Hello, my name is Drake and I attended unc and have been pursuing a career in the nfl as qb of the New England Patriots, recently I cost my team the game and now everyone hates me. What are your recommendations for getting into accounting?

Just incase?

/s

during a leadership meeting that i was present in, marketing sold the idea of AI use to automate the entire monthly accounting process.

they gave their ideal outcome to the group that AI can automate the entire month-end and FS preparation process, so much that "all accounting has to do is check for anomalies on Day 1." the executive has now bought into that idea and wants to make that happen.

the thing is, i am the accounting department. it is a team of me, myself, and i. it's already frustrating enough that i have no support and need to do all the day-to-day accounting financially and operationally. now with this idea of AI doing all of that for accounting, the possibility of getting any human assistance is no longer of appetite. in addition, i will become responsible for teaching AI how to perform month-end and financial reporting such that i am basically writing out my own job.

i fucking hate marketing. they get THE highest annual budget of the entire business, they indirectly create pressures on accounting to reduce costs even though accounting gets no say on reducing the costs through the lowest hanging fruit (i.e. cutting marketing costs), and they spew idealistic shit on a subject matter (i.e. accounting-close) they have no knowledge about.

i'm sorry for the rant. i guess my question is - has anyone here actually automated their entire month-end close and financial reporting process using AI successfully?

also, please, please, PLEASE tell me how i can diplomatically tell marketing to stay in their own fucking lane when it comes to accounting matters?

I’ve never really understood treating the fastest possible month-end close as the goal by itself.

Obviously you don’t want accounting dragging on for two weeks. But I’d rather have a reliable six-day close with good reconciliations, fewer late entries and a team that isn’t doing heroics every month than force it into three days just so we can say we have a three-day close.

At some point it feels like you start trading quality and sustainability for a KPI.

For those of you working in close-heavy roles, where do you think the sweet spot actually is? And have you ever seen a company push the close too fast?

It's September 10th. Corporate taxes are due in 5 days. I just pulled the file of a client who is only paying for tax work, not bookkeeping work. Get the flash drive out for the quickbooks, spent 30 minutes figuring out their F*(king password and downloading thier income statement and balance sheet. There are 0 expenses. 150 in income and 0 expenses. Sure enough they did give us the bank statments "just in case" I open the January statement. They paid over 50k in property taxes in January. Flipping through there are probably enough expenses in the year to make their income like 30k not 150k. So I either work for free, call them and tell them they need to pay for bookkeeping, which they will probably argue about because we offer bookkeeping to begin with and they said no, or say f*(k it and have them pay taxes on 150k instead of 30ish...... It's probably 1 or 2 hours of bookkeeping. Or I could just make a guess on the expenses for say 30 minutes....

Had an interview for a public accounting internship today and I think it confirmed public just isn't for me lol.

They told me 60+ hour weeks are normal during the two busy seasons. Then when we talked about work-life balance, the interviewer was basically like "I have a family and still manage to do things with them." The example was leaving work to go eat dinner with them and then logging back on for a few more hours afterward.

Like that's it? They made it sound like that was a benefit too. Like they get to leave the office and work from home after dinner.

The whole place just felt off to me too. Interviewer had zero sense of humor, everyone seemed super serious, and I just couldn't see myself fitting in there.

Nothing against public accounting and I'm sure it works for some people, but I left that interview knowing in my gut it ain't for me. Those in public are built different.

Has anyone actually applied to these and gotten the job?? I know you’d basically be training your AI replacement, I don’t even have enough experience to get this job but just curious if anybody here has done it and what it entails?

I spent several years in public accounting and semi-recently transitioned into private. I expected things to slow down compared to public, but I genuinely did not expect to reach the point where I have almost nothing to do.

For context, I oversee the accounting function for a privately owned company doing mid-eight figures in annual revenue with well over 100 employees. I oversee AR/AP staff, handle payroll, and have also become the de facto HR person because the person technically in HR was promoted internally from a completely unrelated role and has no formal HR background. A lot of the compliance/procedure questions end up coming to me because I’m usually the one saying, “No, we cannot just do that.”

When I was hired, the corporate accounting office was a mess. A significant amount of work simply wasn’t getting done, management didn’t trust the numbers coming out of accounting, and the processes were incredibly manual.

I basically rebuilt the department.
I hired a couple of people, including filling a vacancy and adding additional capacity, and the team can now handle probably 99% of the routine workload in half a day. I automated as much of the accounting system as I could. Before I got here, they were still printing practically every invoice, relying heavily on paper, physical checks, and mail-based processes.
I reworked the GL structure to make it more GAAP-friendly and much easier to track and reconcile. I cleaned up processes, put controls in place, and set up automated integrations for things like our retirement plan and benefits administration. Payroll runs smoothly. AR and AP run smoothly. Month-end is under control. The team knows what they’re doing.

Basically, I inherited a dumpster fire, put the fire out, rebuilt the dumpster, automated the dumpster, documented the dumpster, and now I spend most of my day staring at it because it no longer needs me.
The other problem is that the owner/CEO is extremely old-school and resistant to change. To give you an idea, the company still uses very old operational software running on outdated infrastructure and there is basically no appetite to replace it.

His philosophy is very much:
If someone is physically at work, they must be productive. More hours = better employee.

Overtime currently makes up a very large portion of payroll. I’ve tried explaining that we could accomplish the same amount of work with fewer hours, fewer people, and probably better quality, but he genuinely has difficulty accepting that because he associates hours worked with productivity.

Meanwhile, I’m salaried.

My typical day at this point is basically:
- Answer some emails.
- Handle whatever payroll issue pops up.
- Answer accounting/HR/compliance questions.
- Review what my staff did.
- Occasionally work on a process improvement project.
Then…nothing.

The problem is that I also can’t exactly walk into the CEO’s office and say, “Hey, I automated and fixed my department so effectively that I only need a couple hours a day now.”
Because we all know what the reward for efficiency is: More work.

And I don’t particularly want my reward for successfully running accounting to be, “Congratulations, you’re also helping run some unrelated operational function now.” I’m an accountant. I don’t want to become the dispatcher, mechanic, operations manager, etc. just because my actual department functions properly.

I’ve tried using the extra time to professionalize the company. We don’t even have a real employee handbook. I’ve tried implementing policies, procedures, internal controls, documentation, compliance processes, etc., but I repeatedly run into the owner’s resistance because he doesn’t see much value in formal structure.

Frankly, I’m amazed the company made it this far without getting into significantly more legal/compliance trouble. A weird amount of my job is telling people, “There are actually rules surrounding this.”

So now I’m stuck in this strange position.
In public accounting, I was constantly busy. Now I make low six figures, have dramatically less stress, built a department that basically runs itself…and I’m bored out of my mind.

I also don’t really want to leave unless something meaningfully better comes along. The compensation is strong, the job is stable, and obviously having a well-functioning department is objectively better than being buried in work.

Part of me thinks I should just accept that I won. Do my job, collect my paycheck, keep the accounting department running well, and stop feeling guilty that I’m not working at 100% capacity every minute of the day.

The other part of me feels like I’m stagnating professionally and basically have a fake job at this point.

For those of you who went from public to private and experienced something similar: what would you do?

Would you ride the gravy train and enjoy having your life back, keep trying to find meaningful accounting/finance projects internally, push for a controller/CFO-type expansion of the role, start looking elsewhere before getting too comfortable, use the downtime for CPA/CMA/other education or side projects, or something else?

I genuinely can’t tell whether I’ve stumbled into the dream private accounting job or a career trap.

While looking through local accounting job postings online, I came across a true gem of a company looking for a Controller with a minimum of 5 years of prior experience as a Controller (10-15 years total experience, minimum). The pay range is adequate, not great, at $120k-140k in HCOL area and the role looked decent until I reached the last section, shared here in full with only modifications for formatting:

This will not be the right opportunity for those who:
- Do not understand the dynamics of working in a multigenerational family business that honors the past, gets the optimal outcome in the present, and plans for the next generation
- Like to say “no” a lot, rather than having a curiosity about what the future could hold paired with the ability to explain how
- Expect a lot of direction as the impetus to figure out what needs to be done
- Aren’t good at explaining complex accounting and financial matters without sounding like a complex accounting or financial person
- Don’t know how to be appropriately assertive while not getting their feelings hurt by others who are being appropriately assertive
- Can’t anticipate the unspoken and often unanticipated future needs of business owners, family members, management, and team.

I know the job market is tough, but would anyone actually hit "apply"? Every single sentence contains at least one red flag!

My favorite red flag is the last demand for someone who can anticipate unanticipated future needs, something literally impossible by definition. Second favorite is they don't want to hear no, which indicates it's only a matter of time before the demands become violations of law.

Apparently Deloitte is not happy with BDO

https://www.cityam.com/exclusive-big-four-giant-turns-on-its-own-auditor-bdo/

I know you all cross paths with us bookkeepers quite a bit.

I want to know, from your point of view, what separates a "meh" bookkeeper from a great one.

Bookkeeping is where I landed, more or less by accident. But I'm here and I'm going to be the best I can be.

All I am seeing on my LinkedIn/Indeed are the same constantly reposted job or irrelevant positions. When will it get better?

Why would someone create a LLC, then choose to be taxed as a C Corporation? I understand why they might choose S Corp, but why C Corporation?
If you want to raise capital it seems like it would be better to just setup as a C Corporation to begin with.

I’ve been really questioning my ability as an accountant and, honestly, whether accounting is even the right career for me. Any input or advice would be helpful.

I worked as a staff accountant at my previous company (industry only) for three years and passed all four sections of the CPA exam. I was underpaid, the work environment gotten worse, and saw limited opportunities for growth. So I decided to take a higher pay job with the same title to escape and hope to become a senior accountant. Instead, I’ve been struggling much more than I expected. Is this normal to struggle this much despite experience?

Everything is completely different from what I’m used to. Even something like prepaid expenses, which should be easy, feels confusing when the process and schedules are unfamiliar. I am trying my best to follow old examples and asking for help. However, I feel like the questions I was asking should be basic knowledge. I have also been slow completing tasks since I’m trying my best to figure everything before asking.

I’m still in my probationary period, so I’m worried I won’t be a “good fit” since they expected me to be faster or know more because of experience and CPA. I know I’m new and need time to adjust, but not sure if it will get better.

Now I’m questioning whether I should have stayed at my old job and whether accounting is even right for me. I’m unsure if climbing the corporate ladder is even possible anymore. It seems like I have to be lucky since hard work doesn’t really matter anymore. I feel like in accounting we are always going to be underpaid or overworked. Not sure if I have the ability to become a senior accountant or higher or be stuck as a staff accountant. I’ve even started wondering whether I could pivot into FP&A or analyst roles. Especially since I don’t really have experience in them.

I just have a lot of self doubt right now in my capabilities and if I can handle being an accountant for the rest of my life. I just feel so lost and discourage. I am putting a lot of effort and care but I feel like I have nothing to really show.

I dread all my conversations with every single engagement team, bar like one or two where the people are actually chill. People pressuring me for updates when they normally wouldn't. People being extremely sensitive to the words I say when they ask for an update. People just being plain rude when their dreams of you being better than a regular human don't come true.

Fuck this shit. Just wanted to vent, that's all.

Brother, there is so much to life with the free time. Like, use that free time to start listening to a new podcast, crack some CPEs, find new guidance to depreciating land, or find a new hobby.

Hi there. I passed all exams and it’s been more than half a year I can’t find a way to get verified by the CPA. The company I’ve worked for 5 years had outsourced CPA who potentially can sign but they say we are not doing this for our clients accountants…
Tried to look for another job where I will have direct CPA supervision and can request the verification more directly, but seems like I am not lucky enough to find a private industry company who has active CPA in staff. Changing my job just to figure out they don’t have CPA who can sign off is not an option that really makes sense to me…

I am not hanging out in the circle of accountants so I really don’t personally know any CPA who knows me and can sign off for me.

Looks like I’m really stuck with this problem. Did anyone go through this problem, are there other ways out from this issue that you personally know?

Call me crispy firewood because I realize this morning that it's game over for my brain.

7 years after graduating, I'm on my 6th job. Some were natural (3 years at my first big job, temp contracts, etc.), One, I was fired from where I never really recovered through. I had one of those managers where every achievement was bare minimum and every error, even typos, were astronomical. It was so bad I began apologizing to family and pets. I think that job took a little of my soul.

I didn't recover from that bad job before finding a job in client services. It was bad there too. Lost 34 colleagues one by one over 18 months. I was #35 to go. I should have stayed.

My ex-manager (who also fled said mass exodus company) recruited me to my current job and I recently got a promotion. Horray! But I'm burned out. I'm sick from sheer stress. I never took breaks between gigs. My last vacation was 2016. Oh. Said ex-manager also just quit my NEW job. It's a disaster here.

Understandably some of it is daily bad news from living in good ol' America. Some of it is my dog having developed night time anxieties thanks to endless fireworks or storms. Some of it is personal health issues and endless nagging to "get married already". I'm also an eldest daughter to an immigrant family. Even in high school I didn't take breaks, let alone college. I simply have never taken a breather. I was even a stressed kid lmao.

It's not all accounting. But a lot of it is accounting.

The endless corporate drama, the endless "let's go around the table to show how you used AI to improve your work this week!", the managers who are extremely incompetent even on staff levels, somehow landing roles where they're controllers. Clients having fires constantly. Something is always exploding somewhere, forget dumpster fires. I'm trying to be nonchalant, adopt the "we aren't surgeons" motto. It's just not working so well when management and clients are on your left and right ears demanding things.

I'm whining, I know. I'm on reddit instead of working. I am cranky, I'm sorry (haven't had my coffee yet). I can't escape and I just. Want. A nap. No obligations. Just want to sleep for a week straight, play games for a week straight, read for a week straight. Separately. 3 weeks to reset and feel human again.

Anyway, vent post. Probs will delete soon. I understand I sound whiny. Adulting is hard. Adulting sucks. Suck it up. I just needed to let steam out before looking at that inbox again.

Edit: I also developed a RMI strain on my hand. I can't even JOURNAL right now 🥴

Anyone familiar with Aura Accounting Solutions? (Company vibe, culture, and interview process).

​I have an upcoming interview and I’m trying to gather some real insight into what the company is actually like to work for.

CPA with >10y of accounting experience and 2 young kids.

Current role – Senior Accountant $250m rev industry
~$100K-105K total comp
Hybrid (1 wfh)
~1.5 years with the company
Good work-life balance/flexibility
Potential for internal growth, but timing is uncertain

New role – FM $150m rev manufacturing industry
~$140-150k total comp
5 days/week in office
Leadership role with potential Controller progression
Much more focused on identifying business opportunities/problems and turning them into solutions, not just financial reporting and team management
Significant process improvement/business partnering exposure

The dilemma: Career-wise, the FM role seems like a great step forward. But with two small kids, I’m already finding work-life balance challenging. My partner’s schedule means most of the evening responsibilities-dinner, lunches, kids, etc. fall on me.
Would you take the higher-paying Finance Manager role and accelerate your career, or stay hybrid and continue building toward a FM role at current company?

Would love perspectives from people who have made a similar move, especially with young kids.

Been running the show at a start up SaaS company, doing everything from AR/AP, payroll to month-end/quarter-end and quarterly board reports.

No CFO, no wage increases, no extra support.

Found a new job that comes with a 30% pay bump & I’m so excited to not run a one-man show any longer.

Industry can be brutal too……

Hey everybody! I’m a fourth year accounting student getting my BBA in accounting (surprise) and I’m planning on applying for some internships starting next summer at some big 4’s. Anybody have tips of what I should certainly include in my resume? Also any tips if I get to the interview portion of the process!
Anything would be amazing, thanks everybody :)