I had a comfy finance job in government but after working there for a few years, I really wanted to seek growth in my career as the job was mainly AP and now I wanted to do some actual accounting. I was applying for FA positions but somehow managed to get interview for role titled SFA. I ended up getting the job which I was happy about. I did make it clear in my interview I am seeking growth and may not possess all the skills but I am eager to learn.

Upon joining, I learned there is currently no full-time manager, just a temp part-time director on a contract. It's a very small team, and as the 'senior' person, they're all expecting me to take the lead, learn, and complete all of the tasks for full-cycle accounting and financial reporting.

Anyways how it started vs how it's going: 3 months in, pressure slowly started to build, with little to no training I really am sitting confused most of the time and have no one to turn to seek guidance from because well I am the senior person. I really just thought this would be like my any other job, there'd be a senior person or mentor I'd job shadow for few months and eventually get up to speed but that simply has not happened.

Well the thing I was dreading happened and my manager told me they just have not seen the level of seniority from me, how he is still doing all of main tasks that I was hired to do and so my probation is getting extended while he went off vacation for another month.

Quickly getting the hint, I started to reapply for similar positions in similar sectors. I managed to get two interviews but no offers. They ask me why I am leaving and I tell them how my current organization is a very small team, I feel like a one man show and am looking to work in a company that has established work processes already in place and a place where I feel supported from upper management.

Both interviews just had behavioral questions and nothing even related to my accounting knowledge so I am not sure what I am doing that's not sitting well with them.

I have two more months left and anxiety is going through the roof, will I get fired, will they demote me I am just feeling very disappointed in myself.

Anyways any advice on what to do is appreciated. I am seriously wondering if leaving my comfy job for a 10% raise was worth it to seek some growth?

Yes: There has been a lot of negativity recently, with outsourcing in public accounting and waves of people leaving the profession since COVID.

Yes: Subreddits always attract people who like to complain and be negative

Yes: There's a guy who will reply to your post immediately talking about how he is a director earning $400k, fully remote, works 10 hours a week so he doesn't understand why anyone could possibly have a concern about the profession.

BUT. If you're a student, just know that this profession is exactly what you make of it, and your success will entirely be based on your own interpersonal skills, ability to endure shit, and in almost every case, luck plays a huge part.

You roll the dice every time you get a job anywhere. You roll the dice that you'll get any training at all, or a boss that is going through a divorce and will make your life a living hell. You roll the dice that you'll fit in with the people there and you'll hit it off with the person sitting next to you. You just have to keep going and pick up skills along the way.

A lot of life is out of your control. Unlike school, where the grade you earn is the grade you get. There is a lot of uncertainty right now for everyone. A lot of working professionals are scared of where they are and don't know where they are going. Everyone feels behind. So don't expect certainty from this profession.

But you should only really be "scared" if you expected to pencil push your way to six figures by claiming that you went into accounting because you're an introvert and you like numbers and spreadsheets more than talking to people. Sorry, but in order to do anything in this world you will have to be good with people. They're not paying accounting directors good money because they know more excel shortcuts than you.

So please stop these threads. We've heard your concerns students. You're as scared as us in the working world. Welcome to the world.

Is it worth it to go back to school and get a bs in finance to qualify for campus recruiting? Already have a bs in accounting. I quit two public accounting jobs with less than a year of experience. I’m still working on my cpa but couldn’t find an industry job. Any advice.

Simple question, hoping to also gain traction and inspire others to cancel their membership. What’s the process for canceling AICPA membership?

No more talk, time for action.

Hello guys I’m a 30 yo economics graduate (bsc) no masters done and I’m working in a home office as an accounts assistant but I’m not getting paid . There are no strings attached and I’m very flexible with my hours like 9 to 4 ,10 to 3 etc .

I was the get AAT qualified because I don’t have any prior knowledge of accounting but I can’t do both .

I also work full time in a restaurant 43 hours a week in London where I live .

I don’t have energy to continue to do all of that so I am asking for your opinion.

/ Should I get AAT qualified first and then look for an actual job ? Or should I keep doing what I’m doing ,

Thanks

Need to get a file that is emailed daily to uploaded to FTP server automatically.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to do this?

I'm major in economics with an accounting minor, and planning to pursue my CPA credit, I'm wondering does my economics courses count as general business courses for the CPA license in NYC. Thanks for the help!

I landed an interview for a tax analyst job. But I actually have no idea how is the WLB? I also worry about the salary discussion. How should I go about this when they refuse to disclose the salary range?

Would you go work for a large insurance company that only does statuary reporting and does not follow GAAP? I have extensive experience (both public and private) in GAAP. Would this hurt my career in the long run?

Hi all, my girlfriend was just offered internships at both PWC and Frank Rimerman. Looking to get advice on how people in the industry view both these companies, and/or if anyone has any work experience from either. She is having trouble deciding between a big 4 company or a smaller company in which there might be more room for growth.

Thanks, everyone

Hi everyone I got a offer from KPMG (financial services) and EY (360 careers) and would like advice on which internship offer to choose. They are both in audit. Thanks!

(Ontario) I graduated with a BBA specializing in accounting in 2019. At the time I did not have interest in pursuing a CPA. I’ve been working in finance for my local municipality. Now, I’m considering pursuing a CPA. I know I need to get my transcript assessed but I’m pretty sure, from what I’ve read, I’m eligible to begin PEP.

Does anyone have any experience being this far past graduation and deciding later to pursue CPA? Anything I need to consider?? Bonus points if you have/had 2 kids under 2 while studying - how crazy is my life about to get lol.

Hi! Im a Grade 12 highschool student in Ontario. I want to go into the realm of business but I fear that business is a highly saturated market so I want a degree that's a bit more lucrative which is why I've been considering accounting. I'm good with numbers and I'm applying to universities right now (I have a 93 average) but I need a little guidance. My degree requirements are;

- I would like a good study-life balance (which is why I'm a bit scared to go to Rotmans Commerce UOFT, no point in living downtown if I'm going to have no life)

- I want a job in an industry with lots of opportunities, I'm not too worried about money because I'm a go-getter willing to take risks so I know I'll find beneficial opportunities but I need to make sure the industry I pursue has opportunities

- I want a bit of flexibility in my career path, I'm young and I don't want to go down a hyper specified degree in case I change my mind (I was considering getting a math degree for this reason)

- finally, I'm an extrovert who loves a good challenge, even though I want my CPA, I don't intend on doing straight accounting or taxes, more in the realm of banking and analytics (again I choose CPA instead of something like a bba)

I would appreciate any advice, even if not mentioned! I'm also wondering if the university you go to really matters when getting your CPA? THANKS

I'm a second degree student pursuing an Accounting bachelor's at uni after graduating with a Biology degree in 2020. On my resume, I left the prior degree off because I want it to be focused on my accounting journey. Anyway, I was able to get a couple internship offers and I've just completed the background check for one, where I reported my prior degree on the background check despite it not being on my resume.

Do you think HR will not like this and could possibly rescind my offer for not disclosing a prior degree in resume and in interviews??

I'm kind of stressing right now.

To preface this I'm completely new to this and more or less on my own when it comes to these things being a first generation student in my family.

I'm currently a sophomore going into my junior year of university transferring from a community college and I expect to graduate with my BA in summer of 2026 and be CPA eligible in spring 2027. I have been applying to various summer and winter 2025 positions for internships and managed only 2 interviews (PWC and Moss Adams) but didn't proceed after the first interview and have been kinda stuck since then.

I know that an internship won't make or break my career but I would rather have than have not considering my only experience I've had is working at a tire shop in high school.

So what exactly am I looking for? Summer 2025? Summer/winter 2026? I'm just so lost.

Hi, I really hope that this is the place I can ask this question. I've been getting this a lot and I've honestly only worked as an accounts payable for barely 2 years at a manufacturing company and still learning. I can't find google for an answer and my accounting manager has said this but I want to have something to back it up with my vendors.

I'm sorry if this sounds confusing this is how it was explained to me:

I was told that because Oregon does not have a sales tax we don't have to have a sales tax exemption letter/certificate. But is there any documentation that can be provided to vendors basically stating that? I've been asked about papers for that as if we are supposed to have something that states that?

We deposited $625 cash (we rarely ever handle cash) and our bank charged us $3.80 for “excess cash fee”. Is this legal to charge to deposit cash?

Running my own one man accounting firm, mainly consulting work but also help out with month ends. Need to access client servers via VPN & TeamViewer, run Sage, SAP and of course the Microsoft Suite.

Typical home setup uses external monitors so working on the laptop itself isn’t top priority although I do make occasional client visits.

My current laptop is 4+ years old, really slowing down when I’m flipping between tasks.

What would you recommend ideally under $2K CAD?

I have a four year degree but its in Environmental Science. I started working in an Engineering firm and basically gradually made my way to the administrative side to accounting. I don’t like my current position very much as I was hired to cover for a person going on parental leave but since they’ve returned there isn’t much accounting work for me to do. I like the stability of accounting and I’d like to have an education in it so I’d be more qualified. I found a Masters program at a University near me that is actually considered a STEM program due to its heavy focus in data. I’d like to do this program full time as it’s in person and work part time (probably in a non accounting job) until I finish. I’m very privileged to have the option to pursue school full time if I choose I realize. The reason I don’t want to work full time and go to school is because of a chronic health condition I have and I feel balancing work and school and doctors appointments would be very difficult. Does this sound like a wise career move? I plan on talking with an advisor at the University soon as well.

Edit: The program does have a path for non accounting majors which is what I’d pursue.

Back story I switched from sales to accounting later in my 20s because I wanted stability. I would agree that it’s much easier to get a job in accounting compared to sales and overall I don’t feel like I’m constantly going to be let go or put on a pip for missing my quota one quarter.

However, jeez these salaries are dog shit no matter where I look compared to the cost of living. Granted I don’t have my CPA. I get it I had to start over and swallow my pride to make less but I’m just now making my base salary equivalent in sales.

Part of me thinks it wouldn’t have mattered had I stayed in sales even with job gaps because assuming I make 90-100k+ with a few months in between jobs is better than making 55-60k flat in accounting.

I’m going all in and working towards getting my CPA to be where I want to get paid. I just hope this is worth it.

Finance/Econ major, but somehow fell into Fund Accounting since it was my first FT job offer and kinda stuck with it for 6 years. Now, looking to start transitioning out despite the respectable pay and 100% remote role, but from what I know FA is a pretty niche role, so not sure where I can start looking.

No CPA/MBA, currently taking Python courses to improve the tech skills slightly in case they're relevant.

To my fellow (former) fund accountants, what positions/fields would be viable to transition to?

I was thinking that it’s income statement will be like :

Revenue Product 1 Product 2

Expenses Exp 1 Exp 2 Exp 3

Profits before tax

I don’t know how to begin this honestly. I guess let me start by saying I am 23 years old. I don’t think I am very smart, I guess.

I work in AP for a retail company. Honestly, my last internship in college was in tax and I hated it. They had me come in 6 days a week as an intern, so I took an AP job with this company near my houses I have been working for 1.5 years. My first year went okay, a lot of learning, a lot of mistakes, but that’s something I knew would happen.

I don’t make “bad” mistakes, maybe a clerical error of keying the wrong GL code, or putting an incorrect subtotal, but these are things that have always been caught by the approver I would submit and invoice to. I would consistently make errors setting up new vendors in our accounting system, since there are so many things to enter in, I usually (6/10 times I would say) would miss a small thing. The worst “mistakes” I made was paying a vendor late for some t shirts that are sold online that are “made to order”. And the whole reason they were payed late is because they would not feed into our financial feed system, and only were on the vendor statement, so when I matched to our systems, I did not see any match so did not pay, but contacted our IT team for help (which they still have not fixed the issue. Another thing that was not in my favor this year is that I had to miss 1 day a week for the past 4 months for a personal reason, and I got behind on my work. Never extremely behind, but I was constantly told how behind and awful I was. I know that’s not great but I’d rather be honest so you the reader can get the full picture.

Now, here is the positive things I have done. We have had an accrual account for our biggest vendor that was not reconciled since 2019. I was able to reconcile it. Not even the senior analyst was able to do that. I uncovered that we actually were severely underpaying this vendor. Once I fixed all the issues, I was able to reconcile it. Next, I was covering for the senior analysts account rec for 1 month, and it is our main domestic accrual account for merchandise, and I found he was hiding the fact that he was off by a million dollars, right in front of everyone’s eyes, by hard keying cells in which formulas have been. I had to present my findings in a meeting with the senior, my manager, and the director, in which the meeting my manager constantly called me wrong and said I was doing something wrong until we went through and I proved my findings. The director looked like they wanted to cry. They ended up firing the senior guy because of my findings. I am now training his replacement, and it is SOLELY me training this person. I also had a presentation the CFO on another thing I had found with one of our processes; which the director set up the presentation and my manager was visibly upset that I was given that duty. Director said I killed the presentation.

My boss is very rude to me. They will grunt at their desk, slam their mouse, say how much they fucking hate everything. Yes, use curse words in the office. They once said if I keep making mistakes I will get fired. I constantly find my managers mistakes and point them out to them. They will put me down infront of others and in front of superiors, constantly talk over me, and constantly thinks anything I do is wrong. Yesterday, I made an error for the first time in MONTHs and I overheard them talking to the director about me saying how I am just disappointing. I come in and work my ass off every god damn day, and I saved their damn teeth with my work, and they genuinely are just so unbelievably rude to me it drives me crazy. They will tell the other people (who are much older than me) in my position good job, they won’t correct the other people like they would correct me, will YELL at me in the office genuinely yell, and audibly groans whenever I have a question. this manager is very forgetful, will not train you and expect you to know things, and it has driven me to the point where I literally have wanted to kill myself at work.

This is the cross roads I am at. The rest of our finance department are very good people and everyone is very nice to each other. No one else acts like my manager does. I have friends in other departments and they all confirm that they’ve never seen anything like that ever. There are no current openings in other areas of finance, but there are openings in merchandise analysts, and assistant buyers. I am at the point where I don’t know if I even want to do AP/Accounting anymore because of how this person has made me feel. I wouldn’t mind staying in the company and becoming a buyer instead - because I have a lot of friends that are buyers and I just don’t know what to do. I guess I could search outside the company too. I just can’t keep doing this for my mental health.

Our auditors have suggested we consider introducing a minimum threshold below which amounts are not accrued.

Has anyone done this or had experience of it?

What were the impacts?

I work for a very large organisation with y/e accruals c750m and c6000 FTE so the volume is crazy. I suspect project managers would simply aggregate their accruals to get them over the threshold.

Graduated this year at 37 with my BS in Accounting. What are good things to learn or do to help in obtaining my first role? Thanks in advance.

Google got some ridiculous trillion ruble fine in Russia that's just for show. But could they use that in the balance sheet if they wanted?