Morning, all. And an early Happy Thanksgiving to our fellow Americans!
Thanks Kuya Mike for alerting us to this situation first thing in the morning in such an entertaining way.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH @KPMG @KPMG_US YALL SUCK HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH@going_concern https://t.co/EpdKyBEw6g
— Kuya Mike UNHINGED🇵🇭 (@KuyaMikeDG) November 25, 2024
What happened, according to NYT:
Macy’s said on Monday that an employee had misstated up to $154 million in delivery expenses over the past few years, forcing the retailer to delay a much-anticipated earnings report that Wall Street uses to gauge the strength of holiday shopping.
Macy’s sales in the third quarter fell 2.4 percent — below analysts’ expectations — to $4.74 billion. The company’s overall sales were dragged down by weak performance at Macy’s stores and its digital business.
Macy’s said it had found the accounting error while preparing its results for the quarter, which ended Nov. 2. The results had been set to be released on Tuesday. An investigation was opened, and the employee, who was responsible for small package delivery expense accounting, is no longer with the company, Macy’s said. The investigation has not identified involvement by any other employee.
KPMG has audited Macy’s since 1988.
In San Jose, PwC insists it didn’t ply a partner with alcohol before said partner crashed his Tesla into a chef at 130 MPH:
A Los Gatos partner for consulting and accounting giant PwC was drunk and speeding on Highway 85 at 130 mph just before his Tesla slammed into the back of a young San Jose man’s car, permanently injuring the 22-year-old chef, a new court filing in a lawsuit over the crash alleged.
Crash victim John Cooper sued PwC partner Ousmane Caba and the company in March, claiming Caba was so drunk he was “barely conscious” when he left San Francisco in June 2023 after a day and night of drinking at events sponsored by PwC.
Caba could not be reached for comment. Messages left for his lawyer were not returned.PwC, accused in the lawsuit of negligence, did not respond to a request for comment. The company in a court filing last month said evidence produced in the case does not show that PwC paid for “drink after drink” for Caba.
“Instead, it shows that PwC invited employees to two meal events the day before the incident which were catered by others and which included food and beverage selections available to all attendees,” the filing said. “There is nothing vile or despicable associated with offering alcoholic beverages at gatherings in any context, whether business or social.”
That last part doesn’t seem like something a company should say when one of their partners gets trashed and nearly kills someone on the road. But OK, I’m not a lawyer.
EY rolls out ‘metaverse’ avatars, as if video interviews weren’t bad enough already.
A link to the AI-powered avatar, called eVe, is sent out to candidates as soon as they are selected to advance to the interview stage. eVe can answer questions about the company and help candidates prepare for their interview with a real person, according to Francesca Jones, an early careers leader at EY.
The AI avatar, which appears on the screen as a real person would during a video chat, can be spoken to directly and offers verbal answers back within moments, mimicking an actual conversation. It can also be used with text like other chatbots.
In testing, interns grilled the GPT-4 chatbot more than TPTB expected they would:
“I was amazed by the types of questions they asked and how much time they actually spent with it,” Domhnaill Hernon, global lead of EY’s Metaverse Lab, told Business Insider. He suspected the younger generation might spend two to three minutes with eVe and then move on, but they were regularly spending 15 to 20 minutes engaging with it conversationally, asking questions and follow-ups.
One intern who spent 25 minutes talking to eVe went into extreme detail evaluating EY’s compensation benefits, particularly comparing the company’s pension plan to its 401K offering.
Ask it if it prefers waffles or pancakes!
In case you hadn’t heard, PE-backed Aprio is making moves in California.
Aprio, an Atlanta-based advisory and accounting firm, recently purchased Kirsch Kohn & Bridge (KKB) in Woodland Hills to continue its expansion efforts in the region. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Southern California is an economic powerhouse with diverse industries, a robust entrepreneurial spirit and a dynamic business community,” Aprio Chief Executive Richard Kopelman said. “This expansion reflects Aprio’s commitment to building a stronger West Coast presence and serving our clients where they are.”
Aprio previously made moves in San Francisco and Walnut Creek and views this latest acquisition as an opportunity to dig into prominent Los Angeles industries like construction, manufacturing, retail, real estate and professional services.
How’s everyone doing at Aprio these days anyway? Last we heard things weren’t so great. Let us know if you have some scoop on the ground.
PwC makes a Business Insider list of major US companies to slash staff this year. The blurb includes the statement PwC made to BI when the October layoffs were reported in September:
In an emailed statement to Business Insider, Tim Grady, PwC’s US chief operating officer, said, “To remain competitive and position our business for the future, we are continuing to transform areas of our firm and are aligning our workforce to better support our strategy, including attracting and moving the right talent and skill sets to the areas where we need them most. Right now, we are focused on running our business well and adapting to meet the needs of our clients and the rapidly changing market.”
Related:
University of Northern Iowa brags about its CPA exam performance:
Continuing its streak of success, the UNI Accounting program was ranked sixth amongst mid-sized schools for single-pass rates of the certified public accounting (CPA) exam by the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA).
This specific ranking doesn’t encapsulate all four sections of the CPA exam that prospective accountants must take, but UNI has submitted all four sections to the NASBA. Out of the top ten institutions ranked in this category, UNI claims the most candidates and the most sections taken by candidates, with 51 candidates completing the CPA and 175 sections total. UNI’s CPA pass rate for the 2023 CPA exam is 78.3%, with the average passing rate being 79.3%.
I really wish I hadn’t thrown away my old CPA exam performance books from the 2010s in a decluttering spree the other weekend because I would have loved to compare 2011 to now. 51 candidates doesn’t feel like much of a brag but to be fair, they did say mid-sized schools.
Across the pond, federal tax changes will mean PwC UK partners will be taking a hit:
Big Four partners think of themselves as more than just employees. The top ranks of the world’s biggest accountancy firms jointly own and manage their firms — and share in its profits at the end of the year. These payouts can run into the millions of pounds each year.
But those rewards will now be hit by the sizeable increase in employers’ national insurance contribution (NIC) announced by Rachel Reeves in last month’s budget.
PwC, the UK’s biggest auditor, is paying an extra £35,000 in employer’s NIC for each of its 1,030 partners. That means that Britain’s biggest auditor will see its tax bill increase by nearly £36 million because of the changes. And, as its partners share in the firm’s profits at the end of the year, they will end up paying for the increased cost eventually.
That’s all I’ve got for today. Grant Thornton layoff story is on deck, I neglected to get to it Friday when tips came in and got scooped by WSJ, ugh. We’ve got some extra details to share though.
Although it’s a holiday, we’re still lurking around so feel free to reach out via email or text if you’ve got a tip.
Happy Turkey Day! Be safe.
There is nothing vile or despicable about a global party culture that encourages cheaters and liars to drink their faces off at every turn. Afterall, they work so hard for it. (“It” being sexual harrassment, violence, half your head being lobbed off..)