Remote Work Articles - Going Concern

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | November 21, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 21 Nov 2024 20:26:31 +0000

Are you having trouble finding remote accountants, CAS experts, auditors, or tax professionals for your firm or internal team? Accountingfly can assist you!

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TAX CANDIDATES

FTE Senior Tax Accountant | Candidate ID #23560436

Certifications: EA in process
Education: BBA Accounting
Experience (years): 7+ years in public accounting
Work experience (detail): Tax manager with a CPA firm
- Client account clean up
- Prepared 500+ returns in 2024 tax season
- Reviewed 200+ returns
Client niches: Manufacturing, Hospitality, Medical Practices, Real Estate
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, UltraTax, ProConnect, Drake
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k – $100k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax Accountant | Candidate ID #23595436

Education: BS, MS
Experience (years): 5 years of tax preparation experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a tax associate with a CPA firm
- Client account clean up and GL reconciliation
- Tax preparation for SMBs and Nonprofits
- State and local tax experience
Client niches: Hospitality, Medical Practices, Services, Retail
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Drake, UltraTax, Pro Series
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $60k – $65k
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax Accountant | Candidate ID #23600251

Certifications: EA
Education: BBA Accounting
Experience (years): 3 years of tax accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a tax accountant with a CPA firm
- Prepares federal, state and local tax returns
- Experience with complex international tax projects
- Works directly with clients on tax planning and preparation
Client niches: Individuals, SMBs, Partnerships, Corporations, Trusts, Estates, International
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, CCH Axcess
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k – $85k
Time Zone: Eastern
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PT / Contract Tax Senior | Candidate ID #22519390

Certifications: EA
Education: BA Accounting
Experience (years): 10+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Tax senior leading a team
- 10+ years tax preparation experience
- Federal, state and local tax filing
- Reviewed 300+ tax returns
Client niches: SMBs, Startups, ecommerce, Services, Real Estate
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, CCH Axcess, Gusto, Lacerte
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $45/hour
Time Zone: Eastern
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ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Accounting | Candidate ID #17525751

Certifications: QBO, T Sheets, Expensify and Bill.com Certified
Education: BS Accounting in process
Experience (years): 20+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Recently a payroll specialist with an accounting firm
- 6+ years remote accounting experience
- Full cycle accounting with multiple clients
- State registrations and set ups
Client niches: Medical Practices, Retail, Services, Construction, Real Estate, Transportation
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Bill.com, Expensify, Shopify
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $55k – $65k
Time Zone: Central
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PTE / FTE Accountant | Candidate ID #23604933

Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 20+ years accounting and tax experience
Work experience (detail): 6+ years in public accounting
- GL reconciliation
- Multistate payroll processing
- SALT filing in 40+ states
- Payroll tax reporting and filing
Client niches: SMBs, Construction, Services, Restaurants, Retail
Tech Stack: Intuit EasyACCT, Google Suite, SAP Financials, Vertex
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $25/hour part time, $55k full time
Time Zone: Mountain
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TAX AND ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #23541533

Education: BSBA, BS Accounting
Experience (years): 9+ years of tax and accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a manager with a CPA firm
- Leads and mentors a team of accountants
- Full charge bookkeeping for 10+ monthly clients
- Prepares and files federal and state taxes
Client niches: Construction, Services, Real Estate, Medical Practices, Food and Beverage
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, ProSeries, ProConnect, TurboTax, Drake, Gusto, Square, PayPal
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $65k – $85k
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #23611102

Certifications: EA in process
Education: AA Accounting
Experience (years): 15 years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a senior accountant
- Manages daily bookkeeping operations for 10 clients
- Prepares month end, depreciation, prepaid expenses, accruals
- Job costing and project accounting experience
Client niches: Construction, Real Estate, Retail, Hospitality, SaaS, Manufacturing, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Intacct, Sage, JD Edwards, Freshbooks, Accounting CS, Foundation
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $76k+
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #23600796

Education: BBA Accounting, MBA
Experience (years): 3 years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently an accountant with a CPA firm
- Prepares 100+ tax returns for individual and SMB clients
- Sales tax and payroll processing for multiple clients
- Assists in advisory services with tax clients
Client niches: Construction, Medical Practices, Legal Practices, Services
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, UltraTax, Lacerte
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $70k – $80k
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #23608272

Certifications: QBO ProAdvisor Certified
Education: BBA Finance, MBA
Experience (years): 5+ years of accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently with a CPA firm
- Led a team of 5+ accountants
- Collaborated with tax and payroll departments on client financials
- Small business advisory, tax estimates and planning
Client niches: Hospitality, Professional Services, Construction
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Zoho, CCH, AccountantsWorld, ATX
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $70k – $90k
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #23598818

Certifications: QuickBooks ProAdvisor
Education: BBA, Finance
Experience (years): 15+ years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): Currently an accountant with a CPA firm
- Reviews and adjusts client’s financial statements
- Streamlines processes and procedures for more efficient workflow
- Experience onboarding new clients and cleaning up their books
Client niches: Medical Practices, Transportation, Construction, Technology
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Sage Intacct, Netsuite
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $65k – $75k
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #23532160

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 20+ years accounting, audit and tax experience
Work experience (detail): 20+ in public accounting
- 10+ years of audit experience including IT systems
- Outsourced CFO and fractional Controller
- Tax prep and advisory
Client niches: Federal Agencies, Financial Services, HNWIs, Nonprofits, Construction, Professional Services
Tech Stack: CCH Axcess, Engagement, UltraTax, Creative Solutions, Lacerte, ProSeries, Deltek
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $120k, flexible depending on benefits and incentives
Time Zone: Eastern
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Don’t miss the complete list of top remote accounting, tax, audit, and project-based candidates available weekly! Sign up now to find your next hire.

Drop your information here, and we’ll reach out to schedule a call to discuss how Accountingfly can work for you. Our recruiting services are exclusively available for clients and candidates in the United States.

About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | November 21, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | November 14, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 21:03:53 +0000

Are you having trouble finding remote accountants, CAS experts, auditors, or tax professionals for your firm or internal team? Accountingfly can assist you!

With our Always-On Recruiting service, you can access a pool of top remote accounting candidates without any upfront costs.

Sign up now to view the complete candidate list and connect with potential hires.

ACCOUNTING AND ADVISORY CANDIDATE

FTE Accounting and Advisory | Candidate ID #23535017

Certifications: QBO ProAdvisor, Xero Advisor, CPA
Education: BS Accounting, MA Accounting in process
Experience (years): 5+ years of overall accounting and finance experience
Work experience (detail): Currently senior accountant with a CPA firm
- Implements cloud accounting applications
- Tax preparation experience with business and individual returns
- Performs SMB bookkeeping, payroll and financial statement preparation
Client niches: Real Estate, Services
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, LiveFlow and RightTool, Karbon, UltraTax
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $65k+
Time Zone: Central
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TAX CANDIDATES

FTE Tax Accounting | Candidate ID #23531533

Certifications: EA in process
Education: BA Accounting
Experience (years): 10+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): All in public accounting
- 2+ years as Tax Manager
- Led 75+ client engagements
- Prepares and reviews tax returns
Client niches: HNWIs, Entertainment, SMBs, Financial Services, S & C Corps
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, ProSystem fx, ProSeries, ProConnect, UltraTax, Lacerte
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $110k+ depending on level
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax Accounting | Candidate ID #23283819

Education: BA Accounting
Experience (years): 8+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 5+ years with a national CPA firm
- Prepares complex returns for HNWI
- Audit experience with HOAs
- Extensive experience with Trusts and Gift Tax
Client niches: Trusts, Real Estate, Medical Practices, Professional Services, Manufacturing, Grocery, HOAs
Tech Stack: CaseWare, GEMS, Axcess, ProSystems fx, SurePrep, Drake, 1099 ETC
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k with benefits
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax Accounting | Candidate ID #19019328

Certifications: EA in process
Education: BA Accounting
Experience (years): 10+ years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a tax senior with a CPA firm
- Prepares business and individual tax returns
- Some tax review experience
- Prepares quarterly federal and states estimates
- Some tax planning and client advisory experience
Client niches: HNWIs, Real Estate, Hospitality, Retail, Medical Practices, Manufacturing
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Axcess, ProSystems fx, UltraTax, Advance Flow, Engagement, OneSource
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $95 – $103k
Time Zone: Eastern
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TAX AND ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #23459039

Education: BA Accounting
Experience (years): 9+ years of accounting experience
Work experience(detail): 7 years in public accounting
- Tax prep and review
- Full charge bookkeeping, payroll and general accounting
- Prepares client financials for tax return preparation
Client niches: Construction, Healthcare and Real Estate
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, UltraTax, Drake
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $76k, flexible depending on benefits
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #23571431

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BBA Accounting, MA Accounting
Experience (years): 5+ years accounting and tax experience
Work experience(detail): All in public accounting
- Performs full cycle accounting and tax preparation
- Financial compilations and reporting with clients
- Tax projections and estimated calculations
Client niches: Healthcare, Nonprofits, Construction, Real Estate, Services
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, NetSuite, Quicken, Blackbaud, MAS 200, Lacerte
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #18384643

Certifications: EA in process
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 5 years accounting and tax experience
Work experience(detail): All in public accounting
- Tax preparer with some review experience
- Supervised and trained a team of 5+ associates
- New client onboarding
Client niches: Healthcare, Construction, Logistics, Legal Practices, Real Estate, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, UltraTax, Karbon, ProConnect, Thomson Reuters Professional Suite
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $75 – $77k w/benefits, $90k wo/benefits
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #19941806

Certifications: CPA
Education: BSBA, Accounting
Experience (years): 10+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 8+ in public accounting
- 5+ in full cycle accounting and tax
- 2+ as tax manager, leading a team of 4 associates
- Federal, state and local tax filing and reporting
Client niches: SMBs, HNWIs, Partnerships, S-Corps, Services
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Axcess, Lacerte, ProSeries, ProConnect
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $100k+, depending on role
Time Zone: Pacific
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FTE Tax and Accounting Candidate ID #23587705

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BBA Accounting
Experience (years): 5 years accounting and tax experience
Work experience (detail): All in public accounting
- Tax preparation and review
- Provides tax planning, research, estimates and projections
- Leads client tax engagements from start to completion
- Performs accounting and bookkeeping services for clients
Client niches: Real Estate, Construction, Hospitality, Manufacturing
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Lacerte Tax and Planner
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $95 – $110k
Time Zone: Pacific
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #23556701

Certifications: CPA
Education: BS Accounting, MBA Taxation
Experience (years): 28 years of accounting and tax experience
Work experience (detail): 11+ operating own accounting firm
- 11 years tax preparation and review
- Handled more complex returns
- Prepares financials, international accounting, treasury functions, audit projects
- Accounting software set up and troubleshooting
Client niches: Manufacturing, Construction, Hospitality, Healthcare, Nonprofits, Real Estate, Tech
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Lacerte Tax and Planner
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $75k /benefits, $90k wo/benefits
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22824954

Certifications: EA in process
Education: AA Accounting
Experience (years): 20+ years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): senior accountant with a CPA firm
- Payroll and payroll tax experience
- New client onboarding, software implementations
- Business and individual tax return preparation and review experience
Client niches: Construction, Medical Practices, Hospitality, Real Estate, Services
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Accounting CS, UltraTax, ProSeries, Drake Tax
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $75 – $80k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Accounting and Tax | Candidate ID #23594499

Education: BS and MS Accounting
Experience (years): 4 years of experience, all in public accounting
Work experience (detail): Currently a senior tax associate
- Provides full cycle accounting services for 20 clients
- Prepares business and individual tax returns
- Experience training junior staff
Client niches: SMBs, Real Estate, Manufacturing, Services, Medical Practices
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Axcess Tax, Caseware, ProSystem fx Engagement and Fixed Assets
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80 – $90k
Time Zone: Mountain
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #23571137

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BS Accounting, MBA
Experience (years): 4 years public accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a senior accountant with a CPA firm
- Prepares individual tax returns for business clients
- Experience reviewing business returns
- Performs monthly bookkeeping and maintained client relationships
Client niches: Manufacturing, Real Estate, Medical Practices
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, CCH, UltraTax
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $85k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #23530375

Certifications: EA in process
Education: BBA, Accounting
Experience (years): 3+ years tax and accounting
Work experience (detail): All in public accounting
- Prepares federal, state, and local tax returns
- 100 individuals and 50+ SMBs in 2024 tax season
- Filed indirect tax returns in 10+ states
Client niches: HNWIs, Real Estate, Trusts, Partnerships, S-Corps
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, CCH Axcess, Engagement, Caseware
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $75k+
Time Zone: Eastern
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Don’t miss the complete list of top remote accounting, tax, audit, and project-based candidates available weekly! Sign up now to find your next hire.

About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | November 14, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | November 7, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 21:28:40 +0000

Are you having trouble finding remote accountants, CAS experts, auditors, or tax professionals for your firm or internal team? Accountingfly can assist you!

With our Always-On Recruiting service, you can access a pool of top remote accounting candidates without any upfront costs.

Sign up now to view the complete candidate list and connect with potential hires.

TAX AND ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #23571431

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BBA Accounting, MA Accounting
Experience (years): 5+ years of accounting and tax experience
Work experience: All in public accounting
- Performs full cycle accounting and tax preparation
- Financial compilations and reporting with clients
- Tax projections and estimated calculations
Client niches: Healthcare, Nonprofits, Construction, Real Estate, Services
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, NetSuite, Quicken, Blackbaud, MAS 200, Lacerte
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #23571137

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BS Accounting, MBA Accounting
Experience (years): 3+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): All in public accounting
- Prepares returns for SMBs, partnerships and S-Corps
- Experience reviewing business returns
- Full cycle accounting with direct client contact
Client niches: Manufacturing, Real Estate, Medical Practices
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, CCH, UltraTax
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $85k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #23535017

Certifications: QB and Xero Certified, CPA
Education: BS Accounting, MA in process
Experience (years): 15+ years accounting and business experience
Work experience (detail): 6+ years in public accounting
- Onboarding new clients to cloud based platforms
- Tax preparation for SMBs, partnerships, and individuals
- Full cycle accounting and financial reporting
Client niches: Real Estate, Services
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Karbon, UltraTax
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $65k+
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #23529632

Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 10 years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): 7 years in public accounting
- Tax preparation for individuals, SMBs, partnerships
- Prepares payroll, quarterly, and annual reports
- Tax planning and advisory experience
Client niches: Construction, Services
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, UltraTax, ProSeries, Fixed Assets CS, AdvanceFlow
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k+
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #23563903

Certifications: Inactive EA
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 9 years of accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 8 in public accounting
- Leads a team of 5 staff accountants
- Full cycle accounting, payroll, payroll tax filing and reporting
- Individual and small business tax return preparation
Client niches: Construction, Wholesale, Retail, Real Estate
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Sage, SAP, Expensify, Concur, Axcess, ProSystems, ProSeries
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $105k
Time Zone: Eastern
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TAX CANDIDATES

FTE Tax | Candidate ID #23530375

Certifications: EA in process
Education: BBA Accounting
Experience (years): 3 years tax and accounting
Work experience (detail): All in public accounting
- Prepares federal, state and local tax returns
- 100+ individuals and 50+ SMBs filed in 2024 tax season
- Files indirect tax returns in 10+ states
Client niches: HNWIs, Real Estate, Trusts, Partnerships, S-Corps
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Axcess, Engagement, Caseware
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $75k+
Time Zone: Eastern
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REMOTE OPERATIONS CONSULTING CANDIDATE

Accounting Operations Consultant | Candidate ID #23457979

Education: BA Accounting
Experience (years): 25+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 10 with a regional CPA firm
- 8 years at Director level
- Established a remote accounting and advisory team of 50+ associates
- Developed successful remote client services workflows and processes
Client niches: HNWIs, SMBs, ecommerce, LLCs, Venture Capital, Private Equity, Family Office
Tech Stack: QBO, Xero, Karbon
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $150+/hr, project pricing
Time Zone: Pacific
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Don’t miss the complete list of top remote accounting, tax, audit, and project-based candidates available weekly! Sign up now to find your next hire.

About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | November 7, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | October 31, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 13:27:07 +0000

Are you having trouble finding remote accountants, CAS experts, auditors, or tax professionals for your firm or internal team? Accountingfly can assist you!

With our Always-On Recruiting service, you can access a pool of top remote accounting candidates without any upfront costs.

Sign up now to view the complete candidate list and connect with potential hires.

TAX AND ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22591376

Certifications: CPA
Education: BBA Accounting
Experience (years): 5+ years accounting experience
- Work experience (detail): All in public accounting
- Tax planning and client advisory
- Experience reviewing tax returns
- Client relationship management experience
Client niches: SMBs, HNWIs, Medical Practices, Real Estate
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, ProSystems fx, UltraTax, Caseware, OnBase, Excel, Yardi, Appfolio
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $90k – $100k
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #2350777

Certifications: QBO ProAdvisor, EA
Education: BS Accounting and Finance
Experience (years): 9+ years of overall experience
- Work experience (detail): 7 years in public accounting
- Tax preparation and review experience
- Reviews financial statements, year end work papers
- Accounting review and client advisory
Client niches: Insurance, Retail, Services, Construction, Oil & Gas Services
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, ProSeries
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $72k – $74k
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #20021654

Certifications: CPA
Education: BS BA, MS Accountancy
Experience (years): 9+ years of overall experience
- Work experience (detail): 7+ in public accounting
- Federal, payroll and sales tax filing experience
- IRS tax notice responses
- Client tax planning and advisory
Client niches: Medical Practices, Retail, Construction
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, UltraTax
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $65k – $75k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22008875

Certifications: QBO ProAdvisor, EA in progress
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 25+ years accounting experience
- Work experience (detail): Currently leading an accounting team
- Onboards new clients
- Tax projections and tax planning
- Tax preparation for SMBs, HNWIs and Partnerships
Client niches: Construction, Real Estate, Manufacturing
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Sage, Netsuite, Xero, UltraTax, Drake, Lacerte, ProSeries
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k – $85k
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #23527798

Education: BBA Accounting
Experience (years): 6+ years of accounting experience
- Work experience (detail): All in public accounting
- Full cycle accounting experience
- Performs monthly bank reconciliations
- Tax preparation experience
Client niches: Hospitality, Medical Practices, Services, Construction, Manufacturing
Tech Stack: QB/QBO,Drake
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $52k+
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #23477771

Education: BS and MS Accounting
Experience (years): 10+ years accounting experience
- Work experience (detail): 6+ in public accounting
- Full cycle outsourced accounting
- Financial reporting, GAAP
- Federal, State and Local tax filing
- Fractional Controller, client advisory
Client niches: Professional Services, Medical Practices, Healthcare, Construction, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, NetSuite, SAP, Oracle, UltraTax, Drake, Lacerte, TaxAct, ATX
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $75k, flexible depending on role, $50-75/hour for part time and project work
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22594884

Certifications: EA in process
Education: BA Accounting
Experience (years): 15 years accounting experience
- Work experience (detail): 3 years in public accounting
- 12 years industry accounting and payroll
- 500+ returns prepared during 2024 tax season
- Reviews returns prepared by local and offshore team
Client niches: Retail, Hospitality, Real Estate, Oil & Gas Services, Tech
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, QB Payroll, UltraTax, Lacerte, ProSeries
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #19533115

Certifications: EA
Education: BA Business
Experience (years): 4 years accounting and tax experience
- Work experience (detail): Tax services and public accounting
- 4 tax seasons experience
- SMBs, S-Corps, Partnerships, Trusts, Nonprofits
- Client planning and advisory
Client niches: Professional Services, Medical Practices, Trusts, Estates, ecommerce, Hospitality
Tech Stack: ProSeries, UltraTax, Gusto, Sure Payroll, TaxAct, Canopy
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $90k, flexible depending on benefits package
Time Zone: Central
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PT Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #20208315

Education: BBA, Accounting
Experience (years): 20+ years of accounting experience
- Work experience (detail): Part time tax senior with a CPA firm
- Tax preparation experience
- Tax planning and projections
- Monthly/quarterly/annual accounting for 40+ clients
Client niches: Construction, Services, Medical Practices, Real Estate
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Accounting CS, UltraTax, ProSystems fx, ATB, Asset Keeper Pro
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $40-$50 per hour
Time Zone: Eastern
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TAX CANDIDATES

FTE Tax Senior / Manager | Candidate ID # 22492954

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BBA Accounting
Experience (years): 13 years tax and accounting experience
- Work experience: 8+ in public accounting
- Preparation and review of tax returns
- Tax planning, tax advisory, and tax research
- Quarterly projections and estimates for clients
Client niches: SMBs, HNWIs, Partnerships, S-Corps
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Lacerte, Smart Vault, ProSystemsFx, Taxplanner, Axcess, Engagement, iManage, Xero, ProSeries, UltraTax
Remote: Y
Salary: $90K
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax Senior / Manager | Candidate ID #23527885

Certifications: EA, CPA in process
Education: BA Accounting and Finance
Experience (years): 15+ years tax and accounting experience
- Work experience (detail): 8 years in public accounting
- Tax preparation and review
- Expat tax experience
- Individual equity compensation
Client niches: HNWIs, Construction, Agriculture, Trusts, Estates, Expats
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, UltraTax, ProSeries, CCH Axcess, Engagement
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $110k with bonus potential
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax Senior / Manager | Candidate ID #17586795

Certifications: QBO ProAdvisor, CPA
Education: BSBA Finance, MS Accountancy
Experience (years): 20+ years accounting experience
- Work experience (detail): 10+ years tax experience
- Operated a tax practice for 7 years
- Manages a remote accounting team of 7 associates
- 10+ years teaching college accounting classes
- 2+ years remote tax client support
Client niches: Individuals, SMBs, Services, Hospitality, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Sage, ProSystems fx, Drake
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $110k, plus benefits
Time Zone: Eastern
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Don’t miss the complete list of top remote accounting, tax, audit, and project-based candidates available weekly! Sign up now to find your next hire.

About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | October 31, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | October 24, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 13:57:40 +0000

Are you having trouble finding remote accountants, CAS experts, auditors, or tax professionals for your firm or internal team? Accountingfly can assist you!

With our Always-On Recruiting service, you can access a pool of top remote accounting candidates without any upfront costs.

Sign up now to view the complete candidate list and connect with potential hires.

TAX AND ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22557459

Certifications: EA, Intuit Tax Academy
Education: MBA Accounting, JD
Experience (years): 6 years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): Tax senior with a national tax service
- International tax experience
- National client tax practice
- Adept at tax research
Client niches: Law Practices, Hospitality, Healthcare
Tech Stack: QBO, ProConnect, Lacerte, ProSeries
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $70 – $90k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Senior Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22659477

Certifications: QBO Certified, CPA in process
Education: BBA, MA Accountancy
Experience (years): 9+ years experience
Work experience (detail): 4+ in public accounting
- 4+ providing remote full cycle accounting
- Tax preparation for HNWIs, SMBs, Partnerships, LLCs
- New client onboarding, QBO implementation
Client niches: Real Estate, Construction, Professional Services, Healthcare
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, CaseWare, CCH Axcess and Fixed Assets, UltraTax, Accounting CS
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $90k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22561270

Certifications: CPA
Education: BA Information Systems, BA Accounting
Experience (years): 25+ years of accounting and tax experience
Work experience (detail): 3+ with a national tax firm
- Prepared and reviewed Federal returns
- Provided associate training
- Onboarded new clients
- Client advisory, year end workpapers
Client niches: SMBs, Startups, Partnerships, LLCs, S & C-Corps
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, CCH Axcess, Sage, SalesForce, Karbon, ProSeries, PeopleSoft, Lacerte, Gusto, ADP, Pay.com
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $90k plus benefits
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #23283819

Education: BS, BA Accounting
Experience (years): 8+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 5+ years with a national CPA firm
- Prepared complex returns for HNWI
- Audit experience with HOAs
- Extensive experience with Trusts and Gift Tax
Client niches: Trusts, Real Estate, Medical Practices, Professional Services, Manufacturing, Grocery, HOAs
Tech Stack: QB, CaseWare, CCH Axcess, ProSystems fx, SurePrep, Drake, 1099 ETC
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k with benefits
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22538439

Certifications: QBO ProAdvisor, EA in process
Education: BS and MS Accountancy
Experience (years): 9 years of accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Most recently an accountant at a CPA firm
- Full cycle accounting and tax for multiple clients
- Full-year clean up and tax return preparation
- Managed client relationships
Client niches: Construction, Hospitality, Real Estate, Law Practices, Medical Practices, Services, Retail, Agriculture
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, TurboTax, UltraTax, Accounting CS, Fixed Assets, Karbon
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $60k
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #5307721

Education: BS Business Administration Accounting
Experience (years): 10 years of accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently an outsourced controller with a public firm
- Leads full-service bookkeeping and payroll team
- Client advisory
- Full cycle accounting and tax preparation experience
Client niches: Real Estate, Construction, Retail, Services, Law Firms
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Oracle, Sage
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $90k+
Time Zone: Eastern
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TAX CANDIDATES

FTE Tax Manager | Candidate ID #23508828

Certifications: CPA
Education: BS, MS Accounting, MBA Finance
Experience (years): 20 years experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a Tax Manager
- Tax planning and tax strategy with HNWIs
- Transitioned client businesses to S-Corporation status
- Responds to tax authority notices and provides tax resolution services
Client niches: SMBs, Startups, HNWIs
Tech Stack: QB, UltraTax, Planner CS
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $160k+
Time Zone: Pacific
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FTE Tax | Candidate ID #23478897

Certifications: EA, CPA in process
Education: BS and MS Management, MBA Accounting
Experience (years): 11+ years accounting and tax experience
Work experience (detail): 4+ in public accounting
- Tax preparation, review and compliance
- Tax planning for HNWI
- Train and mentor staff of 5+ associates
- Leads bookkeeping and financial management team
Client niches: Construction, Healthcare, Real Estate, Hospitality, Education, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB, UltraTax, Thomson Reuters,TurboTax
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $87k – $108k, flexible depending on role
Time Zone: Pacific
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FTE Tax Accountant | Candidate ID #18501738

Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 7 years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 2 years public accounting
- Financial statements and year end workpapers
- Multinational client tax provisioning
- Federal, State, Local and Property tax filing
Client niches: Real Estate, Hospitality, Technology, Retail, Transportation
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Sage, Bloomberg Tax and Fixed Assets, ProSystems fx
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $95k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax | Candidate ID Candidate #23314825

Certifications: EA
Education: BS Accounting, MBA Accounting
Experience (years): 7+ years accounting and financial services experience
Work experience (detail): Public accounting experience
- Trust and estate specialist
- Client facing, advisory practice
- Prepare and review returns
Client niche: HNWIs, Trusts, Estates, Decedent filing
Tech Stack: One Source Trust Tax, Global Wealth, Global Plus, Salesforce; CCH Axcess
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $95k-$100k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax Senior | Candidate ID #22394136

Certifications: CPA
Education: BA and MA
Experience (years): 8+ years accounting and tax experience
Work experience (detail): currently a Tax Associate at a CPA firm
- Prepared 50 tax returns, 90% business and 10% personal
- Trains interns on tax software and preparation
- Responds to IRS inquiries and provides client support
Client niches: Real Estate, Pharmaceutical, Medical Practices, Manufacturing
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, CCH Axcess and Engagement
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting Senior | Candidate ID #22520741

Certifications: EA in process
Education: BS Business, MA Accounting and Finance
Experience (years): 11 years tax and accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a Tax Accountant at a CPA firm
- Experience preparing tax returns
- Reviews returns prepared by peers
- Client year-end clean up and workpapers
Client niches: Financial Services, Medical Practices, Professional Services, Real Estate, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, UltraTax, Lacerte, Drake
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $90k – $95k
Time Zone: Eastern
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ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Accounting | Candidate ID #21909389

Education: BS Business Accounting
Experience (years): 20+ years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): Currently an accounting specialist at a CPA firm
- Experience onboarding new clients, QBD to QBO conversions
- Responds to IRS notices
- Experience with payroll and payroll reports
Client niches: Hospitality, Medical Practices, Government, Retail, Law Practices, Services, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, ADP
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $60k
Time Zone: Mountain
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FTE / Contractor Accounting | Candidate ID #23283760

Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 25 years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a Controller at a CPA firm
- GL reconciliation, expense tracking and classification
- Leads a team of 5+
  - New client onboarding experience
Client niches: Manufacturing, Medical Practices, Construction, Logistics, Retail, Services Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Bill.com, Gusto
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $90-$100k as 1099, $80-$90k as W2
Time Zone: Eastern
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FIRM OPERATIONS CANDIDATE

Remote Accounting Operations Consultant / HNWI Advisory | Candidate ID #23457979

- - - Education: BA Accounting
    - Experience (years): 25+ years accounting experience
    - Work experience (detail): 10+ with a regional CPA firm
      - 8+ as Director Accounting Operations
      - Led a client accounting and advisory team of 80+ remote associates
      - Developed remote workflow and internal processes
    - Client niches: HNWIs, SMBs, Partnerships, LLCs, Venture Capital, Private Equity, Family Office
    - Tech Stack: QBO, Xero, Karbon
    - Remote Work Experience: Y
    - Salary: $150+/hr, project pricing
    - Time Zone: Pacific
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Don’t miss the complete list of top remote accounting, tax, audit, and project-based candidates available weekly! Sign up now to find your next hire.

About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | October 24, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | October 17, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 15:54:10 +0000

Are you having trouble finding remote accountants, CAS experts, auditors, or tax professionals for your firm or internal team? Accountingfly can assist you!

With our Always-On Recruiting service, you can access a pool of top remote accounting candidates without any upfront costs.

Sign up now to view the complete candidate list and connect with potential hires.

ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Accounting / Bookkeeping | Candidate ID #18014117

Certifications: QBO ProAdvisor, Xero Certified
Education: BA, MBA Accounting
Experience (years): 9+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a Senior Bookkeeper/Team Lead with a public firm
- 5+ years managing outsourced accounting for multiple clients
- Reviews team full cycle accounting and reporting work
- Prepares tax ready year end workpapers
Client niches: Construction, Real Estate, Retail, Healthcare, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, ProConnect
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $75k
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Accounting Senior / Manager | Candidate ID #22531747

Certifications: CPA
Education: BBA and BS Accounting
Experience (years): 4+ years experience
Work experience (detail): 4+ in public accounting
- Supervises a team of 9 associates
- Led the software transition for an acquired firm
- Advises nonprofit clients and prepares Form 990
Client niches: Services, Suppliers, Healthcare, Govt-funded Entities, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Engagement, CaseWare, TeamMate Analytics
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $115k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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PTE Accounting Senior | Candidate ID #22525820

Certifications: QB ProAdvisor
Education: AA Business Administration
Experience (years): 30+ years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): Currently running an accounting practice
- Corporate accounting experience
- Assessment and redesign of accounting process and workflow
- Experience supervising and reviewing the work of client bookkeeping teams
Client niches: Manufacturing, Services, Construction, Distribution, Agriculture
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, NetSuite, Sage
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $60/hr
Time Zone: Pacific
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TAX AND ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE / PTE Tax / Accounting Manager | Candidate ID #22585819

Certifications: EA
Education: BS Business Administration
Experience (years): 7 years tax experience
Work experience (detail): Currently operating own practice
- Experience with tax planning and resolution
- Managed an accounting team of 20
- Tax preparation and review experience
Client niches: Petrochemical, Manufacturing, Agriculture, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB, UltraTax, Proseries, Wave, ShareFile, ACT!, Gusto
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $150k, FTE, $55-$70/ PTE
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22655166

Certifications: CPA, QBO ProAdvisor
Education: BA, MBA Accounting
Experience (years): 5 years in public accounting
- Preparation and review experience
- Financial reporting and advisory
- SMB client advisory
Client niche: Entertainment, Professional Services, Real Estate
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Drake, Secure File Pro
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $85-90k, benefits package
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE or PTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22804727

Certifications: CPA Candidate
Education: BS Business Administration, MS Accountancy
Experience (years): 7+ years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a Staff Accountant at a CPA firm
- Full cycle accounting and tax preparation
- Direct client communication responsibility
- High-volume payroll and tax experience
Client niches: Retail, Hospitality, Medical Practices, Agriculture, Construction
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Drake, ProSeries
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $60k full-time; $28-$29/hr part-time
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22824954

Certifications: EA in process
Education: AA Accounting
Experience (years): 20+ years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): Senior Accountant with a CPA firm
- Payroll and payroll tax experience
- New client onboarding, software implementations
- Business and individual tax return preparation and review experience
Client niches: Construction, Medical Practices, Hospitality, Real Estate, Services
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Accounting CS, UltraTax, ProSeries, Drake Tax
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $75 – $80k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22510988

Education: College coursework and OJT
Experience (years):14+ in public accounting
Work experience (detail): Currently a Full Charge Bookkeeper with a CPA firm
- Multiple client payroll experience
- Supervisory experience
- Prepares 40-50 tax returns per season, S-Corps and owners
Client niches: Services, Construction, Law Practices, Nonprofits, Government
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Creative Solutions, Sage, Drake
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $70k
Time Zone: Central
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FTE / PTE Tax and Accounting| Candidate ID #22764825

Certifications: EA
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 5+ years tax and accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 5+ years in public accounting
- Prepares returns for individuals, SMBs, Partnerships, S-Corps
- Accounting and financial reporting
- Client advisory services
Client niches: Real Estate, Medical Practices
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, UltraTax, Quicken
Remote Work Experience: Y
Comp Goal: $40/hour, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22662704

Certifications: CPA
Education: BA Business, MA Accounting
Experience (years): 10 years public accounting, 7 years in industry
- 4+ years managing a tax team
- Tax preparation and client advisory for SMB clients
- Provided outsourced accounting and Controller services
Client niche: Retail, Manufacturing, Construction, Nonprofits, Real Estate
Tech Stack: QB/QBO CCH Tax, UltraTax, Sage
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $135k
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #20040511

Certifications: EA, QBO Advanced ProAdvisor
Education: AA Accounting, BS Accounting
Experience (years): 9+ years accounting and tax experience
Work experience (detail): Extensive client contact and advisory
- Experience with tax consultations
- Payroll experience
- Financial statement preparation and review experience
Client niches: Hospitality, Construction, Services, Medical Practices, Retail, Real Estate,
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Sage, Lacerte, UltraTax, ProSeries, Drake, Gusto, Shopify, Bill.com
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $75k+
Time Zone: Central
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TAX CANDIDATES

FTE Tax Senior / Advisory | Candidate ID #21925190

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BS Finance and Accounting
Experience (years): 7 years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 7 years in public accounting
- 250+ returns prepared in 2024 tax season
- Experience includes bookkeeping, accounting, audit and tax
- SMBs, LLCs, S and C Corps, Pass Throughs, Work in Progress, Trusts
Client niches: Medical Practices, Construction, Real Estate, ecommerce, Investment, Hospitality
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, UltraTax, Axcess, SurePrep
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $90k, plus benefits
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax Senior | Candidate ID #23043820

Certifications: EA, QBO Certified, CPA in process
Education: BA, MA Accountancy
Experience (years): 7 years accounting and tax experience
Work Experience (detail): 7 years in public accounting
- Prepares partnership, S-Corp, C-Corp, consolidated returns
- Year end workpapers and client advisory
- Responds to IRS notices
Client niche: Real Estate, Manufacturing, Technology
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, CCH Axcess, ProSystems fx, Engagement
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $90k
Time Zone: Mountain
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FTE Tax Senior | Candidate ID #22394136

- - Certifications: CPA
  - Education: BA and MA
  - Experience (years): 8+ years accounting and tax experience
  - Work experience (detail): currently a Tax Associate at a CPA firm
    - Prepared 50 tax returns 90% business and 10% personal
    - Trains interns on tax software and preparation
    - Responds to IRS inquiries and provides client support
  - Client niches: Real Estate, Pharmaceutical, Medical Practices, Manufacturing
  - Tech Stack: QB/QBO, CCH Axcess and Engagement
  - Remote Work Experience: Y
  - Salary: $80k
  - Time Zone: Central
  - Sign up to learn more about this candidate

Don’t miss the complete list of top remote accounting, tax, audit, and project-based candidates available weekly! Sign up now to find your next hire.

About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | October 17, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | October 10, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 16:43:40 +0000

Are you having trouble finding remote accountants, CAS experts, auditors, or tax professionals for your firm or internal team? Accountingfly can assist you!

With our Always-On Recruiting service, you can access a pool of top remote accounting candidates without any upfront costs.

Sign up now to view the complete candidate list and connect with potential hires.

ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Accounting | Candidate ID # 22574493

Certifications: EA in process
Education: BA Business
Experience (years): 20+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently Accountant & Office Manager at a CPA firm
- Full cycle accounting, reconciliations, financial reporting
- AP/AR, payroll processing and quarterly filing
- Directed a team of 3 associates
Client niches: Construction, Retail, Hospitality, Nonprofits, Telecom, Real Estate, Services
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Centerpoint, PC Law, Wave
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $55k, with benefits
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Accounting / Bookkeeping Manager | Candidate ID #22567392

Certifications: QBO Certified, Prof Bookkeeper Certificate, CMA in process
Education: BA
Experience (years): 10+ years of accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a client account manager
- Experience with onboarding clients and accounting software implementations,
- Managing an accounting team and reviewing full cycle client work
- Directs workflow optimization and creating SOPs
Client niches: Nonprofits, Services, Retail, ecommerce, Manufacturing, Hospitality, SaaS
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Netsuite, Xero, Gusto, Bill.com, Expensify
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $85k+
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Accounting | Candidate ID #20555099

Certifications: QB/QBO ProAdvisor
Education: BA Accounting
Experience (years): 5+ years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): Currently an Onboarding Accountant with a public firm
- Client accounting cleanups/catch-ups as far back as two years
- Experience with 1099’s and sales tax payments
- Client onboarding and full cycle monthly accounting
Client niches: Medical Practices, Real Estate, Insurance, Retail
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Bill.com, Stripe, Gusto, Paychex, Surepay, ADP, Paypal, Paycor
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $75k
Time Zone: Central
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TAX AND ACCOUNTING CANDIDATE

FTE Tax and Accounting Senior | Candidate ID #22594117

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BS Business, MA Accountancy
Experience (years): 4 years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a Staff Accountant with a CPA firm
- Tax preparation and advisory experience; client-facing
- Client accounting, cleanup, advisory, year end workpapers
- Prepared 300+ SMB client tax returns during 2024
Client niches: Real Estate, Financial Services, Hospitality
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, ProSystems fx, Engagement
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $90k-100k
Time Zone: Eastern
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TAX CANDIDATES

FTE Tax Senior / Manager | Candidate ID # 22512777

Certifications: Valuation Analyst, QB/QBO ProAdvisor, CPA
Education: BS, MA Accountancy
Experience (years): 7 years accounting and tax experience
Work experience: 6+ with a CPA firm
- Prepared and reviewed 250+ returns in 2024
- International tax return experience
- Client tax planning, projections, estimates, research
Client niches: Real Estate, Investors, Construction, Healthcare, Services, Retail, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, ProSystems fx, Practice Management, Axcess, Checkpoint, Lacerte
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $120k
Time Zone: Mountain
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FTE Tax Senior / Manager | Candidate ID # 22207046

Certifications: EA, CPA in process
Education: BBA Accounting, MS Accountancy
Experience (years): 10 years accounting and tax experience
Work experience: 8+ years in public accounting
- Tax return preparation and review experience
- Accounting, payroll, and financial reporting for SMBs with $5m+ revenue
- Led and trained staff of 4 associates
Client niches: Professional Services, Construction, Real Estate, Retail, HNWIs, Hospitality
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, ProSeries, UltraTax, ProFiler, Accounting CS, Creative Solutions Accounting, GoSystems, Caseware, ProFiler System, File Cabinet
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $92k
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax Senior / Manager | Candidate ID #22169343

Certifications: CPA
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 10 years accounting and tax experience
Work experience (detail): 5+ years with a Big 4 firm
- 4 years in financial services
- Led a tax team and redesigned internal processes
- Builds firm and client reporting and filing technology
- SMBs, C-Corps, Partnerships, Hedge Funds, Private Equity
Client niches: Real Estate, Pharma, Healthcare, Financial Services
Tech Stack: QuickBooks, OneSource, Freetaxusa, Alteryx, Tableau, Python, Full Stack
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $150k, flexible, open to incentives
Time Zone: Eastern
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AUDIT CANDIDATE

FTE Audit Senior / Manager | Candidate ID # 22577841

- Certifications: CPA
- Education: BS Accounting, MBA Accounting
- Experience (years): 5+ years in public accounting.
- Work experience: 5 years with a Big 4 firm
  - 2+ leading complex audit engagements
  - Client contact, planning, team tasking, reporting
  - Prepared training sessions for firm
- Client niches: Government, Healthcare, Financial Services
- Tech Stack: Vantage, PowerPoint, Tableau, Alteryx
- Remote Work Experience: Y
- Salary: $110k
- Time Zone: Eastern
- Sign up to learn more about this candidate

Don’t miss the complete list of top remote accounting, tax, audit, and project-based candidates available weekly! Sign up now to find your next hire.

About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | October 10, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | October 3, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 14:30:00 +0000

Are you having trouble finding remote accountants, CAS experts, auditors, or tax professionals for your firm or internal team? Accountingfly can assist you!

With our Always-On Recruiting service, you can access a pool of top remote accounting candidates without any upfront costs.

Sign up now to view the complete candidate list and connect with potential hires.

ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Accounting and Audit Senior/Manager | Candidate ID # 22561641

Certifications: CPA
Education: BBA Accounting and Finance
Experience (years): 15+ years of experience in audit, accounting and finance
Work experience(detail): 6 years in public accounting
- Director level in Accounting Services
- Managed staff of up to 8 in both US and offshore
- Created and delivered training and assessments programs
Client niches: Manufacturing, Nonprofit, CPG, Financial Services, SaaS, Retail, Legal, Construction, Hedge Funds
Tech Stack: SAP, Oracle, Dynamics 365, NetSuite, QuickBooks, Sage, Blackbaud
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $120k
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Accounting | Candidate ID #22480507

Certifications: Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor
Education: AA Accounting
Experience (years): 4+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently an Associate for a public accounting firm
- Outsourced client accounting services
- Trains and reviews work of accounting team
- Analysis of client’s catalog product costs
Client niches: ecommerce, Retail, Services
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Netsuite, Bill.com, Gusto, Veem, Divvy, Brex, Expensify
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $65k – $75k
Time Zone: Mountain
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FTE Accounting | Candidate ID #18101894

Certifications: QBO ProAdvisor in process, CPA in process
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 6+ years of accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a Staff Accountant at a public firm
- Multiple client bookkeeping and accounting
- Client advisory and planning
- Prepares and reviews returns
Client niches: Retail, Services, Hospitality
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Gusto, UltraTax, Drake, CCH, ATX
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $70 – $80k
Time Zone: Eastern
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TAX AND ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID # 22066257

Certifications: EA, Compliance and Representation Certified
Education: AA Business
Experience (years): 30 years accounting and tax experience
Work experience (detail): 20 years in public accounting
- Preparation and review of tax returns
- Tax planning strategies,advising, research
- Financial reporting
- Management of staff, training and development
- Accounting and bookkeeping skills
- New business development and cross selling of firm services
Client niches: Healthcare, Construction, Retail, Technology, UHNWI, Partnerships,Trusts
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Pro Series, Lacerte, Ultra Tax, Drake
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $70k
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting Senior / Manager | Candidate ID # 22568084

Certification: EA, CPA
Education: BSBA Accounting, MBA Accounting
Experience (years): 9 years experience in accounting and tax
Work experience (detail): 7 years in public accounting
- Prep and review of returns
- Manages tax engagements from inception to completion
- Manages accounting functions: payroll, financial statements, bookkeeping
- Tax planning, advisory services, research and estimates
Client niches: Construction, Real Estate, Pro Athletes, Manufacturing, Distribution, HNWI
Tech Stack: QuickBooks, CCH Axcess Tax, ProSeries fx, Engagement, UltraTax, Planner CS, Fixed Assets, TValue, Lacerte
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $125k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax and Accounting Senior | Candidate ID #22520741

Certifications: EA in process
Education: BS Business, MA Accounting and Finance
Experience (years): 10+ years tax and accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a Tax Accountant at a CPA firm
- Experience preparing tax returns start to finish
- Reviews returns prepared by peers
- Client year-end clean up and workpapers
Client niches: Financial Services, Medical Practices, Professional Services, Real Estate, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, UltraTax, LaCerte, Drake
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $90k – $95k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE/PTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #19955187

Education: BS Management, Accounting Certificate
Experience (years): 10 years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently an Accountant at a public firm
- Reviews bookkeeping team process
- Preparation of complex individual and business returns
- Payroll experience
Client niches: Construction, Hospitality, Hospitality, Retail, Agriculture
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Bill.com, Square, Shopify
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $30/hour part time, or $62k annual for full-time
Time Zone: Mountain
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PROJECT-BASED / FREELANCE TALENT

Freelance Contractor Tax and Advisory | Candidate ID #16399469

Certifications: CPA, CFP (inactive)
Education: BA Statistics, MS Accounting
Experience (years): 16+ years in public accounting
Work experience (detail): 10+ years tax preparation and review
- Operated an advisory firm with 100+ HNWI clients
- Client advisory and planning
- Combined wealth management and tax planning
Client niches: HNWIs, SMBs, S-Corps, Partnerships, Estates, Real Estate
Tech Stack: QuickBooks, UltraTax, ProSystems fx, Drake, Lacerte
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $100/hour, flexible, open to project pricing
Time Zone: Pacific
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Freelance Contractor Tax and Advisory | Candidate ID #5312435

Certifications: QB ProAdvisor, CPA
Education: BS Computer Science, BS Accounting and Finance, MBA
Experience (years): 30+ years accounting, finance and tax
Work experience (detail): Operating own practice
- 7+ years managing a billion dollar portfolio
- Contract projects with national CPA firms
- HNWIs with multiple lines of business
Client niches: Real Estate, Retail, ecommerce, Hospitality, Professional Services, Construction
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Drake, Lacerte, UltraTax, Axcess
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $100/hour, flexible, open to project pricing
Time Zone: Eastern
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Freelance Contractor Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22505067

Certifications: CPA
Education: BBA Accounting
Experience (years): 14 years experience
Work experience (detail): 12 in public accounting
- Full cycle accounting and financial reporting
- SMBs, Partnerships, S and C Corps
- Led a small tax team for a regional firm
- Client advisory, preparation and review
Client niches: Oil & Gas, Retail, ecommerce, Real Estate, Medical Practices, Law Practices, Hospitality, Services
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Lacerte, GoSystems, ProSeries, CCH Axcess, Engagement, Sage
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $100/hour, flexible, open to project pricing
Time Zone: Central
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Freelance Contractor Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #20011508

Certifications: CPA
Education: BS Accounting, MS Accounting, MS MIS
Experience (years): 20+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 12+ in public accounting
- Full cycle accounting, financial reporting
- Audits and reviews, GAAP
- 12+ tax seasons filing experience
Client niches: Real Estate, Manufacturing, Hospitality, Transportation, Professional Services, Medical Practices, Retail, ecommerce, HNWIs
Tech Stack: QuickBooks, Accounting CS, Lacerte, ProSeries, UltraTax, ProSystems fx, ATX, Oracle DBA, SQL, PL/SQL
Remote Work Experience: Y
Comp Goal: $75/hour, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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Don’t miss the complete list of top remote accounting, tax, audit, and project-based candidates available weekly! Sign up now to find your next hire.

About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | October 3, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | September 26, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 15:02:00 +0000

Are you struggling to find remote accountants, CAS experts, auditors, or tax professionals for your firm or internal team? Accountingfly can help! With our Always-On Recruiting service, access a pool of top remote accounting candidates without any upfront costs. Sign up now to see the complete candidate list and connect with potential hires.

ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE/PTE Accounting | Candidate ID #22552637

Education: AA Accounting
Experience (years): 25+ years of accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently with a CPA firm
- Supervisor of bookkeeping team
- Manages client list, accounting, financials, advisory
- Onboarding clients and software conversions
Client niches: Retail, ecommerce, Healthcare, Hospitality
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, NetSuite, Expensify, Gusto, ADP, Paylocity, Square
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $37-$40/hour or $65- $70k annual
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Accounting Senior / Manager | Candidate ID #22531747

Certifications: CPA
Education: BBA and BS Accounting
Experience (years): 4+ years experience
Work experience (detail): 4+ in public accounting
- Supervises a team of 7+ associates
- Led the software transition for an acquired firm
- Prepares nonprofit Form 990s
Client niches: Services, Suppliers, Healthcare, Govt-funded Entities, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Engagement, CaseWare, TeamMate Analytics
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $115k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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TAX AND ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Tax and Accounting Senior / Manager | Candidate ID #22519994

Certifications: EA
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 10+ years tax and accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a Tax and Accounting Manager at a CPA firm
- Tax team filed 400 returns last tax season
- Preparation, review and resolution experience
- Client-facing, onboarding, tax advisory
Client niches: Real Estate, Transportation, Construction, Retail, Agriculture, Medical Practices, Hospitality
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, ATX, Drake, TaxPro, ProSeries, Lacerte
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $70k+
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax & Accounting | Candidate ID #20587538

Certifications: CPA in progress
Education: BSBA, MS Accounting
Experience (years): 4+ years experience
Work experience: 2+ years in public accounting
- 2 years in an audit and tax role
- 200 returns prepared during 2024 tax season
- Financial review and year-end workpapers
Client niches: Manufacturing, Retail, Services, Healthcare, Construction, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QuickBooks, QBO, Drake, UltraTax, CCH Engagement, Sage
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $75k with benefits
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #20719780

- Certifications: Xero Certified, CPA Candidate
- Education: BS, MS Accountancy
- Experience (years): 8+ years of accounting experience
- Work experience (detail): 7+ as Senior Accountant with a CPA firm
  - Tax preparation of both individual and business returns
  - Payroll experience
  - Client facing, financial reviews and tax preparation
- Client niches: Construction, Hospitality, Law Practices, Services, Marketing
- Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Gusto, ADP, automatic bank feeds
- Remote Work Experience: Y
- Salary: $70-$80k
- Time Zone: Eastern
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Don’t miss the complete list of top remote accounting, tax, audit, and project-based candidates available weekly! Sign up now to find your next hire.

About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | September 26, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

CEOs Surveyed By KPMG Feel a Full Return to Office is Imminent

Going Concern News Desk — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 20:22:27 +0000

KPMG has released their CEO Outlook report for 2024 [PDF] and we’ll be completely honest, we couldn’t care less about half of this crap. Economic outlook? Pfft. Generative AI? *jerking motion* Call us when companies are actually using it in earnest and not just telling survey takers they plan to invest in it.

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.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | September 19, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 15:05:16 +0000

TAX AND ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #15191471

Certifications: EA in progress
Education: BA Accounting
Experience (years): 7+ years tax and accounting experience in public accounting
Work experience (detail): Leads a team of 5+ tax professionals
- Preparation and review of more complex tax returns
- Client account leadership and advisory
- Foreign entities/US non-residents
Client niches: SMBs, Partnerships, HNWIs, S and C Corps
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, ProSeries, ProSystems fx Tax, Engagement and Planning, CreativeSolutions, Fixed Assets CS, T-value
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: A remote senior tax role with year-round client planning and advisory, with CPA support
Salary: $86k – $90k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22528116

Certifications: CPA
Education: BS Accounting, MS Accounting
Experience (years): 10 years of accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 7 years tax experience in public accounting
- Preparation, review and final sign off
- Exchanges, allocations, cost segregations, partnership agreements
- Consolidated corporate returns both US and foreign subsidiaries
Client niches: Retail, Wholesale, Technology, Medical Practices, Construction, Law Firms, Consultants, Entertainment, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, NetSuite, Restaurant365, Xero, Lacerte, Proconnect, ProSystems fx, CCH Axcess, Drake, Paychex, ADP, Gusto
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: A senior level role with career growth and partner potential
Salary: $100k – $120k
Time Zone: Pacific
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22510988

Education: College courses and OJT
Experience (years): 12+ years of experience in public accounting
Work experience (detail): Currently a Full Charge Bookkeeper in a CPA firm
- Multiple client payroll experience
- Supervisory experience
- Prepares 40+ tax returns per season, S Corps and Individuals
Client niches: Services, Construction, Law Firms, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Creative Solutions, Sage, Drake
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: A senior role with client bookkeeping, tax preparation and financial reporting
Salary: $70k
Time Zone: Central
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ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Accounting | Candidate ID #5402792

Certifications: QuickBooks ProAdvisor, EA in progress
Education: BA Accounting
Experience (years): 15+ years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a Controller at an outsourced accounting firm
- Experience cleaning up client accounts
- Supervising and reviewing the work of a team, with offshore bookkeepers
- This past tax season prepared 25+ tax returns
Client niches: Hospitality, Food Processing, Construction Materials, Medical Practices, Retail
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Drake, UltraTax, TurboTax, Lacerte, BILL.com, Gusto, Method, Shopify
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: Seeking an opportunity with a modern accounting firm with career growth
Salary: $70k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Accounting Senior / Manager | Candidate ID #22531747

Certifications: CPA
Education: BBA and BS Accounting
Experience (years): 4+ years experience
Work experience (detail): 4+ in public accounting
- Supervises a team of 7+ associates
- Led the software transition for an acquired firm
- Prepares nonprofit Form 990s
Client niches: Services, Suppliers, Healthcare, Govt-funded Entities, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Engagement, CaseWare, TeamMate Analytics
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: New challenges and experiences, professional growth
Salary: $115k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Accounting Manager | Candidate ID #22493032

Certifications: CPA
Education: BBA Management, Accounting Certificate
Experience (years): 20+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 12+ public accounting
- Accounting and financial reporting for government entities
- 8+ years with Big 4 firms
- 4+ tax seasons in public accounting
Client niches: Government, Technology, Construction, Services, Nonprofit
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, UltraTax, Drake, Deltek, Costpoint, Cognos, SAP
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: Account Manager in public accounting with new challenges
Salary: $140k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Accounting | Candidate ID #18541602

Certifications: Quickbooks ProAdvisor
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 8+ years of total experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a Senior Accountant with a CPA firm
- Leads a team of two staff accountants
- Prepares new client business setups and onboarding
- Year end workpapers and learning tax preparation
Client niches: eCommerce, Services, Manufacturing, Medical Practices, Construction
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Bill.com, Shopify, Amazon, BigCommerce
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: A career growth position as an Accounting Supervisor or Manager
Salary: $85k+
Time Zone: Central
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FTE / PT Accounting | Candidate ID #17057581

Certifications: Quickbooks Online ProAdvisor
Education: BA
Experience (years): 10+ years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): Currently an Onboarding Specialist at an accounting firm
- New client onboarding experience with QB / Xero conversions
- Review of junior associates
- Experience cleaning up client accounts
Client niches: Law firms, Services, Construction, Marketing, Medical Practices
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, ADP, Gusto, Paycom, Stripe, Shopify, Heartland, Schedulicity, BILL, HubDoc
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: A remote full-charge bookkeeper position with a modern firm
Salary: $60k or $30/hour part-time
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Senior Accountant, Nonprofits | Candidate ID #18499161

Education: BBA, Accounting
Experience (years): 7 years experience
Work experience (detail): 3+ years directing a nonprofit
- 2 years forensic accounting
- Audit projects in public accounting
- Led accounting and finance functions
Client niches: Nonprofit, Government
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, ProSystems, Engagement
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: A full cycle accounting role with new challenges and learning opportunities
Salary: $80k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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Don’t miss the complete list of top remote accounting, tax, audit, and project-based candidates available weekly! Sign up now to find your next hire.

About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | September 19, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

KPMG Is Ditching 38,000 Square Feet in San Francisco

Going Concern News Desk — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 16:35:18 +0000

As reported by San Francisco Chronicle, KPMG is downsizing its San Francisco office space when its lease runs out at 55 2nd Street where the firm occupies 138,000 square feet.

Image: Google

Wrote SFC:

The deal comes after KPMG in March moved to extend its lease at its current office at 55 Second St., which it has occupied since 2003, on a short-term basis of less than three years. Its future home is located two blocks south, near Salesforce Park.

“Our planned move not only reaffirms our longstanding commitment to the city of San Francisco but also demonstrates our dedication to investing in both our people and capabilities to deliver the most innovative solutions to our clients,” said KPMG’s Chris Cimino, a managing partner in San Francisco, in a statement. “This new building, including nearly 100,000 square feet of space for our teams, will provide a superior in-office experience and foster collaboration and creativity.”

The new office will be 100,000 square feet at 505 Howard St, pictured here on Google Street View:

Look how much cleaner those curbs are at the new spot. We wouldn’t recommend eating off of them — it’s San Francisco after all — but they sure are surprisingly sparkly for downtown.

A spokesperson told the paper the new, smaller space is “consistent with market trends” and “best suited for our people and our clients.”

As far as we know, most of KPMG is operating a roughly 3-day in office hybrid model. The 1,000 people working at KPMG San Francisco will be building neighbors with Intuit, who will be taking possession of about 36,500 square feet in January 2025.

Terms of the lease weren’t disclosed.

Bonus Google reviews of KPMG San Francisco since we happened to be on Google Maps anyway:

KPMG is downsizing its San Francisco office. Here’s where the accounting giant is moving [San Francisco Chronicle]

The post KPMG Is Ditching 38,000 Square Feet in San Francisco appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | September 12, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 19:05:57 +0000

TAX AND ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22480782

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BA Accounting, MS Accounting / Taxation
Experience (years): 15+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 10+ in public accounting
- Prepares 300+ returns per season
- Full cycle accounting experience
- State and local tax filing
Client niches: Construction, Retail, Hospitality, Real Estate, Medical Practices, Manufacturing
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Sage, UltraTax, CCH Axcess, Drake, Lacerte, SurePrep
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $57k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22421873

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BBA Accounting
Experience (years): 12+ years public accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a Senior Tax Accountant
- Full cycle accounting experience
- Prepared 90+ Federal returns, half for SMB clients
- Supported the firm’s transition to cloud accounting
Client niches: Hospitality, Construction, Medical Practices, Retail, Services
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Canopy, Gusto, Drake, CCH Axcess, PayrollMate
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $85k – $90k
Time Zone: Pacific
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID # 22519174

Education: BA Accounting, MS Finance
Experience (years): 8 years tax and accounting experience
Work experience: 5+ years in public accounting
- 3 years tax preparation
- Accounting, bookkeeping and financial reporting
- Sales and use tax and payroll tax prep and filing
Client niches: Real Estate, Hospitality, Services
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, CCH, Lacerte, Intuit, Drake
Remote: Y
Salary: $85k – $90k
Time Zone: Pacific
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TAX CANDIDATE

FTE Senior Tax Accountant | Candidate ID #22509763

Certifications: CFE, CPA
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): Over 4 years tax and audit experience
Work experience: 3+ years in public accounting
- Preparation and review of 280+ tax returns
- Experience working more complex returns
- Audit, accounting, payroll experience
Supervision of staff
Client niches: HNWIs, Construction, Real Estate
Tech Stack: QuickBooks, ProSeries, Sage, SMART Practice
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $100k – $120k
Time Zone: Eastern
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AUDIT CANDIDATE

FTE Audit Senior / Manager | Candidate ID # 21255718

Certification: CPA
Education: BBA Accounting, MS Accounting
Experience (years): 10+ years accounting and audit experience
Work experience (detail): 4+ years in public accounting
- Audit Manager with a team of 6+ Associates
- Compilation, review of financial statements both domestic and international
- Strong client relationships / 100% client retention
Client niches: Manufacturing, Oil and Gas, Renewables, Logistics, Healthcare, Software, Consumer Products, Industrial Products, Utilities, Nonprofits, Government
Tech Stack: Voyager Suite, Leap, Levvia, Omnia, Icount, Iconfirm, QuickBooks, Bill.com
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $120k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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PART-TIME / FREELANCE / PROJECT TALENT

PT Accounting, Tax and Training | Candidate ID #8646588

Certifications: CPA, EA, QB ProAdvisor
Education: BS BA, MBA
Experience (years): 25+ years accounting and tax
Work experience (detail): 20+ in own accounting practice
- 7 tax seasons with CPA firm
- Corporate Controller level industry experience
- Adjunct professor and online instructor
Client niches: SMBs, Partnerships, Medical Equipment, Manufacturing, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Drake, Lacerte, ProSeries, Sage50, PeopleSoft
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $100/hr, flexible, project pricing
Time Zone: Eastern
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PT Accounting, Audit, Tax | Candidate ID #18684409

Certifications: AICPA Nonprofit Certification, CPA
Education: BS Accounting, MA Accounting
Experience (years): 20+ years accounting
Work experience (detail): 9+ years in public accounting
- Outsourced accounting, financial reporting, audit projects
- 7 years accounting leadership roles in nonprofit organizations
- Own practice, performing contract assignments for CPA firms
Client niches: Nonprofits, Education, Community Development
Tech Stack: QuickBooks, ProSystems fx, Engagement, UltraTax, Sage, Peachtree, CCH Tax Research, Creative Solutions, Sage, Raiser’s Edge (nonprofit fundraising CRM)
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $100/hr, flexible, project pricing
Time Zone: Eastern
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Don’t miss the complete list of top remote accounting candidates available weekly! Sign up now to find your next hire.

About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | September 12, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

PwC Isn’t Used to Being Called Desperate But Here We Are

Adrienne Gonzalez — Tue, 10 Sep 2024 17:18:32 +0000

The news broke last week that PwC UK would start requiring its people in the office or at a client site for at least three days a week. Shortly after that came the extra detail that to ensure compliance with the policy, PwC would be gathering location data, including it in billable hour stats the firm already provides to its employees and passing this data along to career coaches. Comply or else was the message, even if PwC tried to wrap it up in flowery language about the importance of face-to-face working in “a people business” like theirs.

“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,” wrote PwC UK Managing Partner Laura Hinton in a memo to PwC’s 26,000 people last week. “This will help to ensure that the new policy is being fairly and consistently applied across our business.” Uh huh. We trust you, Laura.

Reaction to this news has been plentiful across the mediasphere. And not particularly positive:

Is Workplace Trust Dead? A ‘Big Four’ Firm Will Soon Use Location Data to Track Employees [Entrepreneur]

PwC is ‘tipping the balance’ of hybrid working and will start tracking its workers’ locations [Fortune]

PwC tells employees it will use location data to police ‘back-to-office’ rule [CNN]

This one from Inc. is especially interesting: Companies Such as PwC Are Now Tracking Employee Location to Enforce RTO, and It Could Backfire

Writes Chris Morris:

Tracking employee location data is a new way of enforcing RTO policies–and it’s not one without some accuracy risks. The trend of coffee badging has been on the rise this year, where employees scan their badge and go into the office, but only stay long enough to grab a cup of coffee and maybe attend one meeting before leaving early.

…

There’s also the very real potential problem of employees resenting being tracked so closely–and so clinically. (Some 28 percent of employees said they would “consider quitting if RTO policies occurred at their company,” according to the report from human resources software company BambooHR.) That could give an advantage to small businesses and startups that offer employees more flexibility, particularly when it comes to hiring.

Chris, we’re going to have to tell you something. PwC wants people to quit. The King’s PwC tried to get as many as 600 people to quit so they wouldn’t have to lay them off late last year and as recently as June it told a group of “voluntarily separated” individuals they should fib in their farewell emails to colleagues to make it sound like it was fully their decision to leave this wonderful firm at which they’ve learned so much and met so many great people.

PwC UK, like Big 4 firms closer to home, is being hit with a trifecta of issues: Overhiring a few years ago when everyone started panicking about shortages, a significant decrease in demand for certain advisory services, and higher-than-expected attrition. That last one is important. The business model has a certain amount of turnover baked in and when not enough people leave, it’s either layoffs (or, in PwC’s case, “voluntary separations” which are just layoffs with a better severance package and without icky headlines about layoffs) or you make people hate their job so much they leave. It is quite clear to us PwC is engaged in the latter. The firm not only couldn’t care less if people leave due to this policy change, they want them to leave.

Anyway, Kate Andrews at The Telegraph covered this issue as well and went so far to say PwC is desperate. In ‘The full costs of telling people to work from home are only now becoming clear’ she writes:

“We’re in a war for talent, because we’re busy,” Kevin Ellis, the then-UK chairman of the “big four” accounting firm, told The Times in the summer 2021. Rather than penalise employees for working from home, PwC would try to avoid the threat of pay cuts other companies were making. “A lot of other businesses with the same skills that we need are busy,” he told the newspaper. “I think that’s not something to consider at this stage.”

That stage in the process has come and gone. Three years later, PwC is not only mandating its staff spend more hours in the office and face-to-face with clients, it plans to keep track of them too.

Even the greatest advocates of office working might find this a bit much. It’s one thing to issue instructions to your workbase. It’s a much bigger, rather Orwellian step to physically track them, seemingly to make sure they’re following orders.

From some angles, this might look like a power move from the firm. But it appears, to me anyway, to be an act of desperation.

She goes on to describe a breakdown of trust, implying that PwC sucks at managing a hybrid workforce (probably at least a little true) and this is how they’re going to manage it.

It seems highly unlikely that PwC’s new policy is going to improve trust and goodwill between the company and its employees, which raises the question – why go ahead with this policy? When PwC took the light-touch approach three years ago, it made a record-breaking profit of £1.2bn, achieved with the vast majority of its staff working from home. Yet last autumn it was reported that PwC’s growth was lagging behind its competitors in the previous financial year.

PwC revenues are due any day now and it’s unclear if partners will once again be taking a hit but we’re going to assume yes given recent decisions, keeping in mind that slower growth is considered a hit. The firm’s 1,000 or so partners took home £906,000 ($1.2 million USD) last year, down from £1 million ($1.3 million) in 2022. In 2019, that number was £765,000 ($999,608). Partners are like vicious dogs with miswired brains, once they taste flesh — in this case, million dollar years — they will crave it. They will do whatever they have to do to get it.

Things have changed since 2021. A lot. Business is slow, people aren’t leaving, and there’s a lot of dead weight sitting on the payroll. RTO mandates are intended to make people quit, RTO mandates with a side of Orwellian tracking will get the job done faster and more effectively.

All without the icky layoff headlines. PwC may or may not be desperate but it’s not for the reason she thinks.

PwC UK Orders the Troops Back to the Office For Three or More Days a Week (UPDATE)

Going Concern News Desk — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 23:34:15 +0000

Staff and partners at PwC UK were informed today that they are expected to work in the office or at a client site a minimum of three days a week, reports Bloomberg. Former senior partner Kevin Ellis, who retired in June after 40 years at the firm, tried the RTO carrot many times over the past several years, suggesting that if people want to get ahead they’ll want to show their faces at the office lest they be replaced by AI. Well, now the firm is going for the stick.

“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.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | September 5, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 15:40:16 +0000

TAX AND ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22410136

Certifications: CPA
Education: BS Accounting, MBA
Experience (years): 15+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a Tax Senior at a CPA firm
- Experience with expense planning for S-corps
- Filed 150+ SMB and individual tax returns last season
- Tax planning and client advisory
- Reviews work of accounting team, including offshore
Client niches: Medical Practices, Entertainment, Real Estate, Construction
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Lacerte, ProSeries fx, Sage, Onvio, CCH, Karbon
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $87k+
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID # 20139528

Certifications: EA
Education: BA
Experience (years): 8+ years of overall accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 5 tax seasons filing experience
- Reviewed 100+ individual returns last tax season
- Tax resolution and advisory experience
- State and local tax experience
Client niches: Retail, Services, Real Estate, Construction, Transportation
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, UltraTax, ProSeries
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $90k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Senior Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID # 22351399

Certifications: EA
Education: BA Accounting, MS Accounting
Experience (years): 7+ years of business experience
Work experience: 3+ in public accounting
- Prepares more complex returns
- Tax planning, research, client advisory
- General accounting, payroll and bookkeeping
Client niches: Cryptocurrency, Entertainment, Hospitality, Construction, Real Estate, Medical Practices, Professional Services, Aviation
Tech Stack: QuickBooks, ADP, Drake, Banner
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $100k – $110k
Time Zone: Central
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FTE/PTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #19573445

Education: AAS Accounting
Experience (years): 30 years tax and accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 20+ in public accounting
- Prepared 250+ returns in 2024, 60% individual and 40% business
- Experience with accounting clean up for multiple clients
- Supervisory experience
Client niches: Construction, Agriculture, Medical Practices, Hospitality, Retail, Nonprofit
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, UltraTax, Sage, RightNetworks
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $75k for full time, $55/hr part time or project work, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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TAX CANDIDATES

FTE Tax Accounting | Candidate ID #22242584

Certifications: EA in process
Education: BBA Accounting
Experience (years): 2 years experience in tax preparation
Work experience (detail): Currently a Tax Associate at a CPA firm
- Tax preparation for HNWIs and trusts
- Supports preparation of large C-Corp returns
- Prepares quarterly tax estimates and planning
Client niches: Nonprofit, Hospitality, Manufacturing, Biotech, Technology
Tech Stack: QBO, CCH Axcess, UltraTax
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $70k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax Accounting | Candidate ID #17625794

Certifications: CPA
Education: BBA, Accounting
Experience (years): 15+ years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): Operated a CPA practice
- Experienced with S and C Corps, SMBs, Partnerships
- New client accounts clean up and financial reporting
- Client relationship management
Client niches: Startups, Services, Construction, Transportation
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Drake, E2 Shop-Tech, NetSuite, MYOB, Peachtree
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $70k – $80k
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax Senior / Manager | Candidate ID # 22498284

Certifications: CPA
Education: BS Accounting, MBA
Experience (years): 25+ years in public accounting
Work experience: Tax Manager with a national practice
- Preparation and review of tax returns
- Works complex tax returns to include UHNWI
- Manages client relationship and tax engagements
- Managed up to 10 staff
Client niches: Nonprofits, Real Estate, Property Management, Construction, Manufacturing
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, CCH Axcess, Workflow, Practice Management
Remote: Y
Goals: Remote senior / manager tax role with a growing practice and new challenges
Salary: $120k – $130k
Time Zone: Eastern
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About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | September 5, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | August 29, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 12:35:00 +0000

ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Accounting | Candidate ID #22164759

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BA and MA Accounting
Experience (years): 20 years business experience
Work experience (detail): 6+ in public accounting
- Provides accounting services for multiple clients
- Payroll processing and tax filing
- Prepares Federal filings for SMBs, S-Corps and Trusts
Client niches: Medical Practices, Law firms, Retail, Transportation, Real Estate
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, UltraTax, AppFolio, FixedAssets
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Accounting Senior / Manager | Candidate ID #22056820

Certifications: QuickBooks ProAdvisor
Education: BA and MS Accountancy
Experience (years): 6+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 4+ in public accounting
- 2+ years managing an accounting team
- 14+ full cycle accounting clients
- New client set up, processes and procedures
Client niches: Retail, ecommerce, SaaS, SMBs
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Shopify, Gusto, TaxJar, StripeWorx, Paypal
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $110k, flexible
Time Zone: Pacific
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TAX AND ACCOUNTING CANDIDATE

FTE Senior Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #21979410

Education: BBA Accounting
Experience (years): 9+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 2+ years with current firm
- Senior Accountant with 20+ full cycle accounting clients
- Prepared 300+ and reviewed 100+ Federal returns in 2024
- Filed sales and payroll taxes in multiple states
Client niches: Construction, Energy, Healthcare, Professional Services
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Wave, Sage, ADP, Gusto, Paychex, iSolved
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $70k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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TAX CANDIDATES

FTE Tax Accountant | Candidate ID #17358021

Certifications: EA
Education: OJT, AS Accounting
Experience (years): 10+ years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a Tax Senior / EA with a CPA firm
- Tax planning, advisory and resolution experience
- Prepared and reviewed 250+ returns
- State, local and international tax filing
Client niches: Healthcare, Banking, Medical Practices, Retail, Hospitality
Tech Stack: Lacerte, UltraTax, ProSeries, Drake, BlockWorks
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $70k +
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax Senior / Manager | Candidate ID #22218865

Certifications: CPA
Education: BS and MA Accountancy
Experience (years): 4+ years accounting and tax experience
Work experience (detail): 5 tax seasons in public accounting
- 150+ clients, 80% review in 2024
- Tax planning and advisory for HNWIs
- Leading team of 4+ tax associates
Client niches: Real Estate Partnerships, SMBs, Medical Practices, Retail, eCommerce, Digital Media & Marketing
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Accounting CS, Fixed Assets, UltraTax CS, Lacerte, Drake
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $115k – $120k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax Accountant | Candidate ID #20515352

Certifications: CPA Candidate
Education: BS Finance
Experience (years): 6+ years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): Tax Senior with a national firm
- Preparation and review experience
- Financial statements, year end workpapers
- Estimated payments, tax notice responses
Client niches: Healthcare, Real Estate, Private Equity, Hospitality, Oil & Gas
Tech Stack: QBO, CCH, ProSystems, OneSource
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k – $90k
Time Zone: Central
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AUDIT CANDIDATE

FTE Audit and Accounting | Candidate ID #22210682

Certifications: CPA and EA in process
Education: BS Taxation and Accounting
Experience (years): 8 years of accounting, audit and tax experience
Work experience: 7+ years of public accounting experience
- Led audit, review and compilation projects
- Managerial experience, teams of 4 professionals
- Financial statements, GL, A/P, A/R, payroll and tax preparation
Client niches: Government, Nonprofits, Hospitality, Construction
Tech Stack: QB/QBO/Payroll, Ultratax, Accounting CS, Drake
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $95k+
Time Zone: Eastern
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PART-TIME / FREELANCE / PROJECT TALENT

PT Freelance Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #17620351

- Certifications: CPA
- Education: BBA Accounting and Finance
- Experience (years): 20+ years tax experience
  - 10+ years with Big 4 firms
  - 4 years with boutique firms
  - Tax research, planning, advisory
  - Business development, practice growth
- Client niche: UHNWIs, Private Equity, Hedge Funds, International, Consumer Products, Real Estate, Financial Services, Family Office, Professional Services
- Tech Stack: GoSystem, ProSystems, Axcess, BNA Income Tax Planner, CCH Tax Research, RIA Checkpoint, K-1 Suite
- Remote Work Experience: Y
- Salary: $175/hour, flexible depending on project scope
- Time Zone: Eastern
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Don’t miss the complete list of top remote accounting candidates available weekly! Sign up now to find your next hire.

About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | August 29, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | August 22, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 18:28:18 +0000

TAX AND ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22103110

Certifications: CPA Candidate
Education: BS, Accounting
Experience (years): 7+ years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): 6+ years with CPA firms
- Mentoring and training the accounting team
- Tax return preparation for individuals, SMBs and Nonprofits
- Prepared monthly, quarterly and annual financial statements
Client niches: Medical Practices, Real Estate, Construction, Agriculture
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Accounting CS, Lacerte, UltraTax
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting Senior | Candidate ID #22105553

Certifications: EA
Education: BS Accounting, BS Finance
Experience (years): 15+ years accounting and tax experience
Work experience (detail): 12+ years with one public firm
- Led a tax team of 5+ tax associates
- Federal, SALT and payroll tax preparation and review
- Full cycle accounting services
Client niches: SMBs, Healthcare, Medical Practices, Publishing, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Accounting CS, UltraTax, TaxWise, SurePrep, Onvio, Avalara
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $90k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting Senior |Candidate ID #22390262

Certifications: CPA
Education: BA Accounting, MS Accountancy
Experience (years): 5 years experience in accounting, audit and tax
Work experience: 4+ in public accounting
- Consolidated and multi-state corporate returns
- Preparation and review of tax returns
- Planned and conducted audit projects
- SALT filing in several jurisdictions
Client niches: Construction, Nonprofits, Professional services, Manufacturing
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Intuit TurboTax, ProSeries, ProSystems fx, Foundation, PeopleSoft
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $100k – $105k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax and Accounting Senior | Candidate ID #22059280

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BS Business Administration, MA Accountancy
Experience (years): 5+ years public accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 3+ with same firm
- Year end work papers and return preparation
- Full cycle accounting services for multiple clients
- Audit projects, compilations and reviews
Client niches: Real Estate, Construction, Medical Practices, Services, Retail, Transportation
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Ajera, UltraTax, Fixed Assets, Axcess
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $90k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax And Accounting | Candidate ID #19331317

Certifications: QuickBooks Pro Advisor, EA in process
Education: BS Business, Accounting
Experience (years): 30 years experience in the accounting industry
Work experience: 20+ years in public accounting
- 20+ years tax prep and review
- Leads team of 3 employees
- Tax planning, projections, and advisory
Client niches: SMBs, Services, Retail, Construction, Hospitality, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QBO, QBDT, ProSystem fx, UltraTax CS, Fixed Assets CS, FileCabinet CS
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax And Accounting | Candidate ID #22241936

Certifications: CPA in process
Education:BS Accounting
Experience (years): 5 years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a Senior Tax Associate
- Experience performing tax research and advising clients
- 4 tax seasons preparation, 1 season review experience
- SMBs, HNWIs, Nonprofits
Client niches: Agricultural, Retail, Manufacturing, Financial Services, Real Estate, Tech, Nonprofit
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, CCH Axcess Suite, Prosystem fx Suite, Bloomberg, Tax BNA
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $95k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax Senior Advisor / Manager | Candidate ID #22127023

Certifications: CPA, QB ProAdvisor
Education: BA Accounting, MBA Finance and Accounting
Experience (years): 20+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Current CPA firm for 10+ years
- Led a CPA firm with full cycle accounting and tax
- Prepares, reviews and files Federal, SALT
- SMB advisory, financial analysis, tax planning
Client niches: SMBs, HNWIs, S-Corps, Trusts
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, UltraTax, ProSystems fx, Creative Solutions, File Cabinet, FixedAssets, Banner, Cognos, Great Plains
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $180k, flexible, open to part time at $100/hr
Time Zone: Central
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ACCOUNTING CANDIDATE

FTE Senior Accounting | Candidate ID #22159381

Certifications: Xero Certified, QBD ProAdvisor, Bill.com Certified
Education: College courses, OJT
Experience (years): 20+ years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): Senior Associate for a remote accounting firm
- Reviews bookkeeper team’s work for multiple clients
- Accounting software implementation
- Led a 5+ member team in a fast-paced accounting office
Client niches: Medical Practices, Legal Practices, Property Management, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, TalentPro, BILL.com
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $70 – $80k
Time Zone: Eastern
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AUDIT AND FINANCIAL REPORTING CANDIDATE

FTE Senior Finance / Advisory | Candidate ID #5309626

Certifications: CPA
Education: BS BA Accounting
Experience (years): 7+ years accounting and finance
Work experience (detail): 4+ in public accounting
- Financial analysis, equity comp valuations
- SEC filing 10-K and 10-Q
- Calculation of footnote disclosures
Client niches: Real Estate, Car Rental, Manufacturing, Foundations, Technology
Tech Stack: QuickBooks, NetSuite, Oracle, UltraTax, ProSystems fx Engagement, CoStar Lease
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $135k
Time Zone: Eastern
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PART-TIME / FREELANCE / PROJECT TALENT

PTE / FTE Accounting | Candidate ID #21979484

Certifications: QBO ProAdvisor, Bill.com
Education: BS Business Administration, MBA in process
Experience (years): 8 years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): 5+ years public accounting experience
- Currently a Controller at an accounting firm
- Experience reviewing the work of others
- 2 years of bank accounting experience
Client niches: Retail, ecommerce, Restaurants, Banking.
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Bill.com, Gusto, ADP, Shopify, Amazon, Hubspot, Drake
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $70k for FTE, $25/hr PTE
Time Zone: Eastern
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PT Freelance Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #18295356

Certifications: CPA, CFP, CFA
Education: BS in Accountancy
Experience (years): 20 years accounting experience
- 8+ in public accounting
- 10+ in global investment operations
- Fund accounting $100m – $3b
Client niche: SMBs, C-Corps, LLCs, Real Estate, Partnerships, Investment funds
Tech Stack: UltraTax, Lacerte, Drake
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $50-$75/hr, depending on complexity
Time Zone: Central
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About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | August 22, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | August 15, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 19:37:47 +0000

ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Accounting | Candidate ID #22164769

Certifications: EA in process
Education: BS BA, MBA, MS Accountancy
Experience (years): 5+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Senior Accountant/Controller at an accounting firm
- Writing and implementing client SOPs
- Client-facing financial reviews
- Leads 5 staff accountants
Client niches: Retail, ecommerce, Construction, SaaS, Nonprofits, Hospitality
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Bill.com, Gusto, Paychex, Fathom, Shopify, Amazon, Square
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k – $85k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Accounting | Candidate ID #19804258

Certifications: QuickBooks and Xero Certified, Payroll Professional
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 15+ years accounting experience
- Currently an accounting and payroll manager
- Full cycle accounting for 12+ clients
- Month end close and financial reviews
Client niche: SMBs, Construction, Professional Services, BioTech
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Hubdoc, Bill.com, Paylocity
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $85k – $90k
Time Zone: Mountain
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FTE Accounting | Candidate ID #21961524

Certifications: QBO ProAdvisor, CPA in process
Education: BBA Accounting, MBA
Experience (years): 5 years of accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Senior Accountant with a public firm
- Reviews the work of 2 staff accountants
- Experience onboarding new clients
- Previous tax preparation experience
Client niches: CPG, SaaS, Retail, Restaurants, Medical Practices, Construction
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Bill.com, Gusto, Ramp
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k – $90k
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Accounting | Candidate ID #17590754

Certifications: Certified QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor
Education: BSAccounting
Experience (years): 20+ years of experience
Work experience (detail): Cloud accounting firm Advisor/Staff Accountant
- Client-facing experience including client advisory work
- Experience setting up payroll
- Past experience with tax preparation
Client niches: Technology, Construction, Real Estate, Nonprofits, Retail, Medical Practices, Franchisees, Hospitality
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Expensify, Bill.com, Gusto, Restaurant 365, Sage Mas 90, Sage Business Works
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k – $100k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Senior Accounting | Candidate ID #19590184

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BBA Accounting
Experience (years): 8 in public accounting
Work experience (detail): Currently a Manager with a public accounting firm
- 7+ years at current firm
- Manages the accounting services relationship for 10+ clients
- Hands-on with client work and reviews team output
- Conducts tax planning, strategy and supports client transactions
Client niches: Hospitality, Restaurants, Franchisees
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Sage Intacct, Bill.com, Expensify, Proliant
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $100k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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TAX AND ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22207968

Certifications: EA in progress
Education: BS BA Accounting
Experience (years): 6 years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Tax preparation and accounting experience
- 3+ years in cost accounting in manufacturing
- In 2024 prepared 50+ tax individual and SMB returns, reviewed 20+
- Financial statement preparation
Client niches: Franchisees, Hospitality, Agriculture, Manufacturing
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Caseware, ADP, Lacerte, CCH Axcess, UltraTax, MFiles
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $70k – $75k
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Senior Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #17074960

Certifications: EA in progress, QB ProAdvisor
Education: BS Business Administration, MBA Accounting
Experience (years): 11 years of tax and accounting
Work experience: 8 years in public accounting
- Prepares and reviews tax returns
- Experienced with more complex returns
- Managed a team of 7+ staff accountants
- Tax planning, advisory, research and quarterly estimates
Client niches: HNWIs, SMBs, Entertainment, Real Estate, Healthcare, Professional Services
Tech Stack: Lacerte, ProConnect Tax, ProSeries, Drake, QB/QBO, UltraTax, Yardi
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $90k – $100k
Time Zone: Mountain
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FTE Senior Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22044344

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 10+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 10+ years in public accounting
- Averages 200 returns prepared per tax season
- Quarterly financials, SBA loan submittals
- Tax planning and advisory
Client niches: HNWIs, SMBs, Trusts, Nonprofits, Real Estate, Medical Practices
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Lacerte, ProSystems fx, Fixed Assets, Engagement, Document, ProSeries, PeopleSoft
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Accounting and Tax | Candidate ID #21994555

Certifications: CPA
Education: BBA Accounting, MS Accountancy
Experience (years): 10 years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a Staff Accountant with a CPA firm
- 7+ years in banking and heavy industry
- Full cycle accounting for SMB clients
- Tax filing and advisory services
Client niches: Services, Education, Retail, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Shopify, Square
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Senior / Manager Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #5312003

Certifications: CPA, Xero Advisor, Bill.com Certified
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 20+ years experience in accounting and tax
Work experience: 7 years public accounting
- Reviewed 200+ returns during 2024 tax season
- Strategic client tax and business advisory
- Led a tax team of 10 associates
Client niches: Professional Services, Real Estate, Construction, Retail, Healthcare
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Lacerte, Cerner, Xero, ProConnect Tax, Gusto, Bill.com, Asana, ZenDesk
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $100k+
Time Zone: Central
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TAX CANDIDATES

FTE Tax Senior | Candidate ID #17052104

Certifications: EA
Education: BA
Experience (years): 6+ years accounting and tax
Work experience (detail): 6 tax seasons in public accounting
- 2024 tax season performed 70% review
- Client facing and advisory
- SMBs, Startups, Partnerships, S-Corps
Client niches: Real Estate, Construction, Retail, ecommerce, Services
Tech Stack: QBO, Drake, CCH Suite, Axcess, Lacerte, UltraTax, Karbon, ClickUp, Trelllo, Zoom, Slack, Salesforce
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $85k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax Senior | Candidate ID #22155506

Certifications: EA in process
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 4+ years accounting and tax experience
Work experience (detail): 4+ in public accounting
- Managing tax matters for 150+ clients
- Financial analysis and reporting
- SMBs, Partnerships, S-Corps, HNWIs
Client niches: Medical Practices, Law Firms, Real Estate, Construction, Services, HNWIs
Tech Stack: QBO, UltraTax, Accounting CS
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $85k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax Senior / Manager | Candidate ID #20515152

Certifications: CPA
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 10+ accounting experience
Work experience: 9+ in public accounting
- Prep and review of more complex returns
- Advisory services, tax planning and strategies
- Managed staff of 3+ Associates
- Performed tax audits and negotiated with tax auditors
Client niches: Real Estate, Retail, Healthcare, Medical Practices, Professional Services.
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Lacerte, Drake, Proseries, UltraTax, QuickBooks, CaseWare
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $125k – $145k
Time Zone: Pacific
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FTE Tax Manager | Candidate ID # 21955903

Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 20+ years in tax and accounting
Work experience: 10+ years in public accounting
- 5+ years Tax Manager experience
- Prepares and reviews returns
- Team prepared 5,000+ returns this tax season
- Managed a team of 10
Client niches: HNWIs, SMBs, S-Corps, C-Corps
Tech Stack: Lacerte, UltraTax, QB, Peachtree
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $140k
Time Zone: Eastern
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AUDIT CANDIDATE

FTE Audit Senior / Manager | Candidate ID #19309370

- Certifications: QB Certified, CPA in process
- Education: BS Economics, MS Accountancy
- Experience (years): 8+ years of accounting and audit experience
- Work experience: 6+ years in public accounting
  - Prep, review and reconciliation of financial statements
  - Completed audits, reviews and compilations from start to finish
  - Managed up to 25 people
- Client niches: Construction, Healthcare, Retail, HNWIs, Real Estate, Agriculture, Nonprofits
- Tech Stack: CCH ProSystems fx Tax and Audit, Lacerte, Accounting CS, SMART Practice Aids
- Remote Work Experience: Y
- Salary: $90k – $110k
- Time Zone: Central
- Sign up to learn about this Candidate

Don’t miss the complete list of top remote accounting candidates available weekly! Sign up now to find your next hire.

About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | August 15, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | August 8, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 18:29:26 +0000

ACCOUNTING CANDIDATE

FTE Accounting Manager | Candidate ID #21968103

Certifications: CPA
Education: BSBA Accounting, MS Accounting
Experience (years): 12+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 4 years with a national firm
- 5+ years private equity, asset management
- 3+ years ecommerce with multiple entities
- 6+ years accounting management experience
Client niches: SaaS, ecommerce, Retail, Private Equity
Tech Stack: QBO, SAP, Bill.com, SalesForce, Brex, Carta (equity accounting), Expensify, Zenefits, Anorak (SALT for SaaS)
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $135k, flexible
Time Zone: Mountain
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TAX CANDIDATE

FTE Tax Accountant | Candidate ID #22103574

Education: BS Accounting, MS Taxation
Experience (years): 7 years tax experience
Work experience (detail): 5 years in public accounting
- Regional and small public firm experience
- Federal, state and local tax filing
- HNWIs, SMB, Partnerships, S-Corps, C-Corps
Client niches: Real Estate, Medical Practices, Professional Services, Retail, Construction
Tech Stack: QuickBooks, Axcess, ProSystem fx, Engagement, RIA CheckPoint, OneSource, BNA, Sage
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $85k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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AUDIT CANDIDATE

FTE Audit Senior / Manager | Candidate ID #21255718

Certification: CPA
Education: BBA Accounting, MS Accounting
Experience (years): 10+ years accounting and audit experience
Work experience (detail): 4+ years in public accounting
- Audit Manager with a team of 8 Associates
- Compilation, review of financial statements both domestic and international
- Strong client relationship / 100% client retention
Client niches: Manufacturing, Oil and Gas, Renewables, Logistics, Healthcare, Software, Consumer Products, Industrial Products, Utilities, Nonprofits, Government
Tech Stack: Voyager Suite, Leap, Levvia, Omnia, Icount, Iconfirm, QuickBooks, Bill.com
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $120k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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TAX AND ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Senior Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22067679

Certifications: Enrolled Agent, QBO ProAdvisor
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 11+ years tax experience
Work experience (detail): All in public accounting
- Client tax planning and advisory
- Year end workpapers through preparation
- Onboarding new clients and employees
Client niches: Agriculture, Retail, Hospitality, Real Estate, Manufacturing, Professional Services, Medical Practices
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, ProSystem fx, UltraTax, TaxAct
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $85k, flexible
Time Zone: Pacific
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FTE Senior Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22048986

Education: BBA Finance, MBA Finance
Experience (years): 16 years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 9 years in public accounting
- Full cycle accounting, financial reporting
- Year end work papers and tax preparation
- Filing of indirect tax in 25+ states and jurisdictions
Client niches: Manufacturing, Retail, Services, Real Estate, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Accounting CS, UltraTax, MiniTab, Peachtree
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $85k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Senior Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #20590604

Certification: Enrolled Agent
Education: BA Accounting, in process
Experience (years): 20+ years of accounting and tax experience.
Work experience (detail): 18+ years in public accounting
- Manages a book of business of tax and accounting clients
- Complex individual tax return preparation
- Financial reporting and advisory for SMB clients
Client niches: Retail, Services, Hospitality
Tech Stack: QuickBooks, UltraTax, Drake, TaxSlayer, TurboTax
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Senior Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #21979410

Education: BBA Accounting
Experience (years): 9+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 2+ years with current firm
- Senior Accountant with 20+ full cycle accounting clients
- Prepared 300+ and reviewed 100+ Federal returns in 2024
- Filed sales and payroll taxes in multiple states
Client niches: Construction, Energy, Healthcare, Professional Services
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Wave, Sage, ADP, Gusto, Paychex, iSolved
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $70k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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FTE/PTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #19573445

Education: AAS Accounting
Experience (years): 25+ years of tax and accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 18+ in public accounting
- Prepared 250+ returns in 2024, 60% individual and 40% business
- Experience with accounting systems clean up for multiple clients
- Supervisory experience
Client niches: Construction, Agriculture, Medical Practices, Hospitality, Retail, Nonprofit
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, UltraTax, Sage, RightNetworks
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $75k for full time, $55/hr part time or project work, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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Don’t miss the complete list of top remote accounting candidates available weekly! Sign up now to find your next hire.

About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | August 8, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | August 1, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 21:23:20 +0000

ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES
FTE Accounting Manager | Candidate ID #22056820
- Certifications: QuickBooks ProAdvisor
- Education: BA and MS Accountancy
- Experience (years): 6+ years accounting experience
- Work experience (detail): 4+ in public accounting
  - 2+ years managing an accounting team
  - 14+ full cycle accounting clients
  - New client set up creating processes and procedures
- Client niches: Retail, ecommerce, SaaS, SMBs
- Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Shopify, Gusto, TaxJar, StripeWorx, Paypal
- Remote Work Experience: Y
- Salary: $110k, flexible
- Time Zone: Pacific
- Sign up to learn about this Candidate
FTE Accounting/Bookkeeping | Candidate ID #22002309
- Education: BS Accounting
- Experience (years): 2+ years of accounting experience
- Work experience (detail): Currently a Staff Accountant with a CPA firm
  - Payroll experience
  - Audit projects and financial statement support
  - Full charge bookkeeping and clean up experience
- Client niches: Construction, Retail, Hospitality, Real Estate
- Tech Stack: QB/QBO
- Remote Work Experience: Y
- Salary: $60k
- Time Zone: Central
- Sign up to learn about this Candidate
FTE Accounting | Candidate ID # 22047325
- Education: OJT and college coursework
- Experience (years): 15 years accounting experience
- Work experience (detail): Leads a team of 12+ associates
  - Full cycle accounting for 30+ clients
  - Client facing experience
  - Past experience with tax preparation
- Client niches: SaaS, Technology, Services, Medical Practices
- Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Dext, Hubdoc, A2X, Shopify, ADP, Gusto, Jobber, HouseCall Pro, Inventory Labs
- Remote Work Experience: Y
- Salary: $80k, flexible
- Time Zone: Eastern
- Sign up to learn about this Candidate
FT Accounting/Bookkeeping | Candidate ID #22054456
- Education: BA Business Administration
- Experience (years): 5+ years accounting experience
- Work experience (detail): 4+ years full cycle accounting with a public firm
  - Monthly financial statements for 50+ clients
  - Payroll processing and tax filing for 200+ clients
  - Clean up and onboarding new clients
- Client niches: Retail, Construction, Real Estate, Services, Hospitality
- Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Gusto, Bill.com, Paychex, Paylocity, ACS Thomson Reuters, M3, Prism
- Remote Work Experience: Y
- Salary: $70k
- Time Zone: Eastern
- Sign up to learn about this Candidate
TAX AND ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES
FTE Senior Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #19754885
- Education: BA Mathematics, MS Accounting and Finance
- Experience (years): 5 years accounting experience
- Work experience (detail): 4+ years multi client accounting and tax
  - Currently supervising a small team
  - Full cycle accounting for multi entity clients
  - Month end close and financial reporting
- Client niches: Construction, Services, Creatives, Real Estate
- Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Bill.com, Hubdoc, Drake, AccountingPower
- Remote Work Experience: Y
- Salary: $85k
- Time Zone: Eastern
- Sign up to learn about this Candidate
FTE Senior Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22059280
- Certifications: CPA in process
- Education: BS Business Administration, MA Accountancy
- Experience (years): 5+ years public accounting experience
- Work experience (detail): 3+ with same firm
  - Year end work papers and return preparation
  - Full cycle accounting services for multiple clients
  - Audit projects, compilations and reviews
- Client niches: Real Estate, Construction, Medical Practices, Services, Retail, Transportation
- Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Ajera, UltraTax, Fixed Assets, Axcess
- Remote Work Experience: Y
- Salary: $90k, flexible
- Time Zone: Central
- Sign up to learn about this Candidate
FTE Senior Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22011732
- Certifications: CPA
- Education: BBA Accounting and Finance
- Experience (years): 4+ years accounting and tax experience
- Work experience (detail): 3+ in public accounting
  - Medical practice management for 25+ clients
  - Federal and indirect tax filing
  - Financial statements, GL, compilations
- Client niches: Medical Practices, Manufacturing, Retail, Healthcare, Transportation, Agriculture, Services, Construction
- Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Lacerte, Accounting & Fixed Asset CS, CaseWare, Engagement, Sage
- Remote Work Experience: Y
- Salary: $90k, flexible
- Time Zone: Central
- Sign up to learn about this Candidate
FTE Tax and Accounting Manager | Candidate ID # 22015893
- Certifications: CPA
- Education: BS BA Accounting, MBA Accounting
- Experience (years): 8+ years accounting experience
- Work experience (detail): 5 years in public accounting
  - Prep and review of complex returns
  - Manages 5+ member tax team
  - Tax strategies, planning, research and projections
- Client niches: HNWIs, Real Estate, Private Equity, Private Equity
- Tech Stack: QuickBooks, GoSystems, UltraTax
- Remote Work Experience: Y
- Salary: $140k, flexible
- Time Zone: Eastern
- Sign up to learn about this Candidate
FTE Senior Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #21750765
- Certifications: CPA
- Education: BSBA Accounting
- Experience (years): 3 years accounting and tax
- Work experience (detail): 1+ medical practice tax advisory
  - Complex individual and multi-entity tax returns
  - Partnerships, LLCs, S & C-Corps, HNWIs
  - Review of outsourced tax preparation
- Client niches: Medical Practices, SMBs, Technology, Real Estate
- Tech Stack: Axcess, SurePrep, TaxCaddy, Sage Depreciation, Alteryx, Oracle, SAP
- Remote Work Experience: Y
- Salary: $100k, flexible
- Time Zone: Pacific
- Sign up to learn about this Candidate
FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #10136671
- Education: AA Accounting, BA in progress
- Experience (years): 10+ years accounting experience
- Work experience (detail): 8+ years in public accounting
  - Experience with 40+ monthly accounting clients
  - Prepared 150+ individual tax returns
  - Month end, quarterly close, reconciliations
- Client niches: Medical Practices, Healthcare, Construction, Professional Services, Hospitality
- Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Gusto, Wave, ADP, Toast POS, Drake, UltraTax
- Remote Work Experience: Y
- Salary: $65k, flexible
- Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #21935543
- Certifications: CPA candidate
- Education: BS and MS Accounting
- Experience (years): 5+ years of accounting experience
- Work experience (detail): 3+ years tax and accounting at a CPA firm
  - Prepared 300+ tax returns last season
  - 60% individual with 40% business returns
  - Full cycle accounting for 12+ monthly clients
- Client niches: Hospitality, Construction, Services, Medical Practices, Nonprofits
- Tech Stack: QB/QBO, CSA, Square, UltraTax
- Remote Work Experience: Y
- Salary: $80k, flexible
- Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Senior / Manager Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #5312003
- Certifications: CPA, Xero Advisor, Bill.com Certified
- Education: BS Accounting
- Experience (years): 20+ years experience in accounting and tax
- Work experience: 7 years public accounting
  - Reviewed 200+ returns during 2024 tax season
  - Strategic client tax and business advisory
  - Led a tax team of 10 associates
- Client niches: Professional Services, Real Estate, Construction, Retail, Healthcare
- Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Lacerte, Cerner, Xero, ProConnect Tax, Gusto, Bill.com Asana, ZenDesk
- Remote Work Experience: Y
- Salary: $100k+
- Time Zone: Central
- Sign up to learn about this Candidate
TAX CANDIDATE
FTE Tax Senior | Candidate ID #21452975
- Certifications: CPA in process
- Education: BSBA, MA Accountancy
- Experience (years): 15+ years of overall experience
- Work experience (detail): Currently tax staff with national public firm
  - 300+ returns prepared this tax season
  - Builds financials in QBD and QBO
  - Tax return review experience
- Client niches: Real Estate, Healthcare, Medical Practices, Marketing and Media
- Tech Stack: QB/QBO, AccountantsWorld, ProSystems, CCH Axcess Tax
- Remote Work Experience: Y
- Salary: $75k+
- Time Zone: Pacific
- Sign up to learn about this Candidate
AUDIT CANDIDATES
FTE Audit and Tax | Candidate ID #20656110
- Certifications: CPA in process
- Education: BS and MS Accounting
- Experience (years): 3 years accounting experience
- Work experience (detail): 2 years in public accounting
  - Grant accounting for large nonprofits
  - Conducted audit reviews for municipalities
  - Tax preparation and review experience
- Client niches: Transportation, Retail, HNWIs, Government, Nonprofits
- Tech Stack: ProSystems fx, Engagement, Banner, Tableau
- Remote Work Experience: Y
- Salary: $80k
- Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Audit | Candidate ID #20391102
- Certifications: CPA eligible
- Education: BS and MBA Accounting
- Experience (years): 2+ years of audit experience
- Work experience: Currently on audit staff with a regional firm
  - 10+ client portfolio for recurring audit projects
  - Prepares audited financial statements
  - Client presentations and advisory
- Client niches: Healthcare, Nonprofits, Financial Services
- Tech Stack: Caseware, Teams, Office, C++
- Remote Work Experience: Y
- Salary: $80k, flexible
- Time Zone: Eastern
- Sign up to learn about this Candidate

Don’t miss the complete list of top remote accounting candidates available weekly! Sign up now to find your next hire.

About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | August 1, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | July 25, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 12:02:00 +0000

TAX AND ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Senior Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #22044344

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 10+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 10+ years in public accounting
- Averages 200 returns prepared per tax season
- Quarterly financials, draft SBA loan submittals
- Tax planning and advisory
Client niches: HNWIs, SMBs, Trusts, Nonprofits, Real Estate, Medical Practices
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Lacerte, ProSystems fx, Fixed Assets, Engagement, Document, ProSeries, PeopleSoft
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #21924320

Certifications: CPA
Education: BS, MBA, MS Accounting
Experience (years): 3+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 3+ in public accounting
- Filed Federal, state and local taxes
- Prepared financial statements
- General accounting and payroll for SMB clients,
Client niches: Real Estate, Medical Practices, Agriculture, Hospitality, Financial Institutions, Insurance, Retail, Distribution, Construction, Government and Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, AccountantsWorld Payroll, ProSystems fx, Tax, Fixed Assets, CaseWare
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $85k, flexible
Time Zone: Mountain
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FTE Senior / Manager Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #11694530

Certifications: EA
Education: BA Accounting, BS Mathematics
Experience (years): 10+ years public accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently a Tax Senior
- Tax research and advisory with clients
- Partnerships, S-Corps, Sole proprietorships
- Complex returns with multiple entities
Client niche: SMBs, HNWIs, Medical Practices
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, UltraTax, Thomson Reuters Suite, Lacerte
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $95k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Senior / Manager Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #5312003

Certifications: CPA, Xero Advisor, Bill.com Certified
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 25+ years experience in accounting and tax
Work experience: 7+ in public accounting
- Reviewed 200+ returns during 2024 tax season
- Strategic client tax and business advisory
- Led a tax team of 10 associates
Client niches: Professional Services, Real Estate, Construction, Retail, Healthcare
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Lacerte, Cerner, Xero, ProConnect Tax, Gusto, Bill.com Asana, ZenDesk
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $100k
Time Zone: Central
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ACCOUNTING CANDIDATE

FTE Senior Accountant | Candidate ID #21994097

Certifications: Intuit Certified Professional Bookkeeper
Education: BS Public Accounting
Experience (years): 10+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 5+ with current firm
- Provides full cycle accounting services for 12+ clients
- Clean up of client history and accounting practices
- Bilingual, English/Spanish
Client niches: Professional Services, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Zoho, Waveapps, Expensify, ADP, Gusto
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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FREELANCE / PROJECT TALENT

PT Freelance Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #18295356

- Certifications: CPA, CFP, CFA
- Education: BS in Accountancy
- Experience (years): 20 years accounting experience
  - 8+ in public accounting
  - 10+ in global investment operations
  - Fund accounting $100m – $3b
- Client niche: SMBs, C-Corps, LLCs, Real Estate, Partnerships, Investment funds
- Tech Stack: UltraTax, Lacerte, Drake
- Remote Work Experience: Y
- Salary: $50-$75/hr, depending on complexity
- Time Zone: Central
- Sign up to learn about this Candidate

Don’t miss the complete list of top remote accounting candidates available weekly! Sign up now to find your next hire.

About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | July 25, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | July 18, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 19:55:53 +0000

Struggling to find remote accountants, CAS experts, auditors, or tax professionals for your firm or internal team? Accountingfly can help! With our Always-On Recruiting service, access a pool of top remote accounting candidates without any upfront costs. Sign up now to see the complete candidate list and connect with potential hires.

TAX CANDIDATES

FTE Tax Manager | Candidate ID #22002360

Certifications: CPA
Education: BS Accounting, MS Finance
Experience (years): 8+ years tax experience
Work experience (detail): 5+ in public accounting
- 5+ with a Big 4 firm, preparation and review
- ASC 740 implementation and advisory
- Workflow process automation
- Waterfall analysis, financial reporting
Client niches: FinTech, Insurance, Private Equity, S-Corps, Partnerships
Tech Stack: GoSystems, OneSource, QuickBooks, Axcess, ProSystems fx, SalesForce, Workday Tableau, UiPath software automation
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $170k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax Manager | Candidate ID #21953219

Certifications: CPA
Education: BS Accounting, MS Taxation
Experience (years): 6+ years tax experience
Work experience (detail): 4+ accounting with a Big 4 firm
- Preparation of C-Corp, S-Corp, Partnership returns
- Filing of Federal, State and Local tax returns
- Payroll tax filing for 10k+ client accounts
- Leads a team of 6 remote associates
Client niches: DOD Contractors, BioTech, Pharma, Nonprofits, HNWIs, Healthcare
Tech Stack: NetSuite, CorpTax, UltraTax
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $130k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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TAX AND ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Tax and Accounting Manager| Candidate ID #18469932

Certifications: CPA
Education: BS BA Accounting
Experience (years): 10+ years tax and accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 4+ in public accounting
- 3+ years with a national public firm
- Preparation and review of C, S-corp, partnerships, HNWIs
- Full cycle accounting, A/P, A/R, payroll, indirect tax
- Client advisory services, financials, KPI analysis
Client niches: Real Estate, Construction, Manufacturing, Agriculture
Tech Stack: QuickBooks, Sage, ProSystems fx
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $120k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Accounting and Tax | Candidate ID #21994555

Certifications: CPA
Education: BBA Accounting, MS Accountancy
Experience (years): 10 years of accounting experience
Work experience (detail): currently a Staff Accountant with a CPA firm
- 7+ years in banking and heavy industry
- Full cycle accounting for SMB clients
- Tax filing and advisory services
Client niches: Services, Education, Retail, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Shopify, Square
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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AUDIT AND ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Senior Accountant | Candidate ID #22003353

Certifications: CPA
Education: BS BA Accounting
Experience (years): 5 years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 4+ in public accounting
- 2+ years in Big 4 audit and advisory
- Process schedules and inventory accounting
- Internal audit, pre-audit project experience
Client niches: Construction, Manufacturing, Benefit Plans, Financial Services, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: ProSystems fx Suite, Engagement, Tax, Fixed Assets, QB, NetSuite, Axcess
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $85k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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PART TIME / FREELANCE / PROJECT TALENT

PT Senior Tax Accountant | Candidate ID #18191677

Certifications: EA, CPA in process
Education: BBA, Accounting
Experience (years): 6 years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently operating own tax practice
- Team leadership and review experience
- Averages 200+ per tax season, individual and SMB clients
- 4 years of remote tax filing, supporting multiple projects
Client niches: Services, Manufacturing, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Gusto, Bill.com, Expensify
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $60/hr, flexible depending on project
Time Zone: Eastern
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PT Senior Accountant | Candidate ID #21988438

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 7 years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 2+ in public accounting
- Worked with 15+ clients on AP/AR, payroll, month end close
- Remote SMB client full cycle accounting
- Nonprofit accounting experience
Client niches: Media, Services, Retail, Creatives, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, NetSuite, Gusto, Dext, Bill.com, Concur, Shopify
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $50/hr, flexible depending on project
Time Zone: Eastern
Sign up to learn about this Candidate

Don’t miss the complete list of top remote accounting candidates available weekly! Sign up now to find your next hire.

About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | July 18, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | July 11, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 20:20:40 +0000

TAX CANDIDATES

FTE Senior Tax Accountant | Candidate ID #21978847

Certifications: CPA
Education: BS Accounting, MS Accounting – Taxation
Experience (years): 3+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 4 tax seasons in public accounting
- Completed financial analysis for clients
- Prepared 500+ returns during 2024 tax season
- SMBs, Sole Proprietorships, Partnerships, S-Corps
Client niches: Professional Services, Hospitality, Real Estate
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, UltraTax, Axcess, Gusto
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $105k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax Manager | Candidate ID #21949639

Certifications: CPA
Education: BS Accounting, MBA
Experience (years): 10+ years in tax and accounting
Work experience: 10+ years in public accounting
- Tax Manager for 10 years
- Manages a staff of 5 accountants
- Prep and review of tax returns
- Prior experience in bookkeeping, payroll, financial reporting and audit
Client niches: Construction, Real Estate, Manufacturing, Distribution, Auto Dealerships, Medical Practices
Tech Stack: UltraTax, Lacerte, QuickBooks, CaseWare
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $160k
Time Zone: Pacific
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FTE Tax Manager | Candidate ID # 21955903

Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 22 years in tax and accounting
Work experience: 12 years in public accounting
- 5+ years Tax Manager experience
- Prepares and reviews returns
- Team prepared 5,000+ returns this tax season
- Managed a team of 10
Client niches: HNWIs, SMBs, S-Corps, C-Corps
Tech Stack: Lacerte, UltraTax, QB, Peachtree
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $140k
Time Zone: Eastern
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TAX AND ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #17074960

Certifications: EA in progress, CETC Registered, QB ProAdvisor
Education: BS Business Administration, MBA Accounting
Experience (years): 10+ years of tax and accounting
Work experience: 8 years in public accounting
- Prep and review of tax returns
- Worked on more complex returns
- Managed a team of 7+
- Tax planning, advisory, research and quarterly estimates
Client niches: HNWIs, SMBs, Entertainment, Real Estate, Healthcare, Professional Services
Tech Stack: Lacerte, ProConnect Tax, ProSeries, Drake, QB/QBO, UltraTax, Yardi
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $100k
Time Zone: Pacific
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #21949619

Certifications: QB/QBO ProAdvisor
Education: BS Business Administration Accounting
Experience (years): 15+ years overall experience
Work experience (detail): 10+ years in public accounting
- 10+ years of tax preparation experience
- Accounting Manager at a CPA firm
- Supervised 8 employees with 250+ clients
Client niches: Medical Practices, Manufacturing, Real Estate, Professional Services
Tech Stack: QB/ QBO, Xero, Sage, Zoho, UltraTax, Accounting CS, Practice CS, File Cabinet Stripe, ProSystem fx, Engagement
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $75k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #16132188

Certifications: Enrolled Agent
Education: BA Accounting, MBA Accounting
Experience (years): 20 years experience in tax and accounting
Work experience: 6+ in public accounting
- Prep and review of 300+ tax returns
- Construction accounting with job costing and work in process
- Managed a staff of 6 associates
Client niches: Construction, Real Estate, Insurance, Health Care, Transportation, Education, Nonprofits, Creatives, Professional Services
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, ComputerEase, AccountantsWorld, Reynolds and Reynolds, ADP, Peach Tree, Drake, UltraTax, Lacerte, TaxAct and Thomson Reuters CS
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $115k
Time Zone: Central
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ACCOUNTING AND ADVISORY CANDIDATES

FTE Senior Accountant / Fractional Controller | Candidate ID #19590184

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BBA Accounting
Experience (years): 8 total in public accounting
Work experience (detail): 7+ years at current firm
- Manages the accounting services relationship for 14 clients
- Hands on with client work and reviews team output
- Conducts tax planning, strategy and supports client transactions
Client niches: Hospitality, Restaurants, Franchisees
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Sage Intacct, Bill.com, Expensify, Proliant
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $100k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Senior Accountant / Manager | Candidate ID #21754575

Certifications: CPA
Education: BBA Accounting
Experience (years): 30 years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 25 years in public accounting
- Full cycle accounting for SMB clients
- Fractional Controller/CFO advisory services
- Led accounting and tax practice
Client niches: Transportation, Logistics, Professional Services, Medical Practices, Real Estate
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, ProSeries, Lacerte, TurboTax, Intuit, Smartlook
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $95k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Accountant | Candidate ID # 21956987

Certifications: QBO ProAdvisor
Education: BA Business Administration, Accounting
Experience (years): 30 years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): 20+ years in public accounting
- Currently a Staff Accountant with a top 10 firm
- Prepares financial workflows and consolidated financial statements
- Supports large national clients
Client niches: Medical Practices, Oil & Gas, Healthcare
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Sage Intacct, Fathom, NetSuite, Floqast, Bill.com, SAP, Kronos
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $70k, flexible
Time Zone: Mountain
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FTE Accountant | Candidate ID #21950197

Education: BA
Experience (years): 5+ years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): Staff Accountant with a large CPA firm
- Manages 10 full cycle accounting clients
- AP/AR, month end close, financial statements
- Reviews the work of other Staff Accountants
Client niches: Real Estate, Professional Services, Financial Services
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Bill.com, Gusto, Paylocity, AvidXchange
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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PART-TIME / FREELANCE / PROJECT TALENT

PT Accountant | Candidate ID #21979484

Certifications: QBO ProAdvisor, Bill.com
Education: BS Business Administration
Experience (years): 8 years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): Controller at an accounting firm
- 5+ years public accounting experience
- Experience reviewing the work of others
- Bank accounting experience
Client niches: Retail, ecommerce, Restaurants, Banking
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Xero, Bill.com, Gusto, ADP, Shopify, Amazon, Hubspot, Drake
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $70k for FTE, $25/hr PT
Time Zone: Eastern
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PT Accounting and Tax Senior / Manager | Candidate ID #20305114

- Certifications: CPA, Banking and Lending Certifications
- Education: BS Accounting, MS Accountantcy
- Experience (years): 20+ years accounting and banking experience
- Work experience (detail): 8+ years in public accounting
  - Operating a full service accounting and tax firm
  - Tax planning, advisory and filing for SMBs
- Client niches: Retail, Construction, Agriculture, Manufacturing, Banking
- Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Drake, UltraTax
- Remote Work Experience: Y
- Salary: $130k for FTE, $100/hr PT, flexible depending on project
- Time Zone: Central
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About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | July 11, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | June 27, 2024

Liz Branch — Fri, 28 Jun 2024 01:43:00 +0000

Struggling to find remote accountants, CAS experts, auditors, or tax professionals for your firm or internal team? Accountingfly can help! With our Always-On Recruiting service, access a pool of skilled remote accountants without any upfront costs. Sign up now to see the complete candidate list and connect with potential hires.

TAX AND ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #19249390

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BS Business Administration, Accounting
Experience (years): 7+ years accounting and tax experience
Work experience (detail): 4+ in public accounting
- 3 years tech startup experience
- 3+ in family office accounting and advisory
- 2 tax seasons in national CPA firms
Client niches: HNWIs, Real Estate, Private Equity, Trusts, Estates
Tech Stack: Axcess, WorkFlow, CaseWare, QB / QBO, NetSuite, SurePrep, Zoho, Expensify
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $85k, flexible for the right opportunity
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #20721222

Certifications: CPA in process, QBO ProAdvisor
Education: BA Accounting, MS Accounting
Experience (years): 20+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently with a national tax provider
- Business and personal tax return preparation experience
- Leads offshore bookkeeping team
- Prepared 240+ returns last tax season
Client niches: SMBs, Construction, Real Estate, Hospitality, Medical Practices, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Peachtree, Sage, Bill.com, Gusto, Expensify, Axcess, TaxSlayer
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $70k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax Senior / Manager | Candidate ID #16382441

Certifications: CPA
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 30 years accounting and tax
Work experience (detail): 20+ years public accounting
- 10 years tax software development and testing
- Preparation and review experience
- Led firm’s tax practice and team of 7+ associates
Client niches: Real Estate multi-level partnerships, Technology, SMBs
Tech Stack: Drake, UltraTax, Lacerte, ProSeries, ProSystems fx, QB/QBO
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $130k, flexible for the right opportunity
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Senior Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #18052620

Certifications: PTIN, EFIN, EA in process
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 25+ years in tax and accounting
Work experience: 9 years in public accounting
- Prior experience at Controller level
- Work with more complex returns
- Estimates, projections, tax research and tax planning
- Supervision of staff
Client niches: Medical Practices, Real Estate, Retail, Nonprofit, Services, Hospitality
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Intuit, Lacerte, Thomson Reuters, CCH, Xero, Peachtree, Timberline
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $90K plus bonus
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #21934700

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BA Accounting, MA in process
Experience (years): 2 years of tax and accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Now with an outsourced accounting firm
- Federal, personal property, payroll and sales tax experience
- Full cycle accounting with multiple clients
- Partnership, S-Corp, C-Corp, Nonprofit return preparation
Client niches: Logistics, Insurance, Marketing, Services, SMBs
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, ProSystems
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $75k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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TAX AND AUDIT CANDIDATES

FTE Accountant, Audit and Tax | Candidate ID #20656110

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BS Accounting, MS Accounting
Experience (years): 3 years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 2 years in public accounting
- Grant accounting for a large nonprofit
- Conducted audit reviews for municipalities
- Tax preparation and review experience
Client niches: Transportation, Retail, HNWIs, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: ProSystems fx, Engagement, Banner, Tableau
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax, Accounting and Audit | Candidate ID #21923870

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BA Accountancy, MBA Accounting
Experience (years): 3+ years client services and public accounting
Work experience (detail): Currently a Senior with a national firm
- Tax preparation for small business clients
- Audit project experience
- Multi client full cycle accounting
Client niches: SMBs, Municipalities, Nonprofits, HNWIs
Tech Stack: QB/QBO, Sage, Lacerte, Trial Balance, ProSystems, Engagement, Drake, Accounting CS, UltraTax and Checkpoint
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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ACCOUNTING CANDIDATE

FTE Accounting | Candidate ID #21919761

Certifications: QBO ProAdvisor, Bill.com Certified
Education: BA Economics in process
Experience (years): 18+ years of accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Currently with an outsourced accounting firm
- Prepares year end tax packages for the preparer
- Provides full cycle accounting for multiple clients
- Experience with tech startups, venture capital investment
Client niches: SMBs, SaaS, Fintech, Tech, Retail, ecommerce, Services
Tech Stack: QBO, Xero, NetSuite, Expensify, Divvy, Bricks, Power BI
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $90k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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FREELANCE / PROJECT TALENT

PT Freelance Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #18295356

Certifications: CPA, CFP, CFA
Education: BS in Accountancy
Experience (years): 20 years accounting experience
- 8+ in public accounting
- 10+ in global investment operations
- Fund accounting $100m – $3b
Client niche: SMBs, C-Corp, LLCs, Real Estate, Partnerships, Investment funds
Tech Stack: UltraTax, Lacerte, Drake
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: Tax and accounting projects
Salary: $50-$75/hr, depending on complexity
Time Zone: Central
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Don’t miss out on the full list of top candidates available weekly! Sign up now to find your next hire.

About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | June 27, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | June 21, 2024

Liz Branch — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 20:08:23 +0000

Struggling to find remote accountants, CAS experts, auditors, or tax professionals for your firm or internal team? Accountingfly can help! With our Always-On Recruiting service, access a pool of skilled remote accountants without any upfront costs. Sign up now to see the complete candidate list and connect with potential hires.

TAX CANDIDATES

FTE Tax Manager | Candidate ID #21914340

Certifications: CPA
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 10 years accounting and tax experience
Work experience: 9+ years in public accounting
- 4+ years as Tax Manager
- Led a team of 7
- Preparation and review of tax returns
- Tax planning and advisory services
Client niches: SMBs, Healthcare, Services
Tech Stack: QBDT / QBO, Xero, Lacerte, UltraTax, Axcess, ProSystem fx, Engagement, SageFAS Fixed Assets
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: Professional growth, work life balance, new challenges
Salary: $115k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Senior Tax Accountant | Candidate ID #21744166

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 7 years accounting and tax experience
Work experience: 6 years in public accounting
- Preparation and review of tax returns
- Exposure to more complex returns and international tax
- Oversees up to 9 staff on special projects
Client niches: Real Estate, Construction, Manufacturing, Insurance, Healthcare
Tech Stack: CCH Axcess, Engagement, GoSystems, Drake, UltraTax
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: New career opportunity with professional growth
Salary: $80k+
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Senior Tax Accountant | Candidate ID #17074859

Certifications: EA
Education: BBA Accounting, MBA
Experience (years): 6 years accounting experience
Work experience: 6+ years in public accounting
- Led teams of 7 associates
- Federal and State filing
- CCH implementation
Client niche: S-Corps, HNWIs, Partnerships, SMBs
Tech Stack: Axcess, Workstream, Engagement, Sureprep, GoSystem
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: Career growth, promotional opportunities
Salary: $120k
Time Zone: Eastern
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TAX & ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Tax and Accounting Manager | Candidate ID #21920533

Certifications: CPA
Education: BS Accounting, MBA in process
Experience (years): 17 years accounting experience
Work experience: 7+ years in public accounting
- 4+ years Big 4 Audit Lead
- 9 years industry financial reporting
- 2+ years managing own practice
Client niches: Real Estate, Startups, Retail, Services
Tech Stack: QBDT / QBO, ProConnect, Lacerte, AnyDesk
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: A tax and accounting management role
Salary: $125k+
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax and Accounting Manager | Candidate ID # 21924689

Certifications: EA, CFE
Education: BBA Accounting
Experience (years): 27 years of accounting and tax
Work experience: 15 years in one public accounting firm
- Prep and review of business and individual tax returns
- Provides all client accounting and reporting services
- Tax planning and strategies
- Managed staff of 10 associates
Client niches: Medical Practices,Hospitality, Agriculture, Real Estate, Creatives
Tech Stack: TaxAct, Intuit ProSeries, Lacerte, QuickBooks, ADP, Paychex, Drake, Quicken
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: A full cycle accounting and tax management role
Salary: $115k
Time Zone: Pacific
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FTE Tax and Accounting Senior | Candidate ID #20385321

Certifications: QBO ProAdvisor, CPA in process
Education: BBA Accounting
Experience (years): 6+ years of tax and accounting experience
Work experience: 4+ years with a CPA firm
- 400+ returns prepared in 2023, 60% business and 40% individual returns
- Full service accounting experience
- Client-facing experience
Client niches: Local government, Construction, Manufacturing, Services
Tech Stack: QBDT / QBO, CCH, Xero, Bill.com, Expensify, Shopify
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: Seeking a remote tax and accounting opportunity with professional growth
Salary: $85k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FREELANCE / PROJECT TALENT

PT Freelance Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID# F20590940

Certifications: Enrolled Agent
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 15+ years accounting experience
Work Experience: 15+ in public accounting
- Own practice for 7+ years
- Outsourced full cycle accounting and financial reporting
- 14+ years Federal, State and Local tax preparation
Client Niches: SMBs, Retail, Services
Tech Stack: QuickBooks
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: Contract tax engagements, project or hourly based
Comp Rate: $80/hr
Time Zone: Eastern
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About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | June 21, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Hey, Take This Survey

Adrienne Gonzalez — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 21:24:58 +0000

ConvergenceCoaching has opened up responses for their Anytime, Anywhere Work survey and you are invited to contribute. The survey is open to either of these:

The Firm Leadership portion of the survey is designed for completion by one person for each accounting and consulting firm — usually the Managing Partner or a top HR professional. Those leaders are asked to provide information about their firm’s remote and flex work practices.
The Team Member survey is open to anyone currently working in an accounting and consulting firm and multiple team member responses per firm are welcome.

On the individual team member side, your confidential responses can be useful intel for firms, particularly the ones open to improving the state of their firm based on feedback from people working in the trenches. Now’s your chance to sound off on what’s working and what isn’t from behind the safety of aggregated data.

Here’s the pitch:

We believe the combination of firm-level data and team member insights will provide firms with a unique opportunity to impact the mindset and strategic direction of firm leaders in our profession. Given how important the talent pipeline is to the success of accounting overall, hearing team members’ thoughts on these important cultural elements and flex and remote benefits is a must.

Participation in the ATAWW Survey allows firm leaders to benchmark their current flex and remote offerings against other accounting and consulting firms of all sizes around the country. Survey participants will have access to the full survey report which includes an executive summary, detailed reporting on survey results, and best practices and strategies to drive successful adoption of remote and flexible work practices. Non-participants will have easy download access to the executive summary at no cost or can purchase the full survey report.

We’ll also share a quick overview when results come out in November if you prefer to wait for the CliffsNotes.

Get more info and find a link to the survey here.

The post Hey, Take This Survey appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | June 13, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 12:08:00 +0000

Struggling to find remote accountants, CAS experts, auditors, or tax professionals for your firm or internal team? Accountingfly can help! With our Always-On Recruiting service, access a pool of skilled remote accountants without any upfront costs. Sign up now to see the complete candidate list and connect with potential hires.

TAX CANDIDATES

FTE Senior Tax Accountant / Manager | Candidate ID #21844350

Certifications: CPA
Education: BSBA Accounting, MS Accounting
Experience (years): 6+ years in tax and accounting
Work experience: 6+ with the same CPA firm
- Prep and review of tax returns
- Leads a team of 5+ Accountants
- Manages client engagements
Client niches: Real estate, Construction, Health Care, Manufacturing, Services
Tech Stack: Creative Solutions, UltraTax, Practice, Planner CS, Fixed Assets, QuickBooks
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $120k, flexible
Time Zone: Mountain
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FTE Senior Tax Accountant | Candidate ID #21846669

Certifications: CPA
Education: BS, MA
Experience (years): 21 years in accounting and tax
Work experience: 15 years in public accounting, 10 in own practice
- Prep and review of tax returns
- Tax planning and advisory services
- Staff management
Client niches: Real Estate, Construction, Retail, Wholesale, Services, Nonprofits, Sports
Tech Stack: QuickBooks, CCH ProSystems fx, Lacerte, UltraTax, CCH Axcess
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $100K
Time Zone: Pacific
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FTE Tax Manager | Candidate ID #16321161

Certifications: Enrolled Agent
Education: BS Business, Accounting, MBA
Experience (years): 25+ years accounting and tax experience
Work experience (detail): 20+ years in public accounting
- Led tax practice for the firm
- Several years review experience
- Compliance studies for multinational clients
- Client revenues range from $500k-$50m
Client niches: SMBs, HNWIs, Manufacturing, Real Estate, Services
Tech Stack: UltraTax, ProSeries, QuickBooks, QBO
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $140k plus benefits
Time Zone: Eastern
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TAX & ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Senior Tax and Accounting / Manager | Candidate ID #20624298

Certifications: EA
Education: BA, PhD
Experience (years): 10+ years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): 8 years in own accounting firm
- Tax preparation for individuals and SMBs
- General accounting and tax services provider
- Managed a small accounting team
Client niches: Creatives, Professional Services, Retail, Hospitality
Tech Stack: QBO, QBDT, Xero, Wave, WooCommerce, Shopify, Square
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $85k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #21900840

Certifications: CPA eligible
Education: BS Business Administration, Finance
Experience (years): 6+ years experience in accounting and finance
Work experience: 4+ years experience in public accounting
- Tax return preparation
- Tax planning
- Client facing experience
Client niches: Nonprofits, SMBs, Restaurants, Professional Services
Tech Stack: Lacerte, UltraTax, Practice CS, QBO, QBDT
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $60k
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #19331317

Certifications: QuickBooks Pro Advisor, EA in process
Education: BS Business, Accounting
Experience (years): 30 years experience in the accounting industry
Work experience: 24 years in public accounting
- 20+ years prep and review
- Leads team of 3 employees
- Tax planning, projections and advisory
Client niches: SMBs, Services, Retail, Construction, Hospitality, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QBO, QBDT, ProSystem fx, UltraTax CS, Fixed Assets CS, FileCabinet CS
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #17335913

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BBA, Accounting, MS Accountancy
Experience (years): 11 years tax and accounting experience
Work experience: 10 years in public accounting
- Tax preparation and review
- Client revenues range from $5m to $800m
- Provides accounting and advisory’Leads tax engagements
Client niches: Construction, Real Estate, Private Equity, Manufacturing, Wholesale, Professional Services, Oil & Gas
Tech Stack: CCH Axcess, Quickbooks, GoSystemTaxRS, PracticeCS, Checkpoint, ProSystem Engagement, GoFileRoom
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $115k
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #20616876

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BS BA, Accounting
Experience (years): 8+ years experience
Work experience (detail): 2 years tax and accounting with CPA firms
- Most recently worked as a Staff Accountant
- Full cycle accounting for 25+ clients
- Provides financial analysis
- Tax preparation for Individuals, Partnerships, S Corps and Trusts
Client niches: SMBs, Restaurants, Real Estate
Tech Stack: QBO, QBDT, ProSystems, UltraTax, Engagement
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80k
Time Zone: Mountain
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #21880018

Certifications: CPA
Education: BS BA Accounting, MS Accounting
Experience (years): 3 years tax and accounting
Work experience (detail): Tax Accountant with a regional firm
- Prepared 300 tax returns last season
- HNWIs, SMBs, Trusts, Nonprofits
- Supports accounting and monthly financials\
Client niches: Retail, Medical Practices, Real Estate
Tech Stack: CCH Axcess, QBO/QBDT, Karbon
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $85k
Time Zone: Eastern
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ACCOUNTING & ADVISORY CANDIDATE

FTE Senior Accounting | Candidate ID #19590184

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: BBA Accounting
Experience (years): 8 total in public accounting
Work experience (detail): currently a Manager at a public firm
- 5+ years at current firm
- Manages the accounting services relationship for 13-14 clients
- Hands on and reviews team output
- Conducts tax planning, strategy and supports client transactions
Client niches: Hospitality, Restaurants, Franchisees
Tech Stack: QBO, QBDT, Sage Intacct, Bill.com, Expensify, Proliant
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $100k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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FREELANCE / PROJECT TALENT

PT Accounting Manager/Controller | Candidate ID #21775469

- Certifications: CPA
- Education: BS Accountancy
- Experience (years): 20+ years accounting experience
- Work Experience: 20+ years in public accounting
  - 10 years as partner/owner of a practice
  - Led teams of 15 Accountants
  - 3+ years leading national remote cloud accounting practice
  - Managed team supporting 1000+ clients
- Client Niches: Professional Services, Medical / Dental / Legal / Architectural, Retail, ecommerce,
- Tech Stack: QuickBooks, QBO, HubSpot, Gusto, Bill.com, Karbon, Expensify, Bamboo, Avalara, Stripe, Shopify, Asana, Fathom
- Remote Work Experience: Y
- Comp Rate: Project pricing or $140/hour, flexible
- Sign up to learn about this Candidate

Don’t miss out on the full list of top candidates available weekly! Sign up now to find your next hire.

About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | June 13, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Survey Confirms What We Already Knew: RTO Mandates Were Intended to Get People to Quit

Adrienne Gonzalez — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 16:24:41 +0000

While readers of accounting profession news have been getting hammered by headlines about dire talent shortages, a dry pipeline, and firms bleeding qualified staff with years of experience, another phenomenon has been quietly at work behind the scenes. To explain the phenomenon I’m talking about, let’s pull this excerpt from a May 2023 article about a CNBC interview with EY Global Chairman and CEO Carmine Di Sibio:

He also discussed hiring, saying they’ve been seeing a slowdown in hiring across the board (he means outside of the firm), “particularly in professional services” (so, in the firm). He then talks about how consulting firms, including EY, have begun pushing back new hire start dates due to the state of the economy. “It really has nothing to do with ChatGPT…YET,” he said. “It has to do with the fact that many companies were hiring based on attrition rates that were much higher a year ago, a year and a half ago post-Covid, you know, people were leaving, The Great Resignation. Those attrition rates, for example for ourselves, went from 20, over 20 percent, down to 12, pretty suddenly.” This tracks with everything we’ve been hearing surrounding layoffs and layoffs-that-aren’t-layoffs (a.k.a. Death by PIP), firms are seeing much lower attrition rates than they budgeted for AND a slowdown in client demand, leading to cuts.

“So therefore a lot of companies, including ourselves, have found ourselves with more people than we need at this point in time,” he continued.

It was around this time that firms started launching soft return-to-office guidance (not to be confused with hard return-to-office mandates) to which many said “if they require in-office, I’ll quit!” Well, sure. That’s what they want. They knew you’d quit. See: In Shocking Blow to Pro-Office Leadership, People Will Quit If You Force Them Back Into the Office about a Deloitte financial services survey that indicated 66 percent of FSI leaders would quit if their company required them to return to the office five days a week.

Now a new survey from BambooHR confirms what we all suspected: executives and HR managers used RTO to pump those turnover numbers up. At least among the 1,504 full-time salaried employees — including 504 HR professionals with a manager title or above — surveyed.

Nearly two in five (37%) managers, directors, and executives believe their organization enacted layoffs in the last year because fewer employees than they expected quit during their RTO. And their beliefs are well-founded: One in four (25%) VP and C-suite executives and one in five (18%) HR pros admit they hoped for some voluntary turnover during an RTO.

Graphic from BambooHR survey: Visibility Beats Productivity for RTO & Remote

Bad news for them though:

By using RTO mandates as a workforce reduction tactic, companies are losing talent and morale among their employees. Nearly half (45%) of the employees who have experienced RTO report significant talent loss within their organizations—talent that was highly valued and wished to be retained.

Moreover, the discontent with return to office policies is strong among employees, with more than one in four (28%) stating they would consider leaving their positions if subjected to such mandates. This level of dissatisfaction could lead to a further drain of talent, affecting not just morale but also the stability and innovation potential of the workforce.

So the obvious problem here is that unlike targeted layoffs, RTO mandates don’t put only the unwanted castoffs out to pasture but also risk the talent companies want to keep. But duh, they should have known that would happen too.

There’s more in the survey if you want to check it out:

THE NEW SURVEILLANCE ERA: Visibility Beats Productivity for RTO & Remote

The post Survey Confirms What We Already Knew: RTO Mandates Were Intended to Get People to Quit appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | June 6, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 17:24:57 +0000

Struggling to find remote accountants, CAS experts, auditors, or tax professionals for your firm or internal team? Accountingfly can help! With our Always-On Recruiting service, access a pool of skilled remote accountants without any upfront costs. Sign up now to see the complete candidate list and connect with potential hires.

TAX CANDIDATES

FTE Tax Senior | Candidate ID #12942644

Certifications: CPA in process, certification goal in 2024
Education: BBA Accounting
Experience (years): 12 years experience in tax and accounting with public firms
Work experience (detail): Currently a Tax Senior with a regional firm
- Complex partnership return preparation and review
- Tax Associate with a national firm
- 5 years with a small firm, tax preparation, accounting and audit
Client niches: Real Estate, Construction, Manufacturing, Professional Services, HNWIs
Tech Stack: ProSystem fx, Engagement and Fixed Assets, GoSystem Tax, GoFileRoom, Accounting CS, QuickBooks, CCH Axcess, BNA, CaseWare, Sage, UltraTax
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $110k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax Accountant | Candidate ID #19769964

Certifications: CPA
Education: BA Commerce
Experience (years): 9 years tax experience
Work experience (detail): 9 years in public accounting
- 2 tax seasons filing experience
- Client tax planning and compliance consulting
- 7+ GST and VAT international experience
Client niches: Real Estate, Retail, HNWIs, Nonprofits, Professional Services, Travel, Healthcare
Tech Stack: Drake, TurboTax, CompuOffice, Excus GST
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $90k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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TAX & ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Tax & Accounting | Candidate ID #21664687

Certifications: Certified QBO ProAdvisor
Education: BS Business Administration, Accounting
Experience (years): 6+ years total experience
Work experience (detail): Currently an Accountant at a CPA firm
- Prepared 40-50 returns 90% personal with Schedule C’s and 10% SMB
- Experience training and reviewing the work of interns
- Weekly and bi-weekly payroll experience
Client niches: Restaurants, Law Practices, Medical Practices, Telecom
Tech Stack: QBO, QBD, Xero, Gusto, Clover, CCH Axcess
Remote Work Experience: Y (cloud accounting clients)
Salary: $80k
Time Zone: Pacific
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FTE Tax & Accounting | Candidate ID # 21747061

Certifications: Enrolled Agent
Education: BS Business Administration, Accounting
Experience (years): 9 years working in both public accounting and industry
Work experience: 4+ years in public accounting
- Prepared more complex returns
- Tax planning, business planning, tax advisory services
- General accounting, bookkeeping and payroll services
Client niches: Construction, Real Estate, Manufacturing, ecommerce, Services
Tech Stack: QuickBooks, Lacerte, MetaRecords, MS SQL
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $100k
Time Zone: Central
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ACCOUNTING CANDIDATES

FTE Accountant | Candidate ID #20143451

Certifications: Bill.com Certified
Education: BS Business, MBA Accounting
Experience (years): 7+ years accounting, 3+ in public accounting
Work experience (detail): currently an Accounting Manager for a public firm
- Leads a team of 4 providing full cycle accounting services to ~20 clients per month
- Client-facing role involves regular client interaction, onboarding, integration
- Veteran with tech specialization and leadership experience
Client niches: Consumer goods, Services, e-commerce
Tech Stack: QuickBooks, QBO, Bill.com, Xero, Shopify
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $100k, flexible
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Accountant / Bookkeeper | Candidate ID #20310778

Certifications: QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor
Education: OJT, technical training
Experience (years):10 total
Work experience (detail): Currently a full charge bookkeeper with a CPA firm
- Provides full bookkeeping services for 30 small business clients
- Work paper write ups for tax department
- Experience supervising and training staff
Client niches: Construction, Fabrication, Professional Services, Real Estate, Medical Practices
Tech Stack: QBO, QBD, Xero, ADP, Paychex
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $48k
Time Zone: Eastern
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AUDIT CANDIDATES

FTE Senior Audit & Tax Candidate | ID # 21757210

Certifications: CPA in process
Education: MS Accounting and Finance, MBA, BA Commerce
Experience (years): 20+ years accounting and financial services, audit and tax
Work experience: 14 years in public accounting
- 13+ years audit experience in public accounting
- Planned and supervised the execution of audit engagements
- Managed tax team
Client niches: Nonprofit, Government
Tech Stack: Aurora, CCH, ProSystems fx, Pivotal, QuickBooks
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $90k
Time Zone: Central
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Don’t miss out on the full list of top candidates available weekly! Sign up now to find your next hire.

About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | June 6, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Here’s How Mid-Tier Accounting Firms Are Feeling About the Talent Crisis and Remote Work

Adrienne Gonzalez — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 16:27:51 +0000

Last week, I wrote a way too long piece on the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW)’s recent report “Evolution of mid-tier accountancy firms.” Through a survey of managing partners at mid-tier firms across the pond, ICAEW took their temperature on five topics most impacting accounting firms of all sizes in current year:

Firm structure and operational model
Leadership and culture
Talent
Technology
Financial performance and service lines

See: Here’s How Mid-Tier Accounting Firms Are Feeling About Private Equity and M&A for a breakdown on the PE and merger topic.

For this piece, we’re going to check out the talent portion and how hybrid work relates to it. We’ll get to technology in a later piece because once again this is going to run long. Everyone (by everyone I mean leadership) is waiting around for technology to swoop in and save the day but for the moment, adoption of next-gen tech solutions is slow. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, the accounting profession is reactive and scared of taking big risks for a reason. See: Accounting Firms Will Not Be Leading the AI Revolution

The Talent Problem at Mid-Tier Accounting Firms

The short summary of the ICAEW’s findings is as follows:

Talent is the top challenge currently facing the mid-tier, with attraction and retention of qualified staff being the largest concern, and recruitment of trainees a secondary issue. The importance of future-proofing the skills of chartered accountants was recognized by firms, largely driven by changes in technology and the increasing breadth of work that they are likely to be required to perform. Firms recognize that they must be an attractive place to work. Nearly one-third of firms described their culture as ‘caring’ and while firms indicate a shift to more time working onsite, the majority still see hybrid working as the norm in the future. Investments in technology, offshoring and outsourcing initiatives can potentially help to address talent shortages and enhance operational efficiency.

Good luck with that.

An important distinction is revealed in the survey findings and it’s this:

“Recruitment of qualified staff was a top talent challenge for 67% of respondents, while recruitment of trainees was considered a challenge by 10%”

Meaning much lip service is paid to pipeline challenges but really, mid-tier firms don’t care so much about entry-level staff. Or at least they aren’t panicking about not being able to find them. A steady supply of fresh blood is how you get qualified staff but I suppose that’s a future problem we’re not too pressed about for now. They do sort of acknowledge this:

A top three talent challenge for 43% of those surveyed was ‘future-proofing skills’, which speaks to the need to ensure the quality of staff in the long term. Meanwhile, 45% of respondents confirmed that ‘succession planning’ was a key talent challenge. This seems to acknowledge the importance of retaining sufficient talent to maintain the partnership and its leadership team, which is corroborated by 14% selecting the ‘attractiveness of partnership’ as a challenge.

Respondents ranked their top talent challenges and, uh, yeah, recruiting trainees barely made the board.

Source: ICAEW “Evolution of mid-tier accountancy firms” report

Communication

Along with technological prowess, a good number of respondents listed excellent communication skills as most-desired in their staff.

Effective interpersonal skills With firms predicting that future clients will require more tailored support (31%) and demand a more personalized service (14%), effective communication and interpersonal skills will continue to be very important to build strong client relationships and collaborate effectively. Investing in business and professional skills at all levels within the firm would appear to be money well spent.

This is going to be a big problem in a few years as the group of professionals who experienced pandemic disruption four years ago at critical points in their adult lives like college and their first accounting job start reaching the higher rungs on the ladder. See: Big 4 Firms Are Noticing a Sudden Skills Gap in New Hires

On the topic of Gen Z — even though the mid-tiers clearly don’t care about the younguns — the report offers the usual crap about sustainability and purpose. No, Gen Z just doesn’t want to grind away at a spreadsheet for meager salaries. And millennials have been telling you this same thing for twenty years.

Culture
Gen Z have a different outlook on life to previous generations, prioritizing social responsibility, diversity, work-life balance and sustainability.

Let me interrupt them here. Stop it. Previous generations gave just as much a shit about work-life balance as Gen Z. It’s just that the talent pipeline was so robust no one in leadership cared to do anything about. Now that people at the experienced level are drifting away from the profession altogether the problem is getting worse because there are fewer people to share the load. If only they’d jacked up salaries 10-15 years ago when they had the chance.

Just 2% of firms surveyed described the culture of their firm as ‘environmentally conscious’, despite 38% stating that ESG considerations did impact decision-making at board level.

This disconnect may be contributing to the retention challenge within firms, as Gen Z seek employers that resonate with their beliefs and values. Although, when asked which words best described the culture in their firms, ‘caring’ was the third most popular choice, behind ‘collaborative’ and ‘client centric’. A sizeable proportion of respondents (21%-26%) also described their firms as ‘entrepreneurial’, ‘purpose-led’, ‘inclusive’ and ‘family-like’.

Let’s move on before I get annoyed.

Tied to communication, the report covered ways of working. According to this, the mid-tiers are accepting that some remote work is here to stay but clearly really, really want people in the office more.

Said the report:

Survey respondents indicated that client-facing staff are currently working on average two days in the office (or at client sites) each week. Looking to the next three years, respondents predicted this would change to staff spending the majority of their time in the office and at client sites. The portion of firms offering fully remote work is set to be nominal (2%), while at the other extreme 12% of those surveyed indicated that they anticipate a return to staff working fully on-site.

Changes to working patterns must allow firms to compete in recruiting and developing top talent while meeting the firm and client requirements to be on site. Hybrid working must be balanced with and aligned to individual client expectations. Close to one-third of those surveyed (31%) predicted that clients will want more tailored support in the future. Meanwhile, 14% believe clients will require more personalized relationships and their firm’s ways of working will need to deliver on this.

They really love saying they’re “collaborative,” don’t they? Walking up to someone’s desk to interrupt them when they’re in the zone is not collaboration, you guys.

When asked what word best described their firm’s culture, the most popular choice was ‘collaborative’ – which was selected by 45% of respondents. As hybrid working arrangements can create communication gaps and reduce spontaneous interactions among team members, there is a disconnect between that working model and many firms’ collaborative culture, driving a shift back to working in the office.

So that’s it on talent. If succession planning is really as important to them as they say they maybe should be a bit more worried about headcount than they purport to be. But whatever. Not my circus, not my ~~monkeys~~ spreadsheet jockeys.

Access the full ICAEW report here: Evolution of mid-tier accountancy firms

The post Here’s How Mid-Tier Accounting Firms Are Feeling About the Talent Crisis and Remote Work appeared first on Going Concern.

FINRA Quickly Calls BS on Banks Forcing a Return-to-Office in Their Name

Going Concern News Desk — Wed, 29 May 2024 16:01:11 +0000

Last week, Bloomberg reported that Citigroup, HSBC, and Barclays were forcing more of their people to return to the office five days a week “as regulatory changes make it trickier for Wall Street to allow working from home.” Said Bloomberg in their story:

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:

Citigroup is Holding Pay and Bonuses Hostage to Get People Back in the Office

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.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | May 23, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 23 May 2024 20:15:50 +0000

Struggling to find remote accountants, CAS experts, auditors, or tax professionals for your firm or internal team? Accountingfly can help! With our Always-On Recruiting service, access a pool of skilled remote accountants without any upfront costs. Sign up now to see the complete candidate list and connect with potential hires.

FTE Senior Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #20455103

Certifications: CPA in progress
Education: BA, Accounting & Business Administration
Experience (years): 4+ years in public accounting
Work experience (highlight): Staff Accountant at a CPA firm
- Full client care including accounting, bookkeeping, tax and audit
- In 2024 completed 100+ returns, 70% for SMB clients
- Managing 10 full service clients per month
Client niches: Restaurants, Distribution, Services
Tech Stack: QBO, QBD, CCH, ProSystems fx
Salary: $70k+
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax Accountant | Candidate ID #20623905

Certifications: CPA
Education: BA Accounting
Experience (years): 17+ years accounting experience
Work experience (highlight): 12+ years public with one firm
- Led client financial reviews
- Prepared 300+ returns in 2024
- Partnerships, S & C Corps, SMBs, Trusts
Client niches: Real Estate, Manufacturing, Retail
Tech Stack: Lacerte, QuickBooks, ProSystems fx, TPS, CLS
Salary: $85k with benefits
Time Zone: Pacific
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FTE Senior Tax Accountant / Manager | Candidate ID #20614906

Certifications: CPA, EA
Education: BS Accounting / Finance
Experience (years): 20+ years accounting experience
Work experience (highlight): 20+ years in public accounting
- Led a team of 3 in audit projects
- Federal, state and local tax filing
- Managed a tax and accounting practice with 6 staff members
Client niches: Real Estate, Nonprofits, Trusts, Estates, Construction, SMBs, HNWIs with equity compensation
Tech Stack: QuickBooks, QBO, Lacerte, UltraTax, ProSystems fx
Salary: $120k with benefits
Time Zone: Pacific
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FTE Sr Tax Accountant / Advisory | Candidate ID #20629530

Certifications: EA, CFP, CEP, CPA in work
Education: BA Economics, MBA Finance
Experience (years): 20 years finance experience
Work experience (highlight): 7 years tax prep and planning
- 5+ years client advisory with Big 4 firm
- Financial planning experience
- Client advisory, investment portfolio tax strategy
Client niches: HNWIs, SMBs, Partnerships, S-Corps
Tech Stack: Lacerte, UltraTax, QuickBooks, Planner CS, eMoney, NaviPlan
Salary: $115k with benefits
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax Senior / Accountant | Candidate ID # 20438176

Certifications: Enrolled Agent, in progress
Education: BA Accounting
Experience (years): 8 years experience in accounting
- Work experience (highlight): 7 years in taxation in public accounting
- Prepares and reviews tax returns
- Tax planning, projections and tax research
- Accounting, bookkeeping and financial reporting experience
Client niches: Construction, Real Estate, Entertainment, HNWI, Manufacturing and Distribution
Tech Stack: Lacerte, CCH, Engagement, ProSystems fx, UltraTax, QuickBooks
Salary: $90k
Time Zone: Pacific
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FTE Senior Accountant/Audit | Candidate ID #20135235

Certifications: CFE, CSOE, CIA and CPA in progress
Education: MA Accounting, BA Economics
Experience (years): 10+ years of accounting and audit experience
Work experience (highlight): 5+ years in Big 4 firm
- Strong audit, accounting and analytical skills
- Led audit projects, reviews and compilations
- Reviewed work of up to 7 team members
Client niches: Nonprofits, Government, Retail, Manufacturing and Distribution
Tech Stack: Aura and ProSystems fx Engagement
Salary: $90k
Time Zone: Eastern
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PT Senior Accountant | Candidate ID #7410297

Certifications: EA, CFE, QBO ProAdvisor
Education: BS Accounting, BS Finance, MS Accounting
Experience (years): 10+ years accounting experience
Work experience (highlight): 10 years in public accounting
- SMB and individual tax preparation
- 70% business, 30% individuals
- Fractional Controller and advisory
Client niches: Manufacturing, Education, Marketing, Tech, Real Estate, Services, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QBO, NetSuite, Intacct, Xero, Drake, UltraTax, Bill.com, Blackbaud, Gusto
Salary: $35+ per hour
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Audit Associate | Candidate ID #20391102

Certifications: CPA eligible
Education: BS Business, Accounting, MBA Accounting
Experience (years): 2+ years of audit experience
Work experience (highlight): Audit staff with a regional firm
- 10+ client portfolio for recurring audit projects
- Prepares audited financial statements
- Client presentations and advisory
Client niches: Healthcare, Nonprofits, Financial-Services
Tech Stack: Caseware, Teams, Outlook
Salary: $80k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax Accountant | Candidate ID #20660025

Certifications: QBO ProAdvisor
Education: AS, Accounting (in progress)
Experience (years): 4+ years in bookkeeping, accounting, payroll and tax
Work experience (highlight): Currently with a small CPA firm
- High volume tax preparation experience, SMB and individual
- Payroll processing and payroll tax experience
- Workers’ comp audits, IRS notice responses
Client niches: Restaurants, Services, Manufacturing, Food Distribution
Tech Stack: QBO, QBD,, Gusto, ADP, TaxSlayer, MasterTax
Salary: $75k, flexible
Time Zone: Eastern
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About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | May 23, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | May 16, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 16 May 2024 16:20:33 +0000

Struggling to find remote accountants, CAS experts, auditors, or tax professionals for your firm or internal team? Accountingfly can help! With our Always-On Recruiting service, access a pool of skilled remote accountants without any upfront costs. Sign up now to see the complete candidate list and connect with potential hires.

FTE Senior Accounting and Tax | Candidate ID #5311425

Certifications: CPA, QB ProAdvisor
Education: BA Accounting, MS Accountancy
Experience (years): 10+ years public accounting
Work experience (detail): 2+ with national firm
- 10 years working with large C-Corp clients
- 5+ years with SMB and HNWIs tax prep and advisory
- 4 years with own practice with SMB clients
Client niches: Real Estate, Construction, SMBs, HWNIs, Healthcare, Nonprofits
Tech Stack: QuickBooks, Drake, GoSystems, ProSeries, ProSystems, OneSource, Host Analytics
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: Senior Accountant with a public firm in general accounting and tax
Salary: $95k
State: Central
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FTE Senior Accountant / Manager | Candidate ID #20346172

Certifications: QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor
Education: BS International Business, BS Business Administration
Experience (years): 20 years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): Recent 2+ years with a public accounting firm
- Onboarding new clients, new client set up
- Cloud accounting for multiple clients
- Controller level, HR and supervisory experience
Client niches: Retail, Restaurant franchisees, SMBs
Tech Stack: QBO, QBD, Hubdoc, Bill.com, Gusto, Expensify
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: Professional growth, Senior Accountant or leadership role in public accounting
Salary: $75k+ depending on role
State: Eastern
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FTE Senior Accountant Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #20642801

Certifications: EA in work
Education: BA Business and Finance, MA Org Leadership
Experience (years): 15+ years overall experience in industry and public accounting
Work experience (detail):
- 3 years tax preparation and review experience
- Tax planning, advisory services, projections, estimates and research
- Prior experience in financial services and insurance
Client niches: Real Estate, Medical and Construction
Tech Stack: Intuit ProConnect, QuickBooks, UltraTax
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: Career growth in public accounting, focus on EA and CPA
Salary: $90k
State: Central
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FTE Senior Audit / Manager | Candidate ID #20648317

Education: BBA Finance, MA Accountancy
Experience (years): 15+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 7+ years in public accounting
- Leadership role for multiple audit projects
- 7+ years in audit role with government agencies
- Nonprofit client audit project experience
Client niches: Nonprofits, Government Agencies, SMBs
Tech Stack: Tableau, ProSystems fx, Engagement
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: Career growth into an audit leadership role
Salary: $90k
State: Eastern
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FTE Senior Accountant | Candidate ID #20648317

Certifications: EA, QBO ProAdvisor
Education: BA General Studies / Business
Experience (years): 4+ years of tax and accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 3+ years in public accounting
- 1+ years with own practice
- Bookkeeping, payroll and general accounting
- Prepare, review and analyze financial statements
Client niches: Nonprofits, Agriculture, SMBs
Tech Stack: Lacerte, ProConnect, AdvanceFlow, QBO/DT, SurePrep, TaxCady, Practice CS
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: Professional growth opportunity in public accounting
Salary: $95k
State: Mountain
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FTE Senior Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #16959349

Certifications: CPA
Education: MS Accounting, MBA
Experience (years): 12 years in accounting and finance
Work experience (detail): 3+ years in public accounting
- Preparation of complex tax returns
- Full cycle accounting and audit experience
- 9+ years finance role in government
Client niches: Construction, Real Estate, Hospitality, Medical Practices, HNWI
Tech Stack: QuickBooks, ProSystem fx, Engagement, Axcess
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: Professional growth and leadership opportunities
Salary: $90k
State: Central
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FTE Senior Tax / Manager | Candidate ID #20575235

Certifications: CPA
Education: BBA Accounting, MS Accounting
Experience (years): 9+ years experience in accounting.
Work experience (detail): 7+ years tax in public accounting
- Preparation and review experience
- Extensive real estate tax experience
- Managed a small tax team
Client niches: Real Estate, Construction, Medical Practices, Retail
Tech Stack: QuickBooks, Axcess, ProSystem fx, CaseWare Workpapers
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: Professional growth leading and developing a tax team
Salary: $100k
State: Central
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FTE Senior Tax and Accounting / Manager | Candidate ID #20624298

Certifications: EA
Education: BA Fine Arts, PhD
Experience (years): 10+ years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): 7+ years with own accounting firm
- Tax preparation for individuals and SMBs
- General accounting and tax services provider
- Managed a small accounting team
Client niches: Creatives, Professional Services, Retail, Hospitality
Tech Stack: QBO, QBDT, Xero, Wave, WooCommerce, Shopify, Square
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: Manager of a small accounting and tax team
Salary: $85k
State: Eastern
Sign up to learn more about this candidate

About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | May 16, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | May 2, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 02 May 2024 13:01:00 +0000

Struggling to find remote accountants, CAS experts, auditors, or tax professionals for your firm or internal team? Accountingfly can help! With our Always-On Recruiting service, access a pool of skilled remote accountants without any upfront costs. Sign up now to see the complete candidate list and connect with potential hires.

FTE Accountant | Candidate ID #16071602

Certifications: NA
Education: BA Accounting in progress
Experience (years): 7+ years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): Currently with a public accounting firm
- Services 15+ monthly clients and 75+ quarterly clients
- Team leadership and work review experience
- Prepares 100+ returns during tax season
Client niches: Nonprofits, Medical Practices, Contractors, Services
Tech Stack: QBO, QBD, Xero Gusto, bill.com, MS Dynamics and Practice CS
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: a remote accounting opportunity with professional growth
Salary: $75K
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax Senior / Manager | Candidate ID #17178601

Certifications: NA
Education: BS & MS Accounting and Taxation
Experience (years): 5 years in public accounting
Work experience (detail): Leading a tax team as a Senior
- Analysis and preparation of year-end work papers
- S & C Corps, partnerships, HNWIs with multiple entities
- Complex real estate partnerships, waterfall analysis
Client niches: Real estate, Retail, SMBs, HNWIs
Tech Stack: ProSystems fx, Axcess, CaseWare, QB, QBO, Teams
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: Tax Senior or Tax Manager with a public accounting firm
Salary: $85K
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Senior Accountant | Candidate ID #20595023

Certifications: CPA in progress
Education: BS Accounting, MA Taxation
Experience (years): 7+ years in Accounting and Tax
Work experience (detail): 7 years tax experience
- 5 years public accounting experience, including several with Big 4 firm
- Preparation and review experience
- Tax research, planning, projections, and estimates
- Tax team leadership experience
Client niches: Healthcare, BioPharma, Real Estate, Asset and Wealth Management, Private Client Services, Construction and Technology
Tech Stack: One Source. QuickBooks, Go-Systems, Oracle
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: Remote Senior Tax opportunity, CPA support, promotional opportunity
Salary: $90K
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #20076015

Certifications: QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 30+ in public accounting and industry
Work experience: most recently with a CPA firm for 3 years
- Prepared about 50+ 1040s with Schedule C, E or F per week
- Managed 12+ accounting clients, 40 payroll clients and sales tax filing
- Supervised and trained bookkeeping staff
Client niches: Professional Services, Restaurants, Attorneys
Tech Stack: QBO, QBD, Sage/Peachtree, EasyAct, Creative Solutions, Lacerte
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: seeking a remote accounting position with professional growth
Salary: $55K
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Senior Accountant | Candidate ID #16674123

Certifications: QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor, PTIN, EA in work
Education: AS Accounting, BA Accounting in process
Experience (years): 7+ years in accounting and tax
Work experience (detail): 5+ years in public accounting
- 5+ years review work with junior staff
- Full cycle bookkeeping for multiple clients
- Tax planning, advisory services, estimates and tax research
- Preparation of financial statements
- Training of new employees
Client niches: Retail, Medical Practices, SMBs with $2-15m revenue
Tech Stack: UltraTax, Tax Act, Crosslink, Practice, MS Office, QuickBooks
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: join a public firm with professional growth in accounting and tax
Salary: Hourly: $80k with benefits
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Senior Accountant / Manager | Candidate ID #20242528

Certifications: CPA
Education: BBA Accounting, MS Accounting, MBA
Experience (years): 10+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 4 years public accounting
- Assurance Associate at a Big 4 firm
- 2 years private equity investment team
- Financial analysis, acquisitions, operational KPIs
- 4 years industry, SaaS, hospitality, ecommerce
Client niches: Retail, Ecommerce, SasS, FinTech, Medical Devices
Tech Stack: QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, SAP, MS Dynamics, Great Plains, PowerPI, Tableau, ASC 605 & 606
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: Fractional Controller, Advisory role in public accounting
Salary: $130K, flexible considering total package
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Senior Tax Accountant | Candidate ID #5315223

Certifications: EA
Education: BS Accounting, MS Taxation
Experience (years): 10+ in multiple client/public accounting
Work experience (detail): currently Senior Accountant with public firm
- Prepared and reviewed returns for individuals, corporations and partnerships
- Experienced with preparation and review for estates and trusts, nonprofits, expats
- Handled FinCEN, FBAR reporting, tax planning, tax representation, Federal and state
- Project management of tax matters, including scheduling, budgeting, internal controls, team management
- Client-facing, experienced in client management and development
Client niches: Medical, Dental, and Legal Practices, Small Businesses, Real Estate, Entertainment, Hospitality, Estates, Trusts, S Corps
Tech Stack: Drake, Lacerte, ProSystems Tax and Engagement, QuickBooks, etc.
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: seeking senior role with professional growth and year round client support
Salary: $95K, benefits and bonus potential
Time Zone: Pacific
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PT Freelance Accounting and SALT Contractor | Candidate ID #F20063177

Certifications: CMI Certificate
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 16 years in accounting and indirect tax
Work Experience (detail): 5 public accounting, 3 in Big 4, 8 industry
- 4 years as state auditor
- Managed large indirect tax refund claim projects
- Consulting and analysis with corporate clients
Client Niches: Technology, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Logistics
Tech Stack: Avalara, OneSource, QuickBooks, Vertex, Alteryx
Remote Work Experience: Y
Goal: Freelance accounting and indirect tax projects
Comp Rate: $90/hour flexible depending on project complexity
Time Zone: Eastern
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About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | May 2, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accountants of the Week | April 25, 2024

Liz Branch — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 14:04:22 +0000

Are you struggling to hire remote accountants, CAS, auditors, or tax professionals for your firm or internal team? Accountingfly is ready to partner with you! With Always-On Recruiting, you can gain full access to a pool of highly skilled and experienced remote accountants ready to join your team at no up-front cost. Sign up now to access the complete list and connect with the candidates.

FTE Senior Accountant | Candidate ID #19665998

Certifications: NA
Education: BS Business Administration Accounting
Experience (years): 20 years accounting experience
Work experience (detail):
- 15 in public accounting working with SMBs and nonprofits
- Full outsourced accounting and financial reporting services
- 5 years industry at accounting manager, controller level
Client niches: Construction, manufacturing, retail, services, tech, hospitality, nonprofits
Tech Stack: QuickBooks, QBO, POS, Ajera/Deltek, Oracle, Successware
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $100K-$120K
Time Zone: Pacific
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FTE Senior Accountant | Candidate ID #20166716

Certifications: CPA Candidate
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 4+ years of overall experience
Work experience (detail): close to 4 years in financial services and public accounting
- Tech savvy with 4 years of cloud accounting experience
- Year-end account clean up and EOY workpapers
- Managed 18 full-cycle accounting clients and tax prep
Client niches: transportation, insurance, consumer goods, nonprofit, construction, real estate
Tech Stack: QBO, QBD, Xero, Bill.com, Paycom, Gusto, ADP, Expensify, Stripe, Paychex, Tableaux, Salesforce, SAP
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $75K
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Senior Accountant / Tax Manager | Candidate ID #19755037

Certifications: EA
Education: BA Accounting
Experience (years): 20+, including 10+ years tax preparation experience
Work experience (detail): currently a Senior Tax Associate at a public accounting firm
- S Corp, C Corp, partnerships, individuals, trusts and estates, nonprofits
- 2023 and 2024 tax season focused on preparing complex partnership and HNWI filings; responsible for managing client relationships
- Previously served as a Manager/Tax Preparer/Tax Resolution Specialist at a public accounting firm
- Led a team of 5+ in preparing 400+ returns; prepared more complex returns (40%) and reviewed returns prepared by team (60%)
- Also handled bookkeeping, posting/maintaining general ledger accounts and adjustments, bank reconciliations.
Client niches: Small business, construction, real estate partnerships, medical services, hospitality
Tech Stack: UltraTax, ATX, Drake, QuickBooks
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $120K
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Senior Audit and Tax | Candidate ID #13492842

Certifications: CPA, QuickBooks Online Certified ProAdvisor
Education: BS & MS Accounting
Experience (years): 8+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 7 with public accounting firms
- 7 years audit project leadership experience
- Supported return preparation effort during tax season
- Training material preparation and delivery experience
Client niches: Government agencies, nonprofits, SMB clients
Tech Stack: QuickBooks, CaseWare, Slack, Google Suite, Teams
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $100K
Time Zone: Central
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FTE Senior Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #20455608

Certifications: CPA
Education: BA Political Science
Experience (years): 8+ years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 4+ years public accounting experience
- Currently an Accounting Director in industry
- 4 tax seasons 75+ returns, including partnership, S & C Corps, nonprofits, trusts
- Accounting process clean up and internal procedure implementation
Client niches: medical practices, hospitality franchisees, retail
Tech Stack: QBO, QBD, Xero, Lacerte, Drake, Expensify
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $80K-$100K
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Senior Tax and Accounting | Candidate ID #20455103

Certifications: CPA in progress
Education: BA Accounting & Business Administration
Experience (years): 4+ years in public accounting
Work experience (detail): Currently a Staff Accountant at a CPA firm
- Full client care, including accounting, bookkeeping, tax, and audit
- In 2024, completed 100+ returns, 70% for SMB clients
- Managing 10 full-service clients per month
Client niches: restaurants, construction materials, services
Tech Stack: QBO, QBD, CCH, ProSystems fx
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $70K+
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Senior Accountant, Tax | Candidate ID #11646700

Certifications: QuickBooks Online Certified ProAdvisor
Education: College studies, OJT
Experience (years): 10 years in tax and accounting
Work experience (detail): 5+ in public accounting, full cycle accounting and tax
- Current role is Senior Tax Accountant
- Prior as Staff Accountant working with clients on full cycle accounting
- Over 4 years for a tax service working with individual and SMB clients
Client niches: food industry, medical practices, commercial and residential real estate, ecommerce retail
Tech Stack: Creative Solutions, Adobe Acrobat, Fixed Assets CA, CCH Engagement, CCH Axcess, Juris Suite, Drake, Yearliy Core W-2, and 1099 filing
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $90K
Time Zone: Eastern
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FTE Bookkeeper / Accounting | Candidate ID #17084167

Certifications: NA
Education: OJT
Experience (years): 10+ years accounting and bookkeeping with CPA firms
Work experience (detail): Most recently served as a full charge bookkeeper at a CPA firm
- 5+ years experience working in a fully remote capacity
- Client-facing experience
- Tax data entry experience
- Payroll, payroll tax and sales tax experience
Client niches: hospitality, medical practices,, transportation, real estate
Tech Stack: QBD, QBO, Xero, UltraTax, CCH, ADP, Track1099
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $45K+
Time Zone: Central
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PT Freelance Ecomm Senior Accountant | Candidate ID # F20099928

Certifications: QBO Pro Advisor, Xero Advisor, ConnectBooks Partner, Certified Avalara Partner
Education: BS Accounting
Experience (years): 10 years accounting experience
Work experience (detail): 7+ ecommerce retailer advisor
- Set up accounting systems for online retailers
- Advised clients on Amazon, Shopify, WalMart Fulfillment
- ASC 606 implementation
Client niches: ecommerce retailers
Tech Stack: QBO, Xero, Gusto, FreshBooks, Avalara
Remote Work Experience: Y
Salary: $50-$60 / Hour
Time Zone: Central
Sign up to learn more about this freelancer

About the Author: Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accountants of the Week | April 25, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

BDO to Undergo Major Office Space Shrinkage in Pittsburgh

Going Concern News Desk — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 16:01:41 +0000

According to an article published Monday in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, BDO will be moving its Pittsburgh office from the current space in the Heinz 57 Center at 339 Sixth Ave to the new FNB Financial Center at 632 Washington Place. They’ll be taking the 18th floor when they move in next year.

PPG says:

In a statement, Deron Curliss, assurance practice leader in BDO’s Pittsburgh office, said the new space will provide “a flexible and collaborative work environment” for employees.

“BDO’s core purpose is helping people thrive every day, and this space exemplifies that mission,” he said.

The firm also was drawn to amenities like a fitness center, on-site retail, and outdoor areas for employees, added Michael Rick, BDO’s tax practice leader in the Pittsburgh office.

“Our team works incredibly hard to serve our clients and this space offers our professionals the tools to continue providing the exceptional service BDO is known for, while also prioritizing their well-being,” he said.

Said PG, BDO will be downsizing significantly when they go from the about 67,000 square feet they’ve got now to 16,500.

Map view of the current office to the new one:

Alright, let’s check out this FNB joint.

The New FNB Financial Center from Buccini / Pollin Group on Vimeo.

The creepy superimposed office drone technology has improved dramatically in the last few years, hasn’t it? Still creepy.

They apparently have a live construction cam, we couldn’t get it to work.

And a walkthrough office floor tour “for evaluation purposes only.”

via the FNB Financial Center website

It adds up for them: Accounting firm moving to FNB Financial Center at former Civic Arena site [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

The post BDO to Undergo Major Office Space Shrinkage in Pittsburgh appeared first on Going Concern.

CEOs Feel Good About the Economy and Hybrid Work Is Winning, Says KPMG in This CEO Survey

Going Concern News Desk — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 20:46:08 +0000

The 2024 KPMG U.S. CEO Outlook Pulse Survey is out and 87 percent of the 100 CEOs surveyed say they’re confident in the growth prospects of the economy. That’s good, right? Almost three-quarters of them plan to increase headcounts this year, also good, while just four percent anticipate having to decrease their ranks. All respondents to this survey are CEOs with organizations of annual revenue over $500 million, a third of them are at businesses with more than $10 billion in revenue.

Graphic lifted from the 2024 KPMG U.S. CEO Outlook Pulse Survey

The section on Generative AI is of particular interest as it covers GenAI application, deployment, and concerns over the next 12-18 months. We have no way of knowing just how many of these CEOs actually know what generative AI is or how it can be used in their business beyond asking ChatGPT for some fun ideas for Employee Appreciation Day though 77 percent of them did say they’re confident leadership has a good understanding of it [X].

In order, the surveyed CEOs said the top challenges in deploying GenAI are:

Ethical challenges (38%)
Security and compliance (36%)
Integration with existing systems and processes (33%)

A bit concerning that only 19 percent of CEOs surveyed said they’re currently using watermarks or disclosures that would let consumers know content is made with the assistance of AI. And that only 37 percent of them say they’ve prioritized data privacy using “robust data anonymization techniques.”

The Talent & Culture section shows that hybrid work rules the day while fully remote models are on the decline. What happened between February/March 2024 and last year that made them pull back on 5 days a week in the office?

Revisiting the 2023 CEO Outlook released last October, 64 percent of CEOs surveyed for that report said they anticipated a full return to office within three years. And 87 percent of them said they were likely to reward employees who make an effort to come into the office with favorable assignments, raises or promotions (hey, we just talked about remote workers getting passed over for promotions and raises yesterday).

Although workplace wellness programs are a joke and scientifically proven to do jack shit for individual employee mental health if the workplace itself is broken, respondents say they’re doing the following to address employee well-being and prevent burnout:

Implementing more initiatives focused on mental well-being such as digital wellness solutions, mindfulness seminars, resilience workshops and coaching sessions (74%)
Encouraging employees to use GenAI to automate mundane tasks to better manage their workload and relieve stress (61%)
Facilitating opportunities for employees to strengthen personal relationships with coworkers, such as employee volunteering and in-person training and development (60%)
Implementing trainings for managers to more effectively address well-being concerns and burnout among their direct reports (56%)
Exploring new organization-wide work schedule shifts such as 4-day or 4.5-day workweek (30%)

That’s it. Well, there’s a last section on sustainability and ESG but who cares. Certainly not the CEOs.

KPMG Study: CEOs tackling risks to growth including geopolitics, cyber and structural changes such as tight labor market, new regulations [KPMG]

The post CEOs Feel Good About the Economy and Hybrid Work Is Winning, Says KPMG in This CEO Survey appeared first on Going Concern.

Research: You Might Get Passed Over For a Raise If You WFH, Especially If You’re a Man

Going Concern News Desk — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 21:46:53 +0000

Some not so good news coming out of University of Warsaw this month: people who work remotely, even part-time, are less likely to get raises and promotions. And it’s male WFHers who miss out most. This research is the first of its kind post-COVID, surely academia will be investigating the matter further for many years to come.

The study abstract:

Work from home (WFH) has been a part of the professional landscape for over two decades, yet it was the COVID-19 pandemic that has substantially increased its prevalence. The impact of WFH on careers is rather ambiguous, and a question remains open about how this effect is manifested in the current times considering the recent extensive and widespread use of WFH during the pandemic. In an attempt to answer these questions, this article investigates whether managerial preferences for promotion, salary increase and training allowance depend on employee engagement in WFH. We also explore the heterogeneity of the effects of WFH on careers across different populations by taking into account the employee’s gender, parenthood status, frequency of WFH as well as the prevalence of WFH in the team. An online discrete choice experiment was run on a sample of over 1,000 managers from the United Kingdom. The experiment was conducted between July and December 2022, and thus after the extensive use of this working arrangement during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings indicate that employees who WFH are less likely to be considered for promotion, salary increase and training than on-site workers. The pay and promotion penalties for WFH are particularly true for men (both fathers and non-fathers) and childless women, but not mothers. We also find that employees operating in teams with a higher prevalence of WFH do not experience negative career effects when working from home. The findings underline the importance of individual factors and familiarisation as well as social acceptance of flexible working arrangements in their impact on careers.

Tony Trueman of British Sociological Association writes in Phys.org:

A survey of 937 UK managers found that they were 11% less likely to give a promotion to staff who worked entirely from home than to those who were completely office-based.

Hybrid workers—those working partly in the office and partly at home—were on average 7% less likely to be promoted.

Managers were 9% less likely to give a pay rise to staff working entirely from home than to those who were completely office-based, and 7% less likely to give one to hybrid workers.

The research found a gender gap: managers were 15% less likely to promote men who worked entirely from home than those who were completely office-based, and 10% less likely to give a pay increase. The figures for women were 7% and 8%, respectively.

FWIW this was all hypothetical. The managers were given two profiles of made-up staff who worked full-time in office, full-time at home, or hybrid with three days in-office and two at home. From there the managers were asked to choose which one they’d promote and which one they’d give a raise.

Here’s the part that should get the attention of our friends with Big 4 email addresses [emphasis ours because we know y’all don’t read entire paragraphs]:

They found that in organizations with very demanding work cultures, the managers were around 30% less likely to promote and 19% less likely to give a pay rise to men who worked entirely from home than to men who worked solely in the office. The figures for women were 15% and 19%, respectively. In organizations with more supportive environments, no penalty to staff for flexible working was found.

“In more supportive organizations, so where there is less pressure and long working days and where family-friendly policies exist, we don’t find such negative consequences of remote work,” said co-author Agnieszka Kasperska presenting the study to the British Sociological Association at their annual conference on April 5th.

“[O]ur findings indicate that individuals working from home still encounter career penalties, irrespective of the widespread adoption of this mode of work. Both male and female remote workers experience career penalties, but they are substantially larger for men.”

Obviously we need more data to know for sure if this is a thing and if it’s something most people care enough about to go back into the office.

The post Research: You Might Get Passed Over For a Raise If You WFH, Especially If You’re a Man appeared first on Going Concern.

Only the Dumb Firms Monitor Badge Swipes

Adrienne Gonzalez — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 17:06:39 +0000

Monitoring badge swipes fosters a culture of distrust and only discourages people from coming to the office says Nahla Khaddage Bou-Diab in this Accountancy Today article. Khaddage Bou-Diab is credited as a “former EY leader” in the piece, per her LinkedIn she spent three years there as a management consultant at the turn of the century. And she’s right.

Her comments are in response to recent reports that EY UK partners have been analyzing “anonymized ‘turnstile access’ data” and may be tying performance ratings to non-anonymized badge swipes.

Khaddage Bou-Diab believes the methods EY has adopted to encourage people back to the office are symptomatic of a wider cultural issue in global business.

Khaddage Bou-Diab said: “Right now, through their attendance monitoring, EY is showcasing exactly why people don’t want to return to the office. At the end of the day, monitoring turnstile data doesn’t create an environment employees would gravitate towards – and, because of it, these large firms, like EY, risk losing staff for good.”

She goes on to say that the work from home policy has “spiraled out of control” so she’s not exactly a champion of remote work here. “Given the knock-on effects of empty offices, namely decreased cross-department collaboration, productivity, innovation, and execution of deliverables, the C-suite needs to now take hold of the situation,” she said. Isn’t fostering an environment of paranoia and distrust the most effective way to achieve that?

This is not an HR problem, she said, rather it’s on leadership to set the tone. “It’s in their job description to create an organisation their employees want to be a part of,” she says of the C-suite. “But atmospheres dominated by control don’t quite fit that – they push staff into survival mode.”

Former EY leader warns against office attendance monitoring [Accountancy Today]

The post Only the Dumb Firms Monitor Badge Swipes appeared first on Going Concern.

Top Remote Accounting Freelancers: February 3, 2024

Liz Branch — Sat, 03 Feb 2024 17:57:00 +0000

Looking to staff up for a season or hire a freelancer for a project? Accountingfly is ready to partner with you! Gain full access to a pool of highly skilled and experienced remote freelance accountants ready to join your team with with no up-front cost.

We are sharing a sneak peek of a few top freelance accounting candidates available this week with Accountingfly.

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Attention tax pros!

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Top Freelance Accounting Candidates of this week:

PT Tax Contractor | Candidate ID #F19273283

Years of tax experience: 20
Hours available per week: 30 hrs/wk
Tech Stack: Taxwise, ProSystem, Taxcut, Turbo Tax, OneSource, Fast Tax
Prefer Individual or Business Clients: No preference
Business Return Experience: corporations and partnerships
Individual Return Experience: all levels, rental income, stocks
Tax Prep or Review: either/both
Other relevant experience/credentials: sales and use tax experience; remote work experience; previous contract/freelance tax experience;
Certifications: EA
Hourly rate: seeking $40/hr
Request more info about Candidate #F19273283

PT Tax Contractor | Candidate ID #F17335913

Years of tax experience: 10
Hours available per week: 20-30 hrs/wk
Tech Stack: CCHAxcess (6 years), Go Systems (3 years), CorpTax, ProConnect, ProSeries, Lacerte
Prefer Individual or Business Clients: no preference
Business Return Experience: extensive and varied, including clients from $5 million -$800 million
Individual Return Experience: extensive and varied, including real estate, private practice, medical, professional services, capital gains, K1’s
Tax Prep or Review: either/both
Other relevant experience/credentials: substantial prior contract/freelance tax experience; remote experience; experienced with R&D tax credits; experienced with sales and use tax
Certifications: CPA candidate
Hourly rate: seeking $60/hr
Request more info about Candidate #F17335913

PT/FT Tax Contractor | Candidate ID #F16301999

Years of tax experience: 7
Hours available per week: 20+ (open to FT)
Tech Stack: UltraTax, Drake, ProSystems
Prefer Individual or Business Clients: prefers business; open to both
Business Return Experience: 1120s, all variety and complexity
Individual Return Experience: high volume, schedule C’s
Tax Prep or Review: most experienced with prep; also has review experience
Other relevant experience/credentials: sales and use tax experience; previous contract/freelance tax experience; remote experience;
Certifications: CPA, has PTIN and CAF
Hourly rate: seeking $35/hr
Request more info about Candidate #F16301999

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Our recruiting services are exclusively available for clients and candidates in the United States.

About the Author:

Liz Branch is the COO of Accountingfly. Don’t hesitate to reach out to liz@accountingfly.com.

The post Top Remote Accounting Freelancers: February 3, 2024 appeared first on Going Concern.

EY Is Monitoring Badge Swipes and It Isn’t Looking Good For Return-to-Office

Adrienne Gonzalez — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 20:37:30 +0000

The following story from Financial Times pertains to EY UK however it confirms what many have suspected is happening here in the US: at least one Big 4 firm is watching badge swipes to make sure their little grunts are in the office like they’re supposed to be. Spoiler: they aren’t.

FT:

EY has started monitoring UK employees’ office attendance, with swipe card entry data being circulated at senior levels of the firm as some of its staff flout its hybrid working guidelines.

Some partners at the Big Four firm have been shown anonymised “turnstile access” data in recent weeks showing how frequently staff are attending its offices, people at the firm told the Financial Times.

One person said the statistics would be used in parts of the business as a “carrot rather than a stick” to influence teams to comply with EY’s hybrid working guidelines. They added that at least 50 per cent of some teams were failing to meet its policy of being in the office at least two days a week.

Once again I would like to extend a huge thanks to blabbermouths who snitch on their firm to the media. You guys are great and we love you.

Let’s add this bit:

Some partners at EY, which employs around 21,000 people in the UK, were also shown analysis correlating office attendance and mid-year performance ratings, one person said.

RIP carrot, we hardly knew ye.

We wrote about this “carrot vs. stick” issue back in April of 2023, just a month or so before Big 4 firms started reversing their position on return-to-office. This is from “While Other Industries Have Turned to the Stick, Accounting Firms Continue to Use the Carrot to Encourage RTO” published April 6, 2023:

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.

Mind you when we wrote the above, the Great Resignation was just starting to cool off and firms were still a bit freaked out about the whole lack of talent thing. Despite the huge number of accountant shortage articles you’ve read (or skipped over) since then, firms started complaining about low turnover last year which meant overcapacity which meant layoffs. Almost 8,000 layoffs at Big 4 and mid-tier firms in 2023 actually, and that’s only the ones that were officially announced.

A week after the carrot/stick article went up, rumors started buzzing about PwC — a firm that bragged loudly about embracing remote and hybrid work forever in 2021 — pushing a soft (and generous, TBF) return-to-office. That rumor turned out to be somewhat true. Deloitte then jumped on the RTO bandwagon too. So far no one is expecting every team in the office every day but who knows what the next year could bring.

In October, EY Americas Chief Some Bullshit Officer Frank Giampietro told HR Brew EY expects most staff to spend 40% and 60% of their time working “together in person,” be that in the office or at the client site. So yeah, the guy talking about the carrot in April was suggesting they might have to bust out the stick by October.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, “I’ll quit if you make me come into the office” is no longer a threat. They want you to quit. In some cases, they’re asking you to quit so they don’t have to fire you.

Of course, they can’t fire everybody. Hold the line, pajama gang.

The post EY Is Monitoring Badge Swipes and It Isn’t Looking Good For Return-to-Office appeared first on Going Concern.

Old Guy at PwC Wants Young People In the Office Because Something Something AI

Going Concern News Desk — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 17:03:29 +0000

Someone tweeted this to us yesterday and the topic looked so familiar we got confused, it seemed exactly like this story from last June (because who looks at publication dates right?). The tweet:

What a coincidence that AI is going to lead to the things executives wanted to do anyway, like mass layoffs and forcing people back into the office pic.twitter.com/Ev0FdPYpZW
— McRib Hard Seltzer (@kleib323) January 16, 2024

And this is from “PwC Chair Basically Threatens AI Will Replace You If You Don’t Come Into the Office” published June 5, 2023:

For two years now, PwC UK chairman Kevin Ellis has been trying to get people back into the office. In 2021, he said he wanted to “create a buzz around returning to the office,” luring his people back with the promise of human contact we were all starved for in 2020.

When “having to see other people” didn’t work to get people flocking back to the office, he said this to The Telegraph:

Kevin Ellis, chairman of PwC, said the popularity of AI software will drive employees to abandon working from home as they want to “differentiate themselves from a robot”.

During a livestream event on AI technology for 25,000 of his staff last week, Mr Ellis told workers: “For professional services, where researching and summarising data is a key part of junior roles, AI has the potential to fast-track year one trainees to year three. You’re freeing people up to do more.

He added: “The latest wave of AI will likely bring people back to the office. People are going to want to learn from others face to face, and the best way a human can differentiate themselves from a robot is in person.”

So you can understand why the article Bloomberg published Monday seemed so eerily familiar. Nope, not the same thing, just a rehash of what he said last year. Guess the vague threat isn’t working.

Young Staff Need to Be in the Office Because of AI, Says PwC’s UK Boss

Junior staff should spend more time in the office to get quicker promotions, the UK boss of accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers said, as AI is poised to take on routine tasks traditionally given to younger workers.

Generative AI is removing “tasks that in the past our more junior staff trained and cut their teeth on,” Kevin Ellis, the chair of PwC UK, said during an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Without those tasks, “you’ve somehow got to get people through the career path faster,” he added.

“It’s a lot more face-to-face time being important and a lot more developing,” Ellis said. “So you have to get people in the office more working together.”

…

“If you’re asking me my opinion on how you succeed in your career,” he said. “I’d be in the office four to five days a week.”

Only five? That’s not very high performer of you, Kev.

As we pointed out last time Kevin vaguely threatened AI would replace you if you don’t show your face around the office enough, he started at PwC back in 1984. Microsoft Excel wasn’t even on the market yet. Do you reckon there was some old timer in his office who told young staff they should keep paper spreadsheets and ledgers to differentiate themselves from people using computerized ones?

Unless you’re on the partner track, who cares. Don’t let this guy bully you into the office five days a week.

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Accounting Ranks First In Something Good For Once

Adrienne Gonzalez — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 19:16:28 +0000

It’s possible this is just clickbait and thinly veiled advertising for remote recruiters (*sweats nervously*) but according to CNBC Make It, “accountant” is “the number one in-demand remote job companies are hiring for.” Adds their headline, “it can pay over $100,000 a year.” Insert sitcom laugh track here.

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:

Accountant

Executive Assistant

Financial Analyst

Product Manager

Customer Service Representative

Software Engineer

Customer Success Manager

Accounting Manager

Product Designer

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.”

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Ruh-Oh, Something Bad Happened to CohnReznick’s Network (Allegedly)

Adrienne Gonzalez — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 17:45:42 +0000

Tip time! CohnReznick’s network is apparently contaminated and the firm has warned employees not to connect to it in the office under any circumstances (in red text and caps no less). In fact, they’ve told people to stay home just to be safe.

Tip:

All offices are working remotely with severely limited access to normal functions and systems. All internet has been turned off at the offices worldwide. Down for a couple of days now.

They’re very serious, you guys. In an email with a handy visual of the firm’s docking stations the firm says:

It is CRITICAL that you DO NOT MAKE ANY ATTEMPT TO CONNECT TO THE CohnReznick NETWORK.

DO NOT REDEEM.

DO NOT REDEEM!!

According to another internal email we’ve reviewed, the firm detected unusual activity on the network and took the network servers offline “to protect our information.” There is currently no indication that client or employee data has been compromised.

The email from the office of People and Culture also gave a list of work-related activities for employees to consider while the network is down including:

CPA and Learning and Development via LINC, LinkedIn Learning, etc
Snapshot review, goal setting and coaching meetings
Mid-year review documentation and meetings
Engagement planning or budget managements
Client work that can be done with desktop such as excel schedules word doc memos etc

Gaming and Netflix it is, then.

So what do we think? Partner clicked a link in a sketchy email? Some idiot downloaded GTAVIfullgame.exe from a dubious website on the office internet? We’ll let you know if we hear more.

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Survey Says: Audit Fees Were Up Almost Five Percent in 2022, In-Person Audit Work Is Back

Going Concern News Desk — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 16:58:52 +0000

The Financial Education & Research Foundation (FERF) has released the findings of its 14th Annual Public Company Audit Fee Study, sponsored by Center for Audit Quality. The FERF 2022 Public Company Audit Fee Study Report examines audit fees companies paid to external auditors for auditing and related services for the period between June 2022 and May 2023. The report is based on responses from 54 financial executives at public companies and an additional survey of 116 audit engagement partners. In addition, the report also examines audit fees as reported by nearly 7,060 SEC filers. The CAQ also contributed to the report by conducting a survey of audit engagement partners.

Here’s what you need to know.

Average audit fees increased by 4.6 percent from 2021 to 2022

Of more than 6,200 clients, the average audit fee works out to $2.4 million (sauce).

Less than half — 47 percent — of member company respondents said they’ve had to increase their efforts to support the external audit, 51 percent said there’s been no change. Acquisitions are a big driver for increased effort, 21 percent of respondents credited it for the stepped up effort. That or changes to ICFR and divestitures.

Technology is doing a lot of heavy lifting in audit

Much like last year’s survey, 89 percent of preparers said their auditors are using advanced data and information analysis. Almost 80 percent of audit partners surveyed said they used data analytics and/or other emerging technologies in 2022 audits, that’s a five percent increase from prior year. On the client side, 64 percent of preparer respondents said they think the use of these technologies improved audit quality compared to 49 percent of them a year ago.

But AI Isn’t Big…Yet

36 percent of preparers surveyed said they plan to incorporate use of AI into their financial reporting within the next five years.

Musty audit rooms are back!

Better put that deodorant order on subscription, in-person auditing is definitely back.

More than 55 percent of audit partners surveyed say they expect their team will spend more than half of their time together, be that at the client site or at the firm’s office. The number of partners with this expectation has more than doubled from last year, less than 25 percent of audit partners surveyed for 2021 had this same expectation.

On the client side, 43 percent of preparer respondents expect their finance and accounting teams to spend 50 percent or more of their time together on-site supporting the audit during peak times. That’s an even bigger jump from less than 15 percent of them having this expectation last year.

More from CFO Magazine, including averages for large accelerated filers and much smaller filers, here: Audit Fees Rose Nearly 5% in 2022: Weekly Stat

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Our Profession Really Has Abused Those at the Entry Level, Says Managing Partner to the Local News

Adrienne Gonzalez — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 20:41:18 +0000

KTVN in Reno has covered the CPA shortage and in order to do so because local news reporters rarely even think about accountants much less report on them, the news spoke to the incredibly candid Mark Bailey, managing partner and founder of Excelsis Accounting Group. In a sea of talent shortage articles quoting boomers who think 70-hour weeks build character, it’s refreshing to see someone speak so openly about the profession’s biggest issue.

2News:

“I think that our profession really has abused those at the entry level and discouraged them from coming into the profession,” he said. “It’s not uncommon for an accounting firm to require their lower-level staff, up to four or five years and even after that, to work 80 or 90-hour weeks.”

That’s something, he says, newer generations of workers aren’t going to do. Even college enrollment in the field is down.

“I know at [University of Nevada, Reno] they have an online master’s program and it’s only got 47 people in it; they want to add people to it,” Bailey said.

Bailey also mentions an issue we wrote about last summer: firms in higher cost of living markets are hiring people living in lower COL cities to work remotely, paying those people HCOL salaries.

“I’ll interview someone and then, unfortunately, someone from San Francisco will hire them remotely and pay them based on the San Francisco wage scale, which we can’t match,” he said to KTVN. We know of at least one mid-tier firm headquartered in the Midwest that had this very problem, there are no doubt many more we haven’t gotten the scoop on.

To put this specific issue into perspective, here are salary ranges for a handful of public accounting positions in Reno and San Francisco according to the 2024 Robert Half Salary Guide. 25th percentile is the low end, 75th is the high, we’ve skipped Bob’s 50th percentile figures because who cares (about any of this, really). Reno is 4% higher than national average, San Francisco 35%. The figures below do not include bonuses, benefits or perks and are obviously averages.

Reno public accounting salaries
Position Title	25th Percentile	75th Percentile
Tax Associate	$54,860	$77,740
Senior Tax Associate	$69,940	$96,980
Manager (Tax)	$96,460	$136,240
Senior Manager/Director (Tax)	$129,480	$199,680
Associate, Audit/Assurance	$50,960	$72,280
Senior Associate, Audit/Assurance	$60,060	$86,060
Manager (Audit)	$93,600	$129,740
Senior Manager/Managing Director (Audit)	$126,360	$181,220

Versus:

San Francisco public accounting salaries
Position Title	25th Percentile	75th Percentile
Tax Associate	$71,213	$100,913
Senior Tax Associate	$90,788	$125,888
Manager (Tax)	$125,213	$176,850
Senior Manager/Director (Tax)	$168,075	$259,200
Associate, Audit/Assurance	$66,150	$93,825
Senior Associate, Audit/Assurance	$77,963	$111,713
Manager (Audit)	$121,500	$168,413
Senior Manager/Managing Director (Audit)	$164,025	$235,238

So a tax associate in Reno offered the high end of salary to work remotely for a San Francisco firm could theoretically make $23k more money for the same work, a manager is looking at closer to a $60k bump. In an increasingly expensive world, why wouldn’t an accountant choose the more lucrative option?

Mark goes on to say that his firm has done the smart thing and limited the work they do take on, allow their staff to work remotely, and try to avoid overtime “because when you do work overtime, it kind of impairs the other aspects of your life.” Kind of.

Full segment:

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Now That People Are Back in the Office Deodorant Is Making a Comeback

Adrienne Gonzalez — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 20:49:08 +0000

So Fortune says that deodorant is making a big comeback now that companies are pushing return-to-office, at least according to what they were told on a Unilever media call last week. Unilever owns Dove, Rexona (or as we know it here in the US, Degree), and douchebag favorite Axe, all of which took a sales hit in 2020 and 2021 when everyone went feral and stopped showering as much as they used to. Things started turning around for personal care in 2022, just when workers began returning to office in earnest:

“People didn’t use deodorant as much when they were in lockdown or working from home, et cetera. I think we’re seeing some of the recovery of that coming through,” Unilever CFO Graeme Pitkethly said during a media call on Thursday, referring to the impact COVID-19 had on deodorant use.

In 2022, Unilever’s deodorants were “the main driver of underlying sales” in the segment, the company said in its annual report.

“If you step up to the level of our Personal Care Business Group, it delivered a really good growth result with good balance between volume and pricing. And a big driver of that was strong volume growth in deodorants,” Pitkethly said of Unilever’s Q3 results.

Note: Unilever is frequently featured on r/shrinkflation, a sub where Reddit users post comparison photos of products that have decreased in size (or quantity) but not price. Like this:

And this:

So with that said, Unilever had underlying sales growth of 5.2% in Q3 with 5.8% price growth and a 0.6% decline in the volume of products sold [PDF of Unilever Trading Statement – Third Quarter 2023, unaudited]. Guardian financial editor Nils Pratley called them out for their “share the pain” approach to increased production costs in July:

What Unilever et al are really doing is managing the fine trade-off between price increases and the volume of products to ensure a 17% margin doesn’t become 15%. “Sharing the pain” is gloss. This is a straightforward commercial exercise in passing on, or “recovering” in the jargon, as much of the input inflation as consumers will bear. The shareholders would expect nothing else.

But let’s put aside shrink and talk stink. While a decrease in the popularity and purchase of deodorant may seem like a strictly lockdown thing, I vaguely recall some gripes about millennials shunning deodorant going back a decade. Oh look at that, my memory isn’t so bad after all.

From a 2014 CNBC article on why millennials were having trouble getting hired:

Millennials are famously unemployed and underemployed, but the reason may not entirely be the so-so job market. Or gaps in their college education.

It could be their body odor.

In the Bank of America Trends in Consumer Mobility report, released Monday, surveyors asked 1,000 adults about the importance of various items in their daily lives. Among millennials, 93 percent said a smartphone was “very” or “somewhat” important, making it the most important item for that age group. Fewer—87 percent—said deodorant was of daily importance, and 91 percent, a toothbrush.

91 percent of all adults surveyed for that report ranked deodorant and smartphones equally important in daily life, 95 percent said they consider a toothbrush a daily must.

Another survey in 2019 by global research and opinion company YouGov showed that many millennials and Zoomers weren’t using deodorant at all. 37 percent of 25-to-34-year-olds surveyed said they hadn’t purchased deodorant or antiperspirant in the past year, that number climbed to 48 percent for 18 to 24-year-olds.

Of course some people were using less deodorant during lockdown but was that because they weren’t going into the office and didn’t care if their dog thinks they’re stinky? Or have we millennials and our younger Gen Z counterparts always been less enthusiastic about it than the generations before us? Here’s another survey, this one from a 2021 survey of Brits:

[A]lmost three in 10 (28%) deodorant/antiperspirant users have applied them less frequently since the COVID-19 outbreak. Frequency of usage has fallen most dramatically among Gen Z (aged 23 and under) and Millennial (aged 24-39) consumers. Just under half (45%) of Gen Zs and 40% of Millennials are using deodorant/antiperspirant less frequently, as the trend towards casualization extends from clothing to personal hygiene.

Already in decline, the outbreak of COVID-19 has exacerbated the downward trajectory of the market, with deodorant sales falling an estimated 7% in 2020 to £369 million ($448 million), down from £394 million in 2019. Sales are forecast to decline a further 5% in 2021 to £352 million.

“Savvy shopping among Brits meant the deodorants market was already suffering even before the pandemic; however, lockdowns and social distancing exacerbated the value decline in 2020,” said Emilia Greenslade, OTC and Personal Care Analyst at Mintel, of that report.

Maybe deodorant isn’t making a comeback at all. Stay stinky, my friends.

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Accountants on Why They’re Leaving: ‘The Hours Are Long and Unreasonable, Compensation Is Low’

Adrienne Gonzalez — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 15:47:00 +0000

“The number-one trend is that the candidate is in complete control…because the unemployment rate is lower in accounting and finance than it’s ever been.” That’s a quote from a Robert Half recruiter in the Talent Retention in the U.S. Accounting and Finance Profession study released a few days ago, a collab between IMA and Robert Half (and about two dozen research partners, mostly state societies). Unemployment may be low but accountants’ desire to leave their employers is higher than ever, the study sought to find out why.

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]

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EY Expects Its People to Build a Better Working World Together In Person Up to 60% of the Time

Going Concern News Desk — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 20:08:41 +0000

While none of us read HR Brew they interviewed Frank Giampietro, chief well-being officer for the Americas, about EY’s return-to-office expectations so guess we’re reading them today. Firms’ attitudes toward remote and hybrid work have changed quite a bit since PwC proudly announced all 40,000 U.S. client services employees can work virtually and live anywhere they want in perpetuity two years ago so it’s good to find out what the firms are doing with RTO from time to time.

Where’s EY on hybrid work these days? HR Brew:

Embracing “predictable flexibility.” Currently, EY expects most people to spend between 40% and 60% of their time working “together in person,” and the rest remotely, according to Giampietro.

In July 2022 Giampietro spoke to another HR rag we don’t read about how the firm was herding its people back under the fluorescent lights. At that point in time the firm said an employee survey showed a lot of people wanted to be in the office part-time (X) however the actual number of people showing up in the office didn’t reflect that.

HR Executive wrote:

Earlier this year, the firm instituted what it called the “EY way of working transition fund” that covered all commuting costs, all dependent care costs and all pet care costs for its U.S. workers so that those barriers would be removed for office visits. All of its 55,000-plus U.S. employees were able to ask for reimbursements on those costs an unlimited amount of times.

And here’s where we’re at today:

Last year, Giampietro and his team sought to understand “what else was holding people back from coming together,” besides upticks in Covid-19. They picked up on financial concerns related to commutes, as well as dependent and pet care, and decided to offer employees an $800-a-year “way of working” fund to alleviate some of these costs.

EY rolled out the fund in February 2022, and has since seen a 150% year over year uptick in time spent together in the office, Giampietro said. Due to the success of the stipend, EY will offer it annually going forward. The idea, he added, is to “ease the burden for you to kind of get back into new habits of coming together again.”

Reminder that the average cost per in-office day is $71 (assuming pet care is part of your costs) which means an $800/year stipend would cover approximately eleven days in office. Hybrid workers spend a more modest $36 per day, that breaks down to 22 days. Technically 22.22 so 22¼ days. The average American commuter spends $8,466 and about 19% of their annual income on their commute every year, if you live in Detroit, Atlanta, NYC, SoCal, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, or Washington, DC your average commute cost per year is closer to $10,000.

Back on topic. As with anything else Big 4, the in-office expectations are heavily dependent on your team. HR Brew says “certain parts of the business spend over 80% of their time in a hybrid environment” which could mean 80% in the office or 80% remote, who knows. Other teams are hybrid closer to half, they said.

EYers are welcome to chime in with their own anecdotal data.

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Flexibility Is the Name of the Game For Hybrid Workers This Year

Going Concern News Desk — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 18:08:56 +0000

Videoconference tech company Owl Labs has released its 2023 State of Hybrid Work report and boy is there a lot to cover. When Fortune wrote it up a few days ago, one item they chose to highlight is how much it’s costing workers to be back in the office: the average is $51 a day, $71 a day for workers with pets.

The total, says Owl Labs, breaks down as follows:

$16 – Lunch

$14 – Commuting costs

$13 – Breakfast/coffee

$8 – Parking

($20 – pet care)

Employees who work a hybrid schedule, the company says, spend just $36 per day.

Keep that in mind for later. There are two things we’re going to highlight. If employers internalize nothing else from the report it should be this:

One theme that has remained consistent over the past three years is flexibility. Americans are embracing flexible work – and they want more of it. The data has shown (again) that employees feel more productive, balanced, and loyal to their companies when they have it. Many employees will make sacrifices in order to achieve flexibility in where they work, as 62% would take a pay cut of 10% or more, and 4% would quit their job if they were no longer able to work remotely or hybrid.

Now the important bits. First, compensation is top of mind for workers surveyed. Shocking. Alas, we feel compelled to highlight it here anyway for the sake of any leadership that may be lurking on these pages who need to be told repeatedly that compensation is very, very important. As you can see from the chart below, only 1% said compensation/salary is not very important and more than half (54%) ranked it as very important.

Employees’ most important work factors from the Owl Labs 2023 State of Hybrid Work report

While we’re here let’s talk about supportive managers. 84% of women ranked a supportive manager as important or very important, compared to 87% of men and the older you are, the more important a supportive manager is. 77% of Gen Zers said a supportive manager is important or very important compared to 90% of boomers. Across the board, remote workers need a supportive manager more than office workers, 92% of them said it’s important or very important while 84% of office workers said the same.

Now let’s discuss flexibility. Almost one in four workers surveyed (23%) switched jobs in 2023, down from 29% in last year’s survey. If you’re in the office full-time you’re 44% more likely to have changed companies than hybrid workers, a stat Owl Labs says is “interesting” but really seems sort of obvious given worker attitudes toward full return-to-office.

From the report:

The reasons they changed jobs or are actively seeking new opportunities have remained pretty consistent year over year. This year, the top reasons – tied at 47% – are for better compensation and a better work/life balance. We also learned what would cause them to not accept a new job offer and (maybe unsurprisingly) the top reasons are: if a company requires specific days in the office, also known as a structured hybrid approach (40%), and doesn’t allow for flexible working hours (40%). What employees want is for employers to show them the money, drop the strict working hours, and give them flexibility. Job seekers highly value having autonomy over where and when they work – so companies offering flexible working hours (among other things) will come out on top.

Despite compensation always being a leading factor when it comes to talent retention and prospecting, we learned that employees are willing to take pay cuts for flexibility. 1 in 4 workers (25%) would take a 15% pay cut to work a 4-day work week, and the same percentage would take the same pay cut for flexible working hours – which were more popular options than sacrificing pay for a better health insurance plan (24% would take a 15% pay cut for that). Nearly a fifth of those surveyed (17%) would take a 20% or more pay cut to have a flexible working location or work fully remote.

Asked what size pay cut they’d take in exchange for certain benefits 17% of respondents would be fine with a 15% pay cut in exchange for working fully remote.

Worker willingness to take a pay cut in exchange for flexibility from the Owl Labs 2023 State of Hybrid Work report

Guys (and gals), DO NOT take a pay cut for the privilege of working remotely. As mentioned above, working in-office is costing on average $51/day ($71/day for pet owners). If you’re working five days a week in-office and fortunate enough to have a cheap dog walker that’s a mere 20 bucks a day that’s $1,420 a month, $17,040 a year (going by 20 days a month average). For non-pet owners or those with cats who conveniently shit in a box that’s $1,020 a month, $12,240 a year. Salary is only part of the picture and leadership knows it.

According to KPMG’s recently released 2023 CEO Outlook survey, 87 percent of CEOs say they are likely to reward employees who make an effort to come into the office with favorable assignments, raises or promotions. If they want you in the office so bad make them work for it.

Workers aren’t entirely opposed to returning to the office though, some just mistrust their companies when it comes to hybrid work. 53% say it’s likely that their employer will change their remote or hybrid work policy in the next year. Another 16% are feeling unsure, a 45% jump since 2022. No wonder since many employers have reversed their positions on remote work in the last two years.

From the report:

Though employees are skeptical about the rationale of why they have to be in the office, it’s important to note that the story isn’t that all employees are reluctant to go to the office, they just think the office works better for some tasks than others. 38% of hybrid workers say the office works best for meeting new people, 30% say it’s best for team meetings, and 28% prefer it for collaborating. They shouldn’t have to choose between one or the other – if productivity remains the same or increased, employees should have autonomy on where they spend their time working. In fact, 90% of hybrid workers said they feel equally or more productive when working in a hybrid format.

Interestingly, 80% of men agree that their company is requiring employees to work in the office because it is essential or more productive for their job function, compared to 47% of women.

In 2023, we have seen some companies doing their best to invite or entice employees to the office versus mandating it. What matters most to hybrid employees when it comes to returning to the office? Hint: it’s not only the snacks.

Companies paying for commuting costs (38%) is at the top of the list, followed by greater privacy at the office [e.g. dedicated offices, more phone booths] (34%), and having a way to know when people they want to see will be there (33%). It might be a good time to kill the dress code, as 1 in 4 (24%) said they would be enticed to go to the office if they were able to wear whatever they wanted.

And 28% of hybrid workers want daycare/eldercare subsidies or onsite alternatives if they’re expected to show their faces at the office more often.

There’s so much more in the report, check it out here. Both workers and employers might gain some insight from the results.

The post Flexibility Is the Name of the Game For Hybrid Workers This Year appeared first on Going Concern.

A Majority of Leaders Are Down to Give Financial Rewards and Promotions to Those Who Return to Office

Going Concern News Desk — Mon, 09 Oct 2023 19:29:55 +0000

KPMG released its 2023 CEO Outlook last week and we really don’t care that 73 percent of CEOs surveyed have confidence in the global economic outlook over the next three years nor do we care that three-quarters of them are concerned about rising interest rates leading to a recession. Let’s instead highlight the talent portion:

This year’s challenging global landscape underscores the pressures CEOs feel to make decisions on a variety of critical issues — and they impact how CEOs plan to support and attract talent over the next three years.

Notably, global CEOs are steadfast in signaling their support of pre-pandemic ways of working, with a majority (64 percent) anticipating a full return to office is only three years away. This remains consistent with their views in the 2022 CEO Outlook. What’s more, 87 percent of CEOs say they are likely to reward employees who make an effort to come into the office with favorable assignments, raises or promotions.

This sentiment underscores the persistence of traditional office-centric thinking among CEOs. It comes against a backdrop of the debate surrounding hybrid working, which has had a largely positive impact on productivity over the past three years and has strong employee support, particularly among the younger generation of workers. As organizations continue to roll out their return-to-office plans, it is crucial that leaders take a long-term view that embraces the employee value proposition and encompasses the considerations and needs of employees to ensure that talent is nurtured and supported.

In picture form if you are morally opposed to reading:

“The data underscores the immense pressure on CEOs to make quick decisions on the big issues,” said Nhlamu Dlomu, Global Head of People at KPMG International. “The war for talent may have softened in this period of economic uncertainty, but the evidence suggests a one-size-fits-all approach to return-to-office could be detrimental.”

Coincidentally, Fortune published an article a week before the CEO survey results came out about workers’ willingness to return to the office. They’ll do it…if their employers make it worth it (literally).

According to exclusive data from a report from video-conferencing devices company Owl Labs, first provided to Fortune, almost all (94%) of workers are willing to make an office return—but they’re underwhelmed by the current suite of perks companies are shelling out for. In a post-pandemic world, the ante has been upped, and they expect bosses to level up—by paying up—too.

The perks they’re after aren’t wellness rooms or ping-pong tables. What they really want is to save money. Nearly two in five (38%) hybrid workers told Owl Labs they’d be more likely to go to their office voluntarily if their companies shelled out for their commuting costs. That’s the most desired perk by a wide margin, and it’s no wonder why. “Working remotely is often a money saver because it reduces commuting costs to zero, while also making lunch, coffee, et cetera, much more affordable,” George Anders, LinkedIn’s senior editor at large, told Fortune earlier this year.

The article linked at the end with George’s quote: Commuting costs $2,000 and 39 hours more than it did before the pandemic. It explains why no one wants to return to office

They got their numbers from Clever Real Estate’s May 2022 listicle The Best and Worst Cities for Commuters in 2022 which says:

The average worker commutes a total of 28 minutes one-way to work. In the average U.S. metro, workers spend an average of 239 hours every year commuting – amounting to 3% of their year in total!
The average commuter in the U.S. spends $8,466 and about 19% of their annual income on their commute every year. As part of that overall cost, the average commuter spends $867 on fuel and $410 on vehicle maintenance each year as a result of commuting. Additionally, the average driver in America loses 32 hours to traffic annually.

Funny that Deloitte is ending its commuting subsidy now. They’re really trying to get those attrition numbers up aren’t they. Anyone else pulling back on the perks? Let us know.

The takeaway here is that if leaders want people back in the office, they better pay up. Or just keep hoping for a recession and people to get desperate.

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Risk-Free Recruiting for the Accounting Industry

GoingConcern — Mon, 21 Aug 2023 23:00:49 +0000

Ed. note: The following is a guest post from Accountingfly, a niche recruiting agency that specializes in helping firms and finance departments hire accounting talent. They wrote this post because they heard you were looking for accountants. Full disclosure: Accountingfly is Going Concern’s owner/overlord.

Let’s make this quick. If you need some help hiring US-based accounting talent, Accountingfly can help, and if they can’t, they’ll let you know. We’re giving them the mic to explain what they do and why accounting employers love them. TL;DR Accountingfly isn’t in the business of wasting everyone’s time. They’re in the business of matching the right candidates to the right firms.

Who are you?

We are a recruiting agency with ten years of experience helping firms hire accounting talent. You could use the word “small” to describe us, we prefer “cozy” or “personal.” We’re powered by people, not algorithms.

We don’t deal in healthcare, law, or any other industry–we’re 100% accounting, 100% of the time.

We specialize in placing remote, US-based accounting talent. We’ll occasionally help firms hire various hybrid models or location-based talent, but we were into remote work before it was cool, that’s our thing.

We know the market, have access to some really stellar US-based accounting professionals looking for career opportunities, and try our very best to provide exceptional service to all of our clients. We value our candidates too, they’re your future staff and deserve not to be jerked around.

Sounds great, I’m in. What services do you offer?

We offer exactly three services:

• Specific Talent Searches. Need a tax senior with client experience in a specific industry, specialized tax expertise, or particular software proficiency? Gotchu.

We’re kind of giving away the trade secrets here, but here’s what we’d do for you. We’ll launch a dedicated search for the right fit remote candidate (they might already be in our database), conduct initial interviews with people who match your needs, help coordinate final-stage interviews for the best of the best, conduct background checks, facilitate negotiations, and overall do whatever it takes to get the job done.

Once you make a hire, you’re covered by Accountingfly’s 90-day guarantee. Our success rate for placing candidates is about 90% which is pretty amazing in this line of work, but just in case they don’t work out, we’ll keep looking until you find the right fit.

• Weekly Summaries of Top Candidates. This is the option you pick if you’re interested in the hiring market but don’t have highly specific requirements you need met RIGHT NOW.

Want to see five to ten top-flight remote (US only) accounting candidate profiles every week with no risk, no upfront cost, and no obligation? Wow, that sounded like a late-night infomercial. Well, that’s the pitch, that’s what we call Always-On Recruiting.

Every week, Accountingfly sifts through roughly a thousand applications from accounting professionals. We interview the most promising ones with the most in-demand qualifications and send email summaries of the week’s top candidates to employers like you. That’s it.

If you want to learn more about these candidates, we’ll provide full recruiting support (interview scheduling, background checks, negotiation facilitation, etc.), and all hires are backed by our 90-day guarantee.

• Seasonal/Freelance Placements (for busy season or any season). This option is for employers who might need an extra hand, be it for busy season, month-end close crunch time, or an engagement that could use some support. US-based remote freelancers are a great way to get the work done when there’s too much of it for your in-house team to do.

Just like all our candidates, freelancers are all remote, US-based, and screened to match employers that need their particular expertise.

And that’s it. Our unique fee structure typically results in substantial savings of time and money for employers, and our focus on remote talent offers you access to the best accounting professionals from across the country.

*taking back the mic*

If you are hiring or thinking about hiring in the world of accounting, you have got to check these people out!

P.S. They only work with US-based clients and companies.

The post Risk-Free Recruiting for the Accounting Industry appeared first on Going Concern.

In Shocking Blow to Pro-Office Leadership, People Will Quit If You Force Them Back Into the Office

Going Concern News Desk — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 16:52:20 +0000

Just in case the C-suite needs more evidence that precious talent hates being corralled back into their cubicles, Deloitte has released a new survey that says if you force it, they will not come. Most people are surprisingly OK with going into the office, just not all the time

Here are the key findings from “Cultivating employee engagement in financial services,” specific to financial services institutions but no doubt applicable across offices everywhere (and certainly those belonging to people with Deloitte.com email addresses). TL;DR: Overall survey results indicate that financial services institutions (FSIs) with overly strict in-office mandates could face dual challenges: possibly losing their pipeline of leaders and having difficulty recruiting talent. Caregivers are particularly sensitive to RTO mandates and more likely to leave their company if forced back into the office.

Strict return-to-office mandates could impact retention. Among leaders surveyed who work remotely at least part of the time, 66% say it’s likely they’d leave their current job if their company required them to return to the office five days a week.

Caregivers are more likely to be affected by return-to-offices mandates. Leaders with caregiving responsibilities surveyed were 1.3 times more likely than non-caregivers to say they’d leave their organization if their company eliminated their ability to work remotely.

Leaders surveyed prefer flexible work arrangements over prescribed workplace models. Some financial services institutions now require their workforce to go into the office three to four days a week. However, only 18% of respondents say this would be their ideal arrangement.

While remote working has improved engagement and well-being, most surveyed leaders believe it will put them at a disadvantage. Among leaders with hybrid work arrangements, 62% of respondents say they would prefer to work remotely more often but feel it would be bad for their career.

Financial services institutions may face a shrinking pipeline of future female leaders in the years to come. Almost half (45%) of women respondents in senior leadership roles report being likely to leave their current employer over the next year.

Deloitte got their info from 700 US mid- to executive-level financial services professionals—manager-level through senior leadership just below the C-suite—from many of the largest US FSIs. “Our respondents are meant to represent the future of financial services leadership: ‘next-generation leaders’ are manager level, and ‘senior leaders’ are EVPs, SVPs, or equivalent or lines of business leaders; some are just one step away from the C-suite,” they said. “As such, our respondents should represent the leadership pipeline at many of the largest US financial services firms.” Millennials and Gen X made up 91% of the survey population.

Since some leaders respond better to visual learning, let’s throw a few helpful graphs in here.

Says Deloitte in its advice to leadership:

Take small steps. Any significant changes to the current working arrangements may be met with strong opposition. Starting with lesser number of days in office, before ramping them up, would allow employees time to soak in the benefits of an in-office environment. Our survey indicates a clear preference for 1–2 in-office days a week over 3–4 days. In some cases, employers are offering a combination of flex and core hours, where all employees are expected to work during specific hours (e.g., 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.), with full flexibility for remainder of the day. Offering team-based decisions on workplace arrangements is another option. This approach can empower employees to voice their flexibility preferences while still committing to the needs of the team.

On that note: 4-6pm is now “a dead zone” for many workers. People are logging out early, running errands, picking their kids up, taking a quick nap, and then logging back in later to finish their day. This explains why there are now so many people at the grocery store right at 4 o’clock.

More than one-third of respondents (38%) said having opportunities to connect with leaders above their level could positively impact their work experience so Deloitte suggests instituting regular live, in-office sessions with leadership. Almost four in 10 respondents said they’d like more learning and development opportunities, in-person, role-based, or business-specific training programs are one way to get those people in the office with something that benefits them more than the nebulous promise of “collaboration” pro-RTO leaders have been trotting out for years.

Ultimately it’s both a personal and practical choice if a return-to-office mandate sends someone back out into the job market. People without as many responsibilities at home might be less insistent on leaving but they appear to be just as unwilling to come into the office for what they consider to be too many days a week. Leaders are advised to tread carefully and ask themselves if it’s worth it to lose your best people over a couple extra days a month under the fluorescent lights.

Cultivating employee engagement in financial services [Deloitte]

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Citigroup is Holding Pay and Bonuses Hostage to Get People Back in the Office

Going Concern News Desk — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 15:49:28 +0000

It seems Citi is sick of WFH slackers and is getting the stick:

Citigroup Inc. has begun telling managers to let staffers know they’ll face consequences if they don’t comply with policies for office attendance.

While the vast majority of staffers are following the firm’s rules for hybrid work, the moves are focused on those employees with persistent, unexplained absences, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Managers will consider compliance with the rules when rating performance and crafting pay packages, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing information that isn’t public.

“We are committed to our hybrid work model and proud of the flexibility it provides our colleagues to work at least three days per week in the office and up to two days remotely,” Citigroup said in a statement. “We have firm expectations for office attendance and know that the majority of our employees are compliant with their requirements. As necessary, we hold colleagues accountable for adhering to their in-office days.

Citi began pushing a return to office pretty hard in January. CEO Jane Fraser told a Bloomberg News panel during the World Economic Forum in Davos that the company would be dragging low performers back into the office, suggesting that it’s the people working at home who aren’t doing the work.

Best of luck to them with that.

Citi workers flouting return-to-office mandate to face consequences: ‘We hold colleagues accountable’ [Fortune]

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We’re Loud Quitting Now

Adrienne Gonzalez — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 21:09:52 +0000

You know who needs to great resignate and/or quit loudly? The people who come up with these stupid workplace trend buzzwords. Oh well, we’ve got another one for you.

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]

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Forcing People Back Into the Office to Foster Mentoring Will Only Foster Resentment, Says Cringe Nicknamed Doctor

MJ Pallerino — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 16:54:29 +0000

Looks like we have another expert chiming in to offer their view on the whole “Work-from-home,” “Don’t-work-from-home, “Work-from-home-but-come-in-once-in-a-while” cluster!@#$ of a post-pandemic office strategy. This time it’s nickname guru Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, who says you might be pissing off your senior talent if you force them to come into the office to mentor the children.

Dr. Tspipursky—aka the “Office Whisperer,” aka the “Hybrid Expert”—wrote in a recent Forbes piece that leaders who believe forcing employees to return to the office will naturally lead to mentoring and development are huffing cope. If anything, the pandemic has shown that employees can get shit done outside the office, which means demanding them to come back is, well, you know, not very smart.

There is no denying that every professional, accountants included, began to rethink how they do their jobs when they were forced to work remotely. In the accounting industry, the enticement—and offerings—for remote work roll on. As of May 2023, there were more than 600 remote accounting jobs listed on the job board of talent solutions firm Robert Half.

And there more, according to the ConvergenceCoaching ATAWW Survey, the percentage of accounting firms allowing their folks to work remotely in 2022 on a regular or fluid basis nearly doubled to 80%. And get this: 43% say they are adding remote recruiting to their talent strategy.

So, if you don’t give accounting talent what they are looking for, as Dr. Nicknames says, you may be shit out of luck. A Thomas Reuters’ article says that the desire for remote or hybrid positions remains strong, with 41% of finance and accounting professionals either looking or planning to seek new employment in the first half of 2023. Among those professionals, 63% plan to go hybrid, with 47% interested in a fully remote position.

According to a PwC Remote Work Survey, pre-pandemic, only 29% of financial services firms had at least 60% of their workforce working from home at least once a week.

So, as Dr. Tspipursky, who really is CEO of future-of-work consultancy firm Disaster Avoidance Experts, says:

Instead of forcing everyone to return to the office and hoping for osmosis-driven mentoring, it’s imperative to create a hybrid mentoring program that encompasses in-person and virtual mentoring elements. Such a program has been successfully implemented for several of my clients, such as the companies mentioned earlier. The result was happier senior staff and more effective mentoring.

Why are senior staff more willing to come to the office to do mentoring rather than through a mandate? Well, my focus groups with senior staff showed that they overwhelmingly realized the value of in-person mentoring: not only did they get in-person mentoring themselves, but they also recognized that in-person connection is very important for building trust. It allows junior people to be vulnerable when they ask questions that reveal vulnerability.

And he has the goods to back up everything he says:

From my experience, a hybrid mentoring program requires several key activities:

Individual lunch sessions with senior professionals: One-on-one interactions with senior professionals are the most powerful form of mentoring, but given the scarcity of time for senior professionals, this should not be the only mentoring activity.

Virtual coffee roulette with senior professionals: A lower time burden for senior professionals, allowing for more accessible mentoring arrangements, even though less impactful than individual lunch sessions.

Group lunch sessions with senior professionals: A senior employee takes out a few junior employees for lunch, which facilitate knowledge sharing and relationship building in a time-efficient manner for senior professionals.

Group mentoring: A senior employee mentors a cohort of junior employees, fostering a collaborative learning environment and reducing time demands on senior staff.

In-person coworking sessions: One senior and several junior employees work together on their individual tasks in shared spaces in the office for a couple of hours. Junior team members can ask questions as they come up, while the senior staff person can check in on their work every half-hour or so. Doing so promotes teamwork and organic knowledge transfer, while decreasing the burden on senior employees.

Virtual coworking sessions: Similar to in-person coworking, but conducted via videoconference for increased flexibility.

Firms with a heavy RTO hand should take heed and reconsider their “collaboration” mandates. If they don’t, the Robert Half folks are going to love all the job placement contracts.

The post Forcing People Back Into the Office to Foster Mentoring Will Only Foster Resentment, Says Cringe Nicknamed Doctor appeared first on Going Concern.

The Funniest Anti-WFH Propaganda You’ll See All Week

Adrienne Gonzalez — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 18:18:36 +0000

Perhaps you’ve already seen this in 24 hours since it was released but let’s talk about it anyway because L-O-fucking-L.

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:

This is your future unless you get back into the office. All the 70-year-olds who returned to office will of course be the picture of good health.

Poor Anna, all of this could be prevented if only she didn’t insist on working from home.

How about them claw hands?

CLAW HANDS. Those nails look really good for someone that age.

“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.

Anna’s real problem is constantly ruining laptops with spilled coffee.

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.

PwC Chair Basically Threatens AI Will Replace You If You Don’t Come Into the Office

Adrienne Gonzalez — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 18:00:40 +0000

For two years now, PwC UK chairman Kevin Ellis has been trying to get people back into the office. In 2021, he said he wanted to “create a buzz around returning to the office,” luring his people back with the promise of human contact we were all starved for in 2020. Launched a year after the pandemic began, the firm also came up with “The Deal,” an ominously-named framework built on ‘Empowered Flexibility’ that trades leaving early on Fridays in the summer if your work is done with 40-60% of your time co-located with colleagues in an office or client site. “This is based on feedback and recognises the importance of time spent together to learn, collaborate and socialise,” the firm says in British English on the Deal landing page. (Side note: PwC US did not take as aggressive an approach to the return to office until recently when they announced a RTO expectation)

Perhaps having realized that the possibility of human contact wasn’t a perk to people who work better at home and don’t particularly like people, Ellis has now said that AI will be the thing to motivate butts into chairs.

This is from The Telegraph last week:

Kevin Ellis, chairman of PwC, said the popularity of AI software will drive employees to abandon working from home as they want to “differentiate themselves from a robot”.

During a livestream event on AI technology for 25,000 of his staff last week, Mr Ellis told workers: “For professional services, where researching and summarising data is a key part of junior roles, AI has the potential to fast-track year one trainees to year three. You’re freeing people up to do more.

He added: “The latest wave of AI will likely bring people back to the office. People are going to want to learn from others face to face, and the best way a human can differentiate themselves from a robot is in person.”

Kevin started at PwC back in 1984. Since few people reading this even remember 1984, let’s put this in technology terms: in 1984, Lotus 1-2-3 had only been on the market for a year and it would be another year before the launch of Microsoft Excel.

In 1984, Apple introduced the world to the Macintosh personal computer via this aptly-named commercial, aired during Super Bowl XVIII (Los Angeles Raiders vs. Washington Redskins) on January 22, 1984:

Also notable 1984 technology, the 3.5-inch floppy diskette is introduced with a whopping 720 KB of data capacity. For you youngsters that’s this thing below, the ghost of which you still see in save buttons to this day. That metal thing on the top was the original fidget spinner.

The pinnacle of 1984 technology

Why are we rehashing ancient technology? To remind Mr. Ellis how dramatically things have changed since he started in assurance nearly 40 years ago. Tens of thousands of people collaborating from the comfort of their own homes was not possible 40 years ago. It was barely possible 15 years ago. Had the pandemic happened in 2000 we’d be having a very different conversation right now but it didn’t, it happened in the era of the cloud, fast internet, and now what could be the most disruptive technology of our lifetime changing everything it touches. Working from home was empowered by technology, not hindered by it. Why would we let AI erase all the progress we’ve made in the last three years?

Human contact is a better sell for getting people back into the office, really. AI can’t replicate that (creepy Replika waifus aside). Yet.

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EY’s Landlord Didn’t Pay the Mortgage on the Downtown LA Office Building

Going Concern News Desk — Thu, 25 May 2023 19:47:42 +0000

Before we get into the situation, please note the issue discussed here is not EY’s fault. Rather, the office tower bearing the firm’s name at 725 South Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles has entered receivership after asset management company Brookfield stopped making payments on its debt in April. Commercial real estate firm Colliers has taken control of the 41 stories high, 968,184 square-foot office tower and issued a news release:

Colliers is pleased to announce it has been awarded the exclusive leasing and property management assignment of Downtown Los Angeles’ EY Plaza, formerly Ernst & Young Plaza, at 725 S. Figueroa Street. The firm was retained by Gregg Williams of Trident Pacific Real Estate, who has been appointed Receiver. Serving as lead advisor for the receivership estate, Sean Fulp, Head of Office Capital Markets, U.S. Southwest, is tasked with ensuring EY Plaza’s value is preserved despite the turbulent market conditions.

Check out this pettiness:

The assignment marks the firm’s second high-profile office tower takeover in under a month, an endeavor Ian M. Gilbert, who joined Colliers from Brookfield in April, is ideally suited to take on. “The opportunity to lease EY Plaza is one we are immensely proud of,” he said. “Few office assets of this caliber exist in Downtown Los Angeles, and its rich history, open-air design, and highly-desirable walkability will prove advantageous for today’s tenant expectations.” [Gilbert has transacted over 1,000 deals throughout his 15-year career, according to Colliers’ news release announcing his hiring in April]

SoCal real estate news site The Registry said Brookfield has a $275 million commercial mortgage-backed security loan for EY Plaza and a mezzanine loan worth $30 million.

Brookfield’s investors were warned months ago that the company was struggling to pay debts. The Registry:

Earlier this year, Brookfield issued a warning to investors regarding its ability to meet its debt payments. The firm acknowledged that the cash generated from the building would not be sufficient to cover impending debt obligations, leasing costs, and capital expenditures tied to EY Plaza.

The growing prevalence of remote work, which influenced increased vacancy rates, presented a dual challenge for Brookfield. Coupled with rising interest rates, the firm faced mounting debt payments not only for EY Plaza but for many of its other properties. As Brookfield held a considerable number of floating-rate loans, the rising rates had a detrimental impact. Financial filings indicate that the interest rate on the EY Plaza loan stood at Libor plus 2.86 percent. In March, with Libor hovering around 4.55 percent, Brookfield reached its rate cap of 6.02 percent.

Occupancy has been on a downward slide since 2020 and leasing “has not caught up to prepandemic levels as businesses consider how to best implement return-to-office plans and transition to hybrid or remote work policies,” Brookfield said in its 2022 annual report. With 30% available for rent at the end on 2022, downtown Los Angeles has the highest amount of vacant office space of any major US market.

It’s the second Los Angeles building Brookfield lost this year, with more LA offices at risk of foreclosure.

Accounting to this October 2020 The Real Deal breakdown of rents at EY Plaza, EY occupies 121,000 square feet in the building and pays $28.47 per square foot (building average is $29.56 per square foot).

Old photo of EY Plaza when it was still called Ernst & Young Plaza by Minnaert

Newer photo of EY Plaza from the Brookfield website

“EY Plaza is one of the best office buildings in all of Los Angeles, and its value is worth protecting,” said Colliers’ Fulp. “We will not sit back and wait for the market to determine its fate. The building is now very well capitalized, and we have a highly skilled team of management and transaction professionals to ensure it remains one of the premier options for tenants in downtown LA.”

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Elon Musk Thinks You’re a Douche If You Work From Home

Adrienne Gonzalez — Wed, 17 May 2023 17:57:37 +0000

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but the glorious days of work anywhere and firms too scared to lose you to force you to return to the office may soon be behind us. Apparently KPMG is telling tax people they need to come in three days a week now and PwC announced a return to office not-mandate at the beginning of this month, and some smaller firms are leaning away from remote and toward hybrid environments that may as well be full blown RTO.

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.

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The Rumor Is True, PwC Is Returning to the Office

Adrienne Gonzalez — Wed, 03 May 2023 21:26:17 +0000

Today was the much-anticipated firmwide webcast in which we expected PwC leadership to announce a return to office. Lo-and-behold…it happened.

A source tells us:

50 percent “people together,” virtual channel staff three times per month, firmwide events requirement two times per quarter. So return to work 50 percent starting July.

r/PwC is discussing it and even had a poll earlier today getting opinions on what people would do if Tim Ryan announced an RTO.

Return to office poll
by u/Over-Strawberry809 in PwC

We’ll update if more info comes in.

Earlier: That PwC Return-To-Office Rumor Might Be True (Includes Potential Confirmation)
Someone’s Starting Rumors That PwCers Are Getting Forced Back Into the Office

This post did not age well.

While Other Industries Have Turned to the Stick, Accounting Firms Continue to Use the Carrot to Encourage RTO

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Guess We Should Discuss Deloitte’s RTO Plans

Adrienne Gonzalez — Tue, 18 Apr 2023 20:39:24 +0000

Yesterday the PwC return to office plan set to be announced May 3 and take effect after the firmwide summer break was all but confirmed and in a discussion about it I came across this:

Therese are nothing when compared to Deloitte’s planned RTO announcement which has a tentative announcement date of the Tuesday after Memorial Day. 75% in office for tax, and 100% in office for those below manager without engagement partner approval to work from home.

It’ll be interesting to see who decides to leave once the partner group and HR announce them formally.

I don’t know who Therese is but she might want to start looking for a new job if she wants to stay remote.

Note that Deloitte has “Collective Disconnect” for Memorial Day, meaning everyone gets a little extra time to unplug. Then after they are all nice and recharged, break it to them that they are expected in the office for reasons that will no doubt be explained as vaguely as possible, ultimately pinning it on “collaboration” and teamwork. 100% seems extreme though.

There’s a brewing paranoia about RTO plans that appear to be materializing at the same time across firms and various industries. Depending who you ask or what magic combination of words you input into Google, either 90% of companies will require employees to return to office in 2023 and 21% of companies will fire workers who do not return to the office OR return-to-office mandates at companies like Amazon, Disney, and Starbucks are the exception, not the rule and only 3% of CEOs plan to cut down on remote work at their companies. Accompanying the RTO mandates have been layoffs, bringing us back to the possibility of firms deploying RTO mandates with the intention to reduce headcount without the icky press that comes from more straightforward layoffs (‘sup EY).

TB4A was tipped off a couple months ago to a return to office in tax but other than that there hasn’t been much said about Deloitte’s RTO plans, if there are any. Let you know if we find out more.

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That PwC Return-To-Office Rumor Might Be True (Includes Potential Confirmation)

Adrienne Gonzalez — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 19:44:19 +0000

Remember that rumor buzzing around last week about a PwC return to office? It might be true. You’ll note that OP updated their post to specify that what they’ve heard applies to US tax.

This morning Going Concern received a copy of a memo that appears to confirm just about everything the original rumor-spreader said, as well as various details we’ve been given over the past several days. We’re told this went out in late March. We’re working on digging in further, in the meantime I’ve transcribed the text for your reading pleasure. Key words here are “expectations and not mandates.”

Starting after the July firmwide shutdown for US employees.

Virtual profile team members will be expected to work up to 3 days per month, on average, at a PwC office or in-person setting. Note: The majority of P&T is within the virtual profile. We will continue to allow our people to self their way of working profile.

Hybrid profile (previously “Flex”) team members will be expected to work an average of 50% at a PwC office or in-person location over the course of a year (previously 1-3 days per week on average).

All employees (including virtual profiles) will also be expected to join at least two in-office activities per quarter (e.g. Leaders in Action, Promotion Day).

There are expectations and not mandates. Partners will work with their teams to determine the approach that best meets the needs of their clients and people, while recognizing the unique role that many of our P&T people play.

Rolling this out in July provides flexibility for employees who need additional time to plan for these changes, working with their leader as needed.

Mexico and our ACs are working through their return to in-person guidelines, which will be tailored to reflect local regulations and culture.

The note we saw is cut off after this sentence:

First, please keep this news confidential and do not share any messages or materials with others until after the May 3 firmwide announcement.

Oops.

If you hear anything, please let me know.

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Someone’s Starting Rumors That PwCers Are Getting Forced Back Into the Office

Adrienne Gonzalez — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 20:21:58 +0000

Someone on a throwaway told all of r/Big4 a few hours ago that they’ve been given inside information about a mandatory return to office at PwC to be announced in a couple weeks.

This screenshot couldn’t have worked out better.

Since late 2021, PwC has touted a super flexible remote work policy. Come in, don’t, whatever. This depends on your team and clients of course but as far as we are aware there hasn’t been any blanket policy to get people back into the office.

One thing to note, and others threw this out there in the Reddit post, a conspiratorially-minded person might suggest that if a business were looking to make cuts without the accompanying bad publicity that comes from layoffs, forcing people back into the office would be a really good way to do it. At least some of those people who threatened to leave if they can’t work remotely will actually leave, still more will not leave but phone it in so hard they can get counseled out without much controversy. Boom, you just eliminated a bunch of people without some business rag putting your layoffs on blast.

One other thing to acknowledge: we have seen advisory layoffs at other firms in recent months. Consulting demand is down across the board. At least down under, Big 4 firms have all said the business is slowing down and PwC Australia specifically told AFR the firm “had no plans to cut jobs despite the fall in client demand.” The red hot job market has cooled, turnover is down a bit from its frenzied peak last year, and firms are lowering their hiring targets to keep headcount numbers under control (plus there’s that whole shortage thing anyway). Steps firms are already taking appear to be sufficient for now unless the business really starts suffering. There doesn’t seem to be much reason for PwC to make a controversial move like this right now. What benefit does it serve the firm?

But wait. Is turnover actually down? No idea. These comments are all over the place.

And then there’s this from Fishbowl:

Wait what? This needs more digging into. Keep you posted. For now this rumor is definitely just a rumor unless we hear otherwise.

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While Other Industries Have Turned to the Stick, Accounting Firms Continue to Use the Carrot to Encourage RTO

Adrienne Gonzalez — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 16:05:57 +0000

PwC’s hybrid work policy was quite the big deal when it was announced in October 2021, it signaled perhaps a change in corporate mentality that meant employees would be allowed the discretion to determine on their own if they need to be in the office or not. Other firms took a similar approach, though their hybrid work policies weren’t as visible as PwC’s big splashy announcement. It began to look like remote work was here to stay, and all rejoiced.

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.

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Accounting Firms Are Being Uncharacteristically Modern About This Whole Remote Work Thing

Going Concern News Desk — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 16:41:52 +0000

Are we ready for another survey? OH BOY.

Thomson Reuters has written up the 2022 ConvergenceCoaching, LLC® Anytime, Anywhere Work (ATAWW) Survey — you can request survey results here — and we learn that almost all responding firms say they are being flexible about where and when their people put in their time.

Of the 216 accounting firms that participated in the 2022 ATAWW Survey, 97% allowed their talent to choose where they work, while 94% offer flexibility in when people are working. The report notes that with more firms leaning into outsourcing, offshoring, and fractional staffing resources, it is increasingly important to learn to work asynchronously across multiple time zones. The survey also shows that surveyed firms are leveraging gig-based workers (30%), domestic outsourcing teams (30%), and overseas offshoring providers (35%).

With an increasingly tight talent pipeline, the report illustrates that leaders need to get innovative on staffing their teams. In fact, the 2022 ATAWW Survey found that “81% [of survey respondents] hired at least one remote team member they had not employed before,” which essentially means that firms are hiring new staff in their remote geography. It’s remarkable to note that this result was up from 38% in 2020.

A few bullets from the survey, including a familiar one that was just explained in the paragraph before this:

95% offer remote auditing, and the percentage who performed more than half their audits away from the client site soared to 54%
83% of firms allow Admin and Operations to work remote or blended
81% who employ remote talent hired a “stranger” outside their geography (up from 38% in 2020)
73% don’t dictate when extra hours are worked (no more mandatory Saturdays)
19% offer Unlimited PTO
12% close the office between Christmas and New years

No more mandatory Saturdays? We’re gonna need some confirmation on that. We’re also going to need confirmation on the 47% of survey respondents that say they close their offices on Fridays when things are slow; 1% of the firms surveyed say they give Fridays off year-round. We’re gonna need their names and HR contacts, thanks.

2022 ConvergenceCoaching® Anytime, Anywhere Work (ATAWW) Survey [ConvergenceCoaching]

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Bad News For Big 4: Educated Men Have Decided to Not Work So Hard

Going Concern News Desk — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 20:41:54 +0000

It is known that the pandemic shifted everyone’s priorities and forced many of us to confront the question of “what am I doing with my life?” Almost all human beings with jobs have thought about this at some point between March 2020 and now, and many of them came to the conclusion that whatever they had been doing up until 2020 just wasn’t worth it. So we get ‘The Great Resignation,’ ‘Quiet Quitting,’ and whatever dumb phrase comes next. We also have the rise of overemployment, people who are juggling two, three, even four full-time jobs, giving just enough to do their jobs but not so much that they are breaking their backs for an employer that could fire them at any moment. “Loyalty” toward employers was already on the way out prior to the pandemic (thanks, millennials), COVID only hustled its inevitable disappearance along.

With 2020 now three years behind us, researchers have had some time to analyze the trends of those past three years and one study found that men age 25-54 (IOW: prime working age) are simply not working as hard as they used to. And here we thought that was just a boomer meme.

Fortune wrote it up under the headline “Men making good money in the prime of their lives are leaning away from demanding jobs and it could be because they’re ‘re-evaluating their priorities’” though in the study’s conclusion the researchers are clear that the trends they identified in analysis don’t fully answer the question of why the labor market is in the state it is and that further research is required to begin answering that question.

Fortune:

The latest trend is young men with at least bachelor’s degrees spending fewer hours working, a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research earlier this month found. They spent an average of 14 hours less annually on the job between 2019 and 2022.

The decline was far less over the same period for similarly qualified women, who worked three fewer hours.

“The pandemic may have motivated people to re-evaluate their life priorities and also gotten them accustomed to more flexible work arrangements (e.g., work from home), leading them to choose to work fewer hours, especially if they can afford it,” the report said.

From the abstract of Where Are the Workers? From Great Resignation to Quiet Quitting [PDF]:

To better understand the tight post-pandemic labor market in the US, we decompose the decline in aggregate hours worked into the extensive (fewer people working) and the intensive margin changes (workers working fewer hours). Although the pre-existing trend of lower labor force participation especially by young men without a bachelor’s degree accounts for some of the decline in aggregate hours, the intensive margin accounts for more than half of the decline between 2019 and 2022. The decline in hours among workers was larger for men than women. Among men, the decline was larger for those with a bachelor’s degree than those with less education, for prime-age workers than older workers, and also for those who already worked long hours and had high earnings. Workers’ hours reduction can explain why the labor market is even tighter than what is expected at the current levels of unemployment and labor force participation

The paper covers both the flood of resignations that began in 2021 and the Great Resignation’s better-paying cousin ‘quiet quitting,’ both of which tend to lead to fewer hours worked for individuals who take that path:

Two labor market phenomena were popularized following the pandemic: the Great Resignation in 2021 and Quiet Quitting in 2022, both of which appear in the title of this article. Although some of the people who quit as part of the Great Resignation did exit from the labor force (extensive margin), many others simply found a new job, possibly with an employer offering more flexible work arrangements and less demanding hours (intensive margin), as well as better pay. Those who engage in Quiet Quitting do not actually quit or leave the labor force, but stop idolatrizing work and seek more work-life balance, including fewer hours (intensive margin). Our analysis helps us understand the role of both phenomena in the tightening of the labor market.

The lower participation rate is a continuation of a trend that has existed since the Great Recession, say the researchers. They concluded the reduction in hours among workers is something new that was induced by the pandemic, and that available evidence suggests it will likely continue. The reduction they identified was larger for prime-age males with a bachelor’s, and also for those male workers who already worked longer hours and earned more.

Wrote the authors in the paper’s conclusion:

While we made some conjectures based on available evidence as to why workers reduced their hours and whether they will continue to do so, these remain open questions. In addition, it will be fruitful to have a better understanding of the lower labor force participation of younger male cohorts, both its causes and consequences. These important topics are left for future research.

Read more:
Where Are the Workers? From Great Resignation to Quiet Quitting [National Bureau of Economic Research]

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Research: Working From Home Frees Up Two Hours a Week, Time Many People Spend Doing Work

Going Concern News Desk — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 19:33:01 +0000

The anti-WFH, pro-RTO propaganda has chilled out a bit in recent months as boomer and boomer-adjacent Gen X CEOs wait out the next big recession but even those pinstriped menaces in the C-suite who think all remote work is the domain of the lazy can appreciate this info we are about to share with you.

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]

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Accountants Will Not Be Motivated to Get Back to the Office

Adrienne Gonzalez — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 16:16:43 +0000

Someone sent us this r/accounting thread on returning to the office the other day and wanted to make sure we call out one comment in particular. You’ll see why in a second. The question of what would motivate you to go back to the office has been asked before, in a multitude of ways, and each time the answer(s) are along a predictable spectrum ranging from “nothing, I’m not going back” to “let’s see the partners return to office first.” This thread is no different, it just contains a little bonus Kool-aid chugging.

The thread:

694 comments. Do you think partners who scan Reddit to see how the serfs are feeling will read all of them? I’ll save them some time: your people do not want to go back. The ones who do — exhausted parents who need a break, for one — are already doing so. The ones who are not are not some client needing to be won over, they have made their decision.

Well if partners speed read past most of the comments they’ll be interested in this one for sure. Here we have OP, a manager with an extremely high Blood Kool-aid Concentration of 0.30%, which can be fatal and requires immediate medical attention.

You know what makes people quit their jobs? Their jobs. Being shoved back into carpet-lined cubicles and forced to interact with people you never really liked anyway when you could be doing the same thing in your comfiest sweats from the comfort of home is not going to get people to stay. As evidenced by those 694 comments and nearly three years of people saying “I will quit if I ever have to go back to the office,” the opposite will happen.

So what do you think? Does remote work make you think this is just work for a paycheck (which it literally is so what’s the issue)? Would being in the office more foster that sense of community and belonging that you crave so much in your life and can’t get from people you get a say in choosing such as friends and your spouse? Do you miss being crammed in a closet at the client site with your colleagues, inhaling the human fumes?

Has OP tried pizza for the team? I heard that works.

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Remote Accountant Who Billed Too Many Hours Owes Her Former Firm $2700 For ‘Time Theft’

Going Concern News Desk — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 19:36:26 +0000

NPR has a strange story of a Canadian accountant and a firm with time tracking software installed on work laptops that should give remote workers pause before submitting their next time sheet.

NPR:

When Canadian accountant Karlee Besse was fired for being unproductive at her job, she found herself up against not only her former employer, but its time-tracking software, too.

Now, a civil tribunal, which is part of Canada’s judicial system, has ruled that Besse owes her former company $2,756 after the software installed on her laptop revealed she misrepresented over 50 hours at work.

Last year, Besse was fired without cause (per her) from Reach CPA, a cloud accounting firm in British Columbia. The firm fought back against Besse’s claim and said she was rightfully let go due to time theft. They determined this with the help of TimeCamp time-tracking software on her work laptop which showed a discrepancy of 50 hours, though Besse said that she spent some of that time working with paper documents. Says NPR, she didn’t tell her company about the paper documents because “they wouldn’t want to hear that.” You know, cloud and all. Good excuse but TimeCamp can track what you’ve printed too and didn’t show that she had printed a bunch of documents.

Besse was allowed to use her work laptop for personal stuff off the clock and says that she had trouble getting TimeCamp to differentiate between work and personal time logged on the laptop. Apparently that didn’t fly as Reach CPA was able to demonstrate in court that TimeCamp can tell the difference between work and personal.

When confronted with the 50 unaccounted hours, Beese told her manager that she inaccurately logged some hours in her timesheet.

“I’ve plugged time to files that I didn’t touch and that wasn’t right or appropriate in any way or fashion, and I recognize that and so for that I’m really sorry,” Besse said in a meeting with her company, according to video cited in the ruling.

Her repayment to the firm works out to about $55 an hour, the court ruled she also has to pay “other associated costs” not elaborated on in the NPR piece.

Be careful out there, Big Brother is watching.

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Hey Tax People, You’ll Be Thankful For This Remote Job That Promises No More Than 40 Hours a Week EVER

GoingConcern — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 16:48:18 +0000

Those of you dreading the idea of yet another busy season (so, all of you) will be interested in this gig: how’s 30 to 40 fully remote hours a week sound to you? So not only will you never have to go into the office, you won’t have to sacrifice all your evenings at weekends hunched over your laptop at home either.

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.

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The AICPA Has Written a Strongly-Worded Letter to the Treasury Department on Remote Work (UPDATE)

Going Concern News Desk — Thu, 08 Sep 2022 13:55:25 +0000

If you thought the AICPA’s only job is gatekeeping the CPA exam and selling you insurance offers you are WRONG. They also write strongly-worded letters, sometimes on behalf of our nation’s CPAs or, as in the case of this latest letter, on behalf of American taxpayers. Let’s see what they’ve been up to.

From the news release:

The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) submitted comments to the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requesting updated guidance in several key areas related to employees working remotely and offering recommendations regarding the taxation of payments related to remote work.

The AICPAs comments and recommendations focus on the following areas:

Principal Place of Business
Work Arrangements: Employer-Location Based, Remote, and Hybrid
Pursuit of a Trade or Business
Non-Travel Expenses Incurred While Working Remotely

“Work Arrangements” includes an expanded set of bullets of its own:

Definitions of Employer Location-Based, Remote and Hybrid Work Arrangements to Define Employee’s Tax Home
Facts and Circumstances Test for use in the Classification of a Remote Employee and Defining a Hybrid Employee’s Tax Home
Safe Harbor for Use in Defining a Remote Worker
Employee-Employer Arrangement

Whether useless middle managers like it or not, remote work is here to stay. As such, the AICPA would like the IRS to address this as current rules were not built with widespread remote and hybrid work in mind.

“Many employers recognize the increased productivity and note the value of decreased office maintenance costs,” reads the AICPA press release. “However, this arrangement has led many employees questioning the impact on various benefits such as expenses for travel to an employer-provided work location when travel days are limited and the travel distance may have been expanded. Many revenue rulings and interpretations of case law are outdated, which creates unnecessary confusion and stress.”

“Many companies are moving to fully remote or hybrid work schedules, causing tax issues with fringe benefits which employers offer to employees,” said AICPA Director for Tax Policy & Advocacy, Kristin Esposito, CPA, MST. “The old rules aren’t working anymore. The AICPA has submitted recommendations to the IRS that account for this shift, which we urge them to strongly consider.”

Update: The full AICPA letter is included below.

AICPA Submits Comments Remo… by Adrienne Gonzalez

AICPA Releases Comments Requesting Guidance Related to Remote Work [AICPA]

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PwC Is Still Not Forcing People Back to the Office (Really)

Adrienne Gonzalez — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 18:45:48 +0000

Ed. note: In April 2023, rumors began circulating that PwC would soon announce a soft return to office that would be “expected” but not mandated. We are pretty sure it’s happening but will have to wait until May to know for sure.

Since last November, PwC has graciously allowed 40,000 client-facing people to choose whether or not they want to be in the office (when they don’t have to be, that is) and as other companies begin an aggressive push to get people to return to office after Labor Day, the firm is reiterating its stance on remote work.

For months, certain companies have begun gently encouraging — or outright requiring — their people to get back to the office, even if it’s just a few days a week. As we approach Labor Day, many of these pro-RTO organizations believe this month — two and a half years after the pandemic sent everyone home for work — is the right time to get everyone back under the fluorescent lights. For example, Apple CEO Tim Cook wants employees in the office Tuesdays, Thursdays, and a third day to be determined by each individual team starting September 5. In response, a group of Apple employees calling themselves Apple Together are circulating a petition rebuking the policy. It reads:

For the past 2+ years, Apple’s formerly office-based employees have performed exceptional work, flexibly, both outside and inside traditional office environments. However, Apple leadership recently announced they require a general return to office starting the week of Sept 5 (Labor Day). This uniform mandate from senior leadership does not consider the unique demands of each job role nor the diversity of individuals.

Those asking for more flexible arrangements have many compelling reasons and circumstances: from disabilities (visible or not); family care; safety, health, and environmental concerns; financial considerations; to just plain being happier and more productive.

The one thing we all have in common is wanting to do the best work of our lives for a company whose official stance is to do what’s right rather than what’s easy.

Apple already lost machine learning director Ian Goodfellow to Google earlier this year, Google’s more gracious remote work policy had a bit to do with that. “I believe strongly that more flexibility would have been the best policy for my team,” he told employees on his way out the door.

Surely PwC knows that in this market and with accounting talent harder to find than certain parts of the female anatomy now is not the time to make an aggressive push for RTO.

Kimberly Jones, PwC U.S. managing director, talent strategy and people experience leader, recently told Human Resources Daily: “We don’t feel like we need to. We’re being responsive to what our people tell us they want and need. These last couple years, we’ve discovered that we can be productive and serve our clients very well without forcing people to be in offices.”

This is a sentiment we’ve heard echoed by various firm leaders in the past few months and one that makes sense for the foreseeable future. Firms don’t have to be enthusiastic about remote work, they just have to trust their people to decide for themselves when they need to be in the office and when they’re better off staying home. Best not to poke this bear when just about everyone is entertaining recruiter calls and offers.

Read more on the Labor Day RTO push:
Return-to-Office Deadline After Labor Day Sets Up Showdowns [Bloomberg]
Workers Face Pressure As Top Companies Push Post-Labor Day Return to Office [Newsweek]

Earlier on Going Concern:
Corporate Overlords Try to Scare Us Back Into the Office With Figures on How Much WFH is Costing You
Top 5 Reasons Why Employers Want You Back In the Office
Attn Firm Leaders: No One Wants to Work at Your Stupid, Ugly Office Park

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PSA: Do NOT Take a Pay Cut For the ‘Privilege’ of Working Remotely

Adrienne Gonzalez — Thu, 14 Jul 2022 20:23:13 +0000

In the coming weeks and months, you’re going to see lots of headlines warning that the workers’ market we are blessed to experience today is shifting back to one that favors employers as the economy starts circling the toilet. You already have seen these headlines, I’m sure. Here’s one: some HR clown who works for LinkedIn warned the younger generation their days of remote work could be numbered. “Younger workers may need to return to the workplace — whether voluntarily or otherwise — to nurture those all-important relationships with both teammates and superiors,” he said. Voluntarily or otherwise? What in the Disney villain is this shit? Get bent, Steve.

Perhaps in other industries the tide may be turning and potential recruits will soon have to beg to be let in through the ATS gate of HR departments everywhere but we aren’t here to talk about other industries, we’re here to talk about accounting.

The talent crunch in accounting is nothing new. There’s been a “Great Resignation” in public accounting for as far back as any CPA alive today can remember, that’s just what people do. New accounting graduate numbers continue to trend down which is of greater concern than early-career accountants jumping ship from Big 4 firms at the two year mark. As we reported in April:

The 2021 AICPA Trends in the Supply of Accounting Graduates and the Demand for Public Accounting Recruits report released a couple weeks ago tells us that the number of accounting graduates trended downward in the 2019–2020 academic year (most recent data available), with decreases of 2.8% and 8.4% at the bachelor’s and master’s levels, respectively; accounting grad numbers have been trending downward since 2015-16 with the 2019-20 number showing the most significant drop-off of recent years (3,391). Can we blame the pandemic for some of that? Maybe. We’d be wise to wait for the 2023 AICPA Trends report to see if the trend continues before getting too worked up about it.

Now the problem of waning interest in accounting as a major may or may not end up being a huge issue considering 42.7% of firm new hires are non-accounting grads, up from 31% the two years prior (data from the 2021 Trends in the Supply of Accounting Graduates and the Demand for Public Accounting Recruits report released this year). Perhaps technology will help pick up the slack to make up for a lack of bodies but technology can’t sign off on audit reports or exercise professional skepticism. The profession needs flesh-and-blood humans for that. And there just aren’t enough to meet demand.

We have been writing about the talent crunch or crisis or shortage — whatever you want to call it — for years. YEARS. Here’s Caleb Newquist in 2015 writing about how desperate accounting firms are for talent (I’ve lightly edited this blurb for context):

The most important issue is the fact that most accounting firms are desperate for talent right now and none of them know how to get it. To make matters worse for these firms, the Big 4 will continue to aggressively pursue the best candidates and those candidates will continue to accept their offers, regardless of whether it’s the right fit for them.

So, yes, there will be more accountants hitting the streets than ever. The problem for most firms is, that’s still not enough.

Back when he wrote that, the talent crunch was mostly a sub-Big 4 problem as a more robust pipeline and a healthy campus recruiting assembly line meant plenty of candidates for these firms. Now? Accounting enrollments are down, those that do graduate with an accounting degree are less and less interested in pursuing the CPA credential, and people are dipping out of the Big 4 well before the usual two years. The “crisis” is well underway at firms of all sizes.

Here’s AICPA President, CEO, and World’s Greatest Boss Barry Melancon wringing his hands over the building accountant shortage in Journal of Accountancy seven years ago:

“It is critical that we’re producing enough CPAs to replace the retiring Baby Boomers and that the profession is continuing to meet the ever-changing needs of the U.S. capital markets,” Melancon said. “We’ve been looking into this issue in great detail and are considering a number of professionwide initiatives to complement our existing programs and ensure that qualified accounting graduates are earning their CPA license.”

So what kind of progress have they made in the last seven years? The “talent crunch” has been rebranded as “the accounting pipeline problem” and fixing it is one of the AICPA’s top priorities for 2022. So none, basically. Cool.

OK so what does all this mean for you the accounting professional? Leverage. We know firms are desperate and we know that at least some firms are throwing out highly competitive offers complete with 100% remote work to lure talent away from their lower-paying firms.

Keep that in mind if you come across any articles like this one that appeared on NPR a few days ago:

While some companies have been plotting and scheming to get their employees’ butts back into company-owned chairs, others have spotted an opportunity. These companies recognize remote work has tremendous appeal: a big, delicious cookie they can use to lure and retain workers. It’s so scrumptious that offering it to workers can be as good as cold, hard cash. And the best part for business executives: this cookie is cheap!

In a new study, economists Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom, Steven J. Davis, Brent H. Meyer, and Emil Mihaylov surveyed more than 500 American companies, asking them how they are using remote work. They find that many companies are capitalizing on remote work by using it as a substitute for giving workers raises, so much so that it’s helping to moderate inflation.

Remote work is not a privilege, it is reality. And it is certainly not a substitute for raises that at minimum keep up with inflation (which btw is 9.1% as of June). Firms that push too hard on return to office WILL lose the talent war and good luck finding anyone at all if they make the utterly boneheaded decision to pay people less based on where said people get their mail delivered.

Get that money while you can, kids. And buy some new sweatpants, those ones you’ve been wearing since 2020 are looking hella busted.

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Blind Item: California Firms Are Paying California Salaries to Poach Midwestern Public Accountants (UPDATE)

Going Concern News Desk — Tue, 12 Jul 2022 19:28:33 +0000

Are you a public accountant in a LCOL or MCOL Midwestern city? Put down the beer, open your ears, and whip out your wallet for this one.

A source tells us California firms are setting their sights on comparatively lower cost of living Midwest cities to fill their vacancies. And they’re doing it not to save money on salaries but rather to entice public accountants away from lower-paying local firms by paying HCOL salaries, the sort of numbers Midwest firms would struggle to compete with. On top of that, they’re offering generous referral bonuses in the $5-10k range, meaning those who jump ship might take a friend with them. Thanks to remote work, the recently-poached don’t even have to move. Sorry bout it, firms of the frozen tundra.

Anyone in a LCOL market getting these kinds of offers from out of state firms? Anyone taking these offers? Give us a shout with the details.

Update: Going Concern spoke to a managing partner at one of the firms we heard was losing people to this kind of poaching and he confirmed that a little more than a dozen people had been poached by firms on the coast. So consider this item confirmed.

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Attn Firm Leaders: No One Wants to Work at Your Stupid, Ugly Office Park

Adrienne Gonzalez — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 15:40:21 +0000

Collaboration. Culture. Fancy new open offices. The occasional free sandwich. Firms continue their desperate attempts to lure people back into the office, not too aggressively though as they know if you push people too hard on remote work they will leave.

To any firm leaders plotting your next “how can we get people back into the office” campaign who may be reading this, pay attention.

r/accounting on the NYT article Lonely Last Days in the Suburban Office Park

I’m not sure how the message could be any clearer.

According to the NYT article the above photo is lifted from, suburban office parks like this have been dead for some time:

Suburban offices built between the 1960s and 1980s were already struggling before the pandemic, with their aging mechanical systems and the changing tastes of millennials. A younger generation wants more urban offices, real estate developers say, [press X to doubt] or at least suburban offices that feel more urban, with sidewalks and somewhere different to eat lunch every day. But now layer on remote work, “and this might finish it off,” landscape architecture scholar Louise Mozingo said.

The verdict is in: no one wants to work at your stupid, ugly office park. Next.

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More Scary Anti-WFH Headlines: Is Remote Work Bad for Your Mental Health?

Adrienne Gonzalez — Tue, 28 Jun 2022 20:40:41 +0000

The anti-WFH propaganda is in full swing and why shouldn’t it be? Commercial leases still have to be paid whether offices are full of bodies or not, might as well try to weaponize pandemic loneliness against workers to force them back under the fluorescent lights while they can.

First we heard that remote work might not save you as much money as you think, a suggestion that was quickly debunked in our comment section by accountants saving a shit ton of money (and stress) by skipping long commutes. And now a recent BBC piece strongly suggests that remote work might be bad for your mental health. As if the office is any better.

Remote work has been heralded as a solution to some of the problems of our fast-paced, pre-pandemic lifestyles. For many, it’s meant the opportunity to spend more time with their children, or use time that they would have previously wasted commuting pursuing more fulfilling hobbies. But new research into remote work and wellbeing has shown mixed results – in Microsoft’s 2022 New Future of Work Report, researchers found that although remote work can improve job satisfaction, it can also lead to employees feeling “socially isolated, guilty and trying to overcompensate”.

The negative effects have come as a surprise for some employees, who are now feeling the crush, realising remote work isn’t necessarily the wellness panacea it has been touted as. Contrary to the running narrative of a mass demand for remote work, some employees are actually choosing to switch into roles with an in-office component.

The running narrative? You mean all the people who have said “if my job forces me back to the office I will quit and find a new employer who is cool with remote work” and then actually quit and found a new employer when it happened? That narrative? No one is saying people can’t go to the office if they want to. Go. Knock yourself out. Just let people who prefer remote work stay home.

Just the other day someone from the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) said on the Journal of Accountancy podcast that people will “revolt” if you force them back into the office. She used that exact word. “In some cases you have firms that are now requiring people to come back to the office, and in some cases they are having people revolt, if you will, and essentially saying, I got used to this work from home, this flexibility, this type of environment, and I’m not going to go back to the office, and in some cases they are going to places that will allow for that flexibility,” she said. This tracks with everything we’ve been hearing and reading and talking to people about for the last two (+ almost a half) years.

Back to BBC:

Working from home might have once been viewed as a utopia of exercise on our breaks, making healthy homecooked lunches and easily being able to make the school run. For many, however, the reality has looked very different.

Come on. Life isn’t a Pinterest board. None of that crap is easy or simple and as working adults we’d be delusional to think working from home will magically make breakfast look like a mommy blogger’s Insta feed. Ain’t nobody got time for that, office or not. Maybe in the very early days of the pandemic we coordinated pajama sets and sat down to full 90s American sitcom breakfasts and baked our own bread; that’s because people got laid off and had time on their hands, Susan. We quickly snapped back to reality as the weeks wore on.

BBC interviewed a “workplace scientist” who told them the pandemic sparked a “rapidly growing mental health crisis”, and that even those who have fully embraced a move to remote work might not be exempt. No shit? You mean to tell me that cutting social beings like humans off from one another for months at a time while a virus that could kill any one of us runs wild through the population might cause some mental health issues? Damn, never considered that, thank you expert.

“When working remotely, we miss out on the social cues of a busy office and much needed social-interactions – catching up in the corridor, or making a drink in the kitchen while checking in and asking about the weekend,” she says. “These seemingly small moments can collectively have a large impact on our wellbeing.”

We get it, some people are extroverts. I am, and the isolation of the pandemic has been absolute hell on me and people like me who enjoy the company of others. THAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN WHETHER YOU GO TO THE OFFICE OR NOT. Believe it or not there are some people for whom office interaction is a chore and not a robust part of their social calendar (shout out 90% of the Going Concern audience).

I’ve worked remotely on and off since 2010 and can say with some authority yes, it does get lonely and isolating at times. That’s what clubs and softball league and volunteering and friends and gaming and bars and any place but work are for. Stop making it seem like the office is the only place to get human contact.

According to WHO data, anxiety and depression are up 25% worldwide. Call me crazy (heh) but it’s doubtful the lack of break room donuts is behind that.

One major explanation for the increase is the unprecedented stress caused by the social isolation resulting from the pandemic. Linked to this were constraints on people’s ability to work, seek support from loved ones and engage in their communities.

Loneliness, fear of infection, suffering and death for oneself and for loved ones, grief after bereavement and financial worries have also all been cited as stressors leading to anxiety and depression.

Those are rookie numbers when you compare them to the mental health crisis that’s been ongoing in the accounting profession since forever. Never-ending workloads, long hours, office politics, and a work environment that discourages taking mental health days are just a few of the many reasons why anxiety and depression are as familiar at public accounting firms as branded pens and infinite spreadsheets. From a November 2021 Journal of Accountancy piece on mental health and CPAs:

CPAs, because they are expected to independently solve challenging problems on the job, are conditioned to believe that with hard work they can overcome anything on their own, including anxiety and depression.

In defense of the BBC, they did find at least one remote worker who is not suffering from the burden of working from home. “For the first time in my life I don’t have the Sunday Scaries,” says Lauren, who works in technology. “I keep flexible hours, which is super helpful when you have a child. I definitely want to continue working remotely, at least until my daughter goes to school.”

Am I completely off base here? Are you all just pining for the rich experience of getting interrupted at your desk in person? Do you wish your firm would mandate five days in the office so you can maximize your weekly exposure to culture and collaboration? Do you miss whiteboards??

The remote work debate rages on, I guess. In the meantime, if anyone reading this is struggling and needs help, the NAMI HelpLine is a good place to start. NAMI can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 10 p.m., ET. at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or helpline@nami.org. You are also welcome to vent in the comments below just keep in mind that a combined two decades of experience in therapy does not make our ragtag band of accounting profession rejects experts in mental health.

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Being Home During Lockdown Shifted Accountants’ Priorities, Says Lady

Adrienne Gonzalez — Fri, 24 Jun 2022 15:12:29 +0000

Kristy Illuzzi, CPA, CGMA of International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) on why the Great Resignation is affecting the profession so acutely:

I think the Great Resignation is interesting in that it has impacted almost every sector of our economy and every profession in some way, and it’s no different in the accounting industry. I think a lot of people during 2020, 2021, when we were on lockdown, we started doing things very differently.

You were forced to work from home almost no matter what industry you are in, and I think it caused a lot of people also to just rethink their priorities. They were home, spending more time with family, perhaps caring for ill family members, small children that were home, and priorities shifted. And I think a lot of people got used to that, and in some cases they are now demanding the flexibility and the ability to continue to do their jobs that way.

So we are starting to see in a lot of parts of the world things opening back up. In some cases you have firms that are now requiring people to come back to the office, and in some cases they are having people revolt, if you will, and essentially saying, I got used to this work from home, this flexibility, this type of environment, and I’m not going to go back to the office, and in some cases they are going to places that will allow for that flexibility.

In some cases you also have people, I think that their priorities shifted. They might have gone into a different or have different passions and decided that accounting just was not the industry for them so there are some just leaving industry altogether.

How the Great Resignation has affected the accounting profession [Journal of Accountancy podcast]

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Hybrid Work Only Makes It More Obvious How Much Going to the Office Sucks

Adrienne Gonzalez — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 15:35:47 +0000

While there are small pockets of American white collar workers who would welcome a respite from screaming kids and incontinent dogs at home (shout-out to a certain Going Concern team member always regaling us with shitty stories on Zoom calls), a good majority of people have realized that skipping the commute and making your own lunch while working from home is far superior to the pre-Covid office grind.

In an article I posted last week about the costs of working from home in 2022, commenters listed their own back-of-the-envelope math on WFH vs. office. Here are a few choice comments from that article:

[T]he commute took 3 hours a day and cost $15 per day in tolls and gas (when. $3 per gallon). That’s three hours to relax and $15 saved every day I work from home.
Yeah, what a horrible take on the person who wrote that article [the original Fortune article I referenced, not ours WHEW]. Not factoring in eating out with coworkers, car maintenance for putting on so many more miles, and so much more.
While I’m fortunate to have a short commute, gas is $5.60/gal here. Also, I use dry cleaning for my work clothes. That’s a combined daily cost of ~$8. I also am less likely to eat out for lunch when at home. With difference in food costs, I’m saving up to $15/day.
My commute was 2 hours, unpaid, per day. Public transit was $100+ per month, private parking was $200+. Sure I’m running my AC a little more but I got a raise, two extra hours back every day, using my own toilet, brewing my own coffee, saving money eating healthier lunches, and don’t have to rent a parking spot downtown. Seems like the real issue is there’s a lot of empty obsolete sky scrapers downtown.

That’s…*wriggles fingers*…a lot of money!

When I worked in CPA review many, many years ago my commute was about an hour and a half one way from the outskirts of San Francisco to our office in North Beach. Mind you, I LOVED the office. We had team lunch on Fridays, someone was always bringing in homemade baked goods and snacks, the coffee was free and strong, and my colleague and I who shared an office both loved EDM so we’d just jam out all day (Ida Corr vs Fedde Le Grand “Let Me Think About It” was on repeat all hours of the workday). But I had to take two buses and a BART ride (four buses and two BART rides in total) not to mention needing to delicately step over any number of human fluids to get to work (Bay Area readers know exactly what I’m talking about). No one wants that, no matter how much they actually like being at the office. The commute, I mean.

Time — not questionable fluids on city streets — continues to be a huge reason why people don’t want to go to the office. No one ever enjoyed commuting, except maybe a couple people who hate their home lives and value the solitude of a daily commute as it allows them to listen to gangsta rap without the wife laughing at how absurd it is for a 45-year-old dude from the ‘burbs to blast N.W.A. For the most part NO ONE likes commuting. The time you spend doing it is just…gone. You don’t get paid for it and actually, it costs you money. What kind of nutjob would enjoy getting charged to do something they hate?

As hybrid working arrangements continue to be pushed by middle managers who desperately need to physically observe their underlings at their desks in order to feel like anyone is getting any work done, those who are making the trek back to the office a couple days a week are coming to a not-so-shocking realization: the office sucks.

Here’s Vox’s Recode on why hybrid work isn’t working:

For now, many employees are just noticing the hassle of the office, even if they’re going in way less than they did pre-pandemic. This is what’s known as the hybrid model, and even though people like the remote work aspect of it, for many it’s still unclear what the office part of it is for.

“If I go into the office and there are people but none of them are on my team, I don’t gain anything besides a commute,” Mathew, who works at a large payroll company in New Jersey, said. “Instead of sitting at my own desk, I’m sitting at a desk in Roseland.”

Mathew’s company is asking people to come in three days a week, but he says people are mostly showing up two.

Further complicating things is that, while the main reason hybrid workers cite for wanting to go into the office is to see colleagues, they also don’t want to be told when to go in, according to Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford professor who, along with other academics, has been conducting a large, ongoing study of remote workers called WFH Research.

Then there’s the problem of culture. You know, that thing leaders say people want and can only get from seeing each other’s happy faces in a commercially-leased office building. It all sounds great on paper — and I say this as an extrovert who does actually enjoy the company of other human beings sometimes, there’s something pleasant about in-person collaborating when it happens — but so far return to office is striking out in that regard, too. People are staggering in and out like a bunch of hobos rather than warmly collaborating like the imaginary teams of stock photos.

There isn’t even anything written on those post-it notes! Phonies. I bet that guy isn’t even typing anything on his laptop either.

People are starting to notice that real life isn’t like stock photos, we’ve seen the Wizard behind the curtain, blah blah some other movie reference about finding out things aren’t as they appear I could make here if I watched more movies.

Those who want to be remote are upset because they enjoyed working from home and don’t understand why, after two years of doing good work there, they have to return to the office. People who couldn’t wait to go back are not finding the same situation they enjoyed before the pandemic, with empty offices and fewer amenities. Those who said they prefer hybrid — 60 percent of office workers — are not always getting the interactions with colleagues they’d hoped for.

So even people who like the office don’t like the office. We took the red pill and can’t get shoved back into The Matrix again.

There’s also a disconnect between why employees think they’re being called in. Employees cite their company’s sunk real estate investments, their bosses’ need for control, and their middle managers’ raison d’etre. Employers, meanwhile, think going into the office is good for creativity, innovation, and culture building. Nearly 80 percent of employees think they’ve been just as or more productive than they were before the pandemic, while less than half of leaders think so, according to Microsoft’s Work Trends Index.

The Recode piece recognizes that there is a small segment of hybrid workers who both prefer WFH and crave office interaction, specifically those early-career Gen Zers who graduated into the pandemic and have been struggling to learn the ropes without the same in-person support their predecessors had pre-2020. We’ll talk about that on another day.

For now, the office is clearly losing the hybrid work war. With employers scared to run people off in this workers’ market it would be in their best interest not to stir up the hornets’ nest on return to office. Or, you know, whatever, keep forcing people who owe you nothing to do things they don’t want to do for no reason when there are tons of other places they could work for instead who aren’t so eager to shove people back into glittering downtown prison cells.

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Top 5 Reasons Why Employers Want You Back In the Office

C.P. Aiden — Thu, 09 Jun 2022 17:00:24 +0000

The debate over employee work preferences continues to explode. Many employers actively ignore employee preferences, particularly when employees favor fully remote work. In recent weeks, even more companies demanded that employees return to offices, immediately, or else. Employee preferences aside, why do companies want everyone back in the office?

1. Companies are losing grasp on their cultures

Recently, EY Global Chairman and CEO Carmine Di Sibio said, “We’re encouraging our people to get back to the offices. We think that’s important to our culture.” From everyone I’ve talked to at EY over the past several weeks, the culture is drying up, and firm leadership is desperately scrambling to hold it together.

Admittedly, the bonding experience created when six people huddle around a card table in a closet, staring at their laptops as the midnight cleanup crew vacuums the long office hallways just outside the door, is hard to replicate. It certainly isn’t the same as each individual sitting in front of their laptop on their makeshift desk in the corner of their bedroom at 1 a.m. occasionally pinging other team members with questions, updates, or assignments.

Culture is about creating a sense of truly being part of a team and being in it together at all costs and the level of die-hard commitment that comes with all that. Team breakfast, lunch, and dinner were replaced with morning sex, walking the dog, and family dinner or evenings out with friends. Many companies view these “replacement activities” as highly destructive to corporate culture.

2. WFH allows employees to ask “why” more often

Working from home changed the pace enough to give people time to pause and reflect on their current choices and their future. Why were they staying online at 8:30 p.m. “just in case the manager needs something” while their spouse put their children to bed without them down the hall? Why did they feel an expectation to work during the time they used to spend listening to audiobooks while commuting to and from the office? Why were they giving so much to a job that wasn’t fulfilling or as meaningful as they hoped?

Many business leaders voiced their assumptions that employees are distracted and inefficient while working from home, despite numerous research studies that have indicated otherwise. The reality is those business leaders want people to come back to the biggest distraction of all (i.e., the distraction from life)—the office (not the work itself). WFH allowed employees to think about their true aspirations more than most executives are comfortable with.

3. Lack of desperately needed on-the-job training for new hires

Over the past two weeks, I literally got 15-plus direct messages on Twitter (I average about two DMs a week, so this was huge) about the lack of on-the-job training of recently hired staff at accounting firms, along with countless mentions in responses to my WFH tweets. Experience dollars used to be one of public accounting’s biggest draws.

The ability to interrupt your senior or manager who is sitting in the same room or the opportunity to poke your head into the partner’s office to have an impromptu chat about the status of a project seemingly disappeared with WFH, and firms have struggled to replicate this virtually. As a result, new staff aren’t picking up on many key parts of the job (like how to ask follow-up questions or people skills in general), and clients and managers notice the difference. The pain is real. The apprenticeship model is only as strong as its weakest link, and firms are on the verge of a generational knowledge gap that could cause irreversible damage in years to come.

4. Working from the office is how executives got where they are

When you think “corporate executive,” who comes to mind? My guess is that more often than not, the answer is a total douchebag, which is the primary makeup of executive ranks in today’s corporate world. These opportunistic people got to where they are by being seen at the right times and with the right people. These driven people went back to work after going out for drinks after work. These conniving people figured out how to delay delivery on their email so they would appear to be working nonstop seven days a week. These overly assertive people knew just when to bulldoze others in important meetings. These charismatic people knew when to take credit for good things (whether or not it was their own work) and when to let others take blame on their behalf. These pretentious people played politics perfectly. (Side note: Thankfully, NONE of the executives where I currently work are like this. BIG SURPRISE! We are a work-from-anywhere company.)

The thing is, being the business douchebag is a lot harder to do remotely. The skills possessed by said business douchebags (schmoozing, being seen, taking credit and diverting blame, overconfidence, being disingenuous suck-ups, etc.) don’t come into play as often during a Zoom meeting as they do in-person.

5. Employers want to track you and that’s easier to do at the office

Employers tracking employees sends one message: we don’t trust you. Does your little Slack or Skype bubble show “away” because you went to the bathroom or because you went shopping in the middle of the day? Maybe your home internet is cutting in and out or you just decided to take an afternoon nap? Seeing your butt in your chair must be a better way to prove that you are working, right? (As opposed to measuring the amount of work you actually get done.) They certainly think so.

In the office, they can monitor you. They can observe how much you are on your phone. They can measure when you show up and when you leave. Plus, in the office, you aren’t going to sit with your work and personal laptops side by side watching Netflix on one while working on the other like they assume you do all the time at home.

The bottom line: During the pandemic, employers lost control over employees, and now they’d like you to give it back to them.

About the author:

C.P. Aiden is a former Big 4 assurance senior manager who bounced between public accounting and industry three times during the past 15-plus years. After leaving public accounting for good, he wrote and self-published an office comedy series, “Waive Further Review,” about a first-year audit engagement and subsequent financial statement restatement that pokes fun at the work, life, and culture inside today’s largest public accounting firms.

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Corporate Overlords Try to Scare Us Back Into the Office With Figures on How Much WFH is Costing You

Adrienne Gonzalez — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 21:56:27 +0000

As we watch gas prices tick higher and higher, commercial lessors and middle managers everywhere are anxious to get people back in chairs. Their chairs. Gross, old, shared-space, contains-the-farts-of-coworkers-past chairs. Nothing at all like the luxurious gaming chair your firm WFH stipend covered, though let’s be honest that one is harboring some ghost farts too.

There is no question that remote workers are saving on gas. According to AAA, the U.S. average for a gallon is creeping dangerously close to $5 with Georgia coming in lowest at $4.33 and California taking top spot at $6.37.

Everything costs more. And it will cost more tomorrow. We know this. But a recent Fortune article asks are we really saving money by working at home?

Despite many companies setting April return-to-office deadlines, for the past month, U.S. office occupancy has held steady at roughly 43%, according to Kastle’s Back to Work Barometer that takes into account rates in 10 major cities. Many employees are pushing back against heading into the office not because of rising COVID caseloads, but arguing that their commutes are too expensive. In fact, a recent report from Deloitte found nearly 40% of millennials and a third of Gen Zers report that remote work has helped them save money.

But is working from home really a savings game-changer for most workers?

The article goes on to say electricity costs in April were up 11% year over year according to the BLS Consumer Price Index and reminds us that it’s almost summer which means cranking the A/C for most of the country (duh). There’s a bit of good news though, forecasts anticipate milder temps for many parts of the U.S. this summer, residential customers are expected to use 2.9% less electricity than they did last summer. SUCK IT, climate activists. In total, Americans spent an average of $23 more on monthly electric and gas bills for the first four months of 2022 than we did in 2019. So what, that’s like a single avocado toast? Not bad.

The article also mentions internet. Did you know you have to pay for internet when you work from home? Internet that you were already paying for and that doesn’t charge you by the hour like AOL circa 1996? Well they want to remind you that you’re paying for internet anyway. Which you wouldn’t have to do if you made the long slog through traffic hell to show up at the office because there is internet you don’t pay for there:

Internet costs can also be factored into WFH expenses. On average, Americans spent about $120 a month on their Internet and cable bills in 2022 so far, according to Doxo’s data, about on par with what U.S. households spent pre-pandemic. That can vary as some workers opted to upgrade their internet connection during the pandemic—making that monthly cost continually higher too.

They do have a minor point about upgraded internet. Presumably most of you did that a whole two years ago when everyone first went WFH if you needed to.

When the pandemic hit in early 2020, accounting firms — notoriously averse to remote work unless the client site counts as remote — rolled out various WFH stipends ranging from free monitors bummed from the firm to up to $500 to buy your own equipment (read: gaming chairs). Missing from the short list of Big 4 WFH perks are meal reimbursements, still a sore point for those who enjoyed firm-provided takeout in exchange for wasting their lives working late into the night. KPMG covered the issue in a report on telecommuting compensation [PDF] that’s an interesting historical read as it was published in March 2020 and written with hurried “we have no idea wtf is about to happen” language. So there are some perks to working from home, with some offices being more generous than others from what we’ve heard.

Far more important than $23 in electricity costs and renting a better router from your greedy internet provider though is the TIME one spends commuting. You don’t get paid for it but boy does it cost you, and not solely in wear, tear, and gas (that’s ‘tear’ as in /ter/ not ‘tear’ as in the wet kind that come from your eyes but those too, I suppose). Those of you who spent countless hours a week in the Office Space opening scene prior to March 2020 know what I mean.

via GIPHY

For some of us, not having to suffer with twice daily commute traffic is worth it no matter how the math works out. Even if internet cost $2.99 an hour it would be worth it. Even if you cranked the A/C and kept all your lights on 24/7 and never ate another free catered meal in your life it would be worth it. Mentally anyway. And for a group of people perpetually on the brink of burnout, every little bit of relief from rage-inducing scenarios is worth it.

The real cost of remote work versus the office isn’t a strictly mathematical one and in fairness to the Fortune article linked above they acknowledge as much. As firms start to gently encourage return to office their staff are going to have to consider the entire equation, not just the financial one. It’s a hard sell to convince people to trade cheaper electric bills for the commutes we left behind in 2020.

Guarantee you can continue to work remotely from your gaming chair with a fully remote, progressive firm! Accountingfly has you covered with many open fully remote accounting jobs. Just drop your resume and let someone else figure out the best remote opportunity for you based on your professional experience and your aversion to commercially leased buildings.

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PwC Just Announced That You Never Have To Go Back To the Office If You Don’t Want To (Sorta)

Adrienne Gonzalez — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:21:49 +0000

Big news today! PwC just announced that effective November 1, its people will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to access PwC facilities and client sites. Deloitte announced a similar vaccination policy toward the end of August, as did KPMG, just a handful of days before President Biden announced the country’s own vaccine mandate. Unlike Deloitte and KPMG, however, PwC is taking the completely unaccounting-like step to offer full, permanent work-from-home for those who would prefer to do so. Making that the even bigger news here than a vaccine mandate.

From the Reuters exclusive published yesterday:

Accounting and consulting firm PwC told Reuters on Thursday it will allow all its 40,000 U.S. client services employees to work virtually and live anywhere they want in perpetuity, making it one of the biggest employers to embrace permanent remote work.

Support staff at PwC had already been given the option to work remotely as long as they wish to, so this announcement just extends that privilege to the client-facing side.

When we last checked in on PwC’s plans to return to the office post-COVID, they’d delayed their planned mid-September reopening to November 1 due to variants, surges, and other such messy cootie concerns. It seems I will be having roast crow for dinner tonight, as I expressed skepticism at that time toward the idea that firms would let their people work from home for even minute longer than they actually had to. It was my belief that any discussion about permanent hybrid work models was based solely on the firm not wanting to make the ongoing Big 4 exodus any worse than it already has been by chasing off the people who would rather get a fire ant enema than set foot in a firm-leased office building ever again.

A Bloomberg Tax article about the big PwC announcement confirms that the talent crunch is likely behind this move:

The 10 largest U.S. accounting firms generally offer some variation of flexible and remote work today, but those models are likely to become permanent fixtures as firm leaders realize they have no choice but to ease their grip on traditional office work, said Allan Koltin, a consultant to accounting and law firms on how to manage their businesses.

He compared it to ditching suits for business casual; the profession has never looked back. Firms that don’t build remote work into their culture and treat those workers equally to those based in offices “are going to have serious problems going forward trying to compete,” Koltin said.

Not only that but PwC literally said that. In its memo to employees, PwC did not dance around the subject. “[I]t is offering the new policy to attract and retain talent and become more diverse,” wrote Reuters.

“We have learned a ton through the pandemic, and working virtually, as we think about the evolution of flexibility, is a natural next step,” said PwC deputy people leader Yolanda Seals-Coffield to Reuters. “If you are an employee in good standing, are in client services, and want to work virtually, you can, full stop.”

Before you donate what’s left of your business casual attire — which, let’s be real, probably doesn’t fit you anymore anyway — and move to Barbados, it’s important to acknowledge that there will be some expectation that you’ll show up at the office at least a little bit. According to Reuters, PwCers working virtually will still have to come into the office a maximum of three days a month “for in-person appointments such as critical team meetings, client visits and learning sessions.” It also goes without saying that just like drug testing, whether you are actually allowed to work from home permanently will likely be heavily dependent on your clients and how badly they want to see your smiling face to know they’re getting the most out of those billed hours.

And of course this wouldn’t be a thorough discussion about an accounting firm’s policies if we didn’t mention that remote workers who choose a lower COL area now that they aren’t tethered to the office can expect a salary adjustment. You know, down. So keep that in mind before you start eyeing a farm in the middle of Nowhere, Nebraska to make your new home base.

Also of note: should the majority of a particular team at PwC choose to return to the office, their partners are expected to do the same. “Partners at PwC whose team members choose to be in the office regularly will not be allowed to work completely remotely,” said Reuters.

PwC expects 30-35% of its 40,000 client services employees to choose remote work going forward. “We’re confident we can manage hybrid teams,” Seals-Coffield said.

I believe a hearty “thank you” is in order to the brave men and women who have left their posts at Big 4 firms in the last year and a half in such significant numbers that firms are starting to take extreme measures to retain the staff they have left. Do salaries next!

EXCLUSIVE PwC offers U.S. employees full-time remote work [Reuters]
PwC’s Work-Anywhere U.S. Policy Aims to Attract, Retain Staff [Bloomberg Tax]

Photo by Vlada Karpovich from Pexels

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Hywel Talks Hybrid At EY U.K.

Jason Bramwell — Mon, 24 May 2021 18:45:17 +0000

Hywel Ball

“We have championed flexible working for many years prior to COVID-19 and we will continue to do so. This has been built on a culture of trust with our people. We also believe there will always be a need for EY to have office space across the U.K., but how we use our offices in the future will change with a greater emphasis on collaboration rather than as a place for individual working. We will therefore be moving to a hybrid model where our people are able to split their time between their home, office, and client site.

“We will continue to listen carefully to the needs of our people and broader stakeholders as we go through this transition process. We believe a hybrid model creates an opportunity for us to maximise the benefits of both in-person collaboration and flexible remote working for our people and clients.

“Having been champions of flexible working for many years, hybrid working is an evolution rather than a revolution for EY. It’s about trusting and empowering our people to manage their day in a way that works for them, their teams, and their clients.”

— Hywel Ball, chairman of EY U.K., said today about the firm moving to a hybrid working model once social distancing restrictions are lifted in Britain. That means EYers will be able to continue working from home two days a week, then spend the rest of their time in the office or at client sites.

Then in September, EY will “start a period of experimentation in which it will test, refine and evolve its approach to ensure the model meets the needs of its people, clients, and other stakeholders.” This will be accompanied by a longer-term plan to reconfigure EY offices “to create more collaboration spaces for meetings and group working,” the firm said.

As the Financial Times noted today, PwC U.K. told its 22,000 staff in March that they would spend an average of two to three days a week in the office after the pandemic ended, while KPMG U.K. staff will spend a maximum of four days in the office every two weeks.

Deloitte has yet to publicly announce its plans for where Deloitters in the U.K. will work after the pandemic, but the odds are high it will be a similar model to what the other three are doing.

EY staff to spend at least two days a week working from home [Financial Times]

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How Intuit Can Help Your Career Thrive In the Remote Work Era

GoingConcern — Fri, 16 Apr 2021 23:18:18 +0000

With the widespread adoption of remote and hybrid work structures and an increased reliance on technology, the past year has seen big changes to the accounting and finance professions. As many accountants and finance professionals face the reality that they won’t be returning to the office any time soon (if at all), it’s clear that the remote era of accounting is here to stay.

The more we talk to accountants, bookkeepers, tax preparers, and finance professionals, the more we hear from them that working remotely is having a positive impact on their careers. All it takes is the right attitude and the right strategy to ensure you’re making the most of today’s opportunities.

To that end, Intuit is providing a great way for you to advance your career in the remote work era. The company has begun hiring at scale, onboarding thousands of Intuit Experts in 2021 with plans to continue growing the program yearly. Intuit Experts help TurboTax Live, QuickBooks Live, and Mint Live customers have confidence that their taxes and personal and business finances are accurate and complete, which in turn positively impacts their financial lives.

Here are three reasons becoming an Intuit Expert can help your career thrive in the remote work era:

1) You’ll personalize your career path

With more time on your hands, more freedom, and more options, the remote era allows you to wave goodbye to the rigid, programmed career paths of the past and blaze your own unique professional trail.

As an Intuit Expert, you’ll have the freedom to shape your career to fit your life. Choose how and when you want to work to fit your career goals or experience level. Select hours that work with your current practice, if you have one. Scale up or down as your needs change, or focus on the work that’s most rewarding to you as you move into the next chapter of your life. And you can even explore new skills across disciplines, from personal taxes to bookkeeping and more.

2) You’ll learn new skills and expand your expertise

Rather than remaining focused on a single discipline, the remote era allows you to shape your expertise however you want. Like a train shifting tracks, you can move between accounting, bookkeeping, tax, and finance, depending on your skills, gaining additional experience and building a practice that meets your clients’ needs more holistically.

Here again, Intuit offers an opportunity for you to expand your knowledge. Intuit Experts are provided with training, technology, and credentialing that leads to transformative learning and growth, enabling you to serve clients in a variety of meaningful ways.

Intuit Experts also gain access to Intuit University, an unrivaled library of development programs and microlearning courses. These offerings go beyond simple training and education, delivering learning experiences that are engaging, personalized, and highly effective.

The Intuit Expert program has a track record of helping professionals grow into new areas, currently sending through 1,000 new certified tax experts annually. And it boasts a 90% return rate for tax experts, a clear indication of its popularity and ability to help professionals advance their careers.

3) You’ll connect with others and collaborate in new ways

Thanks to advancements in technology and new methods of collaboration, accounting professionals are finding innovative ways to come together, helping each other solve problems and benefit from a larger pool of experience.

Becoming an Intuit Expert is a great way to quickly tap into this spirit of collaboration, leveraging a network of professionals to advance your career. Intuit’s community of experienced experts and team managers serve as advocates along your journey, providing you with the advice and mentorship you need to take your career wherever you want it to go. From virtual team rooms that let you engage with other experts and get advice anytime you want it to one-on-one guidance from your managers, the help you need is always close at hand.

Your accounting career, now with limitless potential

In the remote working era, there’s nothing to stop you from achieving everything you want to do in your accounting or finance career. With the freedom to personalize your path, learn new skills, and connect with peers and mentors, the only limit to your potential is your imagination.

Whether you’re just starting out, have an established practice, or are nearing the end of your career, becoming an Intuit Expert is the perfect way to take full advantage of the newfound freedoms of the remote era. Reach out to Intuit now to learn more—and find out just how far your professional future can go.

Learn more about becoming an Intuit Expert >

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Number of the Day: 88%

Jason Bramwell — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 16:29:24 +0000

This is the percentage of the 4,500 or so employees of the Queen’s Grant Thornton who want to continue to spend the majority of their time working from home post-pandemic, an in-house employee survey revealed.

According to the Financial Times, GT U.K. CEO David Dunckley said the pro-WFH crowd was the same regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, or location. The result of the survey may or may not have left Dunckley scratching his head:

“I thought as lockdown got longer people might be more keen to get back in the office but the percentage has gone up a bit,” he added.

David Dunckley

Financial News reported the staff survey showed 88% of staff wanted to work remotely at least half of the time, with 94% saying having a mix of remote and office working would positively benefit them.

Grant Thornton reduced its real estate footprint when it renewed the lease on its Manchester office last year but has not yet decided how often staff will be in the office after the pandemic, according to FT.

As Adrienne mentioned in Footnotes last Friday, PwC U.K. said it expects its 22,000 employees to spend an average of 40% to 60% of their time in the office or at client sites once pandemic restrictions are lifted, with the ability to WFH the rest of the week. PwCers will also be able to personalize their working hours, like starting or ending the day earlier.

In the U.S., PwC Chairman Tim Ryan recently told his capital market servants that starting in September, they will be expected to be in the office or at client sites between one to three days a week, with the rest of the time spent WFH.

Grant Thornton says most UK staff want to stay away from office after pandemic [Financial Times]
Grant Thornton says almost 90% of staff want to work from home [Financial News]

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Nearly a Third of Workers Say They’d Quit Before Returning to the Office When All This Is Over

Adrienne Gonzalez — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 14:00:19 +0000

When the world abruptly turned upside down and drove everyone inside their homes last March, many (perhaps optimistically) thought it would end up being a very brief experiment in what happens when white-collar workers are forced to do their jobs remotely for a couple weeks. We know now “two weeks to flatten the curve” was just hopefulness intended mostly to keep everyone from freaking out, because “stay inside for at least a year” probably didn’t play well in marketing test groups for obvious reasons. Whatever you feel about how things played out, reality remains that all these months later the situation has actually gotten worse, and it seems we’re no closer to settling on a plan going forward.

Let’s take EY as an example. According to their original plan — which, to be fair, was based not on hopium intoxication but rather information we had at the time — many of their roughly 76,000 Americas people would be returning to the office this month. The official line was that EY Americas staff “would not be required to return to the office prior to January 2021,” but wouldn’t you know this Rona is a persistent little bugger so now they’re looking at April. Given how the year has already gone, just getting to April will be a miracle.

Maybe last spring we imagined a post-Rona future where everyone returned to work en masse once the danger passed and went back to business as usual as if nothing happened, but obviously that’s not how this plays out. Hybrid models will likely be more common, where working from home is an option but neither a requirement nor a detriment to the career trajectory of people who seek to please their work overlords.

Well the overlords might want to check the headlines because according to this recent survey, they might find themselves looking for new employees. USA Today reports:

Many companies plan to ask their employees to return to the office once a COVID-19 vaccine is widely available later this year.

Good luck with that.

Twenty-nine percent of working professionals say they would quit their jobs if they couldn’t continue working remotely, according to an online survey of 1,022 professionals by LiveCareer, an online resume and job search consulting service.

Forty-two percent of the U.S. workforce has been working from home full-time during the pandemic, according to a Stanford University study. Those teleworking are generally white-collar office workers who can perform their jobs with a phone and computer.

The survey underscores that at least some businesses and their workers may be on a collision course as life gradually returns to normal and employers start requiring staffers to come back to the mother ship. Sixty-one percent of the white-collar workers surveyed said they want their company to let them work remotely indefinitely, even after the pandemic is over, while 79% said their company plans to return to on-site work eventually.

Sentiment in the accounting industry seems split as far as we can tell. Some of you are loving the work-from-home life while others cannot wait to get back to the office, with the divide showing most between working parents and those without children. You can imagine why parents might be eager to get everyone back out there in the world.

For now though, maybe it would be a good time to work on your resume while we’re in a holding pattern waiting to see what happens with vaccine distribution, daily COVID numbers, and *gestures wildly* all this other stuff. Never a bad idea to have a Plan B should things not work out the way you want them to.

The post Nearly a Third of Workers Say They’d Quit Before Returning to the Office When All This Is Over appeared first on Going Concern.

Finding the Best Accounting and Finance Talent In a Gig/Remote Work World

GoingConcern — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 22:52:05 +0000

Even before the events of 2020, the gig economy was surging and remote work was on the rise. But the last few months have placed those trends into a pressure cooker, accelerating them at a rate far beyond even the most forward-thinking predictions.

Some of the best accounting and finance talent had already gone remote, eschewing traditional work hours and stale coffee for the liberties of working from home through freelance and/or temporary gigs. And as businesses roll out their “return to the office” plans, other companies are leaning in entirely to the remote life, which will surely redefine what hiring needs and practices mean.

These factors have created a challenging recruiting environment, forcing businesses to fight with competitors over an increasingly shrinking pool of accounting and finance talent.

But it’s possible to transform the gig/remote economy into an advantage for your company, harnessing it to actually improve the quality of accounting and finance work at your firm. You just need the right mindset—and the right partner.

Hire accounting and finance professionals faster and from a pre-vetted talent pool

Speed is often the most critical factor in accounting and finance recruiting. While, ideally, you want to acquire talent well before (or at the exact moment) you actually need it, even the most sophisticated talent pipeline and company timelines will frequently be thrown off course by unexpected events.

When you sign a new client, they’ll want you to begin working for them immediately—and they don’t care that you’re still going through résumés to staff up or to replace workers who have left the company or are on leave.

The gig/remote economy offers the opportunity for you to sign talent faster—no protracted negotiations over salary and benefits, no fears that a competitor will snatch them away at the last moment—and put them to work when and for however long you need them. But it’s hard to do that on your own.

“You should be able to plug somebody in to play right off the bat,” added Alex Loewenstein, head of CPA practice at Paro. “So you’re billing hours to clients immediately, you’re not training them, onboarding them, taking resources away to get them up to speed.”

Working with a partner like Paro, you can find and acquire top accounting and finance talent at lightning speed—improving your service quality while reducing the recruiting burden on your organization.

“I’d say 60 to 70% of our clients hire the first person we introduce them to,” said Jon Repka, vice president of sales at Paro. “We can cut a ton of time out of your recruiting process, allowing you to get up and running with top-tier talent very quickly.”

Another advantage of the gig/remote economy is the ability to expand your talent search beyond the barriers of your region. Here again, Paro can help—leveraging its network of the best remote accounting and finance talent to find the right person for you, no matter where they work and live.

Build your business with better accounting talent and financial expertise

The gig/remote economy allows you to source and hire a better breed of accountants and finance professionals. Because today’s remote workers can take on multiple clients, you don’t have to worry as much about losing talent to your competitors—they can work with both of you. And even when you do lose out on talent, you have a larger pool from which to find replacements.

But while there are great advantages to having faster access to a wider range of talent, the gig/remote economy has also compounded the complexity of vetting candidates. As the haystack continues to grow, finding that needle is only going to get harder.

Working with Paro makes that job much easier. When Paro says they’ll only offer you the best accounting and finance talent, they mean it—just 1.5% of applicants are accepted into their network.

“Somebody comes in, they apply, we review their resume. If they pass that step, we give them a competency test to evaluate their financial knowledge. They get through that, they speak to a couple of our folks, we do reference checks, background checks, and give them something in terms of a simulation to present to our team. Only after all that will we add them to our network,” Loewenstein said.

Perhaps an even greater advantage of the gig/remote economy is that it allows you to go beyond just finding great talent, making it easier to find the right talent for your firm or for a particular client or project.

In addition to its intense personal vetting process, Paro uses a sophisticated AI system to match applicants to your needs, helping you find someone with the ideal blend of skills.

“Our philosophy is, ‘Never say no.’ Whether that means you’ve got a new project you’ve never taken on before or a service line you’ve never explored, through Paro you’ll get the confidence of knowing we’ll always say, ‘Yes, we can get that for you,’” Repka said.

Create long-term relationships with freelance/temporary accounting and finance professionals

One of the greatest threats of the gig/remote economy is the loss of teamwork. With your accountants and finance professionals working far away from each other and often through temporary engagements, collaboration between them and with your permanent workforce is an ongoing challenge.

While its primary function is to match your firm up with the right talent, Paro also serves in a consultancy capacity that can help you mitigate these issues—or even head them off before they become prevalent.

“We’re not going to take your order. We’re going to help you figure out what you need,” Loewenstein said. “We’re going to look at the goals of your engagement and help you figure out who you should really be looking for and what price point you should consider. And we’re going to connect you with them. That precision helps to create longer-lasting, more effective relationships priced at market value.”

Through its advisory function and white-glove commitment to service, Paro consistently goes beyond one-time placements for a single job, with engagements often blossoming into long-term relationships of mutual benefit. And that helps keep teamwork and collaboration alive at your firm.

Partner with Paro and make the gig/remote economy work for you

By leveraging Paro’s network of top-tier remote accounting and finance professionals, you can take advantage of the positive aspects of the remote/gig economy while mitigating its risks and negative impacts.

Whether you need a temporary bump in expertise to handle an acquisition, assistance due to employee turnover, additional bookkeeping help because of seasonality, or something else entirely, Paro will work with you to accommodate your specific needs. For a single tax preparation job, full CFO leadership, and everything in-between, Paro has you covered.

Get the accounting and finance talent you need to consistently win in an inconsistent world—today and for years to come. Connect with Paro now.

Start now >

The post Finding the Best Accounting and Finance Talent In a Gig/Remote Work World appeared first on Going Concern.

Yes, You Can Make More Money as a Freelance Accountant or Finance Professional

GoingConcern — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 20:50:15 +0000

The pendulum has swung: accountants and finance professionals can make more money—and have wayyyy more freedom—taking on freelance work, especially when compared to a full-time salaried position at a public accounting firm.

Just imagine it! Working from home in your pajamas, setting your own hours, taking Netflix-and-nap breaks. No co-workers bugging you with stories of their latest golf triumphs—no sound at all, really, just silence and solitude and letting your personal hygiene slide …

… wait …

… OK, imagine all of that stuff, but for real and permanent, with no “return to office” plans hitting your inbox in a few weeks.

And the whole WFH thing is just an option, not a requirement, and you can really work from anywhere—which means you can travel. Oh, and imagine you’re getting to pick what you want to work on and who you want to work for, and you’re making more money than you do at your current job.

OK, that’s better.

That dream is a reality for many of the top-tier finance professionals providing freelance CFO leadership, controllership, accounting, bookkeeping, financial planning, analysis, and more as part of Paro’s freelance/temp placement network.

We know what you’re thinking: “I’ve looked into the freelance thing before, and it’s just not for me.” But Paro is different. In this article, we’ll show you how—and we’ll start by getting straight to the good stuff.

Find out what you’re really worth—and then earn it

Though he wasn’t exactly the greatest role model, a (fictional) clown once taught some bad guys a lesson by telling them, “If you’re good at something, never do it for free.” It wasn’t long after that he was sliding down a giant pile of cash. (Then some other stuff happened, but we don’t need to get into that.)

Unfortunately, many accounting and finance professionals don’t get paid anywhere near their real market value. If you’re not sure what your value should be, you can check the salary guide from Robert Half or various other calculators and resources online.

“I cut my teeth at a Big 4 firm,” said Jon Repka, vice president of sales at Paro. “I was told what I was worth, which was 15% of my bill rate at the time. But on an open marketplace, how much should a senior auditor with 15 years of experience go for on an hourly basis? A lot of people guess, some overbill—really, the vast majority underbill. But with Paro, you’ll know exactly what you’re worth, and we’ll do everything we can to get it for you.”

Even if you’re one of those lucky so-and-sos who is actually getting paid what you’re worth, just think of how much more you could make by taking on the occasional high-paying freelance gig when times are slow?

The amount you earn will vary based on a number of factors, and Paro will help you identify accreditations or certain types of experience that will boost your rate. But here’s a general sense of what professionals in Paro’s network get paid, broken down by job title:

CPA Firm Support:

CAS: up to $30/hr
Tax preparation: up to $50/hr
Prep and review: up to $60/hr
Review: up to $75/hr

Small Business (SMB) Support:

Bookkeeping/accounting: up to $40/hr
Controller: up to $65/hr

Take the fear out of freelance

OK, so technically taking the “fear” out of “freelance” leaves you with “elnce,” but you get what we mean.

If you’ve never done it before, taking the plunge into the world of freelance accounting can be a bit frightening. But don’t worry—Paro takes care of all the scary stuff for you. And as a famous (fictional) sensei once said, “It’s OK to lose to an opponent. It’s never OK to lose to fear. Now go wax my car.”

For those of you who do have some freelance experience, you know you don’t always get a ton of choice in the companies you work for. Inevitably, you wind up dealing with people who aren’t your type (unless “people who take six months to pay your invoice” is your type). And sometimes you sign on for a job you thought you were qualified for—but when you get there, it turns out you’re in a bit over your head.

You won’t have to worry about any of that when you work with Paro. Paro has a sophisticated matching system that leverages years of expertise and artificial intelligence to help align your skills and interests with a client’s needs.

“Paro has given me the platform to find clients that are a perfect match for my services,” said Kristie Woods, a CPA and member of Paro’s talent network.

You’ll have the full freedom to set your own rate and hours, control the number of projects you work on at a time, and turn your availability off and on at your leisure. And once you’ve begun working with a client, you can rely on continuous support from the Paro Home Team.

“Paro handles all of the marketing, billing, and collections for me, so I can fully focus on my clients’ accounting needs. They are great to work with,” Woods said.

Get your life back

A famous (fictional) teacher once told a student who got so caught up thinking about the future that he failed to continue standing on his head while telekinetically lifting some rocks and a robot, “Control, control, you must learn control!”

For accounting and finance professionals, control means recognizing when it’s time to put your nose to the grindstone—and when it’s time to work a little less and live a little more.

“Someone I talked to recently said, ‘When I was in public accounting, during busy season I used to drop my daughter off at school and I wouldn’t see her until the next day,’” said Alex Loewenstein, head of CPA practice at Paro. “One day her daughter said, ‘Mommy, why don’t I see you anymore?’ She left public accounting to spend more time with her family, but she’s still working with firms during the season because it’s great money.”

Teaming up with Paro gives you all that freedom and more. Want to work 60 hours a week and—unlike in public accounting—actually get rich doing it? No problem. Want to take a few jobs here and there and spend the rest of your time with family or video games? You got it. Need some time off to travel the world—or play video games even more? Paro has your back.

Perhaps most importantly, Paro gives you the freedom to work with the firms of your choice rather than for them. Through Paro’s white-labeling services, you’ll get the prestige of representing a big firm (or the comfort of representing a smaller one) but you’ll do it on your terms, picking the jobs and industries you want to work on while passing on the ones you don’t.

Paro can’t help you mentally project a hologram of yourself across the galaxy where you can fight your nephew in a duel that’s really just a distraction to give your friends time to escape from an assault by an evil empire—yet—but we still think the teacher we mentioned earlier would be impressed by you exercising that level of control.

What are you waiting for?

The potential to earn more money, work with better clients, get more freedom—there’s no downside to checking out Paro and applying to join their network. Go pay them a visit and see what they’re all about.

As a famous (fictional) computer hacker said as he offered a newbie a choice between a red and a blue pill, “I’m trying to free your mind. But I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it.”

So walk through it, already! Trust us on this one—that blue pill may look tempting, but it tastes like unpaid overtime.

Learn more or join the Paro talent network >

The post Yes, You Can Make More Money as a Freelance Accountant or Finance Professional appeared first on Going Concern.

How’s Your Remote Plan Going? What Worked and What Didn’t? It’s Time to Move Forward

GoingConcern — Fri, 07 Aug 2020 22:50:18 +0000

Hey there, denizens of Going Concern. If you are a managing partner or lead an HR department, please take the 2020 Anytime, Anywhere Work (ATAWW) Survey hosted by ConvergenceCoaching LLC. This survey will be used to identify trends on how accounting and consulting firms are handling the ongoing shift, as well as the overnight transition, to remote work.

While the majority of the data collected from the survey pertains to flexible and remote work programs within accounting and consulting firms, this year ConvergenceCoaching has added questions to learn more about firms’ recent remote work shifts and what they project for remote and flexible work and service as they re-open their offices. This includes questions that refer to your practice before COVID-19, and others that ask you to imagine what might be different in the future based on your experiences during the pandemic.

ConvergenceCoaching is committed to helping firms succeed through the adoption of remote and flexible work. Part of their commitment is to study the accounting profession’s remote and flex progression, hence the reason why this survey was created.

The data from this survey will be summarized and used to identify trends that will be published in various publications and educational presentations. When you share your contact information, you will receive a copy of the survey results and could be contacted to clarify answers. ConvergenceCoaching will not disclose anything specific related to your firm’s participation in the survey without your explicit permission.

[Ed. note: This survey should be completed by accounting and consulting firms only and only one response per firm. Please respond only if you own or work within an accounting firm and coordinate between your managing partner, firm administrator/firm manager/COO, and HR professional to avoid duplicate submissions.]

The post How’s Your Remote Plan Going? What Worked and What Didn’t? It’s Time to Move Forward appeared first on Going Concern.

3 Tips for Crushing Your Accounting Work While Traveling

Grant Hutchinson — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 13:00:29 +0000

Whether traveling for business or pleasure, working on the road is a necessary evil for most accountants. No matter how much you promise yourself you’ll unplug, work still manages to creep its way into any trip or vacation, in spite of promises of flexible hours and work/life balance from your firm.

So if you’re going to do accounting work while traveling—and let’s face it, you are—you might as well do it right. Unfortunately, working away from the office and home carries with it unique security and productivity challenges. Here are some tips on how you can avoid or minimize those issues, allowing you to produce quality accounting work while traveling and get back to the joys of your trip faster.

1) Never work on public Wi-Fi or a public computer

Public Wi-Fi hotspots are notoriously dangerous. They’re a popular entry point for hackers, and the massive flaw recently discovered in the WPA2 security protocol, popularly referred to as the KRACK attack, has led experts to advise workers never to use them, period. It’s just too easy for a hacker to intercept passwords that will allow him to access the sensitive financial data of your firm and your clients.

Hotel business centers are perhaps the worst offenders. Hackers know that these facilities are practically guaranteed to be used to communicate valuable information, so they physically or virtually “camp out” at them to capture confidential data and sell it to the highest bidder or hold it hostage through ransomware.

If you absolutely must use a hotel business center, at least log in via Wi-Fi on your own device rather than from a public computer. Hackers can program various viruses and trojan horses onto public computers that can infect your network. Even worse, they can install keylogging software that maps your every move, exposing any passwords you enter on work or personal software and sites.

Nick Pasquarosa, founder and CEO, Bookkeeper360, recommends purchasing a mobile hotspot or getting one from your IT team. This enables you to avoid outside Wi-Fi networks and devices completely, keeping you online and productive via a much more reliable and secure connection.

2) Set clear, upfront expectations and boundaries

Just because you’ll have to do some work during travel doesn’t mean you should let the office dominate your entire trip. Communicate expectations and boundaries to your firm and clients upfront regarding when you’re willing to work and when you’ll be unavailable.

“It’s aggravating for a team to assume someone is available to help when they’re trying to vacation, and it’s aggravating for an individual to try to vacation while co-workers are constantly emailing or messaging for help,” Ryan Watson, founder and principal, Upsourced Accounting, said. “To avoid this, create windows of availability or expectations of turnaround times and stick to them.”

For his own vacations, Watson has a specific schedule he likes to use—one that keeps his colleagues happy while still allowing plenty of time for fun.

“When I vacation, I block an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening to check email and be available,” Watson said. “I’m clear that outside those windows, I’m available only in emergencies and I should be texted, not emailed or Slacked, to be reached.”

3) Be prepared for separation anxiety

One of the biggest challenges of working away from the office is being separated from the hardware and applications you use in the office or at home.

“Many accountants like to work on desktops with two or three monitors,” Dave Betz, chief success officer, Gineris & Associates, said. “Most of the time if they’re away traveling, they’ve got just their laptop. Some of them have these extended monitors, which is great. But if they don’t, they’re hampered by that, because they’re flipping between three applications on a single screen.”

With screen space at a premium, we recommend keeping applications open only when you’re actively using them. This may slow you down, but the loss of productivity will generally be less than if you are constantly shuffling apps on your laptop, tablet, and/or smartphone. Running applications in the background of your mobile devices can also quickly drain battery life. If your battery dies in a place where you can’t plug in, you’ll be completely sunk.

Before leaving on your trip, talk with IT to make sure you know how to log onto your firm’s network and critical applications from all of your devices. And try to develop a backup plan in the event that some or all of your hardware fails.

Melissa Diaz, CFO and shareholder, High Rock Accounting, shared a horror story with us that illustrates the importance of having a solid plan B.

“I was traveling in Dubai when the charging port on my computer decided it was the perfect time to stop working. The closest Apple store was about 30 minutes away by car, and I didn’t have a car anyway. I only had a few days left in the country, so I could not reliably leave my computer to get fixed without knowing how long it would take to be repaired. Luckily, my firm has a cloud password bank and tons of cloud software solutions, so I could access usernames and passwords for all of my important accounts through my husband’s computer,” Diaz said.

Find a better accounting job through Accountingfly

We hope these tips help improve your on-the-road accounting work experience. But the best tip of all may be to change your career path.

If you’re sick of working for an employer that requires you to work while you’re on vacation—or seeking a new accounting job for any other reason—check out the open positions listed on Accountingfly. Accountingfly is 100% free for job seekers, so you’ve got nothing to lose.

Find accounting jobs >

The post 3 Tips for Crushing Your Accounting Work While Traveling appeared first on Going Concern.

While Some Companies Move Away From Remote Work, Others Double Down

Grant Hutchinson — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 23:09:14 +0000

Last year, IBM decided to “co-locate” its 2,600 member US marketing department. Translation? IBM is eliminating remote work.

The news is especially shocking as IBM is one of the pioneers of remote work, installing work-from-home terminals for some employees as far back as the 1980s.

As more businesses move toward embracing remote work, others are resisting the change or reversing course. But why?

IBM hasn’t said much on the matter, but its reasoning appears to be part of a larger reconfiguration effort around business agility. Facing stiff competition from startups and cloud-based vendors, it’s possible IBM believes focusing on in-office, face-to-face collaboration will help them innovate faster.

But we wanted to know what others had to say about the movement away from remote work. So we asked some of the leading experts on cloud accounting, and here are the responses we got.

Hybrid isn’t for everyone

Caleb Stephens, Controller, Automattic, believes some companies just aren’t built to support a partially remote/partially in-house staff.

“When your primary work environment is based on locations, and all of your infrastructure supports that model, there’s no real effort or infrastructure to properly support a distributed workforce,” he says. “It kinda needs to be one or the other, or be functionally aligned. All support personnel can be distributed, but finance/developers/marketing functions are location based. Or vice versa.”

Happy employees > Employees looking annoyed

According to Patti Scharf, Co-Founder and COO of cloud accounting firm Catching Clouds, IBM and others like it are plainly on the wrong side of history.

“I do agree there’s a different (and beneficial) dynamic in getting people together in real life, but I see that more as a ‘water cooler’ benefit,” she says. “It helps build the team’s trust and collaboration. But I don’t think you need that every day to get the results you want.”

Furthermore, Scharf cites the advantages of employing a remote staff as a net positive for business.

“There are real benefits in allowing your team to work from home,” she says. “They’re happier. They have more time (no commute). They are available for the needs of their families. And relaxed minds lead to creative thoughts. Yes, people meeting in person has some benefits, but do they outweigh the benefits of having a happy team? I’m not convinced.”

Scharf isn’t sure having staff on-site leads to greater productivity, as many of them will probably be pulling a George Constanza at least part of the time.

“I think when you work in an office with other people, you can ‘look’ busy, and it can help mask what’s not actually getting done,” she says. “When people work remotely, the managers must have crystal clear awareness about what they expect and have to be excellent communicators about those expectations.”

Oversight and security concerns

Bruce Phillips, CEO and Founder, HPC, believes the movement away from remote may have more to do with trust than productivity.

“It’s harder to trust your staff when you don’t have a close knit team,” he says. “(These businesses) could have concerns about nexus and not increasing their footprint due to having employees in additional states.”

And with data breaches in the US at an all-time high, Phillips wonders if protecting company and customer info isn’t the real motivator behind the change.

“Security is a bigger concern for these larger companies with larger databases too, and it gets back to trust/oversight of such a big workforce,” he says.

Downsizing in disguise?

Blake Oliver, Senior Product Marketing Manager, FloQast, offers two theories: one sinister, one a bit more forgiving.

“The cynical take is that it’s a way to downsize without having to lay people off,” he says. “The slightly less cynical take is that when new leaders come into a stagnant business they feel the need to shake things up, and forcing everyone to co-locate is one way to do that.”

But ultimately, Phillips doesn’t think the movement away from remote is the right way to go.

“I don’t believe there’s much empirical evidence to suggest that remote work makes teams less effective overall — it’s just a different way of working together,” he says. “And there’s plenty of evidence that shows that employees who get to work from home are more productive.”

Looking for remote talent?

Despite the risks, utilizing remote workers has a net positive effect. If you’re looking for the best cloud accounting talent, look no further than our sister site, Accountingfly.

Find remote account talent >

The post While Some Companies Move Away From Remote Work, Others Double Down appeared first on Going Concern.

How to Be Part of the Team, Even When Working Remotely

Grant Hutchinson — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 21:55:00 +0000

Does remote working make you feel like a faceless drone, beaming work from a distant planet across satellites to unseen robotic clients?

Cloud accounting doesn’t have to look like this. In fact, it can’t look like this if businesses want to stay competitive and ahead of the curve.

As more companies begin to rely on remote employees, it’s become imperative for businesses to develop strategies that genuinely integrate them into the team. With the right standards and policies in place, cloud accountants can connect with each other and with those in the physical office in ways that maximize productivity and collaboration, making it no different than if you were sitting five feet away.

But if your company isn’t using those strategies, it may be up to you to get the ball rolling. Here are some ways you can become part of the team when working remotely.

Technology is your friend

Today there are a number of applications that give cloud accountants a team presence and allow you to collaborate more effectively.

Slack provides a virtual workspace where both physical and remote workers can chat, share ideas, and ensure project deadlines are met. The platform is flexible–some businesses use it as a one-stop shop for communication and project management, while others utilize one feature exclusively, such as text chat.

Video conferences are also a great way to bring you and your team together and get people talking face to face. Zoom is perhaps the easiest and most user-friendly, though other organizations swear by Skype or Join.me.

Keep it fun

As a remote worker, you’ll often miss out on the employee outings and general office camaraderie that help elevate collaboration, strengthen teamwork, and even build friendships.

“It’s easy for remote workers to feel isolated, and without a way to build camaraderie, it’s easy for everyone to go their own way instead of pulling together and working as a team,” says Patti Scharf, Co-Founder and COO of Catching Clouds.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are ways to bring yourself into the cultural fold, no matter how remote you may be.

Try sending out an email with a personal question to your entire team, encouraging them to hit reply all with their responses. You can ask about their favorite travel experiences, war stories of nightmare clients, or whether they’re called “jimmies” or “sprinkles” (the correct answer being sprinkles, of course.) This will get the team talking about something unrelated to work, sparking conversation and debate that can foster personal connections.

Online games are another great way to bring remote teams together. Poll your coworkers and see what kinds of games they like best. Depending on the responses, you might suggest anything from regular online scrabble tournaments to Call of Duty deathmatches.

Sites like teambonding also provide a number of virtual solutions that help remote workers connect in fun, personal ways.

Don’t get frustrated

Building teamwork and collaboration isn’t really your responsibility. Using the above strategies are great ways to show initiative and get the process started, but if your company isn’t committed to keeping its remote employees connected, there isn’t a whole lot you can do.

“It can be very difficult to integrate remote workers, because that essentially implies a hybrid model,” says Caleb Stephens, Controller at Automattic. “Hybrid models can be really hard to pull off if they aren’t functionally aligned.”

As long as you’re doing everything in your power to stay connected and collaborate with your teammates, know that you’re doing it right–even if your employer isn’t.

And if lack of communication starts to affect your output, it might be time to look for a new position. There are plenty of firms out there that know how to foster remote collaboration, and if you’re bold enough to try the above strategies on your own, we’re sure they’d love to have you.

The post How to Be Part of the Team, Even When Working Remotely appeared first on Going Concern.

Let’s Talk About Accountants Getting Some on the Side

Leona May — Mon, 29 Sep 2014 16:57:51 +0000

Ever get called into a meeting in the HR wing on a Monday morning to find out you’ve lost your posh accounting job due to downsizing? Yeah, me neither. But if you had lost your job on a Monday, you’d spend the rest of the morning contacting recruiters (oh the horror) and trolling LinkedIn until you came across a comment that says “Make $4,200 a day FROM HOME!” You think to yourself “Fuck accounting!” and click the link. Next thing you know, you’re peddling after-market cosmetics out of the back of your El Camino, and your computer has an irreparable virus.

Okay, maybe you’ve never been laid off on a Monday, but maybe you have thought about working from home. Maybe you’re like me and generally hate people but enjoy spreadsheets. Maybe you’re like me and hate commuting to the office because: ugh, Detroit. Maybe you’re a stay at home mom/CPA looking for supplemental income, or maybe you already have a job but you want an extra job or two because money. Here are a few ideas for accountants who want to pick up a little side cash:

Business Plan Competitions – Aside from charging a small business to write a business plan to present to the bank for funding, you could actually write a plan for your own small business idea. If you enter your idea into a business plan competition, you could win cash and other prizes. I’ve competed in a few of these, and I’ve kept the prize money without starting my small business. Accountants are great at creating business plans because we’re really good at financial projections and financial statements. If you’re interested in competing or writing a business plan, visit the Small Business Administration to get started. They have a lot of good free or low-cost resources for people interested in creating a business plan.

Remote Bookkeeping – Run the books or do accounts payable for a small business or two if you have enough experience to do the work without a second level of review. I completely stole this one from bloviator, who dropped it in Open Items comments last week: “Do remote bookkeeping for small businesses. Use QuickBooks Online or Xero and have the client scan and upload everything. Do it at night or on weekends and rarely or never go to the client’s site. Charge $300 – $800 a month, depending on time. Local Internet advertising and word of mouth have worked for me.”

Elance.com – I’ve not personally tried this site, but I have a friend who freelances on it, and she’s had some success picking up side work. Basically, you can put together a profile and bid to work on different freelance projects. The site has all sorts of accounting and data analysis jobs up for bid. Again, just be careful that you have enough experience and professional knowledge to handle the freelance work competently. Also be careful that you don’t get upset when all the good gigs are gobbled up by Indians who will do the work for a quarter of what you would.

Hobby Stuff – Okay, I’ll just lump everything together here including photography, crafting, and dog walking. I used to dismiss crafting until I heard on talk radio that some lady made $400,000 crafting hair bows and marketing them on Amazon, so if you have a talent like that, roll with it. However, please don’t turn into one of those schmucks with a ball of string and an Etsy account who markets subpar crap to me on Facebook. I will lose my shit. You know who you are.

Though accounting from home is more profitable than donating plasma or selling after-market cosmetics and more convenient than heading to the office every day, it certainly has its drawbacks. For me, the drawbacks include easy access to Facebook and Going Concern without a boss looking over my shoulder. I’d spend the whole day trolling the Open Items instead of working. Also, I don’t necessarily feel comfortable accounting for things without a second level of review because I just don’t have the years and years of experience that some of you have. However, working from home could be a great fit for some people.

What are your ideas for side cash? Do any of you work from home either exclusively or on a part-time basis? What do you do, and what advice do you have for others?

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