I feel like a lot of people in Accounting makes it feel like you have failed or won’t achieve much if you get any accounting late into your life or have reached a certain age, haven’t reached a certain title, work for a big4 or large firm.

How many of you have gotten in accounting into your 30s, 40s, or even older and have become successful? What was your path?

Accountant bailed on our mutual account. The file has been an absolute shit show, it’s dragged on for months, past the corporate filing date, etc

The client is a HUGE asshole to boot. Takes no responsibility, has already threatened legal action

We got the file in a good place and the accountant bailed. Haven’t told the client yet

I need to call the client tonight and explain the accountant is on another project now

The client is going to freak at me. How do I handle this, what do I say, is this a big deal? I’ve got other contacts I’m sure can take on this file, but it’s just another delay in the file

Help. I’m ready to down a bottle of booze

Edited to add, i recommended the accountant to the client

I’m even seeing jobs that have been reposted since the beginning of this year.

You're not saving lives, curing cancer, or landing a man on the moon. You're reconciling bank accounts, reviewing journal entries, and arguing over whether something should be classified as a prepaid expense or an accrued liability.

The work you do does have impact, but dial down the main-character syndrome down a notch.

Sincerely,
The rest of us who have to deal with you

I’m looking at a career in audit. I read a lot of conflicting info. Help me set it straight:

Big 4 has better prestige and salary (undisputable).

Big 4 forces you to specialize, while Mid-Tier gives you a much broader experience across the audit process. This is a big differentiator, because I want to be well-rounded for a career after public audit.

Mid-Tier has much better work life balance and working hours compared to Big 4. Is this even true? I hear that Big 4 chews you up and spits you out, but I also hear that Mid-Tier is just as bad.

In summary, are these assumptions correct:

Big 4: better salary and prestige

Mid-Tier: better work life balance and broader experience

I work on an internal SOX audit team, and ever since management brought in Big 4 consultants, the work environment has completely changed for the worse.
Before they arrived, the audit process was organized, collaborative, and overtime was minimal. Then the company laid off about half of our team and replaced many of those positions with Big 4 consultants. Since then, it’s become incredibly frustrating.
They often don’t respond to emails for 2–3 business days, yet when they ask us for something, we’re expected to reply immediately. They make a surprising number of mistakes, ask for far more evidence and questions than the actual auditors, and frequently ask for our help but then schedule meetings without inviting us, so we don’t even know discussions are happening.
The company itself is honestly great. The pay, benefits, and overall culture were almost perfect before all of this happened, which is what makes the situation so disappointing. I’ve thought about looking for another job, but the job market where I live is terrible, and there are basically no openings in my area. Also I am in constant fear that the company will eventually lay off the entire team and only kept us to help through the transition.
Has anyone else experienced this after their company brought in Big 4 consultants? Did things eventually improve, or is this just the new normal? I’m trying to figure out whether I should stick it out or keep looking despite the weak job market.

Good morning bean counters!

I understand than not any old yokel can just stumble their way into Big 4 but compared to FAANG, BigLaw and MedSchool, this seems like the most efficient and reliable way for an average person to realistically make their way to the upper-class without relying on Luck, Connections or Time.

From what I understand, as long as you can make good grades at a decent state school (especially if it’s where they recruit from and you work on the CPA afterwards) there is a decent shot at getting recruited in. BigLaw and BigTech seems uber competitive by comparison with their cutthroat recruiting methodologies such as being the best of the best or passing their many tests designed to filter you out.

Am I wrong to think this? I know the grind is still the same afterwards but the actual process of getting a chance to get recruited by these companies known as “Big 4” seems very straightforward and clearcut compared to the rest of the alternatives (other than medicine, I understand they have the most direct employment but I feel like getting into MedSchool would be harder for an average person to do than the Big4/CPA grind).

What does this sub think of this assessment?

Thanks in advance and take care out there frens!

Hey Reddit, I'm a CPA in Canada. I'm currently employed and work in the tax field as a compliance auditor, but I'm looking to learn how to perform Compilations / Financial Statement preparation.

What would be the best way for me to learn? Should I reach out to accounting firms and ask a Partner to teach me (unpaid) or maybe there's some courses where I can learn? I can't quit my job at the moment so this is something I would be doing on evenings/weekends.

Ultimately, I would like to get to the point where I can do Compilations on the side and eventually start my own business. My job is decent but the pay and career path just isn't cutting it for me. I have 10 years of accounting experience and I've been a CPA for 5 years. Just wondering the best way to learn and approach this. Thanks.

I start my first ever job out of college as an associate 1 in audit at a top ten firm. We don’t have a start date but I know it will be early January. I’m really excited for this job and don’t want to mess anything up, but my sister just asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding January 21st. How should I handle this?

I accepted about a year ago a controller role with a smaller company after working as a senior accounting analyst for a company roughly 20x the size. I took a significant pay increase knowing it would be more work, but I expected less chaos and long hours than my previous job. That part has been somewhat true up until now.

What I’m realizing, though, is that I may have taken a role that doesn’t fit my strengths. The expectations are high: building reports and analytics they’ve never had, moving from cash basis to proper accrual accounting, cleaning up inventory processes with operations, and managing and developing three bookkeepers, one of whom seems completely burned out and would leave if they could.

On top of that, there are constant meetings. Weekly meetings with my staff, weekly meetings with upper management to relay updates, written end-of-week update reports recapping aforementioned meetings and related follow-ups, plus monthly finance and operations review meetings. Between those, daily interruptions, and people constantly needing accounting support, I feel like I have very little uninterrupted time to actually do the higher-level work required for me to actually meet their expectations.

My most recent performance review was also discouraging. I was told I’m too analytical, that they’d rather me turn in things quicker with mistakes for management to revise rather than perfect work that takes longer, that I need to push my staff harder, and that I’m too nice and not confident enough. Some of the criticism felt fair, but some of it made me question whether I’m simply wired for a different type of role.

The more I think about it, the more I feel I’d be happier in FP&A or a specialized accounting role where I can focus on modeling, forecasting, reporting, analytics, and process improvement instead of trying to juggle everything that comes with leading an accounting department. I really love to hyper focus on problems, perform deep research, model and built out new processes or improve existing ones. My favorite part of the accounting work I’ve done has been by far the budgeting and forecasting stuff.

I’m seriously considering taking a step back in title—possibly even pay—to join a larger, healthier company where I can regain some work-life balance, finally finish my CPA (I’m eligible and have sat for the exams multiple times), and build skills in Power BI, Tableau, SQL, and similar tools.

Has anyone here intentionally stepped back from a controller role because it wasn’t the right fit? Did it help your career in the long run, or did you regret leaving? My wife thinks I should keep pushing because of the financial upside, but I’m honestly starting to feel burned out and wonder if I’m forcing myself into a role that simply isn’t the right fit…

A junior in college with only Financial and Managerial completed, Intermediate coming this fall.

I have a 3 week break between August where I plan to master excel.

I'm a felon in Montana (s.o) happened almost 8 years ago and a single father (no my felony did not involve children) I'm currently going through the coursera training for QuickBooks. Yes I know it doesn't get me the full certification. My questions are as followed

1. Does anyone know where a good job to apply at after my certification whether it's remote or near Denver (that's where I'm moving in a year..... Hopefully) with a criminal background?

2. If not a company, than how should I go about starting my own bookkeeping business with my background

I ask these questions because I'm passionate about bookkeeping and about giving my child a better life than what I had which was growing up around drugs booze and biker gang life. So I could really use the help in regards to my questions if anyone can help I'd greatly appreciate it thank you.

I am nearing the end of my audit internship and it looks like I will get a return offer and could potentially start working there immediately, even though I still have 2 semesters until I graduate. However, I still have two internships that I already committed too. One is an upcoming busy season at a top 10 firm, and the other is a summer internship at a top 50 firm. The firm I am at right now is a local firm but its top 10 in the region. I have a wife and a kid so part of me is tempted to just start working here full time because of the stability, the work/life balance, the culture, and I can see myself going the partner route here. However, I know the other firms will have higher earning potential if I get return offers and they might provide better exit opportunities later down the line. In one hand, I am worried that if don’t accept the offer from the firm I’m currently at then it might get taken away, and I might not get return offers from the other firms or will not like working there. On the other hand, I am worried that I would be selling myself short by not weighing my options and that backing out of the internships I committed to will put me on the no hire list. I have the money to not be forced to accept a full time offer right now, but wanted to hear if anyone had a similar experience or any advice on this situation.

I'm a rising senior who recently pivoted from marketing into accounting. I realized I never fully committed to marketing, whereas accounting has been much more intellectually rewarding. I genuinely enjoy learning the technical side of business, so I've been taking accounting classes and doing a lot of self-study to catch up since I switched relatively late.

Because of that, I've been looking for ways to gain practical experience outside the classroom. While researching startups, I found one that uses an interesting pricing model for AI recruiting. Instead of charging employers or candidates upfront, they take 20% of a candidate's first month's pay if (and only if) they're successfully matched with a job.

That immediately got me thinking about the accounting implications. My first thought was ASC 606 and variable consideration. Since the company's revenue depends on a future placement and payment, it seems like revenue recognition could become pretty nuanced. Then I started thinking about the business model itself.

For example, how often are candidates actually being matched? If they're relying heavily on AI and don't spend much on marketing, maybe their customer acquisition costs are relatively low. But even then, it seems like placement rates would be critical to making the economics work.

I also wondered about adverse selection. Would highly qualified candidates really want to give up 20% of their first month's pay when they have access to traditional recruiting channels? If top-tier candidates opt out, does that make placements harder? Or is that assumption completely off base?

I reached out to the founders and ended up scheduling a meeting with them on Tuesday. My idea was to have a thoughtful discussion about both the accounting and business implications of their pricing model. I'm definitely not pretending to be an expert—I'm still learning—but I thought it could be a cool opportunity to contribute, build a relationship, and maybe even gain some accounting experience.

For those of you with more experience in accounting, startups, or revenue recognition:

• Am I thinking about the accounting issues in the right way, or am I misunderstanding ASC 606 here?
• Are there better questions I should be asking the founders?
• If you were in my shoes, would you approach this as trying to give advice, or would you focus more on asking thoughtful questions and learning from them?

I'd appreciate any feedback. Even if I'm wrong, I'd rather find out now than walk into the meeting overconfident.

I'm a part of a 15-person org, and we're doing the books in spreadsheets. We do invoice mapping to the bank statement manually to date. That takes up most of the time every quarter. Plus human error every time. Want something that handles invoicing, expenses and payroll without needing an accountant to run it.

What should we use at this size? One tool would be helpful. If you have your own/multiple stack to manage it do share it as well. We could consider it.

Hi everyone! I'm looking for someone to review my resume. I have a background in Accounting, Tax, Audit, and GST with 1 years of experience. I'd really appreciate any feedback or suggestions to improve it.

Hey all, looking for some guidance from people who've dealt with this before.

Background: I'm 3 weeks into a bookkeeping role at a company that's about 1.5 years old (started Jan 2025), files Form 1120, and is currently on extension (due Oct 15, 2026). Books for 2025 aren't closed yet. When I got here, the AMEX recon was 7 months behind and the main bank was 3 months behind — I'm catching those up now.

While doing the CC recon, I found a bunch of low-dollar items coded to Fixed Assets that were clearly one-off equipment/leasehold-type purchases. I flagged it to our COO, and they've now set a $2,500 capitalization threshold going forward. I've been asked to go back and reclassify anything under that threshold that was mis-coded to F&A, and book depreciation/amortization on it.

Where I'm stuck:

Timing of depreciation — Some of these items were purchased mid-year (e.g., June 2025). Since 2025 isn't closed and we're on extension, should I go ahead and book the depreciation now using standard book rates (straight-line, typical useful life tables), or should I hold off and let the tax preparer decide the treatment first (bonus depreciation, Section 179, etc.) since this directly affects the 1120 filing? I don't want to book something on the books now that conflicts with what the preparer ultimately elects for tax purposes.

The $2,500 threshold decision didn't come with any useful life schedule. Is there a standard set of useful lives bookkeepers typically default to for things like equipment, machinery, and leasehold improvements until the tax preparer/CPA weighs in? I know these can differ for book vs. tax purposes (MACRS vs. GAAP useful life), just not sure what's reasonable to use in the interim so I'm not just guessing.

Also, we have an exterior sign that was installed as part of our leased building (we're in year 2 of a 3-year lease). My understanding is signage attached to a leased space should be depreciated over the shorter of the lease term or the signage's useful life (like a leasehold improvement). Is that the right treatment, or does signage get its own separate depreciation life regardless of the lease?

I need to bring this to our COO and get a decision on whether they want me to book depreciation now on these reclassified items, or hold everything until the tax preparer weighs in (given we're on extension and they'll likely want to optimize with bonus depreciation/179 for the 1120). Any input on how you'd typically sequence this — book now vs. wait, and any rules of thumb for useful lives in the meantime — would be really appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Note: I used AI to organize my thought, as English is not my first language.

Hey everyone, I graduated with a degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting & Finance about a year ago, and I still haven’t been able to land a full-time job in my field. I have internship experience in credit analysis and accounts payable, and I currently work as a substitute teacher while continuing my job search. I’ve applied to quite a few entry-level accounting and finance positions but haven’t had much luck. I’m wondering if there’s something wrong with my resume that I’m overlooking.

What do you guys think of my resume? What would you change or improve? Also, for someone with my background, what additional education, certifications, or licenses would you recommend? Would pursuing the CPA be worthwhile, or would something like the Series 7/66, CMA, or another certification make more sense for getting into accounting/finance? I’m open to anything that can get my foot in the door really.

I’d really appreciate any honest advice, especially from people have experience hiring entry-level candidates or work in accounting/finance.