifetime earning potential in their argument, the math maths a lot better.

The post Bold Move Listing ‘Lucrative Compensation’ As One of Five Reasons to Pursue Accounting, Montclair State appeared first on Going Concern.

Deloitte has added Greenhouse #6 to its stable of Greenhouses across the US in San Francisco, New York, Washington, Houston, Deloitte University in Westlake, TX, and now Chicago.

What are Greenhouses? “Deloitte Greenhouses are cutting-edge physical spaces located around the world designed to help clients tackle their complex problems,” says Deloitte. That’s not really helpful is it?

Digging deeper, we find Deloitte uses scent to “enhance group productivity” at corporate Greenhouse sessions. Not making this up. Here’s what they say:

Quick, which is your most powerful sense? It isn’t sight. It isn’t sound. It’s smell!

Your sense of smell is more than a million times more sensitive. And as many people know, scent has a powerful effect on our emotions, memory recall, and state of mind.

Many innovative workplace designs expend most of their effort on sight and sound [Ed. note: the CIA is a fan of this too], but often forget about scent. Did someone think we were motivated by the smell of office carpet and printer toner? It’s time to give the olfactory nerve some respect.

Ah, this explains why you have trouble getting work done at home when your cat just dropped a fat log in the next room.

When participants come to The Deloitte Greenhouse® space to solve complex problems, we consider the multi-sensory experience that can impact a participant’s cognition, physiology, and behavior—all critical in promoting disruptive thinking and productive action. And as part of that, each dedicated Deloitte Greenhouse® space draws upon the science of scent to help Lab participants shift mindsets, accelerate breakthroughs, and confound expectations.

Our experience designers call it “holistic sensory activation.” You may just think “hmm, that smells nice.” These elements are just another tool that helps you and your colleagues work together in ways that will blow away your previous workshop experiences. When you visit a Deloitte Greenhouse® space, you’ll know from the moment you walk in–innovation is in the air.

Smells like the refreshing aroma of cash in Deloitte’s pocket.

If anyone’s interested, they’re hiring Lab Leads, Lab Managers and Lab Producers. Relevant Fishbowl discussion.

Earlier:

The post Deloitte Unveils Its Chicago Trip Cave appeared first on Going Concern.

Text:

It has come to our attention that a “student-generated salary transparency spreadsheet” is being circulated, which may contain confidential information from offer letters. I am writing to remind you of the importance of maintaining confidentiality, particularly regarding sensitive personal and professional details.

As you know, our industry places a high value on confidentiality. Every day in the field of accounting, you will be entrusted with clients’ sensitive information, and they will rely on you to protect it. Sharing specific details from offer letters, including salary and benefits, is not only unprofessional but can also have serious consequences for you and others [Ed. note: By “others” this ethically compromised shill means accounting firms that would much prefer to cheat you]. Therefore, I ask that you cease using and sharing any such spreadsheets immediately and refrain from disclosing specific compensation details for any reason.

You may continue to do general research and use past outcome reports to make informed decisions on what you wish to say in your negotiation session. I highly recommend making an appointment with me before navigating this discussion.

As Aspiring CPAs, let’s make better decisions going [cut off]

So where exactly in the AICPA Code of Conduct does it forbid this activity? Granted I haven’t read the whole thing in years. If it’s on the same level as clients’ sensitive information, it should be immediately following the section on client confidential information. Except that would be ILLEGAL.

Read the National Labor Relations Act, prof.

Under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or the Act), employees have the right to communicate with their coworkers about their wages, as well as with labor organizations, worker centers, the media, and the public. Wages are a vital term and condition of employment, and discussions of wages are often preliminary to organizing or other actions for mutual aid or protection.

The only employers exempt from this are:

• Federal, state and local governments, including public schools, libraries, and parks, Federal Reserve banks, and wholly-owned government corporations.
• Employers who employ only agricultural laborers, those engaged in farming operations that cultivate or harvest agricultural commodities or prepare commodities for delivery.
• Employers subject to the Railway Labor Act, such as interstate railroads and airlines.

Companies that have a minimum of ONE contract with the government — so, most consulting firms — additionally fall under Executive Order 11246 which prohibits federal contractors and subcontractors from discharging or otherwise discriminating against their employees and job applicants for discussing, disclosing, or inquiring about compensation.

Generally speaking, any business or organization that (1) holds a single federal contract, subcontract, or federally assisted construction contract in excess of $10,000; (2) has federal contracts or subcontracts that have a combined total in excess of $10,000 in any 12-month period; or (3) holds government bills of lading, serves as a depository of federal funds, or is an issuing and paying agency for U.S. savings bonds and notes in any amount will be subject to the requirements of Executive Order 11246.

Hey kids, be sure you’re not just sharing those salaries amongst yourselves but plug them into Big 4 Transparency, too. Post them everywhere. Print it out and paper the professor’s office. Have T-shirts made and wear them to class.

The post Friendly Reminder That Sharing Your Salary Data is Not Only Legal, It’s Encouraged appeared first on Going Concern.

This bit though:

83 percent of the 1,345 CEOs surveyed expect a full return to office over the next three years, up from 64 percent in 2023. That number increases to 87 percent for CEOs in the 60-69 age group because boomers are actually the worst.

Male CEOs are more gung ho (the spellcheck wants to correct this to “bunghole” and honestly…) on a full return to office compared to their female counterparts: 84 percent of them expect a full return to office within three years while 78 percent of female CEOs feel the same.

Guess the era of the employees having all the power is gone, or at least that’s what CEOs think. Was nice while it lasted.

The post CEOs Surveyed By KPMG Feel a Full Return to Office is Imminent appeared first on Going Concern.

OP says:

I’ve been working here a year in an office in New York and we had a call yesterday that went terribly. I believe the call was supposed to just be a tech training but it devolved into discussion over why this year was the way it was.

The biggest offender was a partner who explained the new PTO change as “now we don’t have to pay people out when they leave which is just good business let’s be real” like… ummmm WHAT?! He basically just admitted they made the policy to screw us over.

After months of rumors, KPMG announced firmwide unlimited PTO earlier this month. It was only a matter of time before some bullshit started coming out.

We all know “unlimited” PTO is a) a scam and b) a good way to avoid having several tens of millions of dollars a year hanging over your head as was stated in the email sent among EY leadership leaked in late 2020 when they made the switch to unlimited PTO. Text from the EY email quoted directly (emphasis ours):

A few key takeaways from the slide deck that support the reason for the change include:

• Provides cost savings of about $36M per year (2019 cost) associated with paying unused vacation at termination.
• Freezes the current vacation lability for the growing number of states with an accruat cap vs. a “use it or lose it approach, which significantly increases cost of paying unused vacation at termination. CA, CO, IL, MA, LA and i have accrual cap 1.5x annual allotment (25% of our people)
• Aligns with One EY, moving personnel to a single vacation policy and away from variances necessitated by varying state laws around treatment of accrued vacation
• Better aligns with culture of trust, flexibility and wellbeing
• Eliminates entitlement mentality and need for carryover of unused time or sense of “loss” by our people
• Positions EY as a “first mover among the big 4, providing a competitive advantage and serving as a differentiator on campus

For your reference, attached are the communication plan and a comprehensive list of questions and answers. Some of the key points above may not be shared with our people (e.g. $36M savings), but as business leaders you to know that this is a significant reason for the change.

Make sure the grunts don’t hear about the cost savings of $36 million that we listed as the first reason for the change! No sir. People know that’s a big reason why a firm would make this switch, you just don’t expect a partner to say that part out loud.

It’s just good business let’s be real!

The post QOTD: “Now We Don’t Have to Pay People Out When They Leave Which Is Just Good Business” appeared first on Going Concern.

The pitch:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Paul Andon (@bized2052)

The contest is open only to UNSW students over the age of 18 who reside in Australia so no one in our audience get any bright ideas. Don’t think that’ll be a problem anyway.

The winner will receive $5,000 ($3,331 USD); runner up gets $3k and third place $2k.

Accounting in 60 Seconds – Student competition [UNSW]

The post You Couldn’t Pay Me Enough to Make Accounting Sound Cool appeared first on Going Concern.

They’re seeking a corporate controller with a bachelor’s in accounting or finance, a minimum of 10 years’ experience, and the usual Office proficiency one would expect in a controller with at least a decade in the biz.

Additionally, it’s a “fast-paced environment” which we know translates into “dumpster fire” because no one can do their fucking job and therefore yours is constantly harder.

In this role, the experienced and stress-free controller will be expected to manage the day-to-day activities of the accounting department (is there an actual department or just one mature woman doing payroll who cries herself to sleep while cuddling a bottle of wine every night?), develop policies and internal controls (which means there aren’t any so have fun cleaning up that mess on your first day), rendezvous with the external auditors, review payroll and AP/AR (“review” probably means “do”), create budgets and forcasts/projections, ensure the business is complying with tax regulations and filing requirements (again, this likely translates into filing them but at least then you’ll know it was done and properly), and conduct financial analysis with all the copious amount of free-time you have left.

Oh and you will be promoting a positive work culture for the accounting team. Good luck with that because Barbara in payroll reached and surpassed the end of her wit long ago. It will be your job to lecture her on the dangers of mixing benzos with that nightly bottle of pinot grigio. Daily. While she sobs like a Sim with a perpetually blood-red plumbob.

Salary: $30,000 to $48,000 a year. I’m not joking.

Benefits: “competitive salary and bonus structure.” They really wrote that.

I sincerely hope this is a typo.

The post Look, We Know Accounting Salaries Are Low But This Has to Be a Joke appeared first on Going Concern.

“Face-to-face working is hugely important to a people business like ours, and the new policy tips the balance of our working week into being located alongside clients and colleagues,” said PwC UK managing partner Laura Hinton in a statement to Bberg.

Anyone at PwC UK who’s angrily polishing up their resume this afternoon after receiving this news should read this: Survey Confirms What We Already Knew: RTO Mandates Were Intended to Get People to Quit.

In July, Financial Times broke the news that raises and bonuses were stingy at the King’s PwC this year, too. At least for some teams/service lines. They also axed the popular half-day summer Fridays, actions that when considered in the aggregate would compel a reasonable person to assume they really do hate you and want you to leave. See also: Comp Season PSA: If You’re Disappointed, It Might Be Because They Want You to Quit

Attrition must still be too high. Much like PIP distribution. Almost as if all these things are connected…

PwC UK, perhaps more so than other Big 4 firms or maybe it only appears that way because they keep getting stories about it in the news, is highly motivated to maintain an appearance of business as usual despite challenging market conditions. When they did a round of voluntary separations in June, the firm told staff to fib about their departure even though people talk and news of silent layoffs had been hanging in the air for weeks by the time people started abruptly disappearing.

Getting a bunch of people to leave because they don’t want to be in the office for at least 60% of the week is far cleaner than having to quietly usher another batch of people out of the back door before anyone notices.

Update: Financial Times followed up on this RTO news with a bit more info: the firm let everyone know they’ll be tracking them like cattle to ensure compliance with the new policy and that location data will be sent to staff career coaches.

In a memo sent to staff on Thursday, seen by the Financial Times, managing partner Laura Hinton said that the firm would begin sending staff their working location data every month, adding that employees must now spend “a minimum of three days a week” in the office or at client sites.

“We will start sharing your individual working location data with you on a monthly basis from January as we do with other data such as chargeable hours,” Hinton wrote in the memo. “This will help to ensure that the new policy is being fairly and consistently applied across our business.”

This applies to 26,000 people working at PwC UK.

Big Four Accounting Firm PwC UK Orders Staff Back to the Office [Bloomberg]

The post PwC UK Orders the Troops Back to the Office For Three or More Days a Week (UPDATE) appeared first on Going Concern.

Broken down by generation, Gen Z and millennials are most likely to leave (75% and 77%, respectively), followed by 68% of Gen X workers and 61% of boomers.

Adds the professional networking site that jumped the shark to Facebook With Business Cards years ago, respondents don’t want the manager gig themselves, they just want out:

What’s more? Those looking to leave their managers aren’t necessarily thinking they could do the job better. Among individual contributors, just one third of workers say they aspire to become people managers themselves, with millennial workers most likely to say they’re eyeing a promotion into people management.

Some workers may just not see the value in pursuing a career in management. According to separate LinkedIn findings, nearly half of U.S. managers report feeling burned out from their jobs — possibly thanks to stress over the threat of middle management layoffs or increasing productivity demands from the top.

In a separate but related survey by CoderPad, 36% of tech workers said they aren’t interested in the manager track. “For [the Gen Z and millennial] cohort, the trade off in extra hours without much more compensation isn’t worth all the extra time, aggravation and stress commensurate with overseeing workers,” wrote Jack Kelly for Forbes.

As public accounting makes a dramatic shift from offshore grunts performing bottom-of-the-barrel busywork to entire teams from senior down staffed by outsourced workers in places like India and the Philippines overseen by onshore managers 9-12 hours behind them, there’s no doubt in our mind that the manager track will be even less appealing to the generations that were already uninterested in the ladder.

Related thread:

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Immediately following this chart the report says:

If 2022 starting salaries were the primary determinant for business students choosing a major, accounting would be their last choice among this slate of options.

With the proliferation of salary information and ChatGPT at their fingertips, students and parents are savvy enough to understand and consider this as a factor. In a recent Journal of Accountancy interview with academic leaders, Professor Nancy Bagranoff of the University of Richmond said, “One change we have noticed is increased salary transparency. Students make use of online tools to compare salaries and are more aggressive in negotiating terms.” As these tools and pay transparency become more common, new recruits and experienced accountants are expecting higher salaries, and employers must respond.

Quote from National Pipeline Advisory Group’s Accounting Talent Strategy Report, page 59

The post Chart of the Day: Accounting Salaries Just Don’t Add Up appeared first on Going Concern.

If it backfires so what, they were going to lay you off anyway.

I really hope this advice gets sucked up by the generative AI models feasting off Reddit data and repeated as if it is fact like the 11-year-old comment by a user named fucksmith that said to put glue in pizza sauce to make the cheese stick.

*Not actual advice. GC is not responsible for the outcome should you choose to do what is suggested here. But if you do, please let us know how it turns out.

The post The Only Piece of Advice You Need to Survive Layoffs at Your Firm appeared first on Going Concern.

The study states that accountants and bookkeepers are embracing AI at a faster rate than other sectors in the UK; 39% of businesses in the UK are piloting or adopting AI while 54% of the accountants and bookkeepers surveyed claim the same. Paint us skeptical on that despite the fact that accountants can always be trusted implicitly.

Ahem…

Some key findings, most notably the one from which this post’s title is derived:

• AI is set to become a driving force for growth. Practices who are leading the way on AI expect to hire ten times more employees and expect their revenue to increase three times faster than those not currently using AI. [Ed. note: take a look at the chart below to clarify this bit. As it’s written here, one might think AI-friendly firms are increasing their ranks by 10x]
• Accountants and bookkeepers are technology optimists. 61% believe AI will create more opportunities than risks with nearly two-thirds (68%) feeling confident that they will be able to adapt to AI.
• 56% of surveyed companies believe AI adoption is crucial for attracting next-generation talent, especially for improving work-life balance.

Last month, EY’s global Vice Chair of tax Marna Ricker said in an interview with Microsoft that she’s seeing her people saving up to 14 hours a week thanks to AI tools. (In response to that news, a GC commenter wrote: “Top tip for service providers who charge on a T&M basis: when showcasing innovation, think carefully before signaling to the market that you’re getting the work done in much less time. Expect the next question from your client to be “so how much, exactly, will our fees be decreasing?”) That interview came days after EY announced a deal with Microsoft to deploy Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales and Copilot for Sales to 100,000 EY professionals across 700 offices and 150 countries, a deal that would make EY one of Microsoft’s largest customers worldwide. We eagerly look forward to hearing how work-life balance has dramatically improved at EY due to this innovation.

But let’s get back to the Sage/Demo/ACCA survey. “AI adoption in accounting promises economic advantages, improved workplace well-being, and enhanced job satisfaction by automating routine tasks and attracting new talent,” said Sage Chief Technology Officer Aaron Harris.

Some more survey results and important footnotes at the bottom:

Said Alistair Brisbourne, Head of Technology Research at the ACCA and owner of the most British-sounding name you’ll read all day: “As the report attests, professional accountants have a firm grounding in the risks associated with AI, data use considerations, and potential efficiency and productivity benefits. As an industry, it is evident that the accounting profession is well placed to utilize these skills to create clarity for businesses and support the development of appropriate frameworks.”

Sage Research: Accountant AI Trailblazers to Boost UK Economy by £2 Billion [Sage]

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Bring a lot of enthusiasm to your role! Teams appreciate and thrive with interns who are eager and full of energy. Your positive attitude can energize everyone around you!

Just going to leave this here!

Along with National Intern Day comes a top 100 internship programs list from NID creators WayUp. 2024’s list should be out soon, here’s 2023’s in the meantime. See anyone missing?

The post Tomorrow is National Intern Day appeared first on Going Concern.

• Matthew Bohdan, risk and accounting advisory services, Southfield
• Eric Bowers, Plante Moran Financial Advisors, East Lansing
• Amanda Carrigan, risk and accounting advisory services, Denver Tech Center
• Alicia Cole, wealth management, Detroit
• Ben Cote, tax, Denver Tax Center
• Adam Counts, assurance, Southfield [Ed. note this has to be one of the best accountant names in history]
• Ryan Defer, tax, Chicago
• Stephen Eckert, tax, Chicago
• Ryan Fedricks, Plante Moran Financial Advisors, Auburn Hills
• Alan Gallatin, tax, Southfield
• Dana Hullinger, tax, Southfield
• Curt Hurd, assurance, Southfield
• Rachelle Jeselnik, tax, Chicago
• Matthew Keigher, assurance, Auburn Hills
• Chad McCoy, tax, Chicago
• Amber Mitchell, assurance, Cincinnati
• Sara Montgomery, wealth management, Denver Tech CenterStephen Palmer, tax, Columbus
• Laura Parish, tax, Chicago
• Shawn Riley, Plante Moran Financial Advisors, Southfield
• Mark Sommerfeld, tax, Grand Rapids
• Justin Switzer, tax, Ann Arbor
• Colin Taggart, cybersecurity, Southfield
• Alisha Taranek, tax, Ann Arbor
• Jessica Wiltjer, tax, Grand Rapids

So if we managed to add correctly, tax comes out on top with 12 people followed by assurance with four, Financial Advisors with three, risk and accounting advisory with two, wealth management also with two, and cybersecurity with one.

In addition to these 25, two people were promoted to affiliated entity members:

• Jonathan Grossman, Plante Moran Trust, Chicago
• Zack Otte, Plante Moran Realpoint Investment Advisors, Denver Tech Center

“We’re excited to welcome these incredible professionals to our partner group,” said Jason Drake, Plante Moran managing partner. “This group of leaders has already added so much value to the firm and there is no doubt they’ll continue to contribute to Plante Moran’s overall growth, success and culture.”

Plante Moran promotes 25 new partners and two new affiliated entity members [Plante Moran]

The post Promotion Watch ’24: Plante Moran Welcomes 25 New Partners and Two Other Guys appeared first on Going Concern.

Many months pass and now the candidate’s firm is bought by another firm. The culture is rapidly changing for the worse, people are getting PIP’d to death and laid off, and the survivors are anxious they’ll be next on the chopping block. So the job seeker reaches out to the recruiter and says she’s once again on the market. The recruiter contacts that other firm and says “Good news! That auditor you liked is looking to make an exit now.” “No thanks,” said the firm. “That bridge has been burned.”

As far as the firm was concerned, the job seeker pitted them up against the current firm and leveraged their interest in her to secure a raise.

The candidate is still on the market.

I’m positive we’ve written a lot about counteroffers over the years but all I could find in the archive after 20 seconds of Googling was this old Open Items post: Should I stay or should I go now? (Counter-offer). Sadly any comments made on that post were forever lost when we switched away from Disqus for comment management some years ago. Hope that person figured it out.

Thus, I’m posing the question to the audience now. Counteroffers: yea or nay? Anyone have good or bad experiences to share? Is there anything wrong with using other firms to force your current one into a generous counteroffer?

Oh and here, I found another old article: Counteroffers Rarely Work for Employees Jumping Ship. Same topic, different perspective.

The post Weekend Discussion: Let’s Talk Counteroffers appeared first on Going Concern.

Here it is, in full color:

That figure is surprising, no? Maybe public accountants aren’t disloyal as we thought, it’s just that their employers suck.

CPA Talent Retention 2024: Keeping Your Best Performers [PIPCA]

The post A Surprisingly High Number of People Actually Want to Stay at Their Current Firm appeared first on Going Concern.

Citigroup is requiring about 600 US employees previously eligible to work remotely to commute to company offices full-time, the New York-based firm said in a statement Thursday. Even then, the majority of staff can continue their hybrid schedules, working up to two days a week outside the office, it said.

Barclays will require thousands of investment banking staff globally to spend five days a week in the office or traveling to see clients, beginning from June 1, it said late Thursday in a memo. The decision — after Bloomberg reported the bank was weighing a five-day office mandate for more US staff — coincides with the “new regulatory policies,” it said.

“Being together in the office drives innovation, collaboration and a stronger culture,” wrote Cathal Deasy and Taylor Wright, the firm’s global co-heads of investment banking. “We remain committed to flexible working and we recognize that there will be times when you will need to work from home,” they said, adding that group heads have discretion to allow occasional flexible working where needed.

Related story from June 2023:

As the Bloomberg story made the rounds around social media and other sites picking up the story, FINRA quickly pushed out a statement “correcting misinformation”:

FINRA has seen recent statements from firms stating that new, stringent rules from FINRA will require them to bring their workforce back to the office full time. This is incorrect. FINRA notes that a location from which an associated person regularly conducts securities business on behalf of a member firm, including a home office, has always been subject to possible disclosure, registration and inspection under FINRA rules and applicable rules of other regulators. The COVID-19 pandemic prompted FINRA to provide member firms with temporary relief from many of these requirements. After a three year plus rulemaking process on our new rules, during which FINRA engaged in substantial outreach to member firms, FINRA informed member firms in January that the temporary relief would come to an end on May 30, 2024, a year after the official end of the pandemic. 

Hold up, so banks straight up lied to their employees? A shocking turn of events.

FINRA explained in their statement that the new rules “provide member firms greater flexibility for their registered persons to work from home.” Rules that, according to FINRA, member firms (i.e. banks) expressed support for.

Our new Residential Supervisory Location (RSL) Rule and Remote Inspections Pilot Program Rule are intended to provide member firms greater flexibility — not less — to allow eligible registered persons to work from home [emphasis ours], following the expiration of temporary COVID-19 relief from existing requirements. The new rules provide a practical and balanced way for firms to meet their regulatory obligations, while protecting investors, and acknowledging the need for greater workplace flexibility.  

Rule 3110.19, which becomes effective on June 1, treats a private residence at which an associated person engages in specified supervisory activities, subject to certain safeguards and limitations, as a non-branch location. As a non-branch location, this newly defined residential supervisory location (or RSL) will be subject to inspections on a regular periodic schedule — likely at least every three years — instead of the annual inspections currently required for an office of supervisory jurisdiction (OSJ) and “supervisory branch office.” It sounds like RSLs will be a paperwork headache for banks — they must conduct and document a risk assessment and provide a list of RSLs to FINRA by the 15th day of the month following each calendar quarter — but that’s a far cry from “FINRA is making you come back into the office.”

• Citi, HSBC, Barclays Ramp Up Demands for Five Days in Office [Bloomberg]
• FINRA Statement to Correct Misinformation About the New Residential Supervisory Location Rule [FINRA]

The post FINRA Quickly Calls BS on Banks Forcing a Return-to-Office in Their Name appeared first on Going Concern.

As an industry publication that started out as a voice for millennials (and cool Gen Xers), we’ve never bought into the “Gen Z is lazy” stereotype because that stereotype was pinned on our generation too when we started entering the workforce at the turn of the millennium. It’s clear the root of it is less that an entire generation is lazy — some are, no doubt — but that the old guard couldn’t understand why young people were not interested in taking shit from their employers like they did back in their day. See, in their day they paid less than $5k for college and could afford a house and a couple kids on a single salary. We, the 40-something and unders, know we have to job hop to get good salary increases and learned early on that unless you really like the work or have eyes on a corner office, there’s very little incentive to stay with the same employer for too long. That’s all that is.

Alas, the lazy stereotype persists. And the 433 interns across tax, audit, and advisory service lines KPMG surveyed for its Intern Pulse Survey are over it.

You’ll notice none of these key takeaways say anything about TikTok or Fortnite.

• Gen Z talent is seeking stability amid a tight labor market and is pushing back against the notion that they are lazy.
• Gen Z is fully embracing GenAI – both in their personal and professional lives – and the availability of AI-related trainings is an important factor when considering a future employer.
• Gen Z strongly values a positive culture and working environment with opportunities to engage coworkers in-person and up-level their soft skills, but don’t forget salary.
• Gen Z values home ownership most when it comes to their long-term financial goals and most plan to vote in the U.S. presidential election this year.

Bonus points to KPMG for that “but don’t forget salary.” Gen Z, like all of us, doesn’t want to work in a hellhole staffed with actual demons, power-trippers, and Machiavellian managers who mentally torture you for sport. But their desire (or ability) to avoid such an environment is trumped by the bottom-most sections of Mazlow’s hierarchy of needs — that is to say food, shelter, sleep. You know, the basics. Basics that have grown increasingly expensive just in the past few years. Corporate leadership loves saying Gen Z values purpose as if that’s the only thing they value but let’s be honest, the rent’s got to get paid above all else. And the rent is obscene right now.

Here’s what KPMG says about their interns’ opinions that third bullet:

“Purpose, culture, sustainability and opportunity are all important factors as Gen Z talent consider job opportunities, but this generation is more confident talking about what they need – from salary to work-life-balance. It’s important that employers continue to actively manage these expectations,” said Derek Thomas, National Partner-in-Charge, University Talent Acquisition at KPMG U.S.

• When asked for the top three factors they value most in a future employer, respondents identified salary as most common (25%), closely followed by a positive culture and working environment (24%) and opportunities for advancement (20%). Scheduling flexibility (15%) was an additional factor, followed by learning and development as well as benefits—such as good options for paid time off, healthcare/dental/vision coverage, and mental health benefits and programs.
• 78% agree or somewhat agree that an employer’s ESG efforts (e.g., prioritizes environment/sustainability; is committed to DEI and social equity; and demonstrates ethical business practices) is an important factor when considering a job/employer.
• 89% agree or somewhat agree that access to trainings on “soft skills” or professional skills (e.g., presentation skills, executive presence, client etiquette, interpersonal skills) is an important factor when considering a job/employer.
• 82% believe a hybrid work model will provide the most opportunity for growth as they start their career. However, the survey does not find a significant desire for fully in-person or remote work. 14% believe that fully in-person will be most conducive to career growth, and only 4% think that fully remote is best.

Also of note: Nearly half of all respondents (48 percent, and mind you these are current KPMG interns) believe that 20 percent of their future full-time job as it exists today will be automated by AI. 39 percent are using ChatGPT frequently, 14 percent say they’ve never used it. A little more than half (51 percent) use generative AI for work-related purposes (or claim to be doing so), be it for administrative tasks not detailed in the survey results of project-based tasks. Almost three-quarters (72 percent) agree that being offered AI-related training and tools is an important factor when looking at potential employers.

And here’s an interesting footnote on salary they stuck in there:

A KPMG 2022 survey found alumni who stayed with KPMG for an extra year saw an 18% increase in their annual compensation value. Projecting this accelerated earnings potential over a nearly 40-year career period could potentially yield millions in extra lifetime earnings.

So you’re saying there’s value in loyalty after all?

The post KPMG Interns Firmly Disavow the Lazy Gen Z Stereotype appeared first on Going Concern.

Stories about the AICPA are like buses, you don’t see one for an hour weeks and then three show up at once. Today I come bearing a gift from this Journal of Accountancy article about new AICPA Chair Carla McCall, CPA, CGMA.

Let’s see what “New AICPA chair: ‘We need to promote the cool work we do’” has to offer us. Gotta be something cool and exciting, right?

Emphasize the future of the profession

Attracting the next generation of accountants starts with a paradigm shift within the profession, McCall said. “We need to promote the cool work we do. We need to stop talking about hours, stop using the term ‘busy season,’ and stop talking about how stressed we are.”

Instead, accountants should point to positive examples, such as guiding clients through complex financial transactions like IPOs and mergers and providing essential support during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, to emphasize the dynamic and varied nature of the profession, she said.

Oh. I posted a screenshot to Twitter earlier and let’s just say it’s not being received very well. Can’t imagine why.

The post Profession Leader Humbly Requests You STFU About Long Hours, Busy Season, and Stress appeared first on Going Concern.

Sad prediction:

AI and offshoring are going to wreck the accounting profession in the next decade.

Combine that with the pain every company has with this function and it’s a recipe for economic disaster.

— Michael Girdley (@girdley) May 14, 2024

There are two types of people: those who don’t find this sad (only accountants fall into this category) and those outside of the profession who think bookkeepers and payroll clerks (RIP) are what make up “the accounting profession.” The latter are definitely on the endangered species list.

We can tell which category this guy is in without even checking his username.

Y’all keep promising this, and we keep begging y’all to make it come true…

— Jeremy Wells (@JWellsTax) May 14, 2024

Of all the responses (“It can’t come soon enough” was my favorite), it’s this one I want to flag.

The desire to enter the profession in the first place is on the decline as well.

There is still a need (likely always will be) for the expertise at the top end of the profession.

But how do you get people through the pipeline to the top end?

For a profession that instills…

— Jason Turnwald, CPA (@JasonTurnwald) May 14, 2024

Text:

The desire to enter the profession in the first place is on the decline as well.

There is still a need (likely always will be) for the expertise at the top end of the profession.

But how do you get people through the pipeline to the top end?

For a profession that instills trust & confidence in the market…your concern is extremely valid.

In all the talk about AI and offshoring eliminating accounting as we know it, one aspect not talked about enough is the first 1/4th of the pipeline. We’re so worried about getting enough fresh meat into it and not thinking about the people who’ve recently entered it.

AI and tremendous amounts of offshoring appeared seemingly overnight — we went from about one-to-two percent offshoring in 2010 to as much as 60 percent or more now — and as such, little thought was given to what happens to the onshore young people coming up through the pyramid structure. A fresh-faced batch of youngsters come in every spring and winter, learn the ropes, and those who stick around pay it forward to another batch of not-yet-bitter youth. On and on, year after year, so goes the machine. Now the tasks they used to cut their teeth on are being sent overseas to underpaid associates or given to algorithmic models that never bitch about busy season or leave in the middle of it. Meanwhile, India has been not-quietly gathering up all that knowledge. See: India’s answer to Big Four firms could be in the works: Here are the details in Business Today.

Can India have a home-grown mega sized CA firm that can go global and compete with the Big Four firms? It may be in the works. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs are laying down the ground work for this.

“We have made a Committee for Aggregation of CA firms. It is working very effectively on how to frame guidelines for networking, multidisciplinary partnership, international networking, merger and demerger and advertisement. We are working on these five fronts so as to empower Indian firms to become global,” said ICAI President Ranjeet Kumar Agarwal.

In an interaction with BT, Agarwal said ICAI is working on these five fronts to empower Indian CA firms to become global. It is also going to make a presentation before the ministry of corporate affairs on this. “The ministry is also very keen on how Indian CA firms can grow big,” he said.

Did we really think they would be content to do our bitch work for 1/5th of the price forever?

“We want to leverage and we want to allow them to merge so that they can become bigger. For merger, they need some incentives, policies and tools on which we are working,” said Agarwal, underlining that Indian firms have the capacity to grow big and become global but they need some handholding.

“India has no dearth of talent. A large number of Indian CAs are also working abroad,” he highlighted. Out of a total of 400,000 CAs in the country, about 160,000 are practicing professionals.

At least a few people are talking about this future problem of onshore associates missing out on solid foundations. See this year-old thread: AI won’t take our jobs, but Outsource will

Comment
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inAccounting

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See also: I didn’t beleive [sic] it! Big 4’s ultimate goal is indeed to offshore!

I remember a time many years ago when we were asking what if 20 percent of audit work is performed offshore as if this were a ridiculous scenario that could only be dreamed up on the fifth day of Burning Man (i.e. you’d have to be high as balls to think it could ever happen).

A 1997 paper entitled Challenges confronting accountancy in the 21st century by Carolina Koornhof [PDF] basically predicted the future we live in now.

There’s little to be done about it now other than the same reactionary freakouts the profession has engaged in for as long as I can remember. Just like the talent shortage thing that was building up for a DECADE before people really started freaking out. I mean, we were freaking out but that’s only because we’re overly negative and enjoy pointing out potential disasters on the horizon as well as current ones.

Guess we should be extra nice to the Indians, we might be working for them in the not-so-distant future.

Related:

The post Accountants Will Go Extinct in the Next Decade, Says Guy appeared first on Going Concern.

He may be CEO now but unlike some naturally talented, born-to-lead handshakers, he didn’t get there right away. Before finally ascending to the highest rung on the ladder, he didn’t make partner (twice!) and came in second in his first race to be CEO. He got there eventually, obviously.

On the most helpful career feedback he’s received, here’s what he said:

It’s interesting. You usually get this feedback when you fail, “just keep doing what you’re doing, you’re doing a good job.”

Now that is BS feedback because every human always needs to improve.

I need to keep growing and learning as a CEO every single day in my role. So if someone tells you that you’re doing fine, and you don’t need to do anything else, that is the worst possible piece of feedback and advice you can ever get.

You should be asking, “what else can I do?” As I said to you before, “how am I perceived?”

The second year I failed to make partner, I kept asking why, why, why, why? And eventually, I got that feedback, “you are perceived as a larrikin, as a lad, you have the gravitas.” And then we started to talk about feedback. “Okay, what can I do to change that perception?” And that feedback I could use, and I could apply for the rest of my career.

Yeah, we’re gonna have to Google that.

Larrikin is an Australian English term meaning “a mischievous young person, an uncultivated, rowdy but good-hearted person“, or “a person who acts with apparent disregard for social or political conventions“.

It used to mean “a lout, hoodlum, or hooligan.” Further reading from this century: Q&A: The origin of “larrikin”

Anyway, seems ol’ Adam took that advice to heart and changed not who he is as a person — “I’m still a larrikin. You can’t take that out of someone,” he told AFR — but how he is perceived. When it comes down to it, that’s all that matters in professional services after all. His colleagues at PwC know all about that.

Adam Powick failed to make partner twice. Now he runs Deloitte [Financial Review]

The post Mischievous Deloitte Partner on Why ‘Keep Doing What You’re Doing’ Is the Worst Career Advice appeared first on Going Concern.

Let’s talk about cover letters. I’ve always been a fan but that’s because I write for a living so pounding out 400 fluffed-up words is nothing to me. For the non-linguists out there, it’s in competition with the 90-minute assessment test for the worst part of the job hunt.

Enter ChatGPT. Finally, humanity’s cover letter problems are solved. Or are they?

CNBC’s Make It published a little something on Monday that says the younguns are getting busted using AI because all the cover letters are the same:

Shoshana Davis, a Gen Z career expert and founder of the career consultancy Fairy Job Mother, told CNBC Make It in an interview that the generation (generally defined as those born between 1996 and 2012) have become too reliant on AI tools like ChatGPT to generate cover letters and job application answers.

“So I speak to businesses and employers who hire anything from like 10 to 1000s of Gen Z every year,” Davis said. “And one of the main challenges that I’m seeing at the moment is the use of AI, specifically ChatGPT, and it’s not being used in the right way, and it’s not being used effectively.”

Davis explained that “employers are getting hundreds of the exact same cover letters word for word,” or answers to job application questions that are the same, and suspect that ChatGPT use is in play.

Although we haven’t heard of a similar official stance on our side of the Atlantic, The Telegraph reported just last month that Big 4 firms have “banned” the use of AI in the job application process.

Big Four accountants have warned applicants not to use AI to complete applications or online assessments during the hiring process.

Job hunters applying to KPMG and Deloitte must now confirm they have finished online tests without external tools such as AI.

PwC said it is reviewing applications to check for activity, which “undermines the integrity” of its recruitment operation and will take action against rule breakers.

BDO took it a step further and is using “plagiarism checkers” to sniff out AI responses.

For now, there’s no fool-proof AI detector and even OpenAI says in an educator FAQ that asking ChatGPT if it wrote something will get you whatever answer it feels like giving you with “no basis in fact”:

ChatGPT has no “knowledge” of what content could be AI-generated or what it generated. It will sometimes make up responses to questions like “did you write this [essay]?” or “could this have been written by AI?” These responses are random and have no basis in fact.

With that said, ChatGPT does tend to have a linguistic watermark. I asked it for a list of its most-used words and, after it initially spit out a joke list with words like the, a, an, and, or, and of like a real asshole, it gave me a real list when prompted correctly.

• Tapestry
• Delve
• Intriguing
• Insight
• Paradigm
• Spectrum
• Nuance
• Profound
• Venture
• Dimension
• Noteworthy
• Plausible
• Expound
• Eloquent
• Ambiguous
• Conundrum
• Enigmatic
• Illustrative
• Ubiquitous
• Ponder
• Allude
• Albeit
• Juxtaposition
• Amidst
• Embark

These are just 25 examples of words ChatGPT likes to use and for all we know it made that list up too. It really does love the word delve though.

Are medical studies being written with ChatGPT?

Well, we all know ChatGPT overuses the word "delve".

Look below at how often the word 'delve' is used in papers on PubMed (2023 was the first full year of ChatGPT). pic.twitter.com/iNxZfFLkxL

— Jeremy Nguyen (@JeremyNguyenPhD) March 30, 2024

When it comes to cover letters, no one is expecting you to throw heaps of complicated words around like James Joyce, you don’t need ChatGPT to insert unnecessary juxtapositions and paradigms. Be more like Hemingway and you’ll be fine.

Or say fuck it and use ChatGPT anyway. What are they going to do, not hire everyone?

The post We Delve Into the Vibrant Landscape of Gen Z Overusing ChatGPT in Cover Letters appeared first on Going Concern.

So some guy tweeted the following on April 23:

Me: really enjoyed the call. Please see attached financial modeling test

Gen Z applicant: this looks like a lot of work. Without knowing where I stand in the process, I’m not comfortable spending 90 minutes in Excel

Me:…well…I can tell you where you stand now

— m. stanfield (@mu2myoc) April 23, 2024

As of today, it stands at 7.9 million views, nearly 12k likes, 1.6k replies, and 1.2k quotes. This is the top response:

Finally, a hero who will stand for the downwardly-mobile

— m. stanfield (@mu2myoc) April 23, 2024

Funny.

If you expected this guy to get ratioed hard, I’ll remind you this is Twitter not r/antiwork. Actually, I bet he’s been posted there already. Yep.

In one reply, the guy says the candidate knew there would be an assessment:

Absolutely. One of the first things discussed in the interview is the steps in the process.

I'm hiring an investment analyst. Underwriting potential real estate investments is the bulk of the job. No one was surprised when I sent the test.

— m. stanfield (@mu2myoc) April 24, 2024

And added this:

A response I would have actually enjoyed would have been. “I’m good at this and do t work for free. Give me $1,000 and I’ll break this deal down in amazing detail”

Would have gladly paid and probably hired

— m. stanfield (@mu2myoc) April 23, 2024

Easy for him to say after the fact when he’s getting pounded in the quote tweets. But good to note for anyone who’s been tempted to draw up an invoice for a potential employer requesting hours-long assessments.

To get the opinion of a recruiter in the accounting space we tracked one down to ask. “Some employers have abused the privilege of assessments, using hours and hours of someone’s time. In some cases (creative fields or marketing, for example), the candidate was not hired but their ideas were used by the hiring employer. Not cool,” she said. “In accounting or analytical positions, I don’t think it’s bad to ask someone to complete an assessment within reason. An assessment shouldn’t take longer than 15 or 20 minutes. Between that and good interviewing techniques, an employer should be able to get an understanding of a candidate’s technical skills. If a candidate is qualified then a quick assessment shouldn’t be a problem for them.”

Before you’re allowed to comment on this post with your own opinion, we’re going to need you to first complete the 16Personalities MBTI assessment, the HEXACO Personality Inventory, and the Official Hogwarts House Sorting Quiz. When you’ve finished with that, please submit a Google Doc of five sample comments with a short PPT explaining how you arrived at those comments. Thanks and maybe we’ll call you.

The post The Most Divisive Topic on the Internet This Week Is a Pre-Employment Excel Assessment appeared first on Going Concern.

I came across this CNBC Make It article the other day about LinkedIn’s ‘open to work’ banner and apparently using this is a red flag to know-it-all recruiters.

When you’re looking for a new job, it may seem like a no-brainer to let as many people as possible know. But career experts differ on their opinions about LinkedIn’s “open to work” banner, the green sign that shows up just under your photo if you choose to activate it.

“It is the biggest red flag” in a job candidate, says Nolan Church, former Google recruiter and current CEO of salary data company FairComp.

“There is a truism in recruiting that the best people are not looking for jobs,” he says, and therefore those people would not be advertising that they’re looking for work either. Former Amazon recruiter and current career coach Lindsay Mustain agrees.

They included some facts, too: 33 million LinkedIn users are currently using the feature that was introduced in the early days of COVID-19 when people lost their jobs en masse and people who have it on are twice as likely to be contacted by recruiters, per LinkedIn data.

Nolan was quoted in a different CNBC article a few months ago saying it makes you look desperate:

When it comes to job interviews, you want to give the company you’re interviewing with the sense that you have other options and that they have to fight for you. “Recruiting is like dating,” says Church. “You have to make the other side feel like you’re exclusive.”

What you’re signaling to hiring managers with the “open to work” sign on LinkedIn is that you’ll take any job, says Church, from whoever reaches out to you, because maybe nobody is. “It actually feels to a hiring manager like desperation,” he says.

As a recruiter, “you want to feel like that person really wants to work at your company versus any company,” says Church. And that sign makes it look like the opposite.

But he also says “the best people are not looking for jobs” and that “you have to go and pull them out.”

This is also him:

To quote LinkedIn “influencers”…Thoughts? Agree?

The post Weekend Discussion: ‘Open to Work’ on LinkedIn, Yay or Nay? appeared first on Going Concern.

Deloitte’s Women @ Work report shows stagnating progress in and outside the workplace for women

Your report takeaways from the survey of 5,000 women in 10 countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States) are:

• Half of women say their stress levels have increased since last year, and despite some progress, they are still not receiving adequate mental health support in the workplace
• Women’s disproportionate share of domestic responsibilities, including a sharp rise in those caring for another adult, is taking a toll on their careers and mental health
• Nearly half of women are concerned about their personal safety at work or while traveling to or for work
• Many women who experience challenges related to menstrual disorders, fertility, and even more so for menopause, feel unable to seek support or take time off from work
• Experiences with hybrid work are improving, but some women say they have made adjustments to their work and personal lives following return-to-office policies

“Despite a small number of improvements since last year, our survey tells us that women are facing mounting pressures in the workplace, their personal lives, and in their communities,” says Emma Codd, Global Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer, Deloitte. “Globally, women feel their rights are backsliding, they are experiencing increased stress and taking on the majority of household tasks at home. Alongside this they are experiencing non-inclusive behaviors at work, are concerned for their safety and feel unable to disclose when they are experiencing women’s health challenges. This is a situation that must change—and employers must enable this.”

Because Going Concern is a publication for accounting professionals, allow us to call special attention to this section.

Stress and long working hours take an increased toll on women’s mental health

Half of women say their stress levels are higher than they were a year ago and a similar number say they’re concerned or very concerned about their mental health. Mental health is a top three concern for women globally (48%), falling behind only their financial security (51%) and rights (50%).

There are a number of potential factors behind declining mental health levels, but among them is an inability to disconnect from work. The survey findings show a link between working hours and mental health: While half of women who typically just work their contracted hours describe their mental health as good, this declines to 23% for those who regularly work extra hours. Only 37% of women say they feel able to switch off from their work.

Despite these concerning findings, more than half of women say they aren’t receiving adequate mental health support from employers, and two-thirds of women don’t feel comfortable talking about their mental health in the workplace. Though this highlights a need for significant improvement, it does show progress from last year’s findings when even more women said they did not receive adequate mental health support from their employer and did not feel comfortable speaking about mental health in the workplace.

It’s no wonder women are stressed out and having trouble turning off. Because…

Women are feeling the weight of misbalanced caregiving and domestic responsibilities. Notably, 50% of women who live with a partner and have children say they take the most responsibility for childcare—up from 46% in 2023, with only 12% saying this falls to their partner. Further, 57% of women who live with a partner and are involved in care of another adult say they take the greatest responsibility for this—up from 44% in 2023, while only 5% say this responsibility falls to their partner. Meanwhile, more than two in five women bear the most responsibility for cleaning and other domestic tasks, similar to 2023. These pressures are taking a toll: women who take on the greatest share of household responsibilities are far less likely to say they have good mental health than those who do not. And nearly half say they have taken time off work for mental health reasons in the past year, compared with just under a quarter of women who don’t have the greatest responsibilities for these tasks.

The result of this disproportionate allocation of responsibilities makes it more challenging for women professionally—only 27% of women who bear the greatest responsibility at home say they can disconnect from their personal life and focus on their careers.

Worse, the report showed that women feel even less supported by their employers than last year. One in ten of them feel they can talk openly at work about work/life balance and almost ALL of them (95 percent) feel that requesting or taking advantage of flexible working opportunities will affect their likelihood of promotion. And if they do speak up to ask for flexible work options, 93 percent of respondents don’t think their workload would be adjusted accordingly.

It’s not looking good, y’all.

The post Deloitte Checks in on Women at Work, the Results Aren’t Good appeared first on Going Concern.

Industry OG and commentator Gene Marks has written an opinion piece for The Hill about what audits actually are that is less opinion and more brutal fact: Why you should be very skeptical of that auditor’s report. Those of us who’ve worked or even simply seen behind the curtain of audit know the things he points out to be true — assurance is reasonable not absolute, financial statements are the responsibility of management not auditors, “finding fraud” is not the ultimate goal of audits — but do investors? Probably not, that’s why they’re always suing audit firms when companies go bust with millions of dollars of fraud hidden in plain sight on their balance sheets. Most of the time, auditors can confidently (and legally) shrug their shoulders and say “not my job.”

He writes:

Basically, the accountant is saying to the world that all the information in the financial statements comes from management and that they’ve made efforts to verify that the financial statements are mostly right. But if the you-know-what hits the fan, their attorneys have plenty of cover (and insurance) for when the litigation starts.

So they might catch a fine from the audit regulators. What’s a few hundred thousand or even million dollars to a firm bringing in tens of billions a year? The PCAOB is busy going after firms for sharing answers on internal training exams anyway, who has time to figure out ways to fine audit firms for doing the minimum audit work required by existing standards.

The entirety of his article is worth a read and should be passed along to any naive investors in your life. I wanted to call attention to this bit though:

During an audit, the lion’s share of critical work on the ground (inventory observations, cut-off testing, analytical reviews, receivables confirmation) is being done by children — yes, children — who are still hung over from their college graduations. I was once that person, and looking back, I am shocked by the responsibility I had, given my lack of experience at the time. The accounting profession’s desperation to find recruits has not only lowered the competence bar but also added more tasks on the shoulders of an already exhausted staff, to the point where reports are being delayed.

To address this particular issue, he has a crazy idea:

And on the topic of partners, they and their managers need to cut down on the client lunches and instead get in the trenches. Like our annual continuing professional education requirements, the leaders of accounting firms should be professionally required to do a portion of staff work, like observing inventories, grilling the accounting managers on expenses or even checking bank reconciliations. Why? Because someone my age not only has more experience, they have a much different perspective on these things than a green 22-year-old. The devil’s in the details, people.

I dunno, you guys. I feel like partners would rather eat the million dollar fines.

The post Audits Are a Joke and Here’s Why According to a Salty Old Industry Veteran appeared first on Going Concern.

Here’s LinkedIn’s pitch:

Our 8th annual LinkedIn Top Companies list highlights the 50 best large workplaces to grow your career in the U.S. right now. Fueled by unique LinkedIn data, the methodology analyzes various facets of career progression like promotion rates, skill development and more among employees at each company. You can read more about how we compile the list at the bottom of the article.

This year’s honorees are proving that investment in the employee experience is vital in today’s workplaces. Whether it’s launching upskilling initiatives or offering flexible working arrangements, these are the companies leading the way in not only attracting workers, but retaining them in our ever-changing world of work.

JP Morgan Chase took overall #1 followed by Amazon and Wells Fargo. And then there’s the Big D at #4.

Right after Deloitte in the fifth spot (and missing a logo for some reason) is PwC.

We have to scroll down to #18 before we see another accounting firm and it’s EY.

KPMG shows up at #27.

The only other accounting firm on the list is BDO at 46.

It might be useful to share LinkedIn’s methodology for this particular list. It is, of course, deeply dependent on LinkedIn data.

Our methodology uses LinkedIn data to rank companies based on eight pillars that have been shown to lead to career progression: ability to advance; skills growth; company stability; external opportunity; company affinity; gender diversity; educational background and employee presence in the country. Ability to advance tracks employee promotions within a company and when they move to a new company, based on standardized job titles. Skills growth looks at how employees across the company are gaining skills while employed at the company, using standardized LinkedIn skills. Company stability tracks attrition over the past year, as well as the percentage of employees that stay at the company at least three years. External opportunity looks at Recruiter outreach across employees at the company, signaling demand for workers coming from these companies. Company affinity, which seeks to measure how supportive a company’s culture is, looks at connection volume on LinkedIn among employees, controlled for company size. Gender diversity measures gender parity within a company and its subsidiaries. Educational background examines the variety of educational attainment among employees, from no degree up to Ph.D. levels, reflecting a commitment to recruiting a wide range of professionals. Finally, employee presence in the country looks at the company’s number of employees in the country relative to other companies, as a means of capturing companies that provide a diverse work environment and more opportunities for career advancement and networking.

Peep the bolded part:

To be eligible, companies must have had 5,000 or more global employees with at least 500 in the country as of Dec. 31, 2023. Attrition can be no higher than 10% over the methodology time period, based on LinkedIn data. Similarly, organizations that have had layoffs of 10% or more of their workforce based on corporate announcements or public, reliable sources between Jan. 1, 2023 and the list launch, are not eligible. These decisions are made by the LinkedIn News team based on company statements and/or reputable news outlets. Only parent companies rank on the list; majority-owned subsidiaries and data about those subsidiaries are incorporated into the parent company score. The methodology time frame is Jan. 1, 2023 through Dec. 31, 2023. This analysis represents the world seen through the lens of LinkedIn data, drawn from the anonymized and aggregated profile information of LinkedIn’s members around the world.

The last time we covered Big 4 exits, Wall Street Journal had reported about 307,000 total Big 4 exits in 2023 through October, up 15.4% from the same period the prior year according to data from workplace data outlet Revelio Labs. The Big 4 business model has 15-20% turnover baked in, hence why they’ve been doing layoffs (announced and otherwise) this past year. We don’t have exact figures for each firm however outgoing EY CEO Carmine Di Sibio said last almost a year ago that his firm went from over 20 percent attrition down to 12 “pretty suddenly.”

We’ll assume LinkedIn went off people’s job-switching profile data to determine if a company qualifies for the list with attrition no greater than 10 percent. Because if not, brace yourselves for more layoffs.

The post Three Quarters of Big 4 Firms Made the Top 20 on LinkedIn’s Top Companies 2024 List appeared first on Going Concern.

As described in the PCAOB’s orders, from 2017 to 2019, Deloitte Philippines’s audit partners and other personnel engaged in widespread answer sharing – either by providing answers or using answers – or received answers without reporting such sharing in connection with tests for mandatory firm training courses. Baltazar directly and substantially contributed to Deloitte Philippines’s violations. On at least six occasions, Baltazar, in his capacity as the partner responsible for e-learning compliance, shared answers to training assessments with other audit partners at the firm. (Baltazar has since left the firm.)

In his role as National Professional Practice Director, Baltazar was responsible for, among other things, promoting audit quality, facilitating audit consultations, and monitoring and managing the compliance by the firm’s auditors with online training and professional training requirements.

The order against him explains what happened:

During the relevant time period (2017-2019), Respondent recognized that the Firm’s audit partners had fallen behind in their rates of compliance with trainings because their workloads and utilization rates made it difficult for them to keep up with required continuing professional education and trainings. Respondent e-mailed answers to e-learnings to the audit partners and others in the Firm at least six times from 2017 through 2019. For example, on January 4, 2019, Respondent sent an e-mail to the audit partner listserv with the subject “IFRS E – Learnings.” The email included answers to 21 different questions on three different IFRS topics. Respondent explained that those answers would result in a passing rate, but not a score of 100%.

Brilliant actually. The PCAOB did not find this brilliant.

Respondent violated PCAOB Rule 3502 because he knew, or recklessly did not know, that his actions and omissions would directly and substantially contribute to the Firm’s violations described above. As the NPPD, Respondent had responsibility for Firm personnel’s compliance with the Firm’s e-learnings and trainings. When Respondent recognized that Firm personnel’s compliance rates had fallen, he began sharing answers to exams.

As described above, Respondent shared answers with the Firm’s audit partners on at least six occasions from 2017-2019. Additionally, he was aware that others at the Firm were involved in improper answer sharing. Respondent failed to put a stop to or report that misconduct during the relevant period, despite his responsibilities for personnel management and promoting an ethical culture at the Firm.

Instead, as the Firm’s NPPD in charge of Firm training, Respondent created and fostered an environment in which it was acceptable to share answers and use shared answers on e-learning and training tests.

As for the situation at Deloitte Indonesia, says the PCAOB in the press release:

Additionally, from 2021 to 2023, more than 200 Deloitte Indonesia professionals engaged in answer sharing. The firm’s failure to detect and deter improper answer sharing by its personnel occurred despite numerous warnings from Deloitte Global and regional leadership that answer sharing was impermissible.

Legit, they really didn’t give a shit even when Deloitte Global started telling everyone to cool it on the answer sharing. Says the order:

During the relevant time period, large numbers of DT Indonesia personnel were involved in improper answer sharing. Indeed, more than 200 of its personnel, including two partners, participated in instances of improper answer sharing by, among other means, sending emails with answers to training test questions, providing screenshots of training questions and answers, or discussing answers when taking tests in the presence of others.

Despite this widespread answer sharing by the Firm’s personnel, none of those aware of the improper answer sharing timely reported the answer sharing (a) to anyone at the Firm not involved in answer sharing; (b) to anyone within regional leadership or Deloitte Global; or (c) to any relevant regulator. Moreover, the misconduct occurred notwithstanding numerous warnings from Deloitte Global and regional leadership that answer sharing was improper.

Beginning in October 2019 through September 2022, DT Indonesia partners were repeatedly told through a series of calls, townhalls, meetings, emails, and mandatory e-learnings that answer sharing was not acceptable. Despite these warnings, answer sharing at DT Indonesia continued until 2023, when the Firm discovered the misconduct and began an internal investigation.

“Few things erode trust like impaired ethics,” said PCAOB Chair Erica Y. Williams. “To protect investors, the PCAOB will continue to address serious quality control deficiencies at PCAOB-registered firms around the world.”

Yeah, we know. Do you really have nothing better to do?

PCAOB Imposes $2 Million in Fines on Deloitte Indonesia and Deloitte Philippines, Bars Firm Leader After Exam Cheating [PCAOB]

The post We Forgot to Mention Deloitte Got in Trouble For Cheating This Week, Too appeared first on Going Concern.

Let’s check out what Bberg said before I inject too many unrelated metaphors into this:

Mistakes continued to pile up this earnings season in the wake of Lyft Inc.’s market-roiling typo: Planet Fitness Inc., Mister Car Wash Inc. and Rivian Automotive Inc. all had to correct their quarterly earnings statements. These types of errors shake investor confidence and in extreme cases can result in heavy fines from the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

While it’s unclear what exactly led to the mistakes in each of these cases, one major risk factor has reached crisis levels: a shortage of certified public accountants.

Seasoned practitioners are retiring while the profession isn’t drawing the next generation of workers entering the labor market. The lack of help means current accountants’ hours and workloads can be grueling, upping the odds of mistakes and burnout.

Hints of a potential problem began to emerge in 2014-ish though up until the past few years it was only us screaming into the void about a talent shortage while accounting enrollments declined further every year. Then Wall Street Journal took notice and, well, the accounting news market has been saturated with SHORTAGE! articles since. And every time one of those is posted to r/accounting, a cacophony of voices cry, “There’s not a shortage problem. IT’S A SALARY PROBLEM.” (Side note mostly to self: Don’t write blatantly sarcastic headlines about this matter as all of r/accounting except for the one person who read the article will call you a moron and jerk)

It’s refreshing that the Bloomberg article addresses the salary issue rather than asking as if the answer isn’t already known “where have all the accountants gone??” Author Jo Constantz deserves a for that. She could have given it a sentence or two, worse she could have hand-wrung about it like the AICPA does when they come up with dozens of reasons other than low starting salaries for why the accounting profession isn’t as attractive as it once was in their regular brainstorming meetings. Instead she not only thoroughly acknowledged it, she threw some actual numbers in there, too.

For many 22- to 27-year-olds, known as Generation Z, their average student debt of more than $20,000 and the lure of higher-paying Wall Street and Silicon Valley firms means the time and effort required to become a CPA doesn’t pencil out.

Last year, the median salary for full-time entry-level accounting jobs was roughly $62,500, up from about $50,000 in 2020, according to Handshake data. The median pay advertised for entry-level management consulting and financial analyst roles, by contrast, was $70,000 and $75,000, respectively. For software engineers, the median entry-level pay was $93,000.

To attract people to accounting, the profession must “own up” to stagnant wages, Paul Munter, chief accountant to the SEC, told an American Institute of CPAs conference in December.

Note: The esteemed Paul Munter graduated from Leeds School of Business in 1978. Here are some figures from a 1982 Bureau of Labor Statistics report entitled Occupational salary levels for white-collar workers (1982 is basically 1978 right):

LOL:

$17,266 for a public accountant starting out in 1982 = $55,524 today. While demand for accountants has increased significantly since, as has the regulatory and compliance burden AND the base level knowledge expected of even the dumbest accountants, salaries have stayed…meh. It is literally not worth it for many students. Gen Z is smarter than we geezers give them credit for.

Back to the topic at hand. While we aren’t sure a shortage is to blame for all these restatements, we do know material weakness disclosures due to lack of accounting staff started appearing in SEC filings last year and there is a municipal crisis brewing as cities lose their credit ratings due to late filings and audits, too. The dominoes are falling. Too bad no one did something about it back when there was still time to turn it around.

The post Low Salaries Are Wreaking Havoc on Capital Markets appeared first on Going Concern.

One post was this: In Honor of International Women’s Day, Let’s Recall Some Important Rules For Women In the Workplace. The “important rules” were bullshit from that sexist training seminar EY got in trouble for some years ago. Better known as the origin of the “waffles and pancakes” joke (attendees were told that “women’s brains absorb information like pancakes soak up syrup so it’s hard for them to focus” whereas men’s brains are like waffles and all the knowledge pools in all the books and crannies).

The 30-some leaders who attended the seminar — all of whom were women — were given a score sheet to rank themselves on feminine and masculine qualities. “Childlike,” ugh.

But there’s another post that I completely forgot about because it was ten years ago and I used to drink a lot at work back then: EY Got a Bunch of Old White Guys to Talk About Women in the Workplace

In that post, EY tweeted this:

Top tips from #EY’s male leaders on how to make the gender mix work #BBWW http://t.co/NcZDDKdW4w

— EY (@EYnews) July 1, 2014

Which led to the below PDF. EY’s link is dead now, as so many ancient links across the internet are, but we uploaded the PDF to Scribd at the time so here you go:

We’re happy to report EY is not pushing out male-centered content for this International Women’s Day.

Inclusion today. Inclusion every day.

Today we spotlight the stories of just a few of the remarkable women at EY who have been sharing their social equity experiences. https://t.co/F6I27Amm9N

Happy International Women’s Day #IWD2024 #UpliftSocialEquity pic.twitter.com/HCptwRTmEU

— EY (@EYnews) March 8, 2024

Happy International Women’s Day!

The post Remember When Firms Would Get Only Dudes to Talk About International Women’s Day? appeared first on Going Concern.

We are expanding Deloitte’s Audit & Assurance Blockchain & Digital Assets practice. We are seeking professionals who want to build off their existing audit knowledge or accounting experience and use such knowledge on exciting audit and advisory projects that add great value to our clients within their finance, accounting, and operation departments. From digital asset technical accounting issues to new standard implementations; from complex transaction support to internal controls specific to blockchain and digital assets, the leaders of our practice will help you expand your experience base to further develop your career.

More:

This time around, Cryptonews spotted several new openings on LinkedIn like this one for Senior Cyber Crypto Analyst with a security clearance in Arlington:

Deloitte Government and Public Services (“GPS”) Advisory LLP advises clients on managing business controversy and conflict, executing deals, and maintaining regulatory compliance. We provide services to companies throughout their lifecycle from purchasing a company to investigating potential fraud.

Our GPS Advisory Investigations and Intelligence (“I&I”) practice provides investigative expertise to analyze events, people, entities, and financial data in order to extract relevant insights for our federal clients’ mission-critical needs.

Work you’ll do:

Support cyber financial crime investigations, to include cryptocurrency fraud investigations, and work closely with law enforcement officials.

Additional responsibilities will include:

• Analyze large sets of transaction data.
• Develop summary reports and/or intelligence products.
• Perform link chart analysis.
• Perform follow-the-money techniques.

Required Qualifications:

• Active Top Secret (TS) security clearance, or higher, is required.
• Experience conducting Open Source Intelligence (“OSINT”) and darkweb research
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
• Experience conducting cryptocurrency investigations.
• Experience conducting money laundering investigations, financial investigations, government investigations, and/or forensic investigations.
• Knowledge and experience of cryptocurrencies, digital assets, and BSA data.
• Ability to conduct research and analysis using open-source information, national and international databases, and corporate record filings to match investigative findings and summarize data into a finished professional product.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for employer sponsorship, now or at any time in the future

Preferred:

• Experience supporting law enforcement investigations.
• Applied knowledge to the enforcement of Title 18, Title 31, and other applicable statutes of the Federal Criminal Code, and the seizure and forfeiture of illegally derived property.
• Experience conducting cryptocurrency analysis support Federal investigation and prosecutions by using criminal investigative tools such as Chainalysis, Elliptic, CipherTrace, TRM Labs, Elementus, etc.

According to ZipRecruiter the average salary for a Senior Cyber Security Analyst in Virginia is $106,184. Deloitte doesn’t list a salary on LinkedIn.

Blockchain data platform Chainalysis announced a strategic partnership with Deloitte last year “to help the organizations’ mutual clients address digital asset ecosystem compliance challenges.” Which would involve:

Chainalysis will work with Deloitte’s blockchain and digital assets practice across cryptocurrency and digital asset risk, analytics, investigation, anti-money laundering/know your customer (AML/KYC), and regulatory compliance. Additionally, Deloitte will expand its practitioner pool trained and certified in Chainalysis products focused on blockchain analytics and investigations.

So if anyone in the DMV is looking for a job, have at it.

The post Deloitte’s Hiring Darkweb Enthusiasts For a New Batch of Crypto Jobs appeared first on Going Concern.

Happy #EmployeeAppreciationDay to our incredible team! Today and every day, we celebrate the hard work and passion each of you brings to the Firm. Your dedication doesn't just drive success — it creates a vibrant and supportive community that we are all proud to be part of. pic.twitter.com/kxeLW2VsAM

— Marcum LLP (@MarcumLLP) March 1, 2024

RSM joined in too with an eight second video.

Happy #EmployeeAppreciationDay!

Our unique professionals are what makes our firm great—providing exceptional client service and creating a collaborative work culture. https://t.co/wO8WUF1WTs #BeYouatRSM pic.twitter.com/goZdMA1TFd

— RSM US LLP (@RSMUSLLP) March 1, 2024

According to the always trustworthy Wikipedia, Employee Appreciation Day was the brainchild of Dr. Bob Nelson in 1995. It was basically a stunt to promote his book 1,001 Ways to Reward Employees, pictured below.

I trust everyone at least got a slice of pizza and gets the weekend off (LOL).

The post Let’s See What You Got For Employee Appreciation Day appeared first on Going Concern.

First off, we feel compelled to point out how utterly cool this guy is. That is not sarcasm.

As you can see from the screenshot above, his whole thing is wellbeing.

Here’s the abstract of the study which was based on survey data from 46,336 workers in 233 organizations in the UK:

Initiatives that promote mental well-being are formally recommended for all British workers, with many practices targeting change in individual workers’ resources. While the existing evidence is generally positive about these interventions, disagreement is increasing because of concerns that individual-level interventions do not engage with working conditions. Contributing to the debate, this article uses survey data (N = 46,336 workers in 233 organisations) to compare participants and nonparticipants in a range of common individual-level well-being interventions, including resilience training, mindfulness and well-being apps. Across multiple subjective well-being indicators, participants appear no better off. Results are interpreted through the job demands–resources theory and selection bias in cross-sectional results is interrogated. Overall, results suggest interventions are not providing additional or appropriate resources in response to job demands.

In other words, wellness programs don’t “undo” the damage of a stressful work environment. So what does? The existing evidence base suggests organization-level initiatives such as improvements in scheduling, management practices, staff resources, or tailored job design would be a good place to start.

A 2019 Harvard Business Review piece makes an important distinction between employee wellness and business benefit. Naturally, happy workers make for a better workplace — “Healthier people. Better business.” is the tagline of one service selling psychiatry services, coaching, and mindfulness to employers — but is on-site yoga helping the employee?

Wrote Charlotte Lieberman in HBR:

From coal mines to conference rooms, employers’ motivation is simple: keep workers healthy, keep company costs down.

But just because these programs can be positive for business outcomes doesn’t mean their primary purpose is to improve employees’ daily lives. For prospective hires, five-star Glassdoor reviews mentioning perks like free kale salads and onsite massages stand out like glittering constellations. But for employees, these benefits can feel like a tacit transaction. Ben, a designer and programmer I interviewed who has bipolar disorder, works at a company that offers a vast array of wellness benefits like culinary events (including fresh arepas!) and weekly afternoon yoga. “Company bulletins emphasize that these things are intended to offset work stress, and at the same time obliquely reinforce the idea that work stress is the inherent byproduct of being good at what you do and working hard at it,” he told me. “These things are often pitched as indulgent bribes to make up for the demanding expectations.”

She then says, skeptically:

I am personally not convinced that lunchtime yoga and mason jars of trail mix are the antidote to our global epidemic of workplace stress and burnout. For all the attention (and money spent) on workplace wellness, the jury is still out on whether these programs are really beneficial to our health. A recent study examining over 30,000 employees at a U.S. warehouse found that those exposed to a workplace wellness program reported no significant differences in absenteeism, healthcare spending, or job performance than those who were not — though they did report greater rates of some positive health behaviors, like engaging in regular exercise.

150 push-ups and 1,200 sit-ups a day is a good place to start.

Said Dr. Fleming of his research, “There’s growing consensus that organizations have to change the workplace and not just the worker. This research investigates well-being interventions across hundreds of workplaces, supplementing trials that often take place in single organizations, and the lack of any benefit suggests we need more ambition when it comes to improving employee well-being. I hope these results can spur on further research and employer action.”

Read more: Study finds no evidence that individual-level mental health interventions improve employees’ well-being [Phys.org]

Related:

The post Oxford Study Finds Workplace Wellness Programs Do Diddly Squat For Mental Health appeared first on Going Concern.

Over the years, we have covered various incidents of college-educated professionals behaving as though they were raised in a barn when utilizing the office restroom. In one such case, one EY office was so plagued with restroom problems an employee felt compelled to produce the guide pictured below and stuck it to the lunchroom wall. The note remained there for exactly 22 minutes until the OMP swung by to see to its removal. Guess we know who the biggest offender was.

Cameras in the client’s restroom? There’s got to be a story there. We don’t have a peeping clients story but we do have a story about an accounting professor recording students who came to his house to party taking a piss that will have you checking tissue boxes in bathrooms from now on.

At another office, EY had to spend money on stickers reminding the “if it’s mellow, let it yellow” crowd to flush.

We can’t help but wonder if this pervasive issue is part of the reason why they moved away from the “Quality In Everything We Do” tagline when they rebranded, clearly employees of the firm were struggling with the “everything” part.

And somewhere in another EY office, one exasperated public accountant urged colleagues to keep business out of the restroom. The other business, that is.

Also, keep business out of the restroom, even if a colleague wishes to talk business suggest that the conversation be moved elsewhere.  No-one wants to talk about the “unhh, grunt, grunt..” unpaid invoice from inside a stall.

These incidents happened years ago, long before professionals were spending entire weeks working from home and pissing all over their own toilet seats. You can still do that…at home. But let’s remember some basic bathroom manners apply when you’re sharing the space with others that may have been forgotten because we were working from home.

Here are just a few rules users of office restrooms should keep in mind when hitting the head.

Flush

Look, I get it, I lived in California for a long time. In a communal restroom situation, you are expected to flush it down every time regardless of what “it” is. Unless “it” is wet wipes or feminine hygiene products in which case there’s usually a handy receptacle called a trash can. Flushing wipes — and yes, even the ones that claim to be flushable — is a no-no and can lead to something horrifying called a fatberg that lurks in the sewers and screws up our fancy modern day wastewater systems.

From Wikipedia:

A fatberg is a rock-like mass of waste matter in a sewer system formed by the combination of flushed non-biodegradable solids, such as wet wipes, and fat, oil, and grease (FOG) deposits. The handling of FOG waste and the buildup of its deposits are a long-standing problem in waste management, with “fatberg” a more recent neologism. Fatbergs have formed in sewers worldwide, with the rise in usage of disposable (so-called “flushable”) cloths. Several prominent examples were discovered in the 2010s in Great Britain, their formation accelerated by aging Victorian sewers. Fatbergs are costly to remove, and they have given rise to public awareness campaigns about flushable waste.

Oh my God, Wikipedia has a “notable fatbergs” section.

12 September 2018: Workers in Macomb County, Michigan, US discovered a fatberg 100 feet long, 11 feet wide and as much as 6 feet tall. The Michigan Science Center launched a ‘fatberg’ exhibit in December 2018, which included real pieces from the mass found in September.

First In First Out

Unless your bowels are erupting at that very moment, don’t barge your way into a stall if someone is waiting ahead of you. Give the person exiting the stall plenty of space to finish their business and wander over to the sink to (hopefully) wash their hands.

It goes without saying, if you stand too close to the stall the user will automatically assume you’re peering through the unfortunate gap. Don’t do this. Unless you’re purposely peering through the unfortunate gap in which case, seek help weirdo.

Avoid Eye Contact

This one is mostly for the guys. Eyes up, gentlemen. The last thing you need is an eyeful of the top performer at your office.

Wash Your Hands

Do you all remember how at the beginning of 2020 the Centers For Disease Control actually had to produce an excess of content explaining to grown adults in the first world that you’re supposed to wash your hands?

For anyone who may have missed those copious PSAs, here’s a refresher. Remember: use soap!

Keep the Crying to a Minimum

Remember there are other people waiting to cry in the bathroom.

I'm all for crying in the bathroom but when there's only one stall, maybe limit your bathroom crying time to 5 mins please

— Sabrina the SALTy CPA (@IraGilligan) September 6, 2023

Clean Up After Yourself

Just because someone gets paid to clean up after you doesn’t mean you can’t clean up after yourself, too. Don’t leave a trail of toilet paper pieces scattered all over the floor or unravel the entire roll of TP like a cat high off his ass on nip.

With these few things in mind and the right attitude, we can all work together to make the office restroom a less disgusting place. Maybe. Hopefully.

The post Let’s Discuss Bathroom Etiquette Now That We’re Returning to the Office appeared first on Going Concern.

The most sought-after remote job companies are hiring for isn’t in tech, as you might expect. Accountant is the hottest work-from-home job on the market right now.

There are no doubt plenty of tech people looking for a job. We’re not even two weeks into a new year and 48 tech companies — including Discord, Instagram, Google, and Trend Micro — have laid off 7,528 people (source: Layoffs.fyi). If that pace continues, the sector stands to lose 195,728 jobs this year, which would be an improvement from last year’s 262,582 (compare this to the <8000 people laid off from Big 4 and mid-tier accounting firms in 2023).

Back to CNBC:

Accountants claimed the top spot in FlexJobs’ annual ranking of the top remote jobs in the U.S., thanks to increasing demand for these skilled professionals across several industries, including finance, health care and government.

Alright, we need to define “top.” The ranking they’re talking about is “Top 100 Companies to Watch for Remote Jobs in 2024” and “accountant” tops the list under the heading “Most Popular and Searched-For Remote Job Titles.” So more people are searching for remote accounting jobs than “product manager” or “customer service representative” (on their platform, I assume). What that tells me is that accounting professionals have a wandering eye, certainly nothing novel there. And with many firms pulling back on remote work this past year, it’s no wonder people are looking for remote accounting jobs.

The full list from FlexJobs:

The below list includes the top 10 remote job postings to be looking for from companies:

1. Accountant
2. Executive Assistant
3. Financial Analyst
4. Product Manager
5. Customer Service Representative
6. Software Engineer
7. Customer Success Manager
8. Accounting Manager
9. Product Designer
10. Writer

“Remote job postings to be looking for from companies”? In another list below that (which notably does not have accountant at #1), it says “the above list is attributed to the most popular jobs posted by companies.” Did I accidentally make decaf this morning or does this not mean what the CNBC headline implied it means? For all we know tech people are carpet-bombing accounting jobs looking for any work they can get.

Of the 100 companies that posted the highest number of remote jobs in 2023 in this same list or ranking or whatever we’re calling it, not a one is a major accounting firm. Or a minor one. Maybe we should move on.

CNBC says:

While the average mean salary for accountants in the U.S. is about $68,000, according to ZipRecruiter data, more experienced accountants stand to earn anywhere from $150,000 to upwards of $200,000 a year.

Although Bloomberg reports that the Big Four accounting firms — KPMG, PWC, EY and Deloitte — collectively shed thousands of jobs in 2023, such layoffs are rare, Pollak says.

“As an accountant, you are a highly valued employee, so the risk of getting laid off is pretty low,” she notes. “You’re a trusted member of the inner circle, you see all of the dirt and get the company out of trouble — it’s a very important, stable job.”

The post Accounting Ranks First In Something Good For Once appeared first on Going Concern.

While this may seem like a scary statistic on its face, perhaps it’s a good thing. CPA Trendlines says it’s a “big ouch” for firms putting in work (and marketing costs) into bringing clients in only to have to turn them away. Yes, they wasted that effort but shouldn’t some consideration be given to scoring good clients and not just the most of them?

As a respondent to our own 2024 survey said the other day:

Let’s get that number up.

SURVEY: 42% of Accountants Turn Away Work Over Staff Shortages [CPA Trendlines]

The post Stat of the Day: 42% of Firms Are Turning Down Work Because There’s No One to Do It appeared first on Going Concern.

To Lee, banging dudes for money is preferable to her old job, the grueling pace of which drove her to depression. On leave from work in 2018, she realized that her job was destroying her so she left for good. At that point, she’d already experimented with some freelance “sugaring” (Google that if you want) after a coworker told her about how he was sugar daddy to women he met on Seeking Arrangement. She went full-time in 2019.

She says she’s billing guys at $1,500/hr, or rather a minimum of $3,000 for up to two hours of her time; 48 hours costs clients $20,000. She told Insider she expects to make $400,000 to $800,000 before taxes and expenses and taxes, after making $29,000 her first year as a full-time sex worker. Because of the “extremely high variance” in her main gig, she supplements with camming, stripping, and phone sex.

“My tagline is, ‘You can take the girl off Wall Street, but you can’t take the banker out of the whore,’ and it turns out that that plays really well into a lot of professional gentlemen’s dream-girl-from-the-office,” fantasies, Lee told Insider.

The Post piece is slightly less salacious and focuses on Mia’s work not as professional fellatrice but her efforts to spread good accounting practices to fellow hoes.

At a New York tax seminar at the start of last year’s tax season, Lee answered every query tactfully, with none of the laughing or leering that these women might face from another accountant. It helps that she is already familiar with the field: Questions covered such complex topics as how to deduct fees paid to rent a dungeon and how to report income paid in bitcoin from a platform called “Spankpay.”

Many women ask Lee about deductions. During the tax seminar, Lee used her own two-bedroom apartment as an example when explaining home office deductions. “I can’t write off my primary bathroom. I can write off my second bathroom because I stream my showers and charge for that,” she said. “Nice,” one of the sex workers said.

She has also helped sex workers determine gifts vs. payments. The IRS says a gift is:

Any transfer to an individual, either directly or indirectly, where full consideration (measured in money or money’s worth) is not received in return.

And:

The donor is generally responsible for paying the gift tax.

The Post offers an example:

The stripper told Lee that she was recently on a trip “and the guy got me diamonds.” They ultimately decided the gems were a gift with no expectation of services in return.

On her YouTube channel Money Talks with Mia, she provides sex workers “a wealth of knowledge about smart investing, personal finance management, and navigating the complexities of financial planning as a SW.” Like this one on navigating financial stigma:

Is #thotaudit still a thing?

Someone send them Mia’s way. But don’t bother with the OnlyFans creators who say they’re accountants, they’re lying.

The prostitute nudging sex workers to file their taxes [Washington Post]

The post Condoms Are Tax Deductible If You Blow Dudes For a Living and Other Tax Advice for SWs appeared first on Going Concern.

TL;DR Are you an annoying person without any friends who can’t strategize your way out of a paper bag? If so, the coveted CFO position is — and will likely remain — out of your reach.

So, you think you’re ready to be a Chief Financial Officer (CFO)? Before you start fantasizing about that corner office and the fancy title, let’s get one thing straight: being a CFO is not as easy as you think. In fact, there are plenty of reasons why you probably won’t make it as a CFO (yet). Put down that financial calculator and dive into the harsh reality of why you are not ready to be a CFO.

1. You Have a Crappy Network

You won’t become a CFO if you don’t have the right connections. If your idea of networking is adding your colleagues on LinkedIn and calling it a day, you’re in for a rude awakening. A CFO needs to know the right people and have a network that extends far beyond their office cubicle. Build your network by maintaining connections with former classmates and colleagues. Don’t burn bridges because you never know who may provide the introduction to your next great career move or will take your call requesting expert guidance on human resources or tax issues.

Successful CFOs are out there rubbing elbows with industry leaders, attending conferences and building relationships that can open doors when it matters most. If your social calendar consists of Netflix marathons and the occasional happy hour with your coworkers, it’s time to step up your game. Pro-tip: Your couch won’t recommend you for a promotion.

Create a personal “board of directors” of trusted colleagues, business advisors, mentors and friends who understand your moral compass and know you well. You will be faced with difficult (and sometimes uncomfortable) decisions that may test your integrity. Use your personal board of directors to your benefit.

2. You’re Not Smart Enough

Sure, you might be a whiz when it comes to crunching numbers, but being a CFO requires more than just a knack for accounting. If you’re the type of accountant who can’t see beyond the balance sheet, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

CFOs need to understand the overall business. That means being well-versed in financial planning and analysis (FP&A), treasury management, investor relations and more. It’s not enough to be an accounting and numbers guru; you need to be a strategic thinker who can guide the company toward financial success. A CFO is brave enough to butt in when an initiative is going sideways to offer specific, actionable solutions. Know the business, industry, the markets your business serves, your customers, employees, the risks, and maybe then we’ll talk.

3. No One Likes You

If your coworkers can’t stand you, you’re not going to make it to the top. Being a CFO requires dealing with office politics and potentially conflicting directions from leadership. If you can’t navigate those treacherous waters, you’re sunk. Outstanding CFOs love to communicate with employees and customers.
Successful CFOs have mentors who can guide them through the political minefield and help them make the right decisions. If you’re flying solo and people underneath you aren’t clamoring to work with you, it’s time to reevaluate your approach.

4. You’re a Pro at the Blame Game

If you’re the type of person who always finds someone else to blame for your shortcomings, you’re not CFO material. CFOs work with management, make difficult choices and take responsibility for their actions and decisions, even when things go south. If your first instinct is to point fingers, maybe aim them at a different job application. People with public accounting backgrounds are often so “risk adverse” that they aren’t willing to experiment to drive change. A CFO is comfortable with taking managed risks, learning from mistakes and evolving as a leader.

Being a CFO means being laser-focused on what the company needs for the future. It’s about working tirelessly to ensure the financial health and growth of the organization. If you’re lazy or easily distracted, you’re not cut out for the role.

5. You’re Incapable of Delegating

Big shocker, you can’t do everything. CFOs need to delegate tasks and trust their team to get the job done. Hire smart people with energy who want to be the best in their position.

Hiring a great controller or financial planning analyst who excels at using financial tools and data analytics can be a game-changer. It allows the CFO to focus on the big picture and strategic decisions rather than getting bogged down in the minutiae of day-to-day financial operations.

The Art of Being a CFO

Now that we’ve shattered your CFO dreams, let’s talk about what it takes to be successful in this role. Being a CFO is more art than science. It’s about operating in the gray areas, setting priorities and making the right choices. Often, CFOs are operating with a deficit of time, money and resources. They must set priorities and communicate effectively.

A CFO must also be comfortable knowing that the unknown is lurking out there, ready to pounce. To generate confidence in your CFO abilities in the C-suite and the board room, show that you can calmly, confidently and quickly evaluate issues and create solutions.

CFOs are strategic thinkers who can assess risk and read the future to prepare for major challenges. Not only must the CFO be looking forward, they must also be taking a 360-degree view — not unlike a spin on the Mad Tea Party ride at Disneyland. They benchmark the company against competitors, think ahead and create the infrastructure needed to stay ahead of the game.

If you:
· Have killer networking skills
· Practice strategic wizardry
· Are an office politics Jedi
· Consider yourself a responsibility junkie and
· Delight in being a delegation ninja

Then, congratulations, you’re on the path to becoming a CFO!

But if you are:
· A lousy networker
· An accounting robot
· The office outcast
· A blame shifter or
· A control freak

Then you have some work to do! Have you considered meditation?

To sum it up: Being a CFO is not just about numbers; it’s about networking, politics, leadership, communications, negotiations and strategic thinking. If you’re still determined to chase that CFO dream, start building your network, expanding your skills and working on your leadership abilities. Good luck!

The post A Non-Exhaustive List of Reasons Why You Won’t Cut It as a CFO appeared first on Going Concern.

Ready?

And the damage:

• EY: ~130 partners (December)
• Grant Thornton: 200 (November)
• Baker Tilly: 180 (June)
• RSM: ? At least 20 (June)
• KPMG: 700 (June)
• Grant Thornton: 300 (May)
• Deloitte: 1200 (April)
• EY: 3000 (April)
• BDO USA: 85 (March)
• KPMG: ~2000 (February)

Considering what a rough year it was for the economy (though not necessarily firm revenue), it could have been a whole lot worse. Still bad. If attrition starts creeping up to normal levels as it looks like it might be, we don’t anticipate large personnel shake-ups in at least the first part of 2024. Though firms can always surprise us! Calling it now, if anyone does it’s going to be EY.

Stay billable, friends.

The post Here’s How Many People Were Laid Off From the Big Accounting Firms This Year (That We Know Of) appeared first on Going Concern.

My Firm Holiday Party is a Teaching Moment For What Not to Do at a Firm Holiday Party

By Leona May

One year at my firm, we had a Christmas party at the nicest hotel in the city. I live in Detroit, so you know the hotel is nice because it has yet to be burned from the inside out by a band of petty arsonists. The firm paid for valet parking as a “Thanks-for-driving-into-Detroit-at-night!-We-don’t-want-anyone-to-stab-you-with-a-dull-and-poorly fashioned-shiv-in-the-parking-garage-out-back-because-we-need-you-to-work-this-weekend-and-we-know-your-health-insurance-sucks” gift. The fourth story party room had plate glass windows with a view of a tire fire and abandoned nine story office building(s) across the street. Very chic, these professional events.

Girls talked for weeks about the dresses and the hair, and the guys debated the “tie or no tie” thing. Mostly, they talked about the open bar because – accounting.

For weeks, these idiots fought over which types of liquor to supply and whether or not they’d pregame prior to the firm-provided open bar. They decided to pregame because – accounting. The Outlook Invites went out. “Meet in Room 424 at 3:30, and we’re doing shots of Fireball.” You can see where this was going.

By the time the party started at 7, my manager, two senior managers, a partner, six associates, and five interns were blasted. They stumbled into the mixer, arms akimbo.

I was staked out near one of the windows watching two bums wrestle over a discarded steak in the alley below when the DJ started blasting tunes. If it were up to me, that DJ would have dropped the bass a ’la Lil Jon circa 2003 just like DJ Franky, the part-time small town law clerk who spun the tracks at my wedding, but hey – this was a CLASSY affair. Instead of Lil Jon, the DJ bumped Mariah Carey’s greatest Christmas classic of all time: “All I Want for Christmas is You.”

“I don’t want a lot for Christmas…”

My Fireball-blasted coworker – the very same who, earlier in the year, narrowly avoided choking to death on a Jimmy John’s Gargantuan (nothing sexual) – climbed onto a table to stand and sing along to Mariah Carey’s cult classic.

“There is just one thing I need…”

The drunken frat boys accountants who somehow managed to graduate their accounting programs and find suitable employment within the confines of their court-ordered sobriety program (LOL) picked the table up by the base as Gargantuan champ opened his jaws, stood tall, and belted some Mariah.

“I don’t care about the presents…”

By the grace of God, Gargantuan managed to keep on his feet despite the Fireball, and despite being hoisted seven feet in the air atop the shoulders of a band of merry auditors.

“Underneath the Christmas tree…”

The firm managing partner was standing next to me as the song began. He was sipping at a whiskey sour until he saw the table Gargantuan stood on fly up over the crowd and into the air upon the backs of the auditors. He polished off the last of his drink, muttered, “Oh Jesus – I never saw this” and slipped off into the crowd.

“All I want for Christmas is youuuuuuuuu bayyyyby”

As the tambourine back beat started to play, the table bounced back and forth to the beat. Mr. Gargantuan was still on his feet, singing Mariah. Preach!

“I don’t need to hang my stocking…”

The pregame Fireball hit one of the weaker interns who was holding up the table. The intern tripped. The table lurched toward the plate glass window overlooking the beautiful urban decay of the city. The table tipped. The table toppled. Mr. Gargantuan flew toward the plate glass window and hit it.

Thank God we live in Detroit where bullet proof glass is a thing. Mr. Gargantuan bounced off the glass and hit the floor.

The idiots scattered like cockroaches – several to a tech company’s open bar next door. Rent-a-cop security officers flooded the party room, closed off the open bar, kicked everybody out, and forbade us from ever holding a Christmas party in the venue ever again. I’ve never been kicked out of a classier place. It’s just as well – who knows how much longer that bullet proof glass would have held because… Detroit.
 

The post Accounting Firm Holiday Parties Used to Be Wild appeared first on Going Concern.

Asked about his vocal stance on the importance of firm culture in maintaining professionalism — which includes independence — and if there are any particular cases that make firm culture a priority now, Munter referenced numerous “troubling things” on the cheating front that have happened in recent memory. Specifically:

• “[T]he issue with Deloitte in Canada backdating work papers“
• “[E]xam cheating that we sanctioned Ernst & Young in the US on“
• “[E]xam cheating in other jurisdictions as well: PwC Hong Kong and PwC China just last week with the PCAOB”

He was then asked if he considers the above settlements part of a trend to which he responded, “Someone might characterize each one of these as one-offs, but when you see a number of these happening in close proximity to one another, it’s troubling, and we thought it was an appropriate time to reinforce messaging about the importance of firm culture and that being a question not just with the audit practice, but for the entire firm, and network for that matter.”

Various other cheating issues have popped up around the globe in the last two years. Just a few:

More than 1,200 people at PwC Canada were involved in answer-sharing, either giving or receiving answers. As a result the firm was fined $750,000 by the PCAOB and $200,000 by the Canadian Public Accountability Board in early 2022.

KPMG UK and KPMG Colombia were busted by the PCAOB for answer-sharing (aka “cheating”) in December 2022.

KPMG Australia engaged in widespread answer-sharing from 2016 to 2020, the PCAOB hit them with a $450,000 fine in late 2021.

Everyone would be wise to keep the answer keys on the down-low for the foreseeable future. The SEC is watching.

The post Y’all Probably Need to Cool It on Sharing Exam Answers For the Time Being appeared first on Going Concern.

Twelve percent of business executives said they had too many employees, up four percentage points from last quarter. Some 38% said they have too few employees, but the percentage who said they were hesitant to hire because of economic uncertainty increased from 14% to 16%.

We trust this means we won’t hear any griping about the talent shortage from corporate finance departments going forward then.

Two quarters ago, 46 percent of decision-makers surveyed believed they had the right number of employees, up 1 point from the first quarter of 2023. Hesitancy to hire saw a 6-point jump to 17% in Q2, and 26 percent of respondents had plans to boost their workforce, a decrease from 33% in the first quarter. In Q3, half of respondents said their organizations have the right number of employees, so a four point jump from Q2.

Other key findings of the Q4 survey:

• Expansion plans fell slightly from 50% to 48% this quarter
• Business executives less optimistic about their own company’s prospects over the next 12 months (43% vs. 45% last quarter), although they are still ahead of where they were a year ago (35%).
• Some 28% of business executives said they expected their companies to raise prices by year end, down from 37% last quarter. Sixty-three percent said they expected no change, while 2% said they anticipated decreases.

“We’re seeing some softening on the hiring front and IT spending, which are classic areas of belt-tightening in uncertain times,” said Tom Hood, the AICPA & CIMA’s executive vice president for business engagement and growth. “At the same time, business executives’ expectations for their own organization’s prospects over the next year are down just a bit from the third quarter and ahead of where they were a year ago. So, there’s a lot of mixed signals right now on the economy.”

Business Executives’ Mixed View on Economy Reflects Continued Uncertainty, AICPA & CIMA Survey Finds [PR Newswire]

The post Making the Jump to Industry Might Be Harder to Do Next Year Per This CPA Survey appeared first on Going Concern.

When millennials began entering the job market at the turn of the century (yes, we’re that old), “dad leave” wasn’t a widespread thing. In fact, dad leave wasn’t a thing at all really until EY became the first Big 4 firm to offer it in 2006 (we think). Of all the things Big 4 deserves criticism for, and there are many, parental leave policies generally aren’t among them. In current year, all four firms offer various forms of leave for moms and dads. Even adoptive ones. Sweet.

There’s a problem though. Given the high-pressure, work-til-you-drop culture of Big 4, many parents don’t want to take the leave available to them. This is especially pronounced among men (duh) and a recent study published in Accounting Horizons dove into why. The sample size is a bit small — two coauthors interviewed 13 actual and former men auditors in three Big 4 and two mid-tier auditing firms — but we all know these baker’s dozen men aren’t uniquely reluctant to take leave.

Here’s the summary from Men’s Experiences of Paternity Leaves in Accounting Firms authored by Claire Garnier (KEDGE Business School), Claudine Mangen (Concordia University), and Edwige Nortier (Université Paris Dauphine-PSL):

Accounting researchers and practitioners have made strides in addressing persistent gender inequalities in the accounting profession. However, these efforts have largely sidestepped men and masculinities. Our study considers the role of men and masculinities in gender inequalities by exploring how men in accounting experience paternity leaves. We conduct interviews with 13 men in audit firms in France. We find that fathers are reluctant to take leaves, which they view as vacation periods incompatible with their professional work. They see audit firms as offering less support to fathers than mothers, with support for fathers growing but still marginal. Finally, they experience a variety of emotions, including positive emotions around fatherhood and negative emotions around difficulties in reconciling fatherhood with professional responsibilities and paternity leaves. Practically, our findings imply that to address gender inequalities further, accounting firms need to change the norms around care work, including paternity leaves.

Well yes, academics, they do indeed need to change the norms just in general, not only as the norms pertain to care work.

Making things worse when it comes to the guys the researchers interviewed, France has generous parental leave policies. Not just at audit firms, everywhere. Europeans’ obnoxious and often unwarranted smugness toward Americans is, in this case, justified.

Benefits in cash (maternity and paternity leave)

• You are paid for medical costs in cash, provided that you stop all forms of paid work.
• If you are a father, you are also paid allowances for paternity leave.
• In the event of adoption, the daily leave allowance may be shared between the father and the mother.

The researchers say that professional service firms (PSFs) in accounting address gender inequalities via schemes like paternity leave (“schemes” in the European way, not what we call schemes in America as in the Crazy Eddie way) and programs such as Women @Deloitte. “These efforts have yielded results, notably in junior positions, which Big 4 firms extensively communicate about,” they wrote. Nice dig at accounting firms’ self-fellating press releases there. “However, gender inequalities remain significant, especially in senior positions. Women represent 19 percent of partners in U.S. Big 4 firms and 10–15 percent of partners in French audit firms.”

The intro continues:

Whereas accounting research has explored gender inequalities from women’s perspectives, it has been less concerned with men. This oversight is problematic, conceptually and practically. Conceptually, gender involves women, men, and nonbinary individuals; understanding and addressing gender inequalities thus requires exploring not just women’s perspectives but also other viewpoints, including those of men. Practically, practices dealing with gender inequalities that focus on women alone are ineffective if men and masculinities are critical for these inequalities yet not considered.

Now hang on, we’re about to get on the dead horse topic of the talent shortage here.

Gender inequalities remain problematic for PSFs: they contribute to employee turnover and discourage younger generations from seeking accounting careers, given their interest in work-life balance. The primary purpose of this study is to unpack men’s experiences of paternity leaves and how these experiences relate to gender inequalities, thus bringing men and masculinities further into the conversation about gender inequalities in accounting. Moreover, the paper aims to provide practical recommendations for mitigating gender inequalities. PSFs face difficulties attracting and retaining employees, including men who do not embrace the culture of overwork. Our findings suggest that addressing this culture requires attention to gender inequalities in care work (e.g., leaves for childcare).

OK cool, we’re getting somewhere.

To date, accounting research on gender inequalities and men remains limited. Accounting PSFs are imbued with masculine cultures that promote the ideal professional as a white, heterosexual, and nondisabled man who is enthusiastic, client-oriented, and flexible, works long hours, and socializes with coworkers outside of the office. This ideal was reinforced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Men are represented and valued as breadwinners; they are financially rewarded for parenthood via the fatherhood bonus, whereas women are portrayed as caregivers, experience a motherhood penalty, and are constructed as fragile.

Interesting reading on the fatherhood bonus and motherhood penalty referenced above here: Career Paths and Compensation for Accounting Graduates. Actually there is a ton of earlier research they’ve referenced in this paper, might be a fun way to waste an afternoon if you’re into academic research.

Although men in PSFs benefit from these privileges, they also face challenges: they can feel powerless to question the professional ideal since adhering to it signals professional commitment to the firm. Instead, they are committed to reproducing and enforcing the rules of the overwork game in which they remain insecure despite their success.

OK so what can be done about it? One suggestion: tone from the top. “Individuals, especially those with power, like partners, can act as role models in enacting and discussing caregiving.” Excellent. What else? “Professional services firms can alter their communications around caregiving and design practices encouraging men to engage in caregiving.” And “human resources departments can integrate more men into policies that balance work and caregiving.”

We leave you with words of wisdom for Big 4 dads contemplating paternity leave written by GC founding editor Caleb Newquist way back in 2014:

Ignore the fear of a “career limiting move.” That job doesn’t love you. Ignore the backwards thinking clowns that will judge you for taking time to learn how to care for a child. Those people are relics and are scared stiff of the responsibility. Ignore your stupid interior monologue that says you shouldn’t have to change diapers, wear a Babybjorn or, gasp, buy a minivan.

Do the right thing and take your paternity leave. All of it.

Men’s Experiences of Paternity Leaves in Accounting Firms [American Accounting Association’s Accounting Horizons]

The post Research: Big 4 Dads Still Aren’t Embracing Paternity Leave appeared first on Going Concern.

Business Insider shares the story of a few young people who took one look at the management suite and said eff that. Including this young millennial who didn’t want her job to find out she was talking shit to business rags about it:

Wendy, 28, who isn’t sharing her surname to keep her workplace from identifying her, told Business Insider the apparent promotion was pitched to her as an opportunity. She said she agreed at the time but now thought she was naive about what she was really being offered.

“In my head, I was like, ‘Great, awesome, this is a step up, it’ll look good on my résumé,’ and blah, blah, blah,” she said. “But then, when I really thought about it, I’m doing way more, I’m not even getting paid more, and I just feel like I’m stressing myself out more than I have to.”

The “stress and anxiety” she was experiencing was at an “unnecessary” level, Wendy said.

“It just didn’t make any sense to me,” she said. “I would rather go back to doing what I was doing for less stress and just getting paid for what I was doing.”

This attitude, which we feel compelled to point out started in earnest with now-elderly millennials back when we were the spry younguns corporate America was terrified about, reflects strongly in our own sector where promises of one day making it to partner if only you grind hard enough stopped motivating people long ago. Remember this guy?

“One of the key problems for professional service firms is that many associates simply no longer want to make partner. And if the major carrot you’re dangling in front of everybody’s nose suddenly doesn’t seem so appetizing any more, you need to think very hard about what motivates people to deliver the kind of work that is expected of them.

“That career typically means very long hours, lots of personal sacrifices, typically a poor work/life balance. I hear time and again from senior associates: ‘Why should I work so hard only to get permission to work even harder?’

Or these people?

This will be a huge problem in about ten years when there are so few willing managers under the age of 50 but whatever, perhaps technology will have rendered the middle manager extinct by then.

The post Zoomers Have Figured Out Early That Being a Manager Sucks appeared first on Going Concern.

All else being equal, those highest on cognitive ability experience a 22% (53.2%) increase in the probability of realism (pessimism) and a 34.8% reduction in optimism compared with those lowest on cognitive ability. This suggests that the negative consequences of an excessively optimistic mindset may, in part, be a side product of the true driver, low cognitive ability.

Looking on the (B)right Side of Life: Cognitive Ability and Miscalibrated Financial Expectations

So basically if you think everything is hunky dory all the time, you’re dumb.

“Forecasting the future with accuracy is difficult and for that reason we night expect those with low cognitive ability to make more errors in judgments, both pessimistic and optimistic. But the results are clear: low cognitive ability leads to more self-flattering biases – people essentially deluding themselves to a degree.” said Dr Chris Dawson of the University’s School of Management. We salute you, Dr Dawson.

Here’s a video from Neuroscience News if you’re short on verbal cognitive ability today because you naively thought it was going to be a good day when you woke up this morning.

Related research:

Go forth and be negative, friends.

The post Science Has Finally Explained Why Accountants Are Good With Numbers: Because They’re Cynical and Negative appeared first on Going Concern.

Here’s what the AICPA has found on their quest to pinpoint reasons for the pipeline problem, in Sue’s words:

[T]here’s also a lot of data that we’ve been kind of parsing through to determine other root causes of the talent challenges we’re having. And we’re finding that there are leakage points in a couple of key areas that are kind of driving our focus as part of this initiative. One is in the college to graduation group and about 208,000 on any given year declare an accounting major, but then by the time they graduate, only 50,000 are graduating in accounting. So there’s something going on in that declaration of a major to graduation and university.

AICPA’s Sue Coffey speaking on the Accounting Today podcast episode “A pipeline progress report“

In other words, something’s happening junior/senior year to pivot a lot of willing victims eager students away from accounting and into something else. Something other than Intermediate alone, probably.

Brushing past that, they somehow figured out that people who no more than five years in public accounting are poisoning the well and tales of their negative experiences are echoing down as far as high schools. For every pair of cool accounting professors giving talks at the local high school, you’ve got however many hundreds of comments online contradicting everything the profession’s cheerleaders are saying out on their roadshows.

Another area we’re finding relates to retention and how retention in firms is impacting the beginning of the funnel and the desire for people to come into our profession. And so that one to five year group of professionals that are within a firm and tend to leave within that period and may not have a good experience are impacting what, for example, high school and college students think about our profession and that’s creating pipeline challenges.

This was CSU Monterey Bay professor Shaowen “Sharon” Hua speaking to students at North Salinas High School about why accounting is a pretty good career earlier this year:

“Accounting jobs pay well,” she told them. “Accounting jobs are fun.”

“I have a [former] student who works for Driscoll,” Hua said of the Watsonville-based berry grower. “She travels to England, Singapore and Japan because Driscoll has businesses all over the world.”

“You might work with clients from Pebble Beach, the NBA and Hollywood,” she said. “They have so much money, they don’t know where to put it and you get to service them.”

And this is the other side of the coin, one of the first posts one is greeted by when visiting r/accounting today.

When did you realize that it was time to get out of public accounting?
byu/stanerd inAccounting

The other thing I feel compelled to point out from Sue’s appearance is this. SALARY is a naughty word.

We’ve been talking about the S issue for many, many months now, right? Starting salaries are not where they need to be in our profession, and those young adults and young professionals see more opportunity elsewhere for higher pay.

The S word. I mean, it is obscene how little they pay early-career public accountants, maybe we should have been censoring the S word all along.

The post It’s Official, All the Complaining Is Directly Contributing to the Pipeline Problem appeared first on Going Concern.

But when it comes to doing their job, over 90% of accountants are satisfied with their current job (95%) and the company they work for (94%).

The scream of “no way!” I scrumpt upon reading this.

Less surprising but also slightly unsettling, just about everyone surveyed for this report is “satisfied” with the state of the profession. Given that many corners of accounting are staffed by masochists who do their complaining from behind anonymized usernames and Twitter accounts with 4 followers, this makes perfect sense.

Over nine in 10 accountants (93%) said they’re satisfied with the current state of the accounting profession. The satisfaction levels vary, with just 40% saying they are very satisfied, while over half (53%) are somewhat satisfied.

And:

An overwhelming majority of today’s accountants, knowing what they know now, would reenter the field if they were just starting out. Over nine in 10 (92%) say they still would have become an accountant, with half (51%) saying they definitely would have.

If someone about to graduate college asked for their advice on whether they should become an accountant, nine in 10 accountants (89%) say they should become one and just one in 10 (11%) say they should not.

Those fifth dentists are regular readers of Going Concern (hi) and frequent posters on r/accounting no doubt.

Of those who would encourage college students to join la cosa nostra, “pay is good” gets a larger chunk of the pie than expected.

But…

Digging into the demographics of this survey we find that almost three-quarters of those surveyed were in the 35-54 age group. Ah, that explains it, you’re making good money by 35. You better be, anyway. People with six-20 years of experience make up 75 percent of respondents and those with more than five years in the profession make up almost 90.

To any young people who may stumble upon this because you Googled “is accounting a good career?” the answer is “depends on who you ask.” Be sure you talk to some older folks when you do your research.

The post 273 Accountants Are More Satisfied With Their Job Than You’d Think appeared first on Going Concern.

Of the finance and accounting sector the report says:

In a field known for ‘churn and burn,’ last year was one for the record books with higher job turnover than in any other three-year period. Those now settled into new jobs are not in a hurry to leave. A turbulent economy plus healthy compensation packages over the past few years have decreased the pool of candidates and increased the competition for talent.

As employers continue to face a tight job market, they will need to take a closer look at their compensation packages and be prepared for counter offers. Beyond salary levels, evaluate what creative work/life balance and benefits may entice candidates from paid paternity leave to on-site daycare or more flexible vacation packages.

And:

Despite a complex economy that requires more guidance from financial and accounting professionals, there’s a serious talent shortage that’s going to worsen in the next few years. While 75% of CPA’s reached retirement age in 2020, the good news is that finance and accounting are now ranking as top career choices among Gen Z candidates.

Say what now? Whatever, moving on…

Recruiting for these positions goes beyond attractive compensation packages to revisiting upskilling of in-house teams as well as more focus on under qualified candidates who have potential but require training and certifications. Employers will need to reward employees who earn CPAs, CFAs, and CFPs or risk losing them to competitors. Many companies also expect to increase outsourcing to fill the gaps.

Now that you bravely skimmed four entire paragraphs of icky words, here are national average salaries for various accounting positions according to the report.

There are a few more operational and lower level roles in the report such as Bookkeeper ($51,989) and Data Entry Specialist ($41,020), let’s go ahead and skip those.

The report also offers a comparison of accounting function roles and average salaries in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Charlotte. The most lucrative of these is being a CFO in Boston ($302,309 versus national average of $261,739). The worst is being a data entry specialist…anywhere. To keep things simple, we’ll stick to the tax and audit roles.

Thoughts, feelings, complaints, and accusations of inaccuracy are welcome in the comments.

The post Here Are Even More 2024 Accounting Salary Projections appeared first on Going Concern.

Said FT:

The firm will launch a voluntary redundancy programme for 500 to 600 people but will cut jobs on a compulsory basis if not enough staff opt to leave, people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times.

PwC was the last holdout against significant UK redundancies among the Big Four accounting firms but bosses acted after a fall in the number of people resigning in recent months.

When all’s said and done we’re talking at most 2.4 percent of PwC UK’s 25,000 people. As expected, most of the cuts are to come from advisory ranks though a few tax people are also on the chopping block. “The audit division would not be affected,” wrote FT of what they were told by their source.

The cuts will be at director and down “with a greater number of junior and mid-level roles to be cut, reflecting the firm’s bottom-heavy structure,” wrote FT.

PwC UK chair Kevin Ellis said they decided cutting people was better than delaying or canceling new hire offers:

This was partly a matter of “fairness” in not cutting off opportunities for people starting their careers and who have not yet been trained, said Ellis. Slowing down hiring would also have a negative impact on the firm’s diversity and social mobility efforts as new hires are generally more diverse than the organisation as a whole, he added.

Retaining staff in their current roles rather than continuing to hire into teams that were growing “would make our business lopsided”, Ellis said.

First years are not up for cutting, those staff who are and who leave on their own accord will receive a bigger severance package than anyone who may be forced out should not enough people leave in the voluntary resignation round. According to the person who blabbed to FT, that is.

We’ll let you know if we hear more.

PwC to cut up to 600 UK jobs as attrition rate plunges [Financial Times]

The post Layoff Watch ’23: PwC UK Needs a Few Hundred People to GTFO appeared first on Going Concern.

Some choice quotes from PKF O’Connor Davies interns:

“I never felt stressed being a part-time worker and a full-time student. The balance was great, and my advisors were always so understanding if I needed a day for school. What I really found extremely helpful is the trainings this office holds, and I have learned a lot from having specific training days on certain topics.”

“As interns, you are only expected to work the hours when you are able to work. Even though it was the busy season, no one ever pressured me to work long hours, I was also told to put school first. If I need to take my scheduled day off for school or any reason, it was always approved immediately.”

“Everyone in the office was very welcoming and helpful. This was the first time that I was doing auditing, and the office was small, so there wasn’t a lot of room to hide if I made an error. However, each person who I worked with never failed to walk me through each process and answer any questions that I might have had. There was never a time when I felt like I couldn’t reach out to someone for help. Each person, all the way up to the partners, was always willing to answer a question or steer me in the right direction.”

“Everyone is extremely approachable and friendly. It feels like a nurturing environment; there is no competitive or cutthroat air. I feel that the culture at PKF OD allows me to learn and become more comfortable and useful.”

Warms your heart, doesn’t it?

Not only did the top firm kill it, accounting firms took half the spots in the top ten. Those firms are:

• 4. Weaver (2023 rank: #14)
• 5. Frazier Deeter  (#25)
• 8. Lumsden & McCormick (#76)
• 9. Elliott Davis (#12)
• 10. Freed Maxick (not ranked in 2023)

Honorable mention: Grant Thornton coming in at #12 (2023 rank: #24). Actually, let’s grab all the firms on the list. Haters of the Big 4 oligopoly will note only one Big 4 firm made the list and it doesn’t appear until the bottom. The remaining best firms for interns, their respective ranks, and their rank on last year’s list are:

• 14. Frank Rimerman & Co. (2023 rank: #2)
• 19. Baker Tilly (not ranked in 2023)
• 22. Aprio (#4)
• 26. CohnReznick (#35)
• 28. BDO USA (#40)
• 32. Moss Adams (#20)
• 41. Cherry Bekaert (#71)
• 43. Wipfli (#56)
• 52. EisnerAmper (#17)
• 57. Marcum (#54)
• 61. Ryan (#84)
• 70. Armanino (#43)
• 72. PwC/Strategy& (#59)
• 94. Eide Bailly (#86)
• 97. Withum (#52)

To calculate scores, Vault surveyed thousands of current and former interns in the summer of 2023. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest and 1 being the lowest, respondents were asked to rate their internship experiences in six core areas:

• Quality of Life (company culture, hours, work-life balance, flexibility)
• Compensation & Benefits (pay structure, subsidized expenses, technology resources, office space, perks)
• Interview Process (application process, requirements, number of interviews)
• Career Development (including four separate ratings for training and mentoring, quality of assignments, real-life experience, networking opportunities)
• Full-time Employment Prospects (opportunity to obtain a full-time job with this organization)
• Diversity (including four separate ratings for diversity with respect to women, racial & ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other underrepresented groups)

Vault scientists then assigned relative weights based on what interns said they value most in an internship. The overall scores are based on the following weighted formula: 30 percent career development, 20 percent employment prospects, 20 percent quality of life, 20 percent compensation, 5 percent diversity, and 5 percent interview process.

Although accounting had a heck of a performance overall this year, as you can see from the ranking above some firms are really killing it while others appear to be slipping and might disappear off the list altogether come 2025.

Interns of any of the listed firms are welcome to share their experiences in the comments or via editor mail.

The post List of the Day: The Accounting Firms on the 2024 Vault 100 Best Internships List appeared first on Going Concern.

With his hip-hop hats, silver chains, and rapper persona, he looks more like a SoundCloud artist than a buttoned-up businessman. Yet behind the unconventional facade lies the real story of an entrepreneur who found purpose in the unlikeliest places.

In his teens, Scott was set on making it big in the entertainment and music industry. Then, he made some regrettable choices selling drugs in college. He was arrested and kicked out of college. His entertainment dreams were crushed, and the future looked bleak.

After cleaning up his act, Scott rebuilt his life using street smarts and hustle to work his way up at a small tax practice. Over time, he was able to purchase the firm and scale it into a profitable, million-dollar business.

As told to me on the Earmark Podcast, Scott’s story proves accounting can provide purpose, community, and fulfillment for those from non-traditional backgrounds. With grit, innovation, and the right mindset, even someone with a checkered past can pivot to redemption and success.

Drugs and Recklessness

As a bright student and a born hustler, like any suburban kid in the early 2000s, Scott had dreams of hip-hop glory.

He was sure he would make it big someday and live the flashy lifestyle he idolized in music videos. So when he got accepted to UNC Chapel Hill, it seemed like his dreams were finally coming true.

Scott started as a business accounting major and even made the Dean’s List his freshman year. But not long after Scott got caught up in Chapel Hill’s fraternity scene. He began seeing dealing as an easy way to make money and live out his rap fantasies.

In Scott’s mind, selling weed and pills to other students was normalized party behavior, no different than underage drinking or smoking joints. “I thought I was doing stuff that everybody else would be doing anyway,” he reflects.

But Scott’s “fantasy world” soon came crashing down. Police busted a drug ring associated with his operation. Scott got arrested and charged with felony distribution, ending his college rap dreams in handcuffs.

He hit rock bottom as his family’s shame and disappointment washed over. However, the hardest part was yet to come.

The Road to Redemption

Getting arrested was a rude awakening for Scott.

When the handcuffs went on, he realized dealing drugs was a dead-end street. When UNC kicked him out, Scott resolved to clean up his act and turn his life around.

However, starting over wasn’t easy. As part of his probation, Scott received a suspended sentence and had to spend 40 days and nights in the county jail. He waited tables to pay for attorney fees and college tuition. Scott felt like an outsider on campus and in accounting classes, haunted by the shame of his arrest.

It took every ounce of Scott’s willpower to persist. He almost quit many times. But fueled by a desire to prove people wrong, Scott blocked out the noise and eventually finished his accounting degree.

Soon, he was hustling for any accounting job that would take a chance on someone with his background. Scott leveraged his sales skills to land an entry-level role at a local tax firm.

Sometimes, You Get More Than One Chance

A local tax preparer was looking to retire in five years. His small practice was generating around $90,000 annually working by himself.

He offered Scott a job with the chance to buy the business eventually. He wanted someone to take over day-to-day operations so he could relax into semi-retirement. It was a perfect fit for Scott’s entrepreneurial ambitions.

Scott eagerly accepted the opportunity and immersed himself in the practice. He marketed the firm through emerging online channels and implemented new cloud-based tools like Xero and Gusto to streamline work.

Scott realized that the skills he had learned “in the streets” also applied to a tax prep business. He employed tactics like three-tier pricing strategies to boost profits. As Scott explains, “I learned a lot about people in sales. I started doing menu pricing. Three options. I learned that from when I was doing options for different grades of drugs.”

Within five years, Scott grew the annual revenue from $90,000 to $500,000. When the time came, he purchased the practice from the owner through a seller-financed deal. In his early 30s,, Scott owned an accounting firm.

Scott transformed his life in just a few short years through persistence, smarts, and grit. The vulnerable ex-con became a successful young entrepreneur with a bright future. For Scott, this was just the beginning.

Operating and Innovating a Firm

In the years after buying the firm, Scott hit a plateau. No matter how hard he worked, he struggled to grow annual revenue past $1.2 million.

Scott admits, “I didn’t really know how to manage people.” Excessive work hours and high employee turnover resulted. He was working 80-hour weeks yet hitting a ceiling.

Eventually, Scott had an epiphany – he was the bottleneck holding the business back. His need to control everything and micromanage his team prevented the firm from scaling. He became determined to step back and build an organization that could thrive without him.

Scott implemented the Entrepreneurial Operating System to empower his team and build clear accountability. He forced himself to stop doing hands-on production, which was initially difficult. Scott also transitioned the company to a fully remote model, a pioneering move at the time.

Inspired by deep work concepts, Scott revolutionized workplace communication at his firm. He replaced frenzied Slack channels with structured “office hours” for focused collaboration. Calendar-blocking and time budgets enabled uninterrupted deep work.

By getting out of his team’s way, Scott enabled them to flourish and operate at their highest level. His firm transformed into a self-running growth machine approaching $2 million in revenue.

This newfound freedom to step away allowed Scott to pursue his passion for rap.

Takeaways for Accounting Entrepreneurs

Scott Scarano’s extraordinary journey reveals how accounting can change lives. His path from drug dealer to successful firm owner seemed improbable. However, through hard work, smarts, and an open mindset, Scott found redemption and meaning in an unlikely place.

Scott’s nontraditional origin story highlights the future potential of the accounting profession. His firm succeeded mainly because of the diverse experiences and “street smarts” Scott brought to the table. As the accounting profession becomes more inclusive, it should embrace owners from all walks of life.

Now, Scott is working to help others succeed, too. Scott created Accounting High, a community for accountants who want to move the industry forward and “get real about the nuances of practice management.”

On his Accounting High podcast, Scott shares lessons for those from non-traditional backgrounds who aspire to own an accounting firm someday.

Wherever your passions lie, Scott’s inspirational journey shows that you can find purpose, community, and belonging through accounting entrepreneurship.

Blake Oliver, CPA, is the founder and CEO of Earmark and co-host of The Accounting Podcast, the No.1 podcast for accountants and bookkeepers.

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What does it mean to be a best firm for women in the year 2023 anyway? From the list’s press release [PDF]:

In the 2023 Accounting MOVE Project report, released today, a talent-starved profession receives a fresh influx of strategies and inspiration for investing in the women it must attract and retain to achieve short goals and survive long-term. With nearly 75% of accounting firm leaders eligible for retirement, and accounting degree college enrollment continuing to drop, the profession is at a crossroads. It is more important than ever for firms to find ways to attract and retain employees to not only meet increasing client needs, but to simply survive. So, what are firms that are outpacing the industry doing differently?

Didn’t we just ask that?

The Accounting MOVE Project report finds firms embracing the new super skill of career sustainability are rising to the occasion. For women, career sustainability addresses the capacity to maintain motivation and energy at every step, while rebalancing the personal and professional with each engagement. For firms, it engenders a leadership culture, defining new capabilities, qualifications, and measurements for unmapped growth. And for both, this super skill is the ability to “skate to where the puck is” on slanted ice through upended physics. Through it all, mutual respect and collaboration remains paramount, the inescapable legacy of the workplace upheaval brought on by the pandemic.

“This super skill is the ability to ‘skate to where the puck is’ on slanted ice through upended physics” is both unreasonably dramatic yet such a beautiful way to describe a profession suffering under the weight of its self-induced talent shortage and increasing regulatory burden.

To get on the list a firm must have a proportionate number of women in leadership roles and score highly on MOVE’s qualitative scorecard. Those factors are:

M – Money: Pay equity programs, analysis and measurement. MOVE is not a salary survey but does examine how employers hold managers accountable for pay equity, and how employers address equity gaps.
O – Opportunity: Leadership, management and technical training and development, especially operating positions that involve profit and loss responsibility which are key for rising to top leadership.
V – Vital supports for work/life: Flexible work practices are only effective when they drive business results. MOVE examines not just the existence of programs such as telecommuting, wellness and dependent care benefits, but also how they directly support productivity and business results.
E – Entrepreneurship: Hands-on business development and supplier diversity demonstrate a company’s investment in the business-building skills of its women employees and partners.

Firms pay up to $5,800 for a MOVE scorecard which includes interviews with leadership and an independent review by MOVE. More on the methodology here.

And finally, the list in alphabetical order:

• Abbott, Stringham & Lynch
• Armanino [Armanino issued their own press release about this honor]
• BeachFleischman PLLC
• BerryDunn
• Bland & Associates, P.C.
• BPM LLP
• Clark Nuber
• Councilor, Buchanan & Mitchell, PC
• Eide Bailly
• James Moore & Co.
• Johanson & Yau
• Moss Adams
• Rehmann LLC
• RoseRyan, a ZRG Company [oh look, another press release]
• Schellman
• The Bonadio Group

Obligatory comments from the AFWA: “When options abound, women want to work for firms that appreciate their talents and give them opportunities to advance at a pace that fits with the rest of their lives. That’s why programs like the Accounting MOVE Project are so important to identify firms that have a
history of women in leadership and offer flexible career options,” said Cindy Stanley, Executive Director of the Accounting and Financial Women’s Alliance.

“When the 2023 Nobel prize in economics is awarded to a historian for her work unmasking the ingrained imbalance in wages and opportunities between men and women, we are in good company,” said Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk, Accounting MOVE Project president. “We are committed to identifying and sharing best practices so the profession as a whole can become more equitable and attract a more diverse slate of leaders.”

For more, check out the 2023 Accounting MOVE Project report [PDF].

The post List of the Day: These Are the Firms on the 2023 MOVE Project Best CPA Firms for Women List appeared first on Going Concern.

We don’t have all day so let’s look at the main points:

• Survey respondents in the 18-to-38-year-old age cohort, who experienced the highest turnover rates (39%) in the past 24 months, are most likely (26%) to leave their current employer in the next 12 months. Furthermore, as many as 8% of them are considering leaving the accounting and finance profession in the next 12 months.
• Approximately 30% of those who intended to leave their current employers in the next 12 months expressed dissatisfaction with their work and co-workers. They were also five times more likely than those intending to stay to feel disengaged at work.
• Career advancement concerns significantly influence respondents’ decision to leave their employer or the profession. Those with the intention to leave were nearly three times more likely to cite that they do not expect to advance in their organization.
• Professionals intending to leave their employers, or the profession, were four times more likely to highlight the absence of a strong sense of belonging within their organizations.

It’s too bad they didn’t break the 18-38 group down further, would be nice to see the difference between early career professionals and manager level where talent is more scarce. Here’s turnover anyway:

Almost half of remote workers surveyed had left their employer voluntarily in the past 24 months (47%) compared to 26 percent of hybrid workers and 23 percent of on-site.

Overall job satisfaction isn’t too bad; 87.14 percent of respondents said they are satisfied with the work they are required to perform, 86.48 percent are satisfied with their coworkers, and 78.44 percent are satisfied with their supervisors.

Of note, 79 percent of accounting and finance professionals intending to stay with their employer reported receiving outstanding perks on the job. So employers should probably make sure that’s taken care of first before they go firing all the bad managers.

The study goes on to cover workplace flexibility, sense of belonging, and engagement. We’ll include that last one just to point out that engagement and resulting disengagement from overwork aren’t making people leave the profession as strongly as bad management is.

Lastly, a few choice quotes they got from professionals who intend to leave their employer or the profession completely. There are four pages of this in the report.

“If I decide to leave, it’s due to narcissistic management, lack of hybrid work offerings, low pay, limited benefits, inflexibility, unfriendly staff, no advancement opportunities, no work-life balance, excessive overtime, and being contacted outside of working hours.”

“The compensation is low given the number of hours required, especially when compared to fields like IT.”

“There is a noticeable lack of opportunities for meaningful advancement.”

“I’m at the age of retirement, and reflecting on it, choosing accounting as a career hasn’t been fruitful for me. If given another chance, I wouldn’t pursue a CPA designation.”

“I dislike the work, and my manager is incompetent and unreasonably demanding without understanding what he’s asking for.”

“First and foremost, there’s the unfair treatment, bias, and weak leadership competence. The line between ethics and morals is razor-thin, and leadership positions are given by the board or influential people. I won’t compromise my morals for an underpaid job.”

“There’s a lot of politics in my organization I don’t agree with. Many employees, including me, are taken advantage of. Despite good pay, the disparity between favored employees and those who drive the company is huge. When things work based on my insights, others get the pay and bonuses, while I work long hours.”

“I can’t maintain 65-hour workweeks. The impact on my health from such demands is due to poor leadership.”

“Being perpetually short-staffed means taking on more duties and working extra unpaid hours, affecting my work-life balance.”

“The pay is low for the amount of work, and the commute is far from my residence.”

“If opportunities for better pay or more engaging work arise, or if I can pursue my passion for politics, I might leave. Pay is a growing concern, especially with rising costs and student loans.”

“Micromanagement is rampant with the new COO, and the pay in accounting is not fair compared to the rest of the organization.”

“The environment is stressful due to long hours. Hiring competent newcomers is lacking, resulting in more pressure on the veterans.”

“The pay doesn’t justify the 24/7 availability they demand. The firm’s reluctance to hire or invest in workload-reducing technology is concerning. There’s also a mismatch between the firm’s DE&I values and some client beliefs.”

“Leadership is lacking, and we’re often understaffed to save money. This leads to long work hours and more tasks. The focus is more on closing books quickly than accuracy. I’m burned out and even considering leaving the profession.”

“The general challenges with the CPA profession combined with the firm’s push to return to the office instead of promoting remote work are problematic.”

“I recently quit a high-paying tax job. The documentation was poor, feedback was demoralizing, and timelines were tight.”

“Public accounting’s long hours don’t feel worth the pay, especially without overtime. The reward structure benefits partners more.”

“High staff turnover at lower levels leaves more work for management.”

“The hours are long and unreasonable. I’m in my 40s, financially secure, and ready for a change. The CPA profession is stressful.”

“The CPA profession hasn’t advocated for its members’ better working conditions. While new standards are being introduced, the core issue of limited tools remains unaddressed.”

“I don’t believe the industry is set up for long-term success. The demands on young staff, coupled with unrealistic work-life balances, lead to early-career burnout.”

“I left the profession due to the low pay, excessive work hours, and the overall negative atmosphere among my coworkers.”

And let’s end with this one:

“I struggle to see the benefits of the work and often disagree with our direction. We’re responsible for our own talent shortage, and we seem trapped in our ways.”

Sounds about right.

Talent Retention in the U.S. Accounting and Finance Profession [IMA and Robert Half]

The post Accountants on Why They’re Leaving: ‘The Hours Are Long and Unreasonable, Compensation Is Low’ appeared first on Going Concern.

“I always do an icebreaker at every start of every meeting,” says Golden, adding that, “an easy one is, ‘you have 30 seconds, go grab something, no matter where you are, and you have to come back and in less than 30 seconds, you have to tell us why you grabbed it.’”

This also helps people disconnect and get some blood flowing in their brains and bodies, and puts “an ease to solving some of the challenges that you’re solving in that 30 minutes,” she says.

Appropriate Twitter response:

*grabs resignation letter*

— Monero Matteo (@moneromatteo) September 29, 2023

Well she’s on Make It again and this time she’s offering up a tip on how to make your resume stand out among the pack:

personality

“I think when the resume can exude some personality is the most eye catching to me,” she said.

Other than using crayons to create it how exactly does one zhuzh a resume up with personality?

Listing the multiple languages you speak or including that you’ve “traveled around the world 17 times,” says Golden, are examples of what can round you out on your resume. You could include athletic or artistic accomplishments as well. And volunteer work is effective because “you’re there because you love it,” she says. “You’re not there because you were told to do it and I think that actually says a lot, too, about your personality.”

You could also “think about what makes you happy and what you want from that job and put it in a sentence,” she says. She gives the example of her own job and the kind of thing she could say to describe her passion for it. Why does she want to be in innovation?

“I really want to solve really hard problems,” she says. “I’m really good at solving really hard problems.”

Now you could put these under “Interests” somewhere at the bottom of your resume but that’s not what she advises:

But Golden would advocate for putting those pieces even higher up. “Put the good nugget at the top of the resume,” she says. You could include a line about your passions in a professional summary, for example.

Remember, complaining about your job on Reddit is not a passion.

The post Deloitte Exec With a Stupid Title Has a Tip to Make Your Resume Stand Out appeared first on Going Concern.

First, finance and accounting:

In words:

Hiring outlook: Two-thirds of hiring managers in finance and accounting seek talent for new roles, and 32% are focused on staffing vacated roles. At the same time, 95% said they face difficulty locating skilled talent available for hire. This is not surprising in a field where unemployment rates for many in-demand roles trend well below the national average. For example, according to data from the BLS, the unemployment rate for accountants and auditors is 0.9%, and for financial clerks, it’s just 0.3%.

Employment outlook: 41% of finance and accounting professionals are either looking for a new job now or plan to launch their search by year-end. For 55% of workers in this field, the top reason to pursue a new role is a higher salary. Also, about one-third (34%) of professionals surveyed said they seek remote work options. If you’re an employer, note that offering flexible work could help you boost hiring and retention of these workers.

Now let’s talk about broader hiring trends. All hiring managers surveyed reported similar difficulty finding skilled talent, only 2% less across all professional fields compared to finance and accounting. You’ll note “eliminating roles” doesn’t appear at all in the finance and accounting group so that’s nice.

Let’s compare this to figures on the US talent market in 2022 and the first half of 2023 shared by Robert Half in February:

Back in our corner of the world, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment of accountants and auditors to grow four percent from 2022 to 2032, about as fast as the average for all occupations. Prior to this, BLS projected 10 percent growth (faster than average) for accountants and auditors for the period from 2016-2026. BLS acknowledges in its forecast that technological change is expected to affect the role of accountants in the next nine years but is not expected to reduce overall demand. “The automation of routine tasks, such as data entry, will instead make accountants’ advisory and analytical duties more prominent,” says BLS in its ten-year outlook.

Seeing as we’re in the earliest stages of the glorious AI-driven future, it looks like talent will continue to be a problem for finance and accounting departments everywhere at least for the near-term.

New Data Provides Insight on U.S. Hiring and Employment Trends [Robert Half]

Earlier: Robert Half Reports Finance and Accounting Talent is in High Demand (Duh)

The post Obvious Figure of the Day: 95% of Hiring Managers Are Having Trouble Finding Finance and Accounting Talent appeared first on Going Concern.

Different generations in the workforce often struggle to understand each other. But experts say one thing that young professionals can do, including young accountants, is to be more patient.

Jerry Maginnis, former office managing partner of KPMG in Philadelphia and author of the new book Advice for a Successful Career in the Accounting Profession: How to Make Your Assets Greatly Exceed Your Liabilities, told me on my podcast that younger professionals have short attention spans and they’re very interested in what’s next. Their mindset is: “I’ve been doing this job for six months; when will I get promoted?” or “When will I have my next opportunity?” That kind of ambition is not necessarily a negative, but Maginnis said it can get in the way of a successful career if they change jobs or switch departments every time they hit a few bumps in the road.

“Let’s say they’re in public accounting, and they get assigned to an engagement with a manager or client they don’t particularly like,” asked Maginnis. “Or suppose they have to put in very long hours for a few weeks. Too often, young people will say: ‘That’s it. This isn’t the right profession for me. I’m leaving.’”

Instead, Maginnis said you have to give things time to play out because your next engagement might be with great people and a terrific client that ends up defining your career. But by bailing out too soon, you miss it. Maginnis recalls early in his career when Newt Becker, founder of the Becker CPA exam prep courses, told him that every year spent in public accounting is the equivalent of two years in private industry. But too often, young CPAs flee public accounting for what they believe are the greener pastures of industry and miss out on that learning and development.

It’s no secret the workload is notoriously tough for young accountants starting in the Big Four. It’s often described as “trial by fire” or “getting thrown into the deep end of the pool.” This could intimidate and discourage anyone, including people just starting their careers. But you have to show some grit and not be afraid to ask for help.

As Maginnis details in his new book, firms of all sizes have become much more sensitive to the importance of work-life balance, mental health, and the overall well-being of their employees. “As a profession, we have a way to go, but there are many firm-wide programs and initiatives to support young professionals through this,” noted Maginnis. By the same token, Maginnis said young professionals are sometimes “their own worst enemy” because even at age 22 or 23, they need to take ownership of their schedules (and their lives) and set priorities. He said firms don’t expect anyone to work 75 to 80 hours a week, and you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for flexibility – even during busy season – if you have important family or social commitments during the early evening on weekdays. He said you can usually trade off with co-workers to go home earlier on those nights and then work later on other nights.

Maginnis said most firms give you 30 days of PTO when you walk in the door. That’s the equivalent of six weeks off right off the bat. And for much of the year, the workload is closer to 40-hour weeks, with occasional 50-hour weeks.

Intellectual curiosity, advocate for yourself

“At KPMG, almost everyone came in with a baseline level of skills that enabled them to be successful in their job,” observed Maginnis. “The ones who rose to the top were the ones who showed great intellectual curiosity and who were avid learners.” In other words, they weren’t satisfied with understanding debits, credits, and audits. They wanted to know about the client’s business model and how they made money.

They wanted to know about their international expansion strategy and technology use. “The hallmark of a great auditor is not just understanding debits and credits, but understanding how the client makes money and the economics and the cash flows,” added Maginnis. “A lot of the auditing failures we’ve seen in the past could have been avoided if people got beyond the debits and credits and thought about the substance of the economic transactions they were auditing and whether or not they made sense,” noted Maginnis.

From where I sit, accounting gives you a great window into the inner workings of a company. That’s why it’s such valuable training for many business careers.

Importance of soft skills

While there is so much emphasis on staying current with technical skills, I’ve found that so much of success in the accounting profession revolves around your ability to work effectively with others, whether it be your client, colleagues, or peers. You could be the smartest person in the world and have all the answers. But if you’re challenging to interact with, you’re probably not going to do well. One of the most common complaints Maginnis hears from fellow managers is that their younger colleagues don’t possess soft skills. He’s hoping to see soft skills stressed more in the accounting curriculum but feels many advisory boards think some of the ever-changing “core requirements” would have to be eliminated to make room for soft skills. That can be a tough fight to win.

Maginnis recalls a situation early in his career when he was assigned to a large engagement with a principal client official who was rude and hostile toward the entire audit team. Instead of bad-mouthing the official or begging for a transfer, Maginnis invited the hostile client official out for coffee and tried to understand where he was coming from.

Maginnis quickly learned the official needed help understanding the role of independent auditors or why they were asking him to do certain things or provide so much documentation. However, after Maginnis patiently explained the role of auditors, the client asked Maginnis for regular weekly coffees and pointed out several areas in which KPMG could be more efficient. Long story short, Maginnis made partner a few years later, and the once hostile client was among the first to write him a congratulatory letter.

It’s a great success story, but Maginnis quickly points out that bringing in the business and building client relationships is not the only criteria for making partner. He said soft skills that include building relationships with team members and helping younger professionals achieve their potential are just as critical as business development and strong technical skills.

And, of course, having a high degree of intellectual curiosity about understanding the client’s business better or what’s keeping the C-suite up at night. “What are their biggest challenges? What are their biggest opportunities?” asked Maginnis. “It’s about being not only a student of the client (what their needs are) but being a student of your own firm — knowing all of the firm’s capabilities and how they can help the client make better decisions,” noted Maginnis.

Specialties to consider

Every business needs accountants, from local mom-and-pops to multinational corporations. “Young people today have the opportunity to marry a personal passion with the type of organization that needs accounting services,” said Maginnis. “It could be sports and entertainment, tech companies, life science companies.” There are also hot areas of specialization, such as forensic accounting, since AI has accelerated the pace and scope of fraud. There’s also the cannabis industry, digital currencies, and artificial intelligence. These emerging industries have some unique accounting and reporting issues and tax issues.

As a profession, we must better explain why accounting is a great, exciting profession and why it can provide young people with many opportunities. Unfortunately, Maginnis said the awareness level is not where it should be, and the stereotype of long hours, tedious work, unappreciative clients, and nerdy coworkers persists. He said the misconceptions became readily apparent after he retired from KPMG and started teaching at Rowan University near his home in New Jersey. He found the students highly motivated and curious about stable careers like accounting. But, they had concerns about the long hours, the 150-hour rule, the fear of boredom, and the lack of work-life balance.

Conclusion

“It dawned on me that there might be a broader need for explaining what accounting careers are like, the doors they can unlock, and the importance of forming good habits that will serve you well for a lifetime,” said Maginnis. What kinds of career advice are you giving young professionals? I’d love to hear more.

Blake Oliver, CPA, is the founder and CEO of Earmark and co-host of The Accounting Podcast, the No.1 podcast for accountants and bookkeepers.

The post Listen Up, Young Accountants: Career Advice For Sticking Out Those Early Years appeared first on Going Concern.

Ed. note: This post brought to you by the Big Government Auditing lobby. Just kidding, it’s a guest post from Parker Skaats, CPA, an experienced government worker who’s here to pitch the joys of government work to the unwashed overworked masses. 

Okay, let’s be real for a second. When you hear “government auditing,” do you picture dull offices with fluorescent lighting, stacks of paper taller than you, and people who still think fax machines are the pinnacle of technology? If that’s the case, you might be in for a surprise.

Now, I started off like many of you: dreaming of the hustle and the supposed glamour of the Big 4. But I also heard the not-so-whispered tales of burnout, the tear-streaked faces after 80-hour weeks, and the tales of client-induced trauma. Yes, the prestige and opportunities in the Big 4 are there, but so are the long hours and the partner who demands you meticulously record your billable hours.

Enter the world of government auditing. No, I didn’t stumble into it after a wild night out. It was a choice, and quite a fantastic one at that. First up, you’ve got stability. The private sector can be a wild roller-coaster, especially in shaky economic times. But government gigs? As steady as they come.

The work-life balance is another winner. While my Big 4 buddies were burning the midnight oil, I was wrapping up at a decent hour, getting to know my couch, my hobbies, and heck, my family. That 9-to-5 consistency means you don’t have to schedule your life around your job.

Think government work is mundane? You would be right, most of it is. However, your skills are transferable to most entities at the federal, state, and local levels so it’s easy to move from one organization to another. The key is to work for an organization whose mission is important to you. The work you do isn’t to enrich the partner down the hall who made you return to the office so he can get another Porsche.

Ever thought about the unique hustle of government auditing? It’s not just about financial statements and ledgers. Oh no, it’s a whole other game. First off, there’s the art of working with political appointees and politicians. Yes, sometimes that means mastering the delicate skill of, well, straddling barbed wire. It’s a dance of diplomacy and patience, ensuring the work gets done while navigating the ebbs and flows of political agendas.

Then, there’s the rhythm of government itself. If you’ve ever felt the frustration of waiting for your computer to update, then imagine that on a larger scale. The pace can be glacial, but it teaches you resilience, patience, and the knack for finding ways to keep moving things forward, even when it feels like you’re wading through bureaucratic molasses.

And let’s not forget teamwork. Unlike the ultra-competitive arenas where everyone’s jostling for that next promotion, government auditing often thrives on collaboration. You’ll learn to lean on your colleagues, share expertise, and pool resources to ensure the greater good is served.

While starting salaries might appear modest compared to public accounting, the overall compensation package in government roles, when including benefits like health insurance, pension, and generous leave policies (that aren’t disguised as unlimited) are quite attractive. As long as your goal isn’t to eventually make partner, you can get a comparable salary with the federal government.

Now, let’s talk about credentials. The 150-hour requirement for the CPA, combined with the challenges of the CPA Evolution, might have some of you rethinking your life choices. But in the halls of government auditing, the CPA is not all that common. There’s the CIA (no, not that CIA, but the Certified Internal Auditor), the Certified Responsible Government Auditor (CRGA), and the Certified Government Financial Manager (CGFM) are also valued. Each of these certifications brings its own set of advantages and specializations, making them worthy considerations for those considering an alternative to the CPA route.

If you’re on the fence about your next move in the wild world of accounting, give government auditing a thought. You might not get all the free swag you would at the Big 4 (do you really need another firm-branded water bottle?) but dig a little deeper, and you might just find it’s the hidden gem you’ve been looking for.

So next time someone gives you the side-eye for even thinking about government auditing, remember: it’s not the path less traveled, it’s the path smartly traveled. And who knows? You might just end up being the smartest person in the room [Ed. note: not in the Enron way].

Parker Skaats, CPA is the founder of Parker CPE, where he specializes in government accounting and auditing courses. With a background working for a Federal Office of Inspector General (OIG), he’s dedicated to enhancing quality and efficiency in government audit offices. He holds a B.S. in Accounting from American University and is a licensed CPA in Maryland.

The post If You’re Looking For Career Options, Give Government Auditing a Look appeared first on Going Concern.

He writes:

Two of the visitors were teachers at a University. The first guest speaker was an accountant who told us what it was like being an accountant and told the class the requirements and qualifications to get there. The second guest speaker taught business and finance. The third guest speaker was a college student from a University whose major was in accounting.

Behold, the first two guest speakers:

Accounting: The first guest speaker highlighted the different fields of accounting. He said accounting would be a good paying job right after college. He took four to five years of College and took Business in high school. After those four to five years of college he said he took the CPA which is a big test for accountants. The CPA is a big test which opens you up to many people and bigger opportunities and a better career position. He also talked about how he knew it was the right career path for him. He said during his entire life he had always been into puzzles which is something similar that all the speakers had in common.

Business and Finance: When he was younger he said when he was fifteen he got into business and finance whenever he saw a person he knew with a really nice car that he thought was cool. He asked the person how he was able to afford it and said he worked in finance. The speaker said this motivated him because he wanted really nice things, a family, and having more freedom than being an accountant.

accounting and finance pic.twitter.com/OnOs1TUpV4

— memes.xlsx (@ExcelHumor) March 9, 2023

The post A Tale of Two Business Majors Speaking to Young People About Their Careers appeared first on Going Concern.

Anyway, enough with the corny shit. When this opinion piece popped up in my Google News I was hoping for a refreshing take on the benefits of accounting as a career and some passionate cheerleading. Maybe a field report from some young, enthusiastic former partner who started in public and ended up controller at a cool startup or doing taxes for NBA stars or something. Perhaps finally some common misconceptions would be smashed!

Nah.

Accounting is a field with high demand, and successful accounting students are virtually guaranteed employment upon (or even prior to) graduation. I’m involved in recruiting for one of the largest accounting firms in Connecticut. When I talk to students about their biggest concerns in pursuing an accounting degree and a career in public accounting, they typically point to four misconceptions: lack of work-life balance, the difficulty of the CPA exam, lower pay compared to other financial career paths, and lack of excitement in the work.

Each of these objections is based on a misunderstanding of what a public accounting career is really like in 2023.

With all due respect, sir, these are not misconceptions. Pretending as if they are does a great disservice to young people and is part of the reason why the younguns have issued a collective “fuck that” when it comes to accounting. It depends on the firm of course but given that professors across accounting departments everywhere urge students to go into public accounting (miserly Big 4 firms in particular) with the threat of a pathetic career doing taxes in a strip mall for the rest of your life if you don’t, we need to be honest about starting salaries at public accounting firms. Yes, accountants have incredible lifetime earning potential. Fact. Yes, CPAs do even better over a lifetime. Fact. Good luck selling that to a 22-year-old kid with data analytics skills who can make buckets more money out of the gate in a different field when there’s a cost of living crisis.

The disappointment only grows from there. Here’s his take on work-life balance:

In accounting, finding balance is a matter of weighing the value of hard work and career progression. You get out of the job what you put into it. But the job doesn’t have to include excessive overtime hours every January through April. There’s been a shift in expectations in the industry — while you may be asked to work some overtime during the busier times, you have more flexibility around your schedule to accommodate other events in your life.

“You get out of the job what you put into it” compelled me to Google this guy, you can imagine my shock when I found a young Gen Xer and not an old man who had to walk to the uphill both ways in the snow to sit for all four parts of the CPA exam on a hard chair in a cattle barn on the Indiana State Fair Grounds over two days.

Way to minimize the reality for countless public accountants. Some of them are working more than ever due to firms being short-staffed, the offshore teams have it even worse. This claim is disingenuous at best, he should have stuck to the “yeah you have to pay your dues early on but it pays off as you advance up the ladder” pitch. Is there greater flexibility these days? Sure. Because people started quitting en masse if they couldn’t get it. It shouldn’t have taken a worldwide pandemic for firms to start letting people pick their kids up from school in the afternoon and finish their work from home later in the evening. Do many government and industry accountants have it better? Yep. Could have led with that, at least that’s mostly factual. And a big reason why so many accounting grads are bypassing public completely and going straight to industry or sticking to the more progressive tech-focused small firms. Let’s not lump them in with the public accounting meat grinder.

Moving on. The CPA exam is hard. Fact. Much like the ritual beating one must endure to gain lifetime membership into a street gang, it is at its core a test of one’s dedication to the profession with a test of entry-level knowledge secondary to that. “The path to becoming a CPA is challenging, but doable if approached strategically,” he says. Well obviously. If it wasn’t doable, no one would do it. Increasingly, they aren’t. This is a value proposition problem and as of now, the profession has not done a good enough job demonstrating value, something you’d think a bunch of accountants would excel at (no pun).

It’s true that becoming a CPA takes effort and dedication. A fifth year of college is generally required (to obtain the 150 credit hours required to become a CPA) even if you’re not getting a master’s degree in accounting.

Also, the CPA exam is hard. Only about 20 percent of candidates pass all four sections on the first try — a lower pass rate than the bar. But you don’t have to take all four parts at once, and the rates for passing each section are much higher, about 50 percent. As the AICPA points out on its website, “The Exam is not harder or easier to pass at different times. An increase in pass rates simply means that candidates are better prepared.”

The exam is doable if you approach it strategically, and the additional time and effort invested in becoming a CPA is worth its weight in gold.

This is your selling point? If I’d written this, I might have referenced This Way to CPA’s Why CPA? page. Under the “What’s in It For You?” section:

10-15% higher salary than regular accountants
Becoming a CPA is an investment. CPAs have the potential to boost their earnings by $1 million of their lifetime compared to a non-CPA in the same position.

I would not have referenced this from UWorld Roger CPA Review:

According to Monster Jobs, a CPA’s earnings over the course of 45 years is $3,200,000 if the starting pay is at $46,200 and the pay at 20+ years is $76,000. Such salary data was compiled by looking at the expected lifetime median earnings which were calculated for a 45-year period based on median annual pay levels for 1, 5, 10, and 20 years of experience in each position.

Yeah that’s got to be old info. It checks out though.

Thankfully those numbers have edged up in the last few years though it’s looking like the big jumps of last year are cooling off now.

Finally, here’s his pitch on salaries:

CPAs have a very strong starting salary, and comparisons can be deceiving

The idea that the pay for an accounting major coming out of college is lower compared to other finance or business careers is a bit misleading. Most college students in accounting have a job locked up by the beginning of their senior year — demand is that high. Everyone who leaves school with an accounting degree seems to get a job.

Bro at no point in that paragraph did you explain why it’s misleading, all you did was gaslight people about the accuracy of countless salary reports.

He does add:

Starting salaries in public accounting in 2023 are very good, typically exceeding $70,000. While other financial and professional fields might state similar or higher starting salaries, it’s important to note that they aren’t typically placing as high a percentage of students. It’s harder to get those jobs, and there aren’t very many of them, despite the volume of the surrounding buzz.

Like how he says “might state” as if investment banker salaries are some wildly unreliable As Seen on TV claim. Per the US Census Bureau, the median annual income for Americans in 2021 was $70,784. “Very good” is dependent on a lot of factors, for some people $70,000 is in fact very good. Let’s not kid ourselves, accounting salaries have lagged behind other fields for a very long time (see this 2022 Bloomberg Tax article “Accounting Faces Reckoning After Years of Sluggish Pay Growth“).

Now, high demand is an accurate selling point. In fact, it might be the best one the profession has. Young people may fall victim to being seduced into other career paths with the lure of better starting pay but at least some of them could be swayed into accounting by emphasizing that even in difficult economic times, accountants can find work more reliably than their classmates who went into tech or law. See also: At Least We Aren’t in Tech, Boast Smug Accountants Who Didn’t Get Laid Off Today. Sadly the layoffs came later.

In September 2009, Rick Telberg’s CPA Trendlines shared that the accounting industry added 2,300 jobs in August of that year while the broader US economy lost 216,000 jobs and unemployment hit 9.7 percent. For those not old enough to have experienced the Great Recession as an adult, that was a big deal and evidence of the profession’s resiliency even in tough times because boy were things dire back then. This is a strong selling point and one that is unique to accounting. Can lawyers say the same? No, see the “Notes From the Breadline” tag on Above the Law. Not that accounting escaped that period of time completely unscathed, comparatively speaking it hurt a lot less.

Next time go hard on the employability thing. That one’s not misleading. Talk about specific career opportunities available to accounting majors and tell stories of the people who work in and around the profession, especially those who aren’t in public because they seem to be happiest with their chosen career. That’s a better pitch than “the money isn’t that bad and the work-life balance is fine most of the time except for several months out of the year.”

The post Guy Who Works at a Firm Actually Named FML on Why Accounting Is a Great Career appeared first on Going Concern.

Some key insights:

How professionals’ hopes for generative AI are centered around improvements in operational efficiencies that will provide greater productivity. They also envision that the freed-up time resulting from the removal of mundane work will make them available for higher-value tasks. We at Thomson Reuters believe this will largely be achieved over the next five years.

How true transformation will occur around talent. While many can see the positive impact AI will have on recruitment, training, career paths, and well-being, there is uncertainty. This unease showed up in the research findings as fears around job loss and, for some, the demise of their professions altogether. We at Thomson Reuters believe jobs will change and tasks will be automated, but AI will create greater capacity for professionals to provide even more value to customers and stakeholders.

How professionals acknowledge the transformational impact AI will have on their work over the next five years. Society and economies have been shaped by our ability to keep pace with innovation. This study shows professionals are ready to embrace change and harness new technology to enable productivity and efficiency, and offer a greater customer experience. At Thomson Reuters, we believe it is too early to fully understand the full scope of these changes and the subsequent impact, but we must partner across industries and create new applications of AI responsibly to achieve the most desirable outcomes.

Fabulous. We’re not here to talk about that though, we’re here to talk about the intersection of work and mental health and how professionals surveyed feel about work’s influence on their mental well-being. It is not nearly as bad as you might expect.

With maintaining a healthy work-life balance being cited as the second most important motivator for professionals, it is easy to connect the dots to understand how work impacts overall mental health and well-being, given that many professions in the legal and accounting industries are known for long hours and high stress. Interestingly, more than half (53%) of the professionals surveyed said that their work had a strongly or moderately positive impact on their mental health and well-being. And just under half of legal professionals at law firms and in the government sector agreed their work positively impacted their mental health and well-being.

You read that right. More than half (about 636 people) of all respondents said work has a positive impact on their mental health, 22 percent of tax and accounting professionals surveyed said strongly positive. 58 percent of tax and accounting people are in the “positive” range, beating out the law folks by nearly 10 percent. Legal professionals working at law firms also have a larger chunk in the moderately negative and strongly negative categories

When you get down into the weeds you see that men seem to feel better about work than women by a significant margin and that boomers unsurprisingly report higher positive effects than Gen X and millennials. I’d propose it’s possible that Gen X and especially millennials are more aware of mental health than boomers and therefore better able to identify ways in which work impacts it but who can say? On the flip side of that, only two percent of boomers report a strongly negative impact on their mental health compared to five percent of millennials. I’m intentionally ignoring Gen X’s eight percent as is tradition when it comes to their generation.

Said the report:

The positive nature of gaining mental health and well-being benefits from work suggests a good portion of professionals will be able to cope well with the disruption that AI inevitably will bring. Intentional focus by professionals on their mental health and well-being during this transition therefore will be very important to maintaining this positive state.

Directly related to mental health, respondents were asked for their opinion how AI will affect the hours they work in the next five years. Deeply rooted in reality, a good amount of them are tempering their expectations and still others think AI will somehow make hours worse.

Although, as stated above, some professionals can see potential for AI to improve mental health and well-being, it must be acknowledged that not all professionals agreed with this optimistic standpoint. Indeed, some professionals believe AI will have a negative impact on their work-life balance and mental well-being, in part because of skepticism as to whether the benefits of AI will actually materialize.

In fact, the collective opinion among survey participants is divided as to whether working hours will shorten or indeed increase. A lack of clarity on the impact of AI on working hours was the dominant view, although the proportion of professionals who expect AI to result in longer working hours was twice that of those who predicted shorter hours in the short term.

Bless those 13 percent of people who think they’ll be working fewer hours 18 months from now with the help of AI. We can only hope.

There’s a bunch more but it would have a negative effect on my mental health if I had to write it all up so find the other 34 pages of the report below.

Future of professionals report: How AI is the catalyst for transforming every aspect of work [Thomson Reuters]

The post Work Is Destroying Tax and Accounting Professionals’ Mental Health Much Less Than You’d Think appeared first on Going Concern.

I’m not exactly sure how I came across fairygodboss.com but I did and “10 Unprofessional Email Phrases That Are Ruining Your Reputation at Work” sounded like it could be interesting to someone overly concerned with their reputation at work.

Says fairygodboss.com:

Many factors contribute to a hostile work environment including, office gossip, sexually- and culturally-offensive behavior and conduct that is NSFW. But to add to that list is another — often overlooked — contributor: the passive-aggressive email. You know, the suggestive ones that say one thing but really mean another?

We’re putting passive-aggressive email sayings on the same list as sexually and culturally offensive behavior? Well OK then.

Without any further delay (my apologies), here are nine unprofessional phrases that are on par with NSFW come-ons to your colleagues along with some brief explanations as written by them:

1. “I’m re-attaching for convenience”

This phrase basically translates to, “I know you ignored it the first time, so I’m going to send it again to hold you accountable for actually opening it.” Unless you’re someone’s boss or manager, you probably shouldn’t convey this passive-aggression in writing.

2. “My apologies for the delay”

If you write this in an email, you might as well say, “Hey, I’m sorry I’m late. I was busy prioritizing other tasks.”

3. “As per my last email”

Bets are you’ve probably used this line before — I know I have. But what you’re really saying when you plug this into your email is, “This is the second time I’m telling you this. I don’t want to have to tell you again.”

4. “Does Wednesday still work as a deadline? No worries if it doesn’t!”

This phrase sounds friendly, right? But the problem is it’s too friendly.

5. “I feel like”

“I feel like” is a filler phrase. It pads your thoughts with uncertainty and allows receivers to negotiate them.

6. “Just a heads up, I won’t be coming in tomorrow”

Whether you have unlimited PTO or a set amount of sick days, it’s best not to call off exclusively via email if you can help it. Not only is it unprofessional to plug the mention in an un-related email, but it’s also inconsiderate to your manager and team who may need to follow-up with you in the following days or will have to take over your time-sensitive responsibilities.

7. “I’m not in charge of that”

Nothing tells your manager you’re uninvested in your team louder than this classic “That’s not my job” plug-in. Even if you’re “not in charge of that,” you shouldn’t throw the person who is under the bus in front of your team.

8. “Here’s a copy of the project my team and I are working on. I’d love to get your feedback!”

To put it plainly, you never want to share teamwork with other members of the company without your team’s permission.

9. “Great work! Next time, you should”

This phrase, though positive, is a pretty back-handed compliment. You’re basically telling recipients, “This is great — except for X, Y and Z — so actually, this is just good.”

And my personal favorite is number ten:

“I can’t stand this place”

Maybe you can’t stand your job, or your coworkers, or your company — but that’s nothing to mention in a professional piece of writing. Statements such as this one can get in front of the wrong eyes, or easily be forwarded to leadership without your knowing. Air out your dirty laundry outside of the office through words, not in any way that can be directed back to you. And even better, you can escalate your concerns to leadership to get clear about what’s not working for you and find solutions to address them.

Air your dirty laundry on Reddit like a normal person.

A lot of the items on the list are in the category of unnecessary phrases that people, especially women, add to communications without even realizing they’re doing it (See: How to Get Ahead: Sorry Not Sorry). Not exactly unprofessional, depending on your work environment. Unlike “per my last email” which no person in the history of emails has ever used in the without the intended passive-aggressive subtext. “I’m re-attaching for convenience” is another one that is code for “are you dumb?” which many could argue is far more professional than typing out “are you dumb?” and hitting send.

Did they miss any?

The post Ten Phrases You Should Be Using in Emails to Convey Maximum Passive-Aggressiveness and Unprofessionalism appeared first on Going Concern.

From Withum’s news release:

Students will be full-time apprentice-level team members at Withum, with an opportunity to work in all service lines and industries while earning credits for their curriculum-driven experience alongside university coursework to fulfill the remaining credits needed to reach the credits hour requirement to hold a CPA license. The students may also sit for the CPA exam during the program, affording them the opportunity to become licensed CPAs by the time they start their accounting career as full-time, entry-level Staff I team members at the Firm.

Five Seton Hall students will start at the firm in September and the pilot program lasts for a year. The news release includes a quote from one of them who said:

“Everyone knows how hard it is to obtain the CPA certification, and with this program, I am substantially closer to obtaining the certification. With the help of Seton Hall University and Withum, I can now continue my academic career with the people who helped me get here.”

They don’t say how much these five folks will be paid, only that they will “receive compensation during their final year of school.”

“We truly value Withum’s partnership and investment in this innovative apprenticeship model and the Seton Hall accounting talent pipeline,” said Mary Kate Naatus, Ph.D., Assistant Provost and Dean of Continuing Education and Professional Studies at Seton Hall University. “The combination of a strong curriculum with excellent faculty members with the real world ‘work for credit’ experience on-site at Withum is an exemplary model that mutually benefits the students, industry partner and the broader accounting field.”

Wow they’re really laying it on thick aren’t they.

“The war on talent remains at an all-time high in the accounting industry, the CPA Pathway Apprenticeship is a solution to expose emerging talent to the day-to-day life of an accounting professional at Withum,” reads the release. A similar collaboration between PwC and New Jersey’s St. Peter’s University was launched last year.

If you’re going to be forced to work in order to meet some arbitrary requirement that is proven not to have any positive impact on the quality of CPAs entering the profession, there are worse places than Withum to do it.

Seton Hall University and Withum Launch CPA Pathway Apprenticeship for Aspiring Accounting Students [Withum]

The post Withum’s Solution to the War on Talent Is to Throw Students Onto the Battlefield appeared first on Going Concern.

Without any further blathering on, here are ten things firms should prioritize in recruiting:

1. Assess whether candidates are a good fit for your firm on both a professional and personal level
2. Ensure the salary offered is genuinely competitive
3. Offer flexible working arrangements
4. Highlight your firm’s work environment and
5. Have the patience to find top-quality candidates
6. Offer attractive benefits and incentives
7. Have a transparent interview process
8. Offer learning and training opportunities
9. Make use of recruiting agencies
10. Advertise across multiple and diverse recruiting channels

So really that’s two compensation-related items (competitive salary and attractive benefits/incentives). Under item two they say:

Are you familiar with the market rate for the job role you’re trying to fulfill? Take the time to research the salaries of similar roles at other companies, as well as any comparable job descriptions, experience levels, and qualifications you are seeking. You may also want to look at the job market in your area to identify any regional differences in salaries for related positions.

Employers: this means if you want a CPA you better pay for it. Same goes for X years of experience. You might be able to save a few bucks if you offer a slightly less in salary but cap hours at 35, are fully remote, have an excellent health plan, and subsidize doggy day care/gym memberships/XBoxes/whatever. You don’t get to pay people less and expect them to grind out 60 hours a week, in office, with nothing but free K-pods and a company-provided wrist rest. Do better.

Item six elaborates on this point:

On top of the usual benefits like competitive salaries, paid time off, and flexible work arrangements, you can also appeal to candidates by offering:

• Comprehensive health and dental plans
• Tuition reimbursement
• Retirement plans
• Gym memberships
• Career development opportunities

Your firm can also offer additional incentives such as bonuses for exceptional performance and other rewards based on the length of their employment.

It really is that simple.

The post These 10 Tips for Successful Accounting Firm Recruitment Aren’t Terrible At All appeared first on Going Concern.

The masters of the poll at Gallup have released their State of the Global Workplace 2023 Report and by quickly skimming it we discover that the majority of the world’s employees are “quiet quitting.” The majority being 59% and quiet quitting defined by Gallup as:

These employees are filling a seat and watching the clock. They put in the minimum effort required, and they are psychologically disconnected from their employer. Although they are minimally productive, they are more likely to be stressed and burnt out than engaged workers because they feel lost and disconnected from their workplace.

As opposed to the mere 23% of employees who are thriving at work:

These employees find their work meaningful and feel connected to the team and their organization. They feel proud of the work they do and take ownership of their performance, going the extra mile for teammates and customers.

Then we get to the 18% of loud quitters. You’d think loud quitting means a PwC auditor telling her soon-to-be former team members “you’re fake important and you stink,” “I can give two shits about your animals, maids, brother,” and “You hate yourself and your job, let’s be honest. Your cat doesn’t care about you so stop caring about it. Stories about your nasty cat are unbearable. Seriously, I can’t even deal. Beyond gross! You’re fake ratchet! I hear you giving weird remarks that are borderline weird….I can definitely hear the twang in your voice” in a 5,000 word farewell email but somehow it doesn’t.

Nor does loud quitting mean this:

No, Gallup says a loud quitter is an employee who is not only actively disengaged with their work (i.e. could not find it within themselves to give a single solitary fuck) but actively engaged in sabotage:

These employees take actions that directly harm the organization, undercutting its goals and opposing its leaders. At some point along the way, the trust between employee and employer was severely broken. Or the employee has been woefully mismatched to a role, causing constant crises.

This situation naturally leads to higher stress in the disengaged, probably because everything pisses them off and all they can think about is that glorious day they get to turn in their laptop.

As far as the office vs. WFH discussion, Gallup analysis finds that engagement has 3.8 times as much influence on employee stress as work location. They say:

In other words, what people experience in their every day work — their feelings of involvement and enthusiasm — matters more in reducing stress than where they are sitting. Leaders need to ask if poor remote work performance or poor hybrid work performance is a location problem or a management problem. No location can *fix* poor management, and the office alone has no magic to create a great organizational culture.

Let’s hope leadership is reading this. The report gives them a little advice:

For leaders and managers, loud quitting can signal major risks within an organization that are important not to ignore. Conversely, quiet quitters are often your greatest opportunity for growth and change. They are waiting for a leader or a manager to have a conversation with them, encourage them, inspire them. A few changes to how they are managed could turn them into productive team members.

I’m curious how many of you reading this would consider yourself quiet quitters and if so, what changes your leaders could implement that might get you engaged at work. More pizza?

State of the Global Workplace: 2023 Report [Gallup]

The post We’re Loud Quitting Now appeared first on Going Concern.

Remember your first job? Not your first real job, the one you took in high school before you were saddled with student loans, rent, and monthly bills. If you graduated in the last 10-15 years, it was no more than $15, likely closer to $7.25.

When you grow up and score your first internship, $25 an hour is a lot of money (p.s. It’s closer to $50 nowadays, thank you accountant shortage). And there’s overtime! Then comes your full-time offer. If you graduated in the last two decades it was probably around $50,000. Maybe $60,000. Maybe much more if you just graduated but we’re not going to get into that because the class of 2019 is still angry about it.

Did you ever stop to do the math on what you’re making by the hour? It was easy to do when you were getting paid $7.25 an hour for afterschool shifts but in the real world it gets murkier, especially accounting for busy season. If you do well, you’ll get a nice bonus at the end of the year, but if you do twice as well, don’t expect twice the bonus. It just doesn’t work that way, which is probably part of the reason why the old-timers are so bitter. There’s little incentive for you to go above and beyond because the only thing you get at the end is overworked.

In the process of writing this article, we asked ChatGPT to help out on the math of yearly accounting salary versus hours worked because it’s better at math than anyone on the Going Concern payroll (which is not saying much). Prompting it to crunch the numbers on a public accountant making $60,000 a year with 50-60 hour weeks, it hilariously assumed that hours in excess of 40 come with overtime. Oh, if only.

On the next prompt it did much better, factually anyway. It assumed no vacations.

If you work 50 hours per week: $60,000 ÷ 2,080 hours (52 weeks x 40 hours per week) = $28.85 per hour

If you work 60 hours per week: $60,000 ÷ 2,480 hours (52 weeks x 60 hours per week) = $24.19 per hour

Let’s be real, if you compare 60 hours a week during busy season to what a teenager makes bagging groceries, you are going to be a little angry (and also eager to update your résumé, we assume).

Then there’s career progression. In public accounting, early progression is rarely based on merit, but rather on the passage of time. Meet goals and hit the two year mark? Congratulations, you leveled up. The highest performers may see early promotions, most everyone shuffles up the ladder the same prescribed way. At the lower levels you are completely disconnected from the big picture at the top, a cog in the machine with little ownership of the firm’s success. And let’s say you do give 150%, impress the heck out of clients, and attract new business surely by virtue of your hardworking, shining efforts. At most you get an extra slice of pizza at the third pizza party of the quarter and more work. Yay.

OK so what’s the point of all of this besides more complaining? As you probably gathered from the big “sponsored by” at the beginning of this post, FloQast commissioned this article because they are looking for Business Development Representatives who bring past public accounting experience to the table. Why? Because despite its downsides, public accounting offers a unique learning experience and teaches you a wealth of skills that you’ll carry with you for a lifetime, skills in high demand especially at FloQast. They love prior public accounting experience – particularly audit! – because you have a unique understanding of the problems facing the people you’d be speaking to in the BDR role, people who are in the trenches just like you used to be (or currently are. We see that wandering eye of yours…).

Wouldn’t it be nice to feel like you’re helping and not just grinding away to buy partners’ summer homes? Here’s the best part: it pays. Seriously, go on Glassdoor. Google it. If you’re feeling lazy and would rather not, just compare these rankings at FloQast to the rankings of a large accounting firm we shall not name.

And just look at these happy people. LOOK AT THEM. They have all the camaraderie of the audit room without the pain of auditing.

Video evidence:

We know that many of you are currently looking to jump, particularly those of you who got disappointing news this promotion season and all of you who are about to receive unexpectedly bleak ratings in upcoming performance discussions. Although the headlines are still screaming “accountant shortage,” the reality is that firms are beginning to tighten their belts and aren’t as scared as they were a year ago about losing people. This shift is especially obvious in firms’ attitudes toward remote and hybrid work; for example, a firm that proudly announced its “hybrid forever” way of working not even two years ago has just issued soft mandates to its people to get back in the office. There’s never been a better time to think about exit opportunities. Is there ever a bad one?

If you still need convincing, here is a non-exhaustive list of the benefits you’ll get working at FloQast:

• Employee Choice Policy or Work From Home
  • FloQast maintains a flexible policy on how and where employees choose to work. Employees can work from home and also have the option to work in a FloQast office or maintain a hybrid work schedule.
• Vacation and Public Holidays
  • FloQast observes major public holidays and provides unlimited vacation time to US employees to allow them to rest, recharge, and spend time with their loved ones.
• Mental Health Days
  • FloQast provides Mental Health Days in addition to company holidays where the Company closes to allow employees to unplug, relax, and recharge.
• Stock Options
  • Long-term incentive that provides employees the opportunity to participate in the growth of the company by purchasing equity through granted stock options.
• Medical/Rx
  • FloQast offers a variety of Medical plans to fit the needs of our employees and their needs. FloQast pays 100% of the premium for employees and families for most plans.
  • Dental & Vision
  • FloQast offers a comprehensive Dental PPO plan that includes orthodontia benefits for children and adults. Premiums are 100% paid for by FloQast.
  • Choice of two vision plans where FloQast pays 100% of the premiums for the Base plan, and employees can buy up to the Choice plan.
• Carrot
  • Global Employees have access to Carrot – a family forming benefit that provides resources and experts to assist with fertility, adoption, surrogacy, and other family-forming journeys.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
  • Global Employees have access to a wide range of no-cost services to assist them with financial planning, legal assistance, and addressing mental health care & wellness needs.

So what do you have to lose? Certainly not money.

About FloQast     www.floqast.com
FloQast is the leader in accounting workflow automation created by accountants for accountants. By automating and modernizing everyday accounting workflows, FloQast enables accountants to work better together and perform their tasks with greater efficiency and accuracy. The cloud-based, AI-enhanced software is trusted by more than 2,000 accounting teams, including those at Snowflake, Kodiak, Instacart, Zoom, and The Golden State Warriors – and still growing! We aspire to forever elevate accounting and improve both the practice and perceptions of the profession.

Our values serve as a compass that guides our decisions and are considered non-negotiable, especially when it comes to hiring. Together with our employees, partners, and customers, we live these values every day.

Unwaveringly Authentic
Ambitious with Integrity
Empowered to Grow
Committed to Collaboration
Customer Obsessed in All Ways

Here’s Why You Should Apply:
Amazing Benefits – FloQast pays 100% of the premium for employees and families for most Medical, Dental, & Vision plans.

Competitive Compensation & Stock Options

FloQast is regularly rated as a Best Place to Work!
– Inc. Magazine’s Best Workplaces in 2023, 2022, and 2021
– Best Places to Work by LA Business Journal since 2017 (that’s 6 years!)
– Built In’s Best Place to Work in Los Angeles 4 years in a row!

Professional Growth & Community – We believe community extends through and beyond the office. We have Employee Resource Groups, community volunteer opportunities, social events, DEI initiatives, and reimbursements for professional development relevant to your role.

Work-Life Balance – We have unlimited PTO along with a generous parental leave policy. To top it off, we have Mental Health Days, where the company closes to allow employees to unplug, relax, and recharge (we know Zoom fatigue is a real thing!)

Employee Choice Policy – Employees can work from home and also have the option to work in a FloQast office or maintain a hybrid work schedule.

Our customers love us! See for yourself on G2 Crowd.

FloQast, Inc is committed to operating fair and unbiased recruitment procedures allowing all applicants an equal opportunity for employment, free from discrimination on the basis of religion, race, sex, age, sexual orientation, disability, color, ethnic or national origin, or any other classification as may be protected by applicable law. We aim to recruit the right people for the jobs we have to offer, and to assess applications on the basis of relevant skills, education, and experience. We welcome people of different backgrounds, experiences, abilities, and perspectives. We are an equal opportunity employer and strive to provide a professional and welcoming workplace for all employees.

The post Unlock Your Worth: Finding Better Pay and Camaraderie in the Accounting Industry appeared first on Going Concern.

UK office furniture company Furniture at Work has published a hilarious anti-WFH piece called “From Claw Hands to Hunchbacks: How Working From Home Could Affect Our Bodies.” The article warns that if you continue to work from home you will end up looking like an enemy from Silent Hill by the time you are 70. The company, which definitely isn’t biased at all given that their entire livelihood depends on the sale of office furniture, “sourced scientific research and worked with health experts to fully explore the potentially damaging health effects of working from home” and then worked with a 3D designer “to create a future human whose body has physically changed due to consistent use of laptops and smartphones, poor posture, and an unhealthy diet.”

“Could Anna be the future of remote working?” they ask.

Are you ready for Anna? I don’t think you’re ready.

Note that Anna has a thick, full head of hair because she hasn’t been pulling it out in traffic for 40 years.

Poor posture from regular use of technology “has always been a risk but with many people working from home choosing to work from the sofa or their beds, this could only get worse,” they say.

Not everyone has the space or money for a professional desk setup at home, and this could mean hours spent every day with an arched back and neck strain. Years of working this way could throw your spine off balance and pull your torso in front of your hips, leading to a hunched-back appearance.

Yeah, because no one ever got back problems from being hunched over a computer in their employer’s office.

They got a quote from “internationally published, award-winning, double-fellowship-trained Orthopaedic Surgeon with more than 18 years of clinical experience” doctor LS Wang [the doctor’s website here] to back up the claim:

“Lack of regular movement and ergonomic inefficiencies can lead to musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). Chronic pains and degenerative conditions can also develop because of prolonged sitting and inadequate posture (especially when no one is watching).”

More of Anna for your viewing pleasure:

How about them claw hands?

“Text Claw” is a non-medical term that describes finger cramping and aching muscles after continuously performing fine motor activities. In this case, long hours using a mouse or smartphone while working from home, curling your fingers around into an unnatural position, could cause lead to repetitive strain injuries (RSI) and permanent “Text Claw” for remote workers of the future.

The term “text claw” has been around for a few years though most mentions of it appear as blog posts on hand specialists’ websites. And we’re probably all going to have it by the time we’re 70 whether we work from home or not.

If you thought Anna’s woes ended with her fingers, you’d be wrong. Her eyes are shot, too.

I dunno, to me that looks like the face of someone who spent her entire working life commuting.

They say:

Using screens can be damaging for your eyes, especially in a work environment not designed for long periods of sitting and concentrating. Without enough natural light or the bright lights provided in commercial offices, remote workers will be putting extra strain on their eyes which could lead to headaches. A 2021 study revealed that one in three remote workers in the UK have complaints about eye strain at the end of each day, and the long-term damage you could do to your eyes is reflected in our 3D model. Anna has dark, swollen eyes after years of squinting and staring at her laptop or smartphone without adequate natural light.

We’re done right? We’re not done. Wrapping things up, Furniture at Work warns that working from home comes with the risk of poor mental health.

The health risks of years spent working from home aren’t just physical. The office isn’t just a place to work, it’s an opportunity to chat and collaborate with your colleagues in person. Missing out on these social interactions could lead to feelings of isolation, anxiety and depression among remote workers, particularly those who live and work alone.

Joni Ogle, LCSW, CSAT, CEO of The Heights Treatment, told us:

“Without a precise work-life balance, no office hours, or a set location to go back to at the end of each workday, the anxiety of not knowing when to ‘switch off’ can become overwhelming. We can start to feel like we are never truly away from work, which can lead to burnout.”

Right, because every office job ends when you leave at 5 (in the case of the Going Concern audience, anywhere from 8-midnight).

Brian Clark, BSN, MSNA and Founder of United Medical Education, says it’s important to prioritise social connections if you work from home:

“Long-term health risks of working from home include mental health concerns such as stress, loneliness, and burnout. To avoid these risks, remote workers should prioritise social connection and self-care, and establish clear boundaries between work and personal time.”

They do have a bit of a point here about isolation but that’s what friends and hobbies are for. Guess what, if your only human contact is with people at work you’re going to get depressed as hell.

Anyway, that’s your future.

The post The Funniest Anti-WFH Propaganda You’ll See All Week appeared first on Going Concern.

Text:

(Burner account) I wanted to ask if anyone else is interning with EY this summer and is just absolutely disappointed? First, the program length gets cut down to be 6 weeks with one unpaid, so really 5. Then, they cancel our intern gifts and tell us that there are ‘supply chain issues’ instead. Now, they have told us that the annual Disney trip is cancelled. I’ve also been hearing that some service lines won’t even work the full 5 weeks, but only 2 days of one week, making the full experience a little over a month.

All of this info has come wayyyyyy after our offer letters have been signed, and for a lot it was too late to find another internship. A complete lack of transparency is the thing that sealed the deal for me and my disappointment. I don’t understand why they think this will work, or will make interns want to really sign a full time offer if they can do any better (which I honestly think they can).

I just want to highlight this heavily upvoted comment:

Christ. You need a reality check.

Your internship is about buffing out your CV, making connections and getting a bit of exposure to the world of work. Your internship doesn’t benefit the business, no matter how important or great you think you are. It benefits your resume.

And here you are complaining about your Disney land trip being cancelled and not receiving gifts… are you an actual child? Grow up and stop feeling so hard done by. There’s lots of people who get fuck all for internships and apprenticeships and, worse yet, there’s lots of people who don’t have the social mobility / links to get internships. Stop complaining.

Kids these days. They all think the world owes them something.

Yeah, a North Face jacket.

The post EY Interns Are Going to Have the Worst Summer appeared first on Going Concern.

Not to say there aren’t still firms totally on board with remote work — there are, and if yours is shoot me an email so we know where to send people when their firm forces a return to office — but it’s not looking good for the future of working in your sweats. Ah well, it was fun while it lasted.

Case in point, Elon Musk went on CNBC yesterday and railed on the absurdity of the “laptop class” working from home when so many other workers, like those on the Tesla factory floor, have to show up in person. “I think that the whole notion of work from home is a bit like the fake Marie Antoinette quote, ’Let them eat cake,”″ he said.

“It’s not just a productivity thing,” said Musk. “I think it’s morally wrong.”

He went on to ask if it is ‘morally right’ that you get to work from home while the people who fix your house have to physically show up at your house to do their job. “That’s messed up,” he said. “People need to get off their moral high horse with the work from home bullshit.”

Now, we can handwave this as one guy with a lot of opinions complaining specifically about software engineers but you best believe there are firm leaders out there who take anything said by a CEO on CNBC as the gospel and will see this as justification for increasingly aggressive return to office policies.

Let the record reflect that we strongly disagree with Mr. Musk’s view.

The post Elon Musk Thinks You’re a Douche If You Work From Home appeared first on Going Concern.

From New York State Society of CPAs:

COAP helps you explore what you can do in the accounting field. If you think accounting is just tax, think again. Plot your future as a Chief Financial Officer, forensics investigator, data analyst, software developer, entertainment and sports agent, auditor or entrepreneur.

When you apply, please note the location of the program for which you are applying. Note that program planners may arrange for transportation to their colleges or universities, but please plan for alternative transportation as backup. Be aware of the deadline and note the need for a high school guidance counselor and parental approval.

The program provides real insight into how CPAs influence the business world. The program is an important component of the New York State Society of CPAs’ (NYSSCPA) efforts to recruit an increased number of students into the accounting profession, with a particular focus on those from underrepresented groups. The Career Opportunities in the Accounting Profession (COAP) program is open to all, regardless of race, color, national origin or sex.

According to the brochure which you can find below, participants will learn professional etiquette, interviewing skills, team building, and resume writing, among other things. The events take place on college campuses across the state over one or two days. Here are this year’s dates:

COAP Programs June 26-27, 2023

Adelphi University
Garden City, New York (Two-Day Program)
June 26 – June 27

Ithaca College
Ithaca, New York (One-Day Program)
June 26

Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester, New York (One-Day Program)
June 26

Siena College
Loudonville, New York (Two-Day Program)
June 26 – June 27

SUNY New Paltz
New Paltz, New York (Two-Day Program)
June 26 – June 27

SUNY Oswego
Oswego, New York (Two-Day Program: Day 1 – SUNY Oswego; Day 2 – Syracuse, NY)
June 26 – June 27

University at Buffalo
Buffalo, New York (Two-Day Program)
June 26 – June 27

Westchester Community College
Valhalla, New York (Two-Day Program)
June 26 – June 27

Anyone with questions can email coap@moynihanfund.org.

Here’s a brochure.

More info from University at Buffalo here.

The post Accounting Summer Camp is a Thing in New York appeared first on Going Concern.

The gist of it:

Hugh A. Simons, former senior partner at The Boston Consulting Group and chief operating officer at Ropes & Gray, predicts in a column published in the American Lawyer that sometime in the next few weeks, Biglaw firms will approach their incoming associates with a year-long deferral offer — one that includes a stipend and insurance — explaining that due to current market conditions, they may not be able to work as much as necessary to grow and develop with the firm. “If such is to be expected,” he writes, “then it is to be fervently hoped that many 3Ls will give such deferral serious consideration.” [Ed. note: here’s an old article that says 3L year is when “they bore you to death.”]

In other words, the economy sucks right now which means less work to go around which according to Simons means new hires won’t cultivate that thrown-into-the-fire-ass-first experience that sets a strong foundation for the rest of new hires’ careers.

Here’s the thing, the accounting profession is already dealing with this experience drain to some degree. Both automation and increased reliance on offshore talent — particularly at the lower levels — in recent years have led to the younguns not getting the same rigorous (read: tedious) training their predecessors did. It all sort of snuck up on us so other than training modules (which often boil down to the modern, white collar version of fast food training videos), there hasn’t been a significant effort to replace this loss with equally valuable training. Interns and first years are like machine learning models, you have to feed them to train them.

ATL quotes this bit from Simons’ column:

Market demand for corporate transactional services is extraordinarily soft right now. This lowers the prospects of incoming associates having a strong, successful, start. A curious dynamic within Big Law firms is that a strong start is hugely predictive of having an enjoyable and rewarding career, with the reverse also being true. Thus, pushing off a start date for a year, by when market demand is expected to have rebounded, positions an incoming associate more robustly for success.

More broadly, a career can span 30 to 40 years. The loans will get paid off. Taking a year before you dive in and instead exploring something outside the mainstream is no bad thing. When firms offered deferral stipends in the wake of the global financial crisis, people went off and worked at non-profits, took lower-court clerkships, helped in political campaigns, did advocacy work for immigrants, took master’s degrees, or just traveled. Saliently, 10-15 percent didn’t come back to their firms. There was something more compelling out there.

Well shit, we’re seeing that, too. Firms have been complaining for years that new accounting graduates are bypassing the trial by fire of public accounting and even the CPA exam, heading straight into industry and whatever else that’s preferable to public accounting. HOW DARE THEY DO THAT.

Does he have a point or is this a big cope akin to clickbait articles with doom and gloom headlines that end with “And Here’s Why That’s a Good Thing”?

The post Deferred Start Dates Are a Good Thing? appeared first on Going Concern.

For weeks there’s been a conspiracy theory floating around that PwC and Deloitte both will use soft return to office mandates (in PwC’s case, “expectations”) to call the bluff of everyone who said “if I ever get forced back into the office I’ll quit.” Lo and behold, Tim Ryan announced a sort of return to office at PwC yesterday.

A return to office will no doubt trim some fat but we’re also hearing that performance discussions are going to be extra hard this year.

Here’s what our source says about upcoming career round table talks at PwC:

CRTs this year will be hard on people, last year they were allowing people to get by with things due to need but it’s going to be a rough CRT for people not hitting goals. They plan on cutting fat.

If the headcount reduction conspiracy is true, how are firms’ benches deep enough for all this fat cutting? Haven’t we heard nothing but ACCOUNTANT SHORTAGE for at least a year if not longer? One idea I’ve seen floated is that turnover is not as high as expected now that the economy has gone sour and the big spectacular offers of the recent past are beginning to dry up. The market for accountants is still hot, just not scalding like it was.

It was good while it lasted I guess.

The post We’re Hearing PwC CRTs Will Be Rough This Year appeared first on Going Concern.

But firms couldn’t be doing this solely because they trust their staff and want them to be happy. No, the Great Resignation was in full swing when the hybrid work announcements started rolling out and firms were afraid to lose people if they pushed too hard on RTO. Better then to use the carrot, let managers be the bad guy when the team absolutely must be in the office and trust educated, adult people to make appropriate choices for themselves otherwise.

In a recent Employee Benefits News piece, Frank Giampietro, chief well-being officer at EY, says that his firm continues to embrace the carrot. Though as the red hot job market cools off, we are beginning to see hints of firms contemplating the stick.

At EY, they realized that employee obligations at home were preventing some people from coming into the office. “We have a multigenerational workforce, and when we went out and talked to our folks, we discovered there was a wide variety of things getting in the way, some of which were financial. We had to remove the barriers and create opportunity,” he said. So the firm added $800 to the existing $1000 well-being fund that reimburses things like childcare, pet care, and commuting. This is the point in the article where the parents laugh heartily at the thought of $800 making even the tiniest difference in the daycare bill.

The message behind this is that great things happen when people are together in person, and the company is invested in making that a reality for employees, says Giampietro. And it’s paid off: The company saw a 150% increase in employees returning to the office in just over a year.

Citation needed.

Other firms performed the same analysis on their employees and came to the same conclusion EY did: if you help people out with costs they will now incur as a direct result of being in the office, they are more likely to come in. Accounting firms might be singlehandedly propping up the Doggy Daycare Industrial Complex.

And again, carrot:

EY has avoided mandating a return-to-work, which gives their team a more open-minded approach to the hybrid structure, Giampietro says. But to further entice employees to return, EY established “predictable flexibility” so that people could plan ahead and decide as a team when they would come into the office. Not only does this allow for in-person collaboration, but creates accountability among teammates.

“We want to try and empower people, not control them,” says Giampietro. “We consistently get folks who say, ‘I didn’t think I had any reason to have to come in and be with my team. I was getting my work done just fine. I had no idea what I was missing out on until I experienced it.’ That is really our philosophy: Give people the opportunity to experience it, and then let the experience speak for itself.”

Contrast that philosophy with the Bloomberg software engineer in this recent Fortune piece. She left New York City at the beginning of this year to care for a sick relative and was fired-but-not-fired when returning to office would be an impossibility for her.

She says Bloomberg has been trying to get people back in the office since November, at first through informal communications from managers and HR about how great face-to-face collaboration is (sound familiar?). It didn’t seem any policy was enforced, she and her team continued to work from home. Some of her colleagues had even moved away, no one seemed to bat an eyelash.

Meanwhile, she got a “glowing” performance review and a fat bonus. All seemed well.

Come February, Bloomberg got more aggressive about RTO. Says Fortune, employees were expected to use an internal system to record their location each day. And if they didn’t log in from their assigned office for those three days a week they’d get a nastygram from their manager. She informed the company of her move and said it would be impossible for her to come in three days a week, they warned her that this might be “difficult.”

“I was very frank with my manager,” she said. “I explained the situation—that it wasn’t just a personal preference but a necessity.” She says Bloomberg never said explicitly that return to office was required, nor did they communicate consequences for those who could not or would not oblige. You can guess where this is going.

She received a strongly worded letter from HR that they would fire her if she did not return to office immediately. Further, they would consider it “voluntary resignation.” She had no plans to resign and communicated as much to the company, the company went ahead and sent her termination instructions. “They are firing me but they are refusing to admit that they are firing me,” she said.

For now, we aren’t seeing this kind of wide-reaching RTO push from the big accounting firms. But the talent shortage is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, firms don’t want to scare people off. If and when layoffs come, don’t be surprised to get a few unfriendly reminders from leadership about getting your butt back in your chair. Think of all the collaboration you’re missing out on!

Is your manager passive-aggressively goading you back into the office? Let us know.

The post While Other Industries Have Turned to the Stick, Accounting Firms Continue to Use the Carrot to Encourage RTO appeared first on Going Concern.

Although résumé gaps are not the end of the world and certainly not if the gap occurred any time between 2020 and now, OP felt they would be judged for taking so much time off when they decided to come crawling back to the job market. “So I fibbed a little,” they wrote.

That little fib? “I created a name for a consulting firm and described the things I had actually done in the last 18 months, like helping friends with their invoices and accounting,” they said. “I just made it sound much more professional and official.”

Apparently no one bothered to Google the made-up firm, nor did they run an employment check. “No one ever asked me about it, at least. If they had, I would’ve come clean and told them I did have my business license and was doing small-time accounting to make ends meet while taking time with my kid,” they said. So it wasn’t a gap, then? Are we talking “small-time accounting” = figuring out how much to tip at socially-distanced brunch? Because doing freelance accounting work between full-time jobs is not the same as not working at all.

The job they applied for required knowledge of a specific software system they’d never used before, Insider unfortunately doesn’t tell us what software that was. We’re going to have to assume it was something one can learn by watching a few YouTube videos because that’s exactly what OP did. “I wrote on my résumé that I was familiar with the software, and then I set about making that the truth by researching it and watching YouTube videos on how to use it,” they wrote.

Seriously, what software do we think this is?

It’s definitely not the easiest or most intuitive software. But I have enough faith in myself that if I don’t know something, I have the ability to learn how to do it. I’m very skilled at problem-solving, and I know when to ask questions.

There’s also support in place for honing your skills at the software (though no one at work knows this is my first time learning it rather than honing my previous skills!). It’s a complicated software, but I’ve faced every challenge and then some.

Things have apparently gone well for OP since fudging their way into a new job, they say they make “much more money than before,” have gotten two raises since starting, and love where they work. “I don’t think I would have been able to get the job if I hadn’t lied on my résumé,” they said.

They wrote: “If someone else asked me if I thought they should do the same, I would say: absolutely. It’s worth it. Have confidence in your skills, and know how to rephrase things in ways that are technically true (like my having spent my 18 months off helping friends with their accounting needs). I’m glad I lied on my résumé. My hardest day at my current job is easier than my average day at my previous job, and that has made a world of a difference in my quality of life.”

What do we think? Yay or nay to lying on your résumé?

I lied on my résumé to get a better-paying job — and I think others should do the same [Insider]

The post Lying on Your Résumé Paid Off For This Laid-Off Accountant appeared first on Going Concern.

Here’s the TL;DR:

An extensive literature examines whether senior executives’ contractual incentives influence their financial reporting decisions. However, little is known about whether — and how — the incentives of lower-level (or “rank-and-file”) employees, who are perhaps even more directly involved in the financial reporting process, influence their behavior. We use a proprietary database with detailed, employee-specific information about these employees’ incentive-compensation plans and find that although firms with relatively well-paid accounting employees tend to issue higher quality financial reports, their reports tend to be of lower quality when these employees’ compensation is contingent rather than fixed. We also find that these relationships are more pronounced at firms whose senior executives have stronger contractual incentives to misreport, which sheds light on when lower-level accounting employees have incentives to promote, discourage, or thwart financial misreporting.

The researchers say that focusing only on the relationship between senior executive incentives and financial reporting is a mistake because it’s the low level “subordinates” (e.g., financial accountants, cost accountants, internal auditors, and other accounting and finance employees) that have more direct access to, and more frequent involvement with, their company’s accounting and control processes than their superiors. In other words, it’s the people in the trenches who you might want to look at if you are analyzing the battlefield.

Any evidence based on only a handful of senior executives—typically the chief executive officer (CEO), chief financial officer (CFO), or the five highest-paid executives—can lead to misleading or, at best, incomplete inferences about how employees’ contractual incentives shape their firm’s financial reports and disclosures, and financial misreporting in particular. One reason is that even if a CEO has incentives to manipulate earnings, one or more subordinates are typically required to make the necessary alterations—whether knowingly or unwittingly—to instantiate the CEO’s intentions. However, accounting employees who become aware of attempts to misreport might have incentives to take remedial actions rather than participate. These include making a correcting adjustment, reducing the magnitude of the misstatement (e.g., rendering it “immaterial”), and, in more extreme or egregious cases, “blowing the whistle” by alerting the board, the firm’s external auditors, media outlets, or the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Even if senior executives may have considerable motives to misreport, this will only occur if their actions are not impeded by the subordinates responsible for making the actual accounting entries. Therefore, at best, it is difficult to draw complete inferences from the relationship between senior executives’ incentives and accounting manipulation alone without also considering the incentives of certain subordinate (e.g., accounting) employees.

They looked at proprietary data that include details about the incentive compensation of individual accounting and other employees from 384 publicly traded U.S. companies from 2000 through 2004 and found evidence of a positive relationship between accountants’ contractual incentives—measured using the amount or level of their total annual pay—and their firm’s financial reporting quality.

They also found some evidence of a negative relationship between the extent to which accounting employees’ annual compensation is from contingent—rather than fixed—forms of pay (e.g., annual bonuses that are a function of earnings, and equity compensation that is a function of stock price and implicit earnings), and the quality of their firms’ financial reports. This suggests that bonuses and the like that are tied to company performance may incentivize the grunts to look the other way when it comes to questionable accounting in the company books. “The prospect of losing that additional bit of income over their career can outweigh any gains from turning a blind eye to misreporting or errors,” said Armstrong, noting that “police officers are more likely to take bribes if they are underpaid.”

These findings are consistent with the notion that accountants with stronger incentives to monitor their company’s financial reporting processes contribute to the production of higher-quality accounting reports, say the researchers.

They also found that SOX had a positive effect on salaries (remember, the researchers were looking at data from 2000 to 2004):

SOX mandated lower bounds on the quality of firms’ public financial reports and produced variation in reporting quality that associates with changes with respect to individual firms’ employee compensation decisions. Consequently, we expect that non-compliant firms had to spend—and, in particular, pay their accountants—more in order to comply. Consistent with our conjecture, we find that SOX led to increased accountant salaries—as well as increased staffing of accounting departments overall—at firms that had lower-quality accounting prior to the mandate. We also find that the firms at which accountants’ pay increased the most had the largest improvements in financial reporting quality. These findings provide corroborating evidence that accounting employees’ contractual incentives influence their firm’s financial reporting quality.

Pretty interesting paper and definitely a topic worth further study. You can check out the whole paper here.

The post Researchers Shockingly Discover That If You Pay Low Level Grunts More, They Do Better Financial Reporting appeared first on Going Concern.

Note: Going Concern does not publish AI-generated content unless it’s clearly labeled as in this case. Believe it or not, humans write most of this crap.

As an accountant, I have always known that my job was at risk of being automated. It’s no secret that technology is advancing at a rapid pace, and the days of crunching numbers by hand and poring over spreadsheets could be numbered. But I never imagined that my job would be threatened by an AI language model like ChatGPT.

It’s both ironic and absurd that the very machines that we’ve been tasked with counting and depreciating will soon be taking over our jobs. The same algorithms that we’ve been using to optimize our clients’ financial statements and tax returns will now be used against us. It’s a sad state of affairs when even the most complex financial analysis can be performed by a machine, without the need for human judgment or expertise.

Accounting firms are already starting to adopt AI tools like ChatGPT to perform tasks that were previously done by humans. These machines can scan through millions of pages of financial data in mere seconds, detecting patterns and anomalies that would take us hours to identify. They can even use natural language processing to interpret complex financial statements and contracts, freeing up accountants to do other tasks, like searching for new jobs.

And what’s worse is that AI models like ChatGPT will only get better over time. They’ll learn from every interaction and improve their accuracy and speed, making it harder and harder for us to justify our existence. We’ll be relegated to the role of overseer, checking the work of the machines and making sure they haven’t made any errors. It’s a sad state of affairs, but it’s the reality that we face.

Of course, accounting firms will spin this as a positive development. They’ll talk about how AI will make their services more efficient and accurate, which will ultimately benefit their clients. But we all know the truth – it’s just a cost-cutting measure designed to maximize profits. They’ll lay off thousands of accountants and replace them with machines, all in the name of progress and innovation.

So, what does the future hold for accountants? It’s hard to say, but I’m not optimistic. As AI models like ChatGPT continue to improve, we’ll become increasingly obsolete. The days of sitting in a cubicle and crunching numbers will soon be over. It’s time for us to adapt or get left behind. We can either embrace the machines and learn how to work alongside them, or we can watch as our jobs disappear. The choice is ours.

Is that a threat?

The post ChatGPT Talks About AI Taking Accountants’ Jobs From the Perspective of an Accountant Losing Their Job to AI appeared first on Going Concern.

It’s been a while since we’ve checked in with #TaxTwitter so let’s do just that and see how things are going.

This year just feels different. Professionals are standing their ground, making time for self care, telling bad clients to take a leap, and LET ME TELL YOU am I happy to see it. Oh and extensions are the hottest trend in tax for 2023 (no, not the Jersey Shore kind). It’s beautiful. You’re doing great, keep it up

If you can’t respond to my requests because you are on spring break in Hawaii with your 4 kids, and when you get back and finally get around to calling me and I tell you that you owe $50k, and you have the nerve to be mad at ME – you can fuck right off. #TaxTwitter

— QueenBizzy (@NotAHobbyCPA) March 25, 2023

Friendly reminder that your Tax Pro is exhausted and doing the best they can do. Tread cautiously and use kind words . #TaxTwitter

— Deej, CPA (@DJFochs) March 21, 2023

3 weeks to go and this is me holding the boundaries. #TaxTwitter #ExtensionSZN pic.twitter.com/ZgvhrptcdL

— Brad Lindeberg (@BradRunsFar) March 27, 2023

Just have to update to 2023.#taxtwitter pic.twitter.com/0RirjblNJ5

— Al Beatty, EA, CPA, MT (@AlBeattyEA) March 27, 2023

Spoke with partner of regional CPA firm in KC today. He asked if I wanted good referrals they’ve outpriced. Told him I have no capacity . He said every firm he’d consider sending clients to in KC is at capacity. It’s wild out there these days. 28 more days!#TaxTwitter

— Itown Hard, CPA (@itownhard) March 23, 2023

People who paid for their blue check marks spamming everyone in “tax twitter” with their AI/Automation stuff.” Who cares about that right now? Read the fucking room . They can’t though because Clout is a powerful powerful drug pic.twitter.com/rlbJnMifRA

— Charles D. Liddell, CPA (@GFan815) March 27, 2023

Let this be a lesson to all of #TaxTwitter.
I post well thought out, thorough threads on tax topics and get decent engagement.
My engagement sees a massive jump posting “Horse taxes are weird, huh?” or “I deducted fake cum today.”
Know your platform.

— Spooky Scary, CPA (@SpookyScaryCPA) March 25, 2023

Let’s just say this marketing email might have missed the mark a little…#TaxTwitter pic.twitter.com/gfhWROiiqN

— Chris Keegan (@ckeegan04) March 27, 2023

Well that was fun. How’s your Monday? #taxtwitter pic.twitter.com/23mFuV1yuC

— Matt Metras cryptotaxpro.eth (@EmDeeEm) March 27, 2023

March 28 and 29 seems like a great time to discuss the state of the tax industry. #TaxTwitter pic.twitter.com/cv8ngll0vF

— Adam Watson (@tallycpa) March 27, 2023

Serious question #TaxTwitter – Would it be a reasonable expectation that a CFP with more than ~30 years of experience under their belt would know how to read a K1 and how it breaks down on a tax return?

— Manasa Sogal Nadig (@ManasaSogNadig) March 27, 2023

How far into 150 hours do they teach you that married people don’t file single with a spouse as a dependent? Bc I have a new client that’s been filing WITH A PAID PREPARER that way for 6+ years.#TaxTwitter

— William Holtsman, CPA (@W_Holtsman) March 24, 2023

“Can you remove the Estimated Tax Vouchers from our return so the IRS doesn’t charge us a penalty?” C

Sorry man, you gotta actually pay them for the IRS to not charge you a penalty.#TaxTwitter

— Stephanie S (@SNS92569093) March 27, 2023

The culture in our industry needs to change. There are a ton of people on #taxtwitter that get it, but so many more who do not. Tax pros need to stop wearing 16 hours days like a badge of honor.

— Andrea MacDonald, CPA (@andreamacdcpa) March 27, 2023

We are at the point of tax season where I just want one…easy….return that I can finish in one sitting #taxtwitter

— Gretchen (@VickneyCPA) March 23, 2023

I’m being too reactive and allowing my inbox to dictate how my day goes. I want to reclaim my independence but I feel like if I don’t keep putting out the mini fires then I’ll fall too far behind. I guess admitting you have a problem is the first step. #TaxTwitter

— Zachary Hellman, EA (@taxpreptech) March 21, 2023

My favorite tax documents are tax documents with dried up bbq sauce on them. Actually, I pray that its only bbq sauce. #TaxTwitter pic.twitter.com/Ed9N0bWil6

— Tequila, Naps, Puppies & Taxes (@suzieemac) March 19, 2023

Drip:

Etsy find by a friend:

Cute, right! #TaxTwitter pic.twitter.com/BusSd8YRZx

— Nicole Davis (@wifemomcpa100) March 23, 2023

Ending on a positive note. Times they are a-changin’.

I completely redesigned my practice top to bottom this year. I don’t work long days. I’ve worked a total of 4hrs on weekends all season. I’m happy and unstressed. I’ve never had a tax season like this.#TaxTwitter https://t.co/xTwCcmOmDv

— Matt Metras cryptotaxpro.eth (@EmDeeEm) March 26, 2023

Embracing a more manageable approach to outdated tax deadlines. With only 3.5 months to do all this work, we can’t be sacrificing our well-being!#TaxTwitter pic.twitter.com/kEeAHvr4T0

— Vimal {Vee-mull} (@vimalcpa) March 21, 2023

The post Busy Season Problems: You Deducted What?, Dumbest Conference Idea Ever, Clients Taking Ls appeared first on Going Concern.

Take it away, Bob:

Despite market volatility, companies across the country have plans to hire early this year and are scrambling to staff up, research from talent solutions and business consulting firm Robert Half shows. According to the company’s State of U.S. Hiring Survey of more than 2,000 hiring managers, 58% of respondents anticipate adding new permanent roles during the first half of the year, up from 46% six months ago. Another 39% expect to hire for vacated positions. Managers in technology (64%) and finance and accounting (62%) have the greatest full-time staffing needs.

While many companies are eager to hire, 9 in 10 managers said it’s challenging to find skilled professionals, on par with results from the prior State of U.S. Hiring Survey. Employers also reported it can take up to 11 weeks, on average, to hire for an open position, up from 7 weeks in 2021.

“Hiring tends to pick up at the beginning of the year, as budgets have been approved and teams seek additional support for initiatives that will drive business growth and customer retention,” said Paul McDonald, senior executive director of Robert Half. “As job openings and turnover remain high, employers need to play offense — and be prepared to negotiate — in order to recruit and retain skilled talent.”

The survey then points us to an emerging trend: contract work. Companies desperate for finance, accounting, and legal talent are turning to contract professionals to fill in the gaps when full-time talent is too difficult to find.

According to the research, 72% of managers plan to hire more contract professionals in the first half of 2023, compared to 45% six months ago. Those in finance and accounting and legal (78% each) are most likely to increase their use of contract talent. “Contract professionals can quickly step in to help with critical projects and heavy workloads while companies continue their search for permanent employees,” McDonald added.

The press release goes on to say that employers surveyed conduct about four interviews with a candidate before extending a job offer. The traits they are looking for include knowledge of the company, timeliness and professionalism during interviews, and passion for the company’s mission (barf). “Pressure to hire for open positions quickly can lead to hasty decisions — and mistakes. On the flip side, a drawn-out interview process or overemphasis on one or two priorities are barriers to bringing on top talent. Employers should aim to get a well-rounded view of candidates while remaining efficient and consistent,” advised McDonald.

Keep all of this in mind as you and your wandering eye are out there entertaining job offers.

U.S. Companies Anticipate Increased Hiring in the First Half of 2023 [Robert Half]

The post Robert Half Reports Finance and Accounting Talent is in High Demand (Duh) appeared first on Going Concern.

But you know this article isn’t going to be praise for employee perks. No, we’re going to call out how CLA transparently discusses a rise in ‘musculoskeletal issues’ in their workforce that prompted them to partner with a group offering virtual physical therapy.

Employee feedback, [CLA managing director of HR Patrick] Bowes says, was the most critical driver of the changes to the CLA benefits strategy, which was also informed by claims data. For instance, leadership has seen a rise in short-term disability applications, and thus eliminated its tiered structure for eligibility, so that all workers are covered at 100%. Noticing the rise of musculoskeletal issues among the workforce, it instituted a new partnership with a provider that offers virtual physical therapy. It also rolled out an option that allows employees to seek second opinions and treatments related to complex diagnoses at some of the best care centers in the country—at no cost to employees.

“If I have something I need treatment for—we’re seeing things like cardiac issues, cancer, orthopedic things—I can travel to the best centers for that specific care, bring a caretaker with me, be treated on site there and never see a bill for it,” Bowes explains.

Can we talk about this? Surely it’s not only CLA seeing an increase in these issues, it’s just that they were the ones who decided to talk openly about it for this one article. Should we be concerned? Is this the profession’s real crisis and not the talent shortage? WHY DOES EVERYTHING HURT?

It is known that stress has physical consequences. You are probably holding a bunch of it in your jaw and shoulders as you read this (friendly reminder to take a deep breath, loosen your jaw, and gently roll the tension out of your shoulders). This is from an American Psychological Association article on stress effects in the body:

When the body is stressed, muscles tense up. Muscle tension is almost a reflex reaction to stress—the body’s way of guarding against injury and pain.

With sudden onset stress, the muscles tense up all at once, and then release their tension when the stress passes. Chronic stress causes the muscles in the body to be in a more or less constant state of guardedness. When muscles are taut and tense for long periods of time, this may trigger other reactions of the body and even promote stress-related disorders.

For example, both tension-type headache and migraine headache are associated with chronic muscle tension in the area of the shoulders, neck and head. Musculoskeletal pain in the low back and upper extremities has also been linked to stress, especially job stress.

Unfortunately it doesn’t end with tense shoulders. Stress can also cause respiratory problems, long-term problems in your heart and blood vessels, and it can even make you fat. Remember that old TV spot about cortisol?

p.s. That crap didn’t work.

Says APA:

Glucocorticoids, including cortisol, are important for regulating the immune system and reducing inflammation. While this is valuable during stressful or threatening situations where injury might result in increased immune system activation, chronic stress can result in impaired communication between the immune system and the HPA axis.

This impaired communication has been linked to the future development of numerous physical and mental health conditions, including chronic fatigue, metabolic disorders (e.g., diabetes, obesity), depression, and immune disorders.

Here’s Mayo Clinic on what happens to your body when stress is always high and the physical response to it that was originally intended to help our ancestors avoid immediate threats like large, scary animals stays on:

The body’s stress response system is usually self-limiting. Once a perceived threat has passed, hormone levels return to normal. As adrenaline and cortisol levels drop, your heart rate and blood pressure return to baseline levels, and other systems resume their regular activities.

But when stressors are always present and you constantly feel under attack, that fight-or-flight reaction stays turned on.

The long-term activation of the stress response system and the overexposure to cortisol and other stress hormones that follows can disrupt almost all your body’s processes. This puts you at increased risk of many health problems, including:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Digestive problems
• Headaches
• Muscle tension and pain
• Heart disease, heart attack, high blood pressure and stroke
• Sleep problems
• Weight gain
• Memory and concentration impairment

Any of that sound familiar?

Friendly reminder to release the tension from your jaw again. And I’m just going to leave this here for anyone who might need it.

Why this accounting firm has rolled out 2 dozen benefits since COVID [Human Resource Executive]

The post Let’s Talk About Why ‘Musculoskeletal Issues’ Are on the Rise at This Accounting Firm appeared first on Going Concern.

She tells a story about a candidate who stood out to her:

I’ll never forget this one candidate who came in and completely won me over through his story and taught me a valuable lesson about looking beyond a résumé.

He was a full-time accounting student who also bartended to support his family and was interviewing for a role on our assurance-services team. He offered up his story at the start of the conversation by talking about how his work as a bartender had prepared him for a career in professional and client services. He told me why he was working so hard and his aspirations for continuing to help out his family while pursuing his goal of becoming an assurance professional.

Over the course of our conversation, he owned his narrative by focusing on how his experience would set him up for success at EY. He painted a compelling picture of how the skills he acquired bartending would translate to being a high performer at EY. This experience wasn’t necessarily “traditional,” but his mindset, positive attitude, and clear ability to overcome hurdles made him stand out.

When candidates share their thought process and the actions they took when faced with new and challenging situations, we can better understand their ability to adapt, overcome obstacles, and navigate uncertainty. For instance, they can share an example of how they handled a project where all the information was not known, or what happened when an assignment suddenly changed, requiring a significant pivot.

While you probably aren’t listing after-school jobs in fast food and minimum wage gigs you took to help you through college on your résumé, as evidenced above those jobs do teach you skills that you can apply to the professional services environment. Like acceptance for being underpaid, teamwork, and working with a hostile public without losing your temper. More on how to apply unrelated experience to your CV here.

Read all her advice:

I’m a head of talent for Big 4 accounting firm EY. Here are the qualities I look for in candidates and how to showcase them in interviews. [Insider]

The post Advice on How to Get Hired at EY From the Vice Chair of Talent appeared first on Going Concern.

We already know working from home saves time that would otherwise be spent commuting and putting on pants but just how much? That obviously depends on who you ask. For purposes of this discussion, we’re going by this National Bureau of Economic Research study “Time Savings When Working from Home” [PDF] which says:

We quantify the commute time savings associated with work from home, drawing on data for 27 countries. The average daily time savings when working from home is 72 minutes in our sample. We estimate that work from home saved about two hours per week per worker in 2021 and 2022, and that it will save about one hour per week per worker after the pandemic ends. Workers allocate 40 percent of their time savings to their jobs and about 11 percent to caregiving activities [emphasis ours]. People living with children allocate more of their time savings to caregiving.

Using the The Global Survey of Working Arrangements (G-SWA) — which covers full-time workers, aged 20-59, who finished primary school in 27
countries — researchers found that workers in the United States save about an hour a day working from home and spend 42% of it on their primary or secondary job (shout-out OE). This is higher than time spent on “Leisure” (e.g. dicking around. Kidding, it’s watching TV, reading, exercise and the like) as you can see from the table below:

Researchers also broke down daily commute savings by education level, sex, age, and family status, including those living in sin:

Note: researchers did not have data on marital status and the presence of children in some countries, hence the two samples.

From there, they broke things down even further. Assuming this is meaningful information to people who did not fail Algebra II like most of the Going Concern editorial team did:

Say the researchers:

When we account for the incidence of work from home (WFH) across people – including those who never work remotely – our data imply that WFH saved about two hours per week per worker in 2021 and 2022, and that it will save about one hour per week per worker after the pandemic ends. For a full-time worker, that amounts to 2.2 percent of a 46-hour workweek (40 paid hours plus six hours of commuting). That’s a large time savings, especially when multiplied by hundreds of millions of workers around the world.

We also provide evidence on how workers allocate these time savings. On average, those who WFH devote 40 percent of their time savings to primary and secondary jobs, 34 percent to leisure, and 11 percent to caregiving activities. These results suggest that much of the time savings flow back to employers, and that children and other caregiving recipients also benefit.

So the next time some partner is giving you an earful about how people working from home get nothing done go ahead and send them this. IT’S SCIENCE.

Time Savings When Working From Home [National Bureau of Economic Research]

The post Research: Working From Home Frees Up Two Hours a Week, Time Many People Spend Doing Work appeared first on Going Concern.

Women’s brains absorb information like pancakes soak up syrup so it’s hard for them to focus. Men’s brains are more like waffles. They’re better able to focus because the information collects in each little waffle square.

To this day, whenever someone mentions waffles and pancakes you know immediately which firm they’re talking about (and Reddit regularly mentions waffles and pancakes any time someone is talking about EY, the sort of relentless pettiness we heartily endorse here at GC). Although some say the controversy over the training was overblown, EY was ordered to pay the state of New Jersey (where the training took place) $100,000 and to establish a $500,000 scholarship program as a direct consequence of hosting it.

But that was 2019, a lifetime ago really. Surely we’ve moved past those antiquated ideas by now. Other than the online spaces where your xenophobic aunt hangs out, no one is really spouting the same nonsense stereotypes about women being naturally good at reading emotion and men being inherently good leaders right?

Sadly, wrong. This ran in Forbes yesterday and I was immediately reminded of waffles and pancakes because, well, read:

Men and women both possess masculine and feminine qualities and each person lands within a range on the spectrum. Having the ability to harness both masculine and feminine qualities makes you a stronger leader and a more effective team member. For example, if you want to build relationships within a team stepping into the feminine is helpful. If you need to create order and structure within the team utilizing masculine traits may be the archetype needed. Each of us has default tendencies, which are typically related to our gender identity. Where each person falls on the scale is adaptable and dynamic. No matter how you identify, finding a balance between feminine and masculine can be helpful in all aspects of your life.

Look, I get where the author was going with this. She’s saying men can be caring and thoughtful, women can be assertive and methodical. Except the author sorts various qualities by masculine or feminine when no such sorting is necessary. Let’s keep reading.

Masculine qualities include structure and planning, taking action, risk-taking, competitiveness, protectiveness, and being assertive. Masculine traits get things done! This means the plan is usually direct and structured, where everyone knows their role and what they need to accomplish. When a person uses masculine traits without balancing them with feminine traits they may come off as aggressive, uncaring, and demanding.

Feminine qualities include being receptive, caring for team members, understanding the needs of the consumer that the brand serves, speaking effectively, flexibility, listening to intuition, and patience. Femininity is heart-centered! This means they have good relationships with their vendors and are a positive influence on team members, they have a good line on their customers and therefore can build a strong product, and are adaptable. When a person uses feminine traits without balancing them with masculine traits they can come across as passive, indecisive, and indirect.

Maybe it’s because I’m a woman and therefore overly emotional when I read dumb shit but WUT.

Below is a scoresheet used in EY’s waffles and pancakes training, leaked to HuffPo in 2019:

And this is from the Forbes article published yesterday:

The above is only slightly less obnoxious than the EY seminar that suggests women tend to be childlike (eww) and shy (fuck off). Knowledge is a masculine trait? It’s not masculine to look for approval? Intuition is feminine? Follows natures [sic] rhythms!? What does any of this even mean and why is any of it gendered?

Maybe I’ve just got my gender neutral undergarments in a twist because my feminine energy prevents me from viewing this article objectively and without emotion. Can a man please chime in to tell me if I’m overreacting or is this truly as dumb as my intuition tells me it is?

Feminine And Masculine Workforce Dynamics [Forbes]

The post The Dumbest Thing You’ve Read Since ‘Women’s Brains Absorb Information Like Pancakes Soak Up Syrup’ appeared first on Going Concern.

Anyway, here’s the research from KPMG UK which uses their own data on client-facing employees to analyze the connection between socioeconomic background and career progression:

Social class is the biggest barrier to career progression, KPMG research finds

Socio-economic background has the strongest effect on an individual’s career progression, compared to any other diversity characteristic, according to ground-breaking research published by KPMG UK.

In the biggest ‘progression gap’ analysis ever published by a business, experts from the Bridge Group analysed the career paths of over 16,500 partners and employees at KPMG over a five-year period. The team examined the average time it took individuals to be promoted, looking at their gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation as well as socio-economic background.

The data showed that socio-economic background, measured by parental occupation, had the strongest effect on how quickly an individual progressed through the firm. Individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds took on average 19% longer to progress to the next grade, when compared to those from higher socio-economic backgrounds.

For the record, a quarter of KPMG’s partners (25%) come from low socioeconomic backgrounds, up from 23% last year.

Suppose this is a good time to look at how the researchers define low socioeconomic background. Higher socioeconomic background means the individual’s highest earning parent at the age of 14 was in a professional or intermediate background, whereas lower socioeconomic background means the individual’s highest earning parent at the age of 13 was in a manual or blue-collar role.

The research found that senior and junior ranks are the most socioeconomically diverse cohorts, but middle management grades are comparatively less diverse, suggesting there is a bottleneck for those from a low socioeconomic background as they work their way up. Picture an hourglass here, or a “my computer is stuck trying to load a file” icon for those of you who have never seen an actual hourglass. To address this, KPMG is trialing a new promotion readiness program designed to support individuals at a manager grade, who are from historically underrepresented groups and have been identified as ready for promotion in the near-term.

Interestingly, as people climb the ladder, those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds who were promoted from director to partner actually progressed more quickly, compared to higher socioeconomic background.

Let’s throw another blockquote in here:

The report also found a recurring ‘hierarchy of progression’ based on combined characteristics. Where there are intersections between lower socio-economic background and other characteristics, this has a significant effect. Lower socio-economic background combined with female gender identity and/or ethnic minority background is associated with the slowest progression.

If comparing the fastest progressing combination (Asian males from high socio-economic backgrounds) with the slowest (White females from low socio-economic backgrounds), the progression gap is 32%.

The full report “Social Mobility Progression Report 2022: Mind the Gap” can be found here [PDF].

The post If Your Parents Were Poor, It Takes Longer to Climb the Ladder at KPMG (No Really) appeared first on Going Concern.

Like many articles in this vein, this Bloomberg piece encourages employers to think beyond salary when thinking about talent. What do people want? Other than money, that is.

Of course, pay is paramount for most people — but beyond an attractive salary, in the current environment companies need to find new ways to distinguish themselves as an employer of choice, experts say.

“At first, companies were throwing money at the problem: You had retention bonuses, and you had pay adjustments. And those did serve a purpose,” said Melissa Swift, US transformation leader at consulting firm Mercer. “But now we’re seeing a shift to sustainable retention strategies: What can you do going forward that will actually continue to retain people so you don’t keep trying to put out the fire with cash.”

These things never end well. Remember when EY embarrassed themselves with the whole “empathetic leadership” thing they ended up backtracking on and deleting?

Ah well maybe this one will be different and enlighten us to some mystical non-monetary, non-work/life balance perk that will draw potential employees to a business like a moths to a non-LED bulb. So what can employers do going forward to attract and retain talent other than throwing cash at people? Here are the five benefits U.S. employees want most according to this one Bloomberg article.

Remote work

The opportunity to work from home tops the list of priorities for most candidates with remote-capable jobs. Studies have shown that remote work improves engagement, cuts attrition and boosts productivity — despite many bosses placing a high value on getting employees back to their desks.

Fair. And true. And not changing — not now, not ever.

Flexibility

Getting to work from home is just one aspect, though. This is about having control over your schedule in a more general way.

“Even the organizations that have returned to the office have made some significant changes in how they think about flexibility,” said Ben Granger, chief workplace psychologist at Qualtrics. Some now allow parents to cut and paste schedules, like leaving mid-afternoon to pick up kids and then logging on later, or commuting late morning after getting kids to school.

This is an utterly shocking revelation. And one that accounting firms continue to struggle with.

Surprised they didn’t throw “unlimited vacation” in here.

Sustainable work

Companies are redesigning work to build in proactive rest that prevents burnout rather than responding to it after the fact, said Caitlin Duffy, research director at consulting firm Gartner Inc. Some strategies include meeting-free days, summer Fridays, four-day weeks, firm-wide shutdowns, upping vacation time, reducing tech overload and even a daily nap.

I love how they’re acting like this is a trend and not something workers since the dawn of time have been begging for.

2023 is the year we respect our own Out of Office and set some boundaries. “What are they going to do? Fire us all?”

And then we take a nap.

Financial health

“In the past, when people thought about financial well-being they were definitely focused more on retirement and longer-term wealth,” said Catherine Hartmann, global head of work, rewards and careers at consulting firm Willis Towers Watson Plc. “But there’s other ways people can have better financial well-being, like elder-care assistance or child care. That cost being covered by the company is a way for you to have more money in your pocket.”

I mean, if you get paid enough you don’t need your job to pay for it.

Some of the more popular benefits offered by firms are flexible lifestyle support. By this we mean covering doggy daycare on days you are in the office, as an example. With “free coffee at the office” out as a perk, firms that think broadly about how to support their people in their non-work lives will have a leg up. Just look at how popular fitness and wellness funds are, and how happy grown adults are when you allow them to use these funds as they see fit to improve their lives. So what if they spend it on gaming chairs and XBoxes. Let them.

Job security

In 2022, employees were penalized with a so-called “loyalty tax” for staying with their employer rather than leaving for a pay raise elsewhere, Hartmann said. This year, companies with track records of stability even in challenging economic times will be in a better position to attract top talent than flashy new startups that have yet to turn a profit.

“Job security is going to be a bigger thing,” she said, with applicants gauging the strength of an employer’s leadership, business prospects and financial resiliency.

Haha no. These hoes ain’t loyal.

Before I wrap this up, I’m going to leave you with a salient comment pulled from r/accounting. The comment is a year old but it doesn’t even matter because the sentiment has always been the same. And that sentiment is, broadly speaking, Fuck You Pay Me.

Whoever figures this out first will have minimal retention problems going forward.

Here are the Five Benefits US Employees Want Most [Bloomberg]

The post The Five Benefits Employees Want Most (Other Than Money) in 2023 According to ‘Experts’ appeared first on Going Concern.

Text:

Accounting isn’t just accounting anymore. Experts must perform multiple functions at once — and that’s where the accounting and computer systems major comes in. The median annual salary for people in their early careers is $73,300.

Deb Seigars, seen here, teaches an accounting class at an education center in Portland, Oregon in this 2009 photo.

Ahhh so that’s why, they inexplicably lumped “computer systems” in there. That’s like saying women’s studies and law are a high-paying major. Or performing arts and nuclear engineering.

Carry on.

The post Somehow Accounting Ended Up on This List of the Highest-Paying College Majors in 2022 appeared first on Going Concern.

Apparently so, according to the latest ranking of the best HR internships for 2023 by Vault and Firsthand. Only five companies’ internship programs made the list for 2023. Coming in behind SAP and Home Depot and ahead of Centene and Union Pacific is P. Dubs.

Something tells me the crash course PwC interns are getting in all things HR doesn’t cover things like what to do when the firm does stealth layoffs during the first summer of a global pandemic or how to “fully investigate” a female employee’s claims of sexual harassment from male co-workers.

Related articles:

2023 Accounting Internship Programs, Ranked
How Do Big 4 Consulting Internships Stack Up Against MBB?

The post Apparently Interns Are Flocking to PwC to Learn More About … HR appeared first on Going Concern.

You can find it on this Private Companies Practice Section (PCPS) landing page. In .docx format. It is described thusly:

Show your staff that their efforts are appreciated and keep them motivated through busy season with these ideas! Add your firm logo to this sample calendar, post it in your office and have some fun!

Sounds great! Let’s see it. This is a direct screenshot, don’t @ me about the missing images and janky alignment.

Where’s the emergency stash of drawer booze? We’ve fallen so far from the “sublet your apartment because you won’t see it for four months” memes of the early 2010s (coincidentally, this website has taken a similar downward trajectory since about that time).

Feel free to share your thoughts on the busy season calendar, maybe the designated Chief Morale Officer (read: HR) at your firm will listen to feedback and throw some more donuts and spirit days at you. GO TEAM!

The post Are You Ready For the BUSY SEASON FUN Calendar?? appeared first on Going Concern.

To be fair, two of the Big 4 firms didn’t make the Vault-Firsthand 2023 ranking of the best consulting internships either. But two did—and both are in the top 10.

First, let’s take a look at how this MBB-less list was determined. This past summer, Vault-Firsthand surveyed more than 11,400 current and former interns about their actual internship experiences. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest and 1 being the lowest, respondents were asked to rate their internship experiences in six core areas:

• Quality of life;
• Compensation and benefits;
• Interview process;
• Career development;
• Full-time employment prospects; and
• Diversity.

To determine an overall score for each program, the ratings were assigned relative weights based on what interns told Vault-Firsthand they value most in an internship. The overall scores are based on the following weighted formula:

• 30% career development;
• 20% employment prospects;
• 20% quality of life;
• 20% compensation;
• 5% diversity; and
• 5% interview process.

Vault-Firsthand then compiled rankings of the top internship programs in more than 25 different areas, including best overall internships, best internships by industry, and most prestigious internships.

So in the consulting industry, Big 4 firms occupy the seventh and eighth spots in the best coffee fetchers internship program rankings:

7. EY-Parthenon Internship Program

Score: 8.983 out of 10

2022 ranking: 5

Vault-Firsthand says: As one of the world’s leading consulting firms, EY-Parthenon’s student programs are highly competitive. The top undergraduate students from all over the world apply every year for the company’s incredible summer internships. EY-Parthenon’s internships offer some of the best professional experience in the industry to full-time students looking to begin their careers in strategy consulting.

Interns work across industries and engage directly with clients, successfully handling the responsibility of a real EY-Parthenon employee. Because of the competitive nature of the program, students are encouraged to apply to no more than two positions in a six-month period. EY-Parthenon internships are full time, offer competitive wages, and benefits like medical and dental coverage, pension and 401(k) plans, and PTO options. Recruiting begins in the early fall for the following summer.

Like other consulting internships, applicants go through a series of behavioral and case interviews if their application is selected. This process, while intimidating, is excellent preparation for the kind of exciting projects interns work on during their time at EY-Parthenon. Every intern has an official mentor who guides them through the ups and downs of a career in consulting, giving informal feedback throughout the program as well as formal feedback.

8. PwC/Strategy& Summer Internship Program

Score: 8.876 out of 10

2022 ranking: 3

Vault-Firsthand says: PwC has multiple internship programs, including:

Start
Start, PwC’s diversity internship experience, is an introductory internship which provides participants the opportunity to learn more about professional services while developing the digital and technical skills key for success in today’s business environment. At the completion of the internship, interns know what is expected of them as a PwC professional and will have built relationships, deepened their digital skills, and had exposure to client service work in the space of professional services.

Training
PwC provides interns with a personalized learning experience—using on-the-job training, real-time development, smart technology, and data and analytics, giving interns customized access to formal and informal learning.

Client Experiences
Interns work directly with PwC partners, principals, and staff. Interns will practice the firm’s commitment to client service by executing responsibilities and gaining insight into the professional services sector.

Leadership Development Experience
In PwC’s integrated Leadership Development Experience (LDE), interns engage in dialogue with a dedicated coaching team focused on guiding them through the internship experience, providing in-the-moment feedback and supporting their development as a PwC professional.

Community Service
Responsible business leadership is PwC’s commitment to make an impact in their communities and deliver business value by helping create a more equitable society. Interns have the opportunity to experience responsible business leadership by participating in community service projects.

Relationship-building
Interns are provided activities and virtual events—one-on-one coffee chats, group well-being activities, and social hours that will allow them to network with individuals based in their local office/markets and with individuals outside of their day-to-day team.

MBA Interns
MBA interns interact with senior-level clients, manage team tasks, create solutions and methodologies, and help develop proposals and thought leadership. Working alongside specialists in their chosen business area, they’ll be a valued member of the team, with graduate level responsibility. Interns are assigned to client projects to develop their understanding of what PwC really does, and will build networks with their colleagues and peer groups.

EY-Parthenon was the fifth best consulting firm to work for in 2022, according to Vault-Firsthand, while PwC/Strategy& didn’t make the top 50.

Among the top 100 overall internship programs, EY-Parthenon’s came in at No. 47 (tied with Gilead), and PwC/Strategy&’s wound up at No. 59. Again, no MBB.

If prestige is more your bag, you’ll finally find the M and one of the B’s in Vault-Firsthand’s ranking of the 50 most prestigious internships, which also includes PwC/Strategy&. The only reason you’ll see McKinsey and Bain on this list vs. the others we mentioned is because survey respondents were asked to rate, on a scale of 1 to 10, the prestige of companies other than their own based on their reputations:

11. McKinsey Summer Analyst and Associate Programs
19. Bain Summer Associate Program
27. PwC/Strategy& Summer Internship Program

As we mentioned last month in our post on Vault-Firsthand’s ranking of the best accounting internships for 2023, each Big 4 firm has an internship program that is considered prestigious:

18. Deloitte
25. EY (EY Launch)
27 PwC (Summer Internship)
33. KPMG

Related article:

2023 Accounting Internship Programs, Ranked

The post How Do Big 4 Consulting Internships Stack Up Against MBB? appeared first on Going Concern.

Take a look at the description, salary range, and requirements and if you’re so compelled, head over to Accountingfly to apply for this Remote Tax Manager position.

Remote Tax Manager needed at small but progressive firm – with NO crazy busy season hours. The work and clients promise to be interesting, with the goal of helping business owners create highly profitable companies. If you have strong tax and advisory skills and are looking for 30 to 40 steady hours a week, all year round, let’s talk!

Job Type:

Full time, W2
Location: REMOTE within the US
Compensation: $75,000 to $95,000, for a consistent 30 to 40 hours a week

Firm/Team Culture
Work for an innovative, boutique advisory, tax, and accounting firm that works exclusively with growth-focused small to medium-sized businesses. This is a paperless environment using cloud tools. This is a fun, team environment, with meaningful client interaction, rewards, challenges, and successes; all team members have an opportunity to make a direct and meaningful impact.

Benefits and what’s in it for you?

• Generous salary for a consistent 30 to 40-hour work week, all year around
• Flexible remote role
• Discretionary bonus program
• 401(k) with 4% match and discretionary Profit Sharing
• Consistent annual growth with the potential to grow into a director-level position.
• 10 days PTO plus holidays.
• Flexible and relaxed small team environment
• Annual team retreat. Past locations have included Las Vegas, Rocky Point, Florida, and San Diego.

Responsibilities:

• You will be deeply involved with preparing tax planning & tax consulting services.
• Reviewing and preparing individual, partnership, trust, and corporate tax returns
• Researching tax issues for small to medium-sized businesses and wealthy individuals.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s (Required)
• CPA
• 7+ years of recent tax experience in public accounting and a CPA license are required.
• Strong technical, communication, customer service, and practice development skills are highly desirable.
• 7 tax seasons preparing signature-ready complex individual and business tax returns.
• Technical review experience of federal and state tax returns for business entities, trusts, and individuals.
• Strong research tax research and planning experience along with the ability to communicate complex tax concepts to business owners.
• Excellent verbal skills to discover client goals and present solutions in alignment with their overall objectives.
• Ability to use progressive technology forward cloud accounting and tax tools.
• Knowledge of tax laws and strategies is required.

Apply here.

The post Hey Tax People, You’ll Be Thankful For This Remote Job That Promises No More Than 40 Hours a Week EVER appeared first on Going Concern.

And at the top seven largest public accounting firms in the U.S., that big promotion came with a sizable pay bump in 2022. Based on our analysis of individual firms’ 2022 comp threads on r/accounting, here is the average percentage of how much base pay increased for a few common promotions: second-year associate to senior; and second-year/third-year senior to manager:

A2->S1

• Deloitte: 22.4%
• PwC: 36.1%
• EY: 27.6%
• KPMG: 25.2%
• RSM US: 19.1%
• BDO USA: 15.6%
• Grant Thornton: 19.9%

S2->M1

• Deloitte: N/A
• PwC: 38.8%
• EY: 30.9%
• KPMG: 25.6% (only one entry)
• RSM US: 14%
• BDO USA: 17.1%
• Grant Thornton: N/A

S3->M1

• Deloitte: 20.1%
• PwC: 13.6% (only one entry)
• EY: 28.1%
• KPMG: 21.3%
• RSM US: N/A
• BDO USA: N/A
• Grant Thornton: N/A

So keep your nose to the grindstone, capital market servants, because good things likely await you in 2023. At the very least a pizza party or two.

The post Maybe 2023 Will Be the Year You Get That Big Promotion appeared first on Going Concern.

From the moment you chose accounting as a major you have been relentlessly teased and taunted. “Why not law?” screeched your mother. “Haha BORING,” said your little brother. “So does this mean you can do my taxes?” teased your uncle who continues to ask you to do his taxes even though you’re now an audit manager. You watched as your classmates who went into tech bragged about the buckets of money they were making fresh out of school while you contemplated if the $3.99 Instacart delivery fee was truly prudent given your financial condition. Friends, no more. No, today you are justified in your choices at last.

ABC7 in San Francisco is tracking Bay Area tech layoffs and you’ll see some familiar names: Meta (13% of the workforce just got cut), Lyft, Twitter. Most of them have said the layoffs are driven by cost-cutting measures, in Meta’s case the company’s operating income dropped 46% from the previous year while costs and expenses rose 19% to $22.1 billion. It doesn’t take an accountant to figure out some adjustments needed to be made.

Is accounting truly recession-proof? Well, we watched accounting firms cut pay and staff at the beginning of the pandemic only to report record-breaking revenue by that fall so no, the profession is as susceptible to economic hiccups as anyone. There will no doubt be cuts should the economy get worse but staff levels are so low right now there isn’t much to cut. Non-client facing staff will be the canary in the coal mine here, if we start seeing admin and recruiters go en masse then low performers on the professional side are probably next. We’d also expect to see firms pull back on recruiting which has yet to happen, if anything firms are more aggressively hiring now than they were a few years ago. PwC has a few years left on The New Equation and as far as we know they haven’t filled those 100,000 new jobs they’ve planned. Across the pond, EY brought a record 1,473 students into its UK business this year — up 35% compared to 2021 — and made sure to put out press releases about it. The smaller firms are going merge-crazy and some are entertaining private equity as a way to compete in the talent war. For now at least, this train isn’t slowing.

So gloat away. You’ve earned it. It’s not like you get to do it very often.

The post At Least We Aren’t in Tech, Boast Smug Accountants Who Didn’t Get Laid Off Today appeared first on Going Concern.

And the responses this person got back are about what you’d expect for this question.

If you’re this Green Dotter and you see this, and if you went against their advice and ended up asking someone in your office for a signing bonus, let us know how that all turned out.

The post Begging for a Signing Bonus *After* Accepting an Offer is Not How This Works appeared first on Going Concern.

In working on an unrelated article today I was digging through our archive of 15,000+ posts going back to 2009 and came across something I wrote in 2012 about a talent shortage coming down the pipe. It’s oddly prescient now which is incredible considering how blackout drunk I used to get back then. Granted we said a lot of nonsense back in the day so this may just be a stopped clock situation, who knows.

Anyway, the jump off point for the ancient article was a Buffalo Business First article about Freed Maxick having trouble finding entry-level grunts. Not necessarily a “the sky is falling situation” as smaller, not-Deloitte-EY-KPMG-PwC firms have always struggled to find talent against the recruiting Goliath that is the Big 4. But as you get to the bottom of the post, you see that something was brewing (other than the Flying Dog Raging Bitch I was guzzling when I wrote this).

Imagine this: university accounting programs were rejecting people back then, that’s how robust the pipeline was. Mind this was just a few years after the Great Recession when people piled into accounting because it was one of the few industries reliably hiring in 2008-2009. The word “oversaturated” comes to mind. From Is There Really a Shortage of Entry Level Accountants? published here December 3, 2012:

With the bazillions of articles out there about how awesome accounting is, record numbers of people sitting for the CPA exam and 3% or so unemployment in accounting, you’d really think there would be a huge pile-up of marginal entry-level candidates desperate for work and not enough positions to stuff their warm bodies into.

Firms have always competed for top talent or there wouldn’t be recruiting events and seminars for recruiters with such advice as “treat ’em like pampered pets.” You may recall the Crain’s piece last year about the firm throwing around steak dinners and Becker courses to lure new talent, Aronson making it rain with iPads or even the cringe-worthy display of Price Is Right generosity by Plante Moran. This is old news.

So where, exactly, is the disconnect? There should be tons of accounting grads drooling for jobs right now and plenty of jobs to go around, no?

OK ready for the prophetic bit?

The AICPA’s 2011 Trends in the Supply of Accounting Graduates and the Demand for Public Accounting Recruits report showed record numbers of accounting students and graduates but also hinted that demand for new talent eventually could outpace supply:

All told, 226,108 students were enrolled in undergraduate or graduate accounting programs during the 2009-2010 academic year, 6 percent more than in 2007-2008, the last time the AICPA conducted its survey. A record 68,639 students graduated with accounting degrees in 2010. Nearly 4 in 10 accounting graduates hired last year by CPA firms had master’s degrees, compared with 26 percent in 2008. By contrast, 43 percent of graduates hired had bachelor’s degrees, down from 56 percent in 2008.

Unfortunately, many accounting programs are currently rejecting qualified applicants, which the AICPA guesses is likely on the rise due to poor economic conditions at universities and the shortage of academically qualified professors. In the report above, the AICPA reported thirteen percent of AACSB accredited business programs each rejected 165 qualified students on average, up from 6% in 2009.

Compare these numbers to the 2021 AICPA Trends report: total accounting degree completions from 1994-2020 peaked in 2015-16 (79,854) and for 2019-20 which are the years covered in the 2021 Trends report, we had a combined 72,923 bachelor’s and master’s graduates. This is a decrease of 2.8% and 8.4% at the bachelor’s and master’s levels respectively compared to the Trends report two years prior.

Up against the 2011 report, the 2021 report numbers look great. But as I drunkily predicted would happen in 2012, demand greatly outpaced supply which is how we ended up where we are now. Actually I guess the AICPA predicted that which makes it even more astonishing that here we are all these years later and no one figured out how to fix this.

Two years after we published the above quoted text, the AICPA noticed a gap was building between people who graduate with accounting degrees and those who take the CPA exam. In other words, although accounting enrollments hadn’t hit troubling lows yet — the opposite, actually, accounting enrollments were breaking records in 2014 — all those people weren’t going on to sit for and pass the CPA exam like they were expected to. Something that has persisted to current day and which has no doubt led to many zolpidem prescriptions for the benevolent overlords of CPA licensure over the years.

The 2012 article goes on to reference Robert Half’s 2013 salary guide and here Bob is like the End is Nigh guy waving a sandwich board in the profession’s face:

Public accounting firms are hiring again in response to increased demand from businesses for accounting, audit, and tax services. Firms of all sizes are looking to expand practice areas and pursue new market segments. Demand is especially strong for audit and tax professionals. Specialty areas seeing more hiring activity include IT audit, business valuation, and forensic accounting. Firms generally seek candidates with at least three to five years of experience, but recruiting of entry-level professionals is not uncommon.

Although accounting firms have a growing demand for staff, they’re competing for talent with businesses that have a renewed interest in adding people with some of the same sought-after skills. Accounting firms are improving compensation as a result, but may need to further enhance their efforts, both to attract new talent and retain experienced accountants who may be tempted to consider more lucrative or lifestyle-friendly opportunities in private industry.

Um, yeah, so that salary thing didn’t happen. When I was in CPA review in 2007 the starting salary at Bay Area Big 4 firms was like $50k. FIFTEEN YEARS AGO.  IN A HCOL MARKET. Sorry for yelling. For too long firms have skated on the “prestige” that comes with having their name on your resume in lieu of competitive compensation and now here we are. Shocked — shocked I tell you — that students are choosing fields with just as much if not more prestige and more immediate compensation instead of committing themselves to at least two years in the Big 4 meat grinder for the promise of better money down the road if they can just hack a couple years of hell.

At the end of the article I dropped my favorite CPA exam conspiracy, one that may or may not have basis in reality: if the talent shortage gets bad enough, CPA exam pass rates will see a jump that couldn’t possibly be explained by a crop of candidates better at studying than the ones who came before them.

So apparently this means the old school is retiring far faster than it can be replaced, despite record numbers of accounting grads and CPA exam candidates. If the situation really is that dire, I would not be surprised to see CPA exam pass rates hovering closer to 60% in the next few years.

Would you look at that? In 2019 the BEC pass rate hit 60. Granted, FAR came in at 46. Ah well, can’t be right all the time.

So what was the point of all this? Well, people who have never considered accounting as the backbone of capitalism or at all are now peering into our microcosm asking “where have all the accountants gone?” as news of an accountant shortage reaches the mainstream and we want to make sure those outsiders are well-informed about how good GC is at predicting the future the forces driving this dearth in CPAs. To be clear, this didn’t happen with The Great Resignation or the pandemic or when they turned on the hadron collider at CERN. This has been in the works for a long, long time and at the root of it lies cheap accounting firms pumping out pizza parties when they should have been pumping out more competitive salaries and slightly better work-life balance. As investment banking shows, new hires are willing to work grueling hours, they just aren’t willing to do it for shitty pay. And that about sums up the problem. You’re welcome.

Related:
What Exactly Is the Profession’s ‘Pipeline Problem’ and Why Should You Care?

The post The Accounting Talent Shortage is Not New, You Guys appeared first on Going Concern.

Vault-Firsthand said this about the summer internship program at Frank, Rimerman + Co., which had a score of 9.495 out of 10 and was ranked No. 2 in the top 100 overall internship programs in the U.S.:

Regarding Frank, Rimerman + Co.’s career development opportunities, one intern said, “The firm really takes the time to put together all of our training and work schedules to maximize our experience. It is very easy to network with anyone at the firm because they are all so approachable and willing to share their thoughts and experiences with you.” Another intern said the best aspects of the internship program are “the people, the culture, the work-life balance, and the transparency.”

The process from moving to Frank Rimerman intern to employee after graduation was clearly communicated as well, according to the following intern review: “The expectations of interns and full-time employees were made clear to us many times throughout the program. In fact, we were warned of the few circumstances which would cause us not to receive an offer. Towards the end of the internship, the recruiters met with us one on one and shared the feedback they had been receiving on us, hinting at which direction the company was leaning in terms of our offer. This level of clarity and honesty from an employer is greatly appreciated.”

Oooo, I wonder what those “few circumstances” are? Making derogatory remarks to a co-worker? Sitting on a partner’s desk while Snapchatting? Watching porn in their cubicle? Taking a three-day vacation without telling anyone?

This past summer, Vault-Firsthand surveyed more than 12,000 current and former interns from more than 130 internship programs about their actual internship experiences. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest and 1 being the lowest, respondents were asked to rate their internship experiences in six core areas:

• Quality of life;
• Compensation and benefits;
• Interview process;
• Career development;
• Full-time employment prospects; and
• Diversity.

To determine an overall score for each program, the ratings were assigned relative weights based on what interns told Vault-Firsthand they value most in an internship. The overall scores are based on the following weighted formula:

• 30% career development;
• 20% employment prospects;
• 20% quality of life;
• 20% compensation;
• 5% diversity; and
• 5% interview process.

Vault-Firsthand then compiled rankings of the top internship programs in more than 25 different areas, including best overall internships, best internships by industry, and most prestigious internships.

Here are the 25 firms with the best internships in the accounting profession for 2023, according to Vault-Firsthand:

1. Frank, Rimerman + Co. (Summer Internship)
2. Aprio
3. Elliot Davis
4. Weaver
5. EisnerAmper (Audit Internship, Tax Internship)
6. Moss Adams (Summer Internship)
7. Grant Thornton
8. Frazier Deeter
9. Baker Tilly (Accounting Internship)
10. Plante Moran
11. CohnReznick
12. WilkinGuttenplan
13. H&CO (Brilliant)
14. BDO USA
15. Armanino
16. Withum
17. Marcum
18. Wipfli (Accounting Internship)
19. KPMG
20. CBIZ MHM
21. PKF O’Connor Davies
22. Cherry Bekaert
23. Lumsden McCormick
24. Eide Bailly (Accounting and Technology Internship Programs)
25. BPM

Soon-to-be accounting grads who only care about interning at a prestigious accounting firm can choose from one of the Big 4 because all of them are among the 50 most prestigious internships in the U.S.:

18. Deloitte
25. EY (EY Launch)
27 PwC (Summer Internship)
33. KPMG

If you’re interested in seeing past Vault accounting internship rankings, you can find them here: 2022, 2021, 2020, and 2019.

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Sure, guys. Sure.

A Deloitte survey of over 4,000 respondents* found that over half of employees (62%) consider an organisation’s purpose before deciding to join, with over a third (36%) saying that an organisation’s purpose was just as important as their salary and benefits package.

Over a fifth (21%) of respondents stated that purpose had helped them to decide between job offers, indicating that purpose does carry an influence in attracting new talent to an organisation.

The survey found that 84% of respondents valued working somewhere that provided meaningful work. Feeling proud to work for an organisation (83%) also scored highly. Respondents also thought it was important that organisations actively play a role in securing a better future for the next generation (80%).

Regarding that last line, this is why EY is going to have a helluva time recruiting in the next year or two. Current partners are securing their futures, future partners can get bent.

Payal Vasudeva, partner and consulting people & purpose leader at Deloitte, commented: “In a competitive talent market, employees are more attracted to organisations where they can find purpose in the work they do. Looking at these findings, we can see that organisations need to show genuine commitment to purpose if they want to retain and attract employees.”

Maybe that’s true in other industries but no one becomes an accountant to change the world, no matter what Gen Z recruiting initiatives might say.

And as we’ve heard repeatedly over the past twenty years, it’s the young folks that put purpose highest. I guess we’ve just accepted that home ownership is off the table for many of us so might as well feel good about the work we do every now and then?

The survey found that over a third (37%) of 16-44 year olds considered an organisation’s purpose before they applied. In comparison, only 21% of 55-64-year-olds and 24% of 65-75-year-olds had considered an organisation’s purpose before they applied.

Over a quarter (29%) of 16–24-year-olds also said they left their organisation as they felt it was ‘not true’ to its purpose and 17% of this group left their organisation as they didn’t feel aligned to its purpose. In comparison only 8% of 55-64-year-olds and 11% of 65-75-year-olds cited not being true to its purpose as the reason they had left their organisation. Only 4% of those aged 55-75 say they had left an organisation because they did not feel aligned to its purpose.

LOL at high schoolers leaving their job at the drive-thru because they didn’t feel a deep sense of purpose.

Anyway, those are the results. We buying this? Show of hands, how many of you consider ‘purpose’ to be as important as pay when deciding between offers?

The post Another Deloitte Survey Says ‘Purpose’ is Just as Important as Pay (Yeah Right) appeared first on Going Concern.

In the headlines, the war for talent is still taking place on two fronts, with a hot labor market still tilted to job seekers even in a cooler economy, and companies testing the power they have post-pandemic to mandate a return to office.

On that second front, though, PWC U.S. Chairman Tim Ryan says the winner has already been declared.

“The war for talent is over. Talent won,” Ryan said at the CNBC Work Summit on Wednesday.

The PWC chairman’s view of this shift in the balance of power between management and labor is key coming from a firm with nearly 300,000 workers, over two-thirds of whom are millennials and represent a departure from the work paradigm built during the baby boomer and Gen X generations.

The war for talent is over. Talent won, says PwC U.S. chairman Tim Ryan [CNBC]

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Let’s see what the peanut gallery says:

Of the two dozen or so comments in response, this one pretty much sums things up:

[A]as much as I know Big 4 is exploitative, this is a bit unethical to just disappear. Not sure if you are on any projects but your team members surely would appreciate the heads-up.

That last part is the important part. The firm couldn’t care less if you go (assuming you are a low level cog and not someone important) but your team will notice. They are already overworked, underslept, and possibly near the breaking point. Chances are you’ve been operating on a skeleton crew for some time, one less body will be felt.

Do you want to be that guy (or gal)? When they say accounting is a small world this is what they’re talking about. Not that some Big 4 partner you’ve interacted with a handful of times will bring your name up on the golf course and tell some client about how you left your team in the lurch so you could go chase a better salary, those people have watched thousands of people leave over the years. No, what they mean is that if you dip out suddenly when everyone is already buried in work then you are a dick and everyone will know it.

Put in your two weeks like the responsible professional you are and then just coast until mid-November. THAT is the way. Plus you don’t know what’s going to happen when and if the economy takes a dump in the future (it will), as much as you are loath to accept this there is a possibility that some day in the future you may need to come crawling back to the firm. If you burn that bridge, you won’t have that option. Unless you are at risk of an immediate mental and emotional breakdown, just stick it out a little longer and leave the right way. Copy us on the farewell email, please.

Oh and good luck at the new job. It’s not at all a glaring red flag that they want you to start immediately. Surely it’s because of the skills and talent you bring to the table and not because they’re just as overworked and chaotic as the Big 4 firm you’re about to leave.

Related: A Field Guide to Quitting a Job in Public Accounting
Somewhat related: Yes, You Can Quit During Busy Season

The post PSA: Even in This Market, It’s Still Uncool to Quit Your Big 4 Job Without Notice appeared first on Going Concern.

Deloitte’s listing comes with some info on how many women work for Deloitte and how many are in management positions which we will conveniently share in this copy-pasted table below:

The post According to This List, Deloitte is the Best Big 4 Firm For Women appeared first on Going Concern.