What do accountants do reddit. I have my CPA and worked in public accounting.
What do accountants do reddit. accountants can and Many do make 6 figures.
What do accountants do reddit Compared to a burger flipper at McDonald's? Sure. Thinking of upgrading to the Outback, or going to the sports model of the Crosstrek. Hi, I am interning at a big4 in the spring and I still have really never gotten a straight answer on what exactly tax folks do during the year. They will follow those transactions from start to finish. I'm not saying staff accountants can't make it into these roles, but having an auditing background allows for easier transition. Do they look at the financial statements and apply tax law to them, or something like that? Jul 18, 2024 · My goal is to transition into a stable 9-5 accounting job in industry, ideally earning $60k+ a year. Do all accountants work long hours? or does it depend on what type of accountant you are? I heard that public accountants work long hours and private accountants work regular 9-5 jobs. Cost accounting is basically the love child of accounting and economics, so if you do great in other accounting courses/work but struggle with cost accounting then it's likely that your deficiency is on the economics side. g. That being said, most of our job does not require high excel knowledge, but having it make it a lot more easier. all tax accounting was done by a CPA. )? upvotes · comments r/Accounting Do a print preview PDF of the tax return and do a page by page comparison with last year return. Most of the information I have learned in my courses didn't stick because it just felt as if I had to memorize what the professors taught so that I could pass their exams. My best 1 sentence answer is, entering some sort of data and figuring out if that financial data makes sense on paper, usually done in front of 2 screens a mouse and keyboard endlessly. Just curious as to what songs you guys listen to. I do deep house music, chill EDM, fast paced EDM, and Lofi hip hop. 2015 Crosstrek, gotta buy a new car this year for reasons not related to current car sad debit noises. Got hired out of college in the position making 42k. Each accounting firm will have a different procedure. When people not in the accounting industry ask what you are, do you say CPA (if you have one), or your job title (auditor, financial accountant, etc. Accounting just feels like nonsense though. There are regional differences in vocabulary so I might've been a little confused, but as an auditor I've seen it happen all the time that on an accounting software people will make journal entries for payment on an invoice without entering it against the aged receivables listing, or enter an invoice sent without adding it to the listing, and so on, so you might have £6k listed as owed from a I know there are various different fields within accounting (e. If it has a dollar sign attached to it, it will likely fall onto the staff accountant's plate. I’m a staff accountant in industry and I touch the G/L accounting stuff:A/P, A/R, bank reconciliations. If not, then you're average). I’m not even exaggerating. Massive layoffs in public accounting right now, and it's a struggle to land decent industry jobs. The term accountant is only protected in TX as far as I know. Footing columns and double underlining totals. I might say that promotions and job opportunities are more "guaranteed" for public accountants. I work for about 15 clients per year, in a variety of industries…so lots of variety. Besides, the responsibility just seems frightening. Working as an "accountant" could simply mean you have a CPA or studied accounting and that was the easiest way to style your job, but many people who call themselves accountants don't work in anything to do with accounting. I’m an auditor at a public accounting firm. Straight to industry is absolutely doable. You can do a lot with an accounting degree if you understand the data. But once you hit that 2nd year staff or Senior level, thats where you dive into the space of competency in project management level work and actual I genuinely do enjoy my job. Most accountants are salaried and it varies greatly by role, responsibilities, and location. ” To test that area, an auditor may test a sample of transactions. 12th grade, I got serious and took an accounting apps class. We find on our team that the people who truly know their debits and credits and flow of financials really shine in their job. results) vs a plan or vs a budget or vs last month's or vs last year same month. But suffice it to say even in LCOL the entry level accountant is far better off than minimum wage and no, you don't need a CPA license to get to 6 figures but it's a much longer road without it and, again, very dependent on location/cost of living. 8:00-5:00 every day. At large companies, the Controller is more of a lower level executive and functions as a leadership role that oversees the operations of an Accounting department You say you are "devoting most time of my day to calculus". It's like the rug is being pulled from under my feet constantly. Reconcile a bunch of accounts. At the associate/early senior level you’re doing more data entry than reading on tax laws and making client decisions. If my main task for the day was to verify the accounts payable balance (how much the client owes to other people), I might talk to the A/P clerk to get a Excel listing of payees to Prepare returns, ask client/other accounting firms for info, prepare estimates, prepare extensions, prepare documents. There, the accountant will go step-by-step on what is done. Everyone's situation is different. Hi, I used to work sa isang accounting firm right out of college, tapos dun ko lahat natutunan ang full-cycle accounting. Industry accountants who work in the accounting department of a non-accounting company can have many different responsibilities. Bale eto yung mga natatandaan kong ginawa ko nun sa client: Accounts Payable - nagrerecord ng mga binili ng company, and nagbabayad ng mga kautangan. I am an undergrad student who has taken a few accounting courses. From what I have read, I would prefer industry or audit. Econ books are probably less helpful but also interesting. Technical Accounting Manager - $115k + 15% Looking for Manger level, but would take a Senior Sr. As an accountant, I would suggest you email the admin / reception person for the place you’re visiting, or give them a call and ask. What makes an accountant an accountant is the degree and additional knowledge. Agreed, if you’ve been using it for a long time, you can under appreciate the skills needed to use it efficiently. I personally do care: excel has increased my productivity a lot, so I keep learning it. Bookkeeping is taught in high school. Pretty much. In Audit it’s just figuring stuff out (like how does this agree to this & copy last year’s work) which I think mostly people can do even if you don’t really have an accounting knowledge. The two non-accounting subjects that'll be most helpful are finance (to get some of those concepts down) and self-help, networking type books. It’s not an average paying job for fucks sake I work in Financial Accounting but specifically SP&I team so even tho I do things like traditional close, it's not the same as our hospital or retail sections since we have a related partnership with GASB entities, so I usually have to work with the districts and make sure we are applying the right accounting to legal agreements. I was wondering what specifically would count as actual accounting work. when I did accounting for a year, industry, most guys wear jeans and sneakers, the CFO and mid level execs wore suits and dress shirts and ties. I was an in house accountant for a local company right out of school, managed his companies books think Quickbooks level, managed his spending etc. I don’t have degree in accounting so i know not much about this field and I don’t know what do real accountant do in their jobs (I see them looking at spreadsheets and FS all day). Depends on your company though. So do I work from the same place all the time? No, but I don't exactly travel either. At small companies, Controller is interchangeable with Accounting Manager and will manage just a couple accounting staff and does a lot of the work themselves in a hands-on fashion. The accounting jobs out of school sort of suck but if you are determined enough you can (maybe) get a better payout in the long run. Lots of money to be made if you are good at your job and actually enjoy it. An external accountant would do the annual review or audit and file the tax return. I'll think of what comes to mind as I'm periodically working throughout the day lol. If there was a number on a line last year, there should probably be one this year. The total salary amount was pretty good but the rate/hour really sucked especially considering how much you bill the client to how much you actually get. I'm an aspiring accountant (looking at chartered accountant primarily) in South Africa. Q2 estimates are due in June, extensions due in September/October. Edit 1: Jesus I didn't expect this post to blow up this much 😅. My only tax advice is “If you do a lot of weird shit and don’t just work a 9-5, you should probably get an accountant to do your taxes and not TurboTax” and ends there Reply reply Cantstopdontstopme What do accountants read? Most of the things I read in the mainstream media (WSJ) are really basic and are geared toward people who have no formal accounting experience. That's the reason some accountants don't care about that or haven't really put the effort to learn it other than learning how to SUM. comp depends on location. What specifically would an accountant do. Growing up movies and tv shows have always shown it as a dry and stressful job, but from what I’ve found it’s actually a quite laid back and easy going job, so I felt the need to ask the people who are actually in this career to help me understand what this career is You can’t really ask an accountant what all accountants do bc of the countless niches people go into. Occasionally I do consulting work helping a client implement new accounting rules for their companies. Jun 3, 2019 · We asked seasoned pros to share some of the most common misconceptions about working in accounting. Literal bean counters. To add, if you work on corporate tax or non-profit filings it is common for entities to have a fiscal year end. You can go into technical accounting, auditing, consulting, teaching, IT which is broad and can be designing or supporting systems. Industry accountants work on other areas as well including sec reporting and gl accountants. We do property tax as well, so it's 3/15, 4/15, 6/15, then we do ammends, work on extended returns, do planning for clients, then 9/15 and 10/15 - after that we start sending out YE stuff to get ready for next year. , to develop a new niche or specialty) Try out and evaluate new accounting and tax tools and software Interact with other accountants online and in person. I don't do any AP unless asked and I do some of the billing for franchisees. Merry Christmas 🎄🎄… title says it all. Reply reply In my company (~200 people) If our accounting dept disappeared tomorrow, I’d say our company would be fully out of business within maybe 20-30 days. I don't say this to intimidate you, but just to make you remember that accounting will require ample study time. Public accounting: you work for a firm that takes on clients and do either tax work (preparing tax returns, tax research, tax planning etc. Also, a lease accountant, treasury accountant, and corporate, and jr. I am a cost accountant. Attorneys waiting to the last minute and demanding you have a 50 page report to them in the morning. I can just go on auto pilot for majority of my work day. CPAs aren’t necessary in private accounting, such as doing accounting for a private company. Accountants run models, budgets, forecasting, reporting, audits, tax work. I have also had to do a fair amount of administrative and operational duties, depending on the size of the organization. We do quarterly estimates for our clients (Q2, 3, and 4). I personally am looking more for a client-facing role and learning to do expert witnessing but I think there are a lot of areas you can go into (consulting / expert witness, federal jobs, AML, audit). I have no idea what accountants actually do, outside of tax accountants doing taxes. Or is it only actual CPAS and those working in accounting firms or tax. I hated public accounting, and was always stressed out of my mind. Yes, the accounting dept doesn’t produce revenue. 60 absolute tops. Public accountants working in tax and audit might not do as much in the comparative analysis with expectations. It would be silly of any company to pay a degreed or certified accountant to do bookkeeping. AI will never replace pure accounting work, but we all do clerical crap that could totally be done by a machine, allowing us more time to do pure accounting work. I enjoy living out of the "close" process and more into solving problems, doing research, and designing policies. The problem was the client was still using quick books which tried to put their financials in a bastardized form of accrual accounting and the CPA hadn’t been reconciling their internal methods properly to their reviews and so when we got their most recent review they told the bank that it was done by % of completion but we had massive The official unofficial subreddit for Elite Dangerous, we even have devs lurking the sub! Elite Dangerous brings gaming’s original open world adventure to the modern generation with a stunning recreation of the entire Milky Way galaxy. Some employers also view auditing experience as more valuable than normal accounting experience so there's that factor to consider as well. My commute just varies, more so during busy season and especially right now with inventory Some people are naturally just good at being an accountant, sometimes they just get lucky with a job posting/offer and got there at the right time. Everyone says fund accounting pigeonholes you, but that’s really only if you do it for many years and work your way up really high in that industry. Accounting doesn’t teach it, finance does Hello Accounting, I wanted to know what a typical day was like when working as an auditor. I’m currently 19y/o planning to change my major to accounting and I was wondering what it’s like to be an accountant. There aren't any "easy" classes in accounting. I'm a recruiter in Denver (with an accounting background), and right now I'm working on 3 roles that would take someone straight out of public. When I first started out (Big 4), I hated the hours and the pay. Even AP will never truly be automated. something that i don’t think most staff accountants typically do but i do is handle disputing chargebacks my WLB is extremely good. The first "what an accountant does" search result goes along the line of In general, accountants compile, analyze, verify and prepare financial records for their department or organization as a whole, is this an accurate representation of what an Accountant would do in actual practice? It implies organization skills/work, and that would be Each staff accounting position may me different from the other. , not because of the money, but because it feels like accounting but with more creative options and flexibility. Went from entry level accountant (or staff accountant I at most industries) to staff accountant (or staff accountant II) in a year. . Even if you hate accounting you still have a business degree+a marketable skill. You really (really) need to love accounting to be successful in it. I get the basic outline and "prepare the returns" part, but what individual pieces, what goes into them, etc that requires so much leg work? Also I heard tax interns do a good bit of audit assist work. Take CPE Teach CPE Hello! I'm considering majoring in accounting and I want to know what it's like, at least to some extent. then I applied to a senior accountant spot in another department roughly 2 years after that. I do work a lot of hours in the spring (55/week or so). Let their insight set the record straight and reveal what being an accountant is really like. What we do is ensure that companies are preparing their financial statements (showing their profits and losses, assets and liabilities etc) correctly and accurately. An accounting degree sets you apart from the herd of business general majors If you only have a business degree, so does everyone else, it's one of the most common and easy to get bachelor's. This is the third time I have seen people say 'Engineers don't get paid much unless they get an MBA'. Primarily for accountants and aspiring accountants to learn about and discuss… 193 votes, 12 comments. But I’m doing a lot of financial analysis tasks as well: weekly reporting, variance analysis, sales margin reports, etc. I just can't seem to get a hold of it. RuneScape has trained me to be a great accountant by being able to grind mundane tasks without much thought. Im planning on majoring in accounting and am interested in hearing about the daily work in big 4 tax, and how it could transfer into starting a solo tax practice outside of just reputaition. Noone giving a shit about your ethics requirements. Public accounting is supposed to provide good connections and better job opportunities down the line. We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. tax accountant, and AP Manager, and Finance Systems Administrator, and Jr. I also see terms like junior accountant, staff accountant. Internal auditing, FDD, forensic accounting. but yeah it true do know people who work hr and financial positions who are making 90k a year one does fiannce in real estate firm / company other my cousin is hr some type of investigation btu their making 90k a year work for top hospitals in my state Not gonna lie, there aren't really that many accounting specific books out there outside of fraud stories. You start vague to get them to dig into a variance or question and then determine how much hand holding you have to do from there to get an answer that you can actually support. It seems like the rules change every time the semester starts. It depends on your role since there are so many roles covered by the title of accountant. I had managers calling me while I was on vacation, and asking me to do stuff at 10pm at night. I don't want to keep records of other people's money. It's why execs have MBA's. get ready to do that for accounting. 3 Bank accts, 1 manufacturing subsidiary, sales, certain sales contra accounts Business Intelligence is the process of utilizing organizational data, technology, analytics, and the knowledge of subject matter experts to create data-driven decisions via dashboards, reports, alerts, and ad-hoc analysis. I don't trust myself to do that. I enjoyed the intro classes and did well in them, so I decided to become an accounting major. I am a junior accounting major with no idea what accountants do. 8 hours a day behind three monitors. You need a CPA to do PUBLIC accounting. I’m a college student atm majoring in Business Administration concentration in Accounting. Alternatively, go into some kind of corporate accounting role. Salary isn't bad. They will typically sit down with accountants. This is called a “walkthrough. I’m a Controller and nobody has any idea what I do, even after I explain it. It was Cost accounting is my favorite, but my first degree was in economics. It really depends on what kind of accountant you want to be. e. Don't miss having to explain accounting to a controller or CFO at smaller companies. However, let's see AI understand the payments from the government to affected businesses in declared disaster zones. Experience: Another staff accountant role and a treasury accountant role with small AR jobs before that Typical Day/Responsibilities: I mostly deal with our company's financials every month and do typical month end entries, accruals, etc. ), audit work (audit a company’s books according to specific laws and guidelines in order to provide a degree of confidence in their financial statements), or both if you work at a small firm. Some clients like it when we work from their office the entire week, some do just a couple days, and others are too far away/don't want to pay for our travel expenses. I do private equity/venture capital admin work and am currently working on 5 clients with a total of 25+ funds, so it definitely keeps me on my toes. Primarily for accountants and aspiring accountants to learn about and discuss… 99% of accountants I know have no idea about investing. FA, and (at a point) Accounting Manager. I welcome the AI helper revolution. I still work within the same department and was promoted by my manager after he was promoted to MD. Started within the company as more a general accountant doing more Controlling and Reporting. Accontant - Financial Reporting - $95k + 15% Would take a Senior if they had enough healthcare Accountant III, basically general accounting stuff for a manufacturing company. But without the accounting dept, really, there is no company. I have my CPA and worked in public accounting. My company tried to automate AP using the s Tax accountants follow rules or the lack of rules in a given area to help clients pay the least taxes while abiding by tax law (they also give recommendations on how to minimize taxes by listening to a client’s goals). The slowest part of the year generally is November to December, but then you have do all the CPE, seminars, prep for the next tax season, train people, etc. Primarily for accountants and aspiring accountants to learn about and discuss their career choice. Hi! Still working in consulting/forensic accounting and still overall love the work. I'm married with commitments at home, so public accounting with its long hours is not something I want to get into if I can help it. They all require a lot of study time. I’m starting an internship in PA tax and I have no idea what I’m actually going to be doing. Everything instrumental. Are there any blogs or journals which professionals read which are more informative? Or if they do, they only know standard costing or project costing. You can probably easily manage or sell anywhere. If there are any accountants here who are willing to share, what they do/job title, work life balance, tips, advice, etc it would be extremely appreciated! I. People have no idea how the industry has evolved or what we do. Is a bookkeeper or AP/AR clerk accounting positions. You can still do client service in private if you like juggling the different projects and getting to work on more than one set of numbers forever. latest I’ve ever stayed was 5:30 and I’ve never taken work home. Many people like to brag and act like the expectation is 6 figures when most of the Ike they’re not making 6 figures and in reality it’s a minority of people who do. If not, can you explain why? Self-directed study of tax and accounting (i. 8-5, only work after 5 during month end close which might be a day or two. Since tax deadlines are dictated by year end it is possible to have several different "busy seasons" throughout the course of the year. accountants can and Many do make 6 figures. It comes from back in the day, when 80% of “accountants” were literally just transferring numbers from one ledger to another. I do a lot of writing around all of this, as well - discussing the accounting and the accounting issues - in terms of how the Company implements the accounting and what GAAP stipulates - what my testing plan is, etc. Advice and questions welcome. , tax, internal audit, etc. But also accounting clerk and assistant. A financial analyst. I slept very poorly all the time, and was always worrying about some trivial BS thing from work. ) and I was wondering what your day-to-day tasks look like within those fields. If you just do it for a couple of years relatively early in your career, you’re learning a ton of broad skills and accounting knowledge that will be cross applicable to any accounting position. They will be able to tell you what to bring along. If you're successful in industry and have strong managers that push for you, there is no limit. Personally, I wish I had done comp. I work in a small organisation and our new CEO is working for the first time in a while where they are doing their own diary management, so they have been up-skilling very quickly! Accounting is stereotypically identified with math, also it’s money, and a plus was that I would have my godmom as a role model and mentor, so I chose accounting. 10-11AM: Have a meeting with staff from the client side (typically staff accountant/financial reporting manager) to discuss the work you're planning to do today. In accounting, you basically walk down certain paths and those make your career (Did you get your CPA? Do you have Big4 experience? If so, then you're set. There are many different avenues you can do in accounting. sci. I always hear tax has less travel and works with tax returns but never hear the knitty gritty of the work and day to day. Management accounting is basically FP&A in the US. My professor mentioned during our Bank Reconciliations chapter that entry level accountants will be doing Bank Reconciliations when we start out. The most important thing that's performed is variance analysis for current month actuals (i. It never ends. 20 mil rev company, accounting team consists of me (Staff accountant), CFO, and our finance analyst. You need to understand how to value a business, formulate capital market expectations, construct a portfolio. A lot of times this takes some research into the accounting of the issues/audit section as well as company guidelines. 728K subscribers in the Accounting community. Figured that some people may be checking Reddit during a family gathering while the conversation may not be so interesting, so let’s throw some accountants related traits. Nov 8, 2024 · Reddit, the popular social networking platform, has a community dedicated to accountants, where users share their experiences, ask questions, and discuss various aspects of the profession. Here are some key points about what accountants do, as discussed on Reddit: Got an accounting bachelor's working in AP right now, currently back in school for a CS degree. We also help draft our clients’ financial reports that are shared with those third parties. Aka filing taxes. I just got done with my first accounting class. Compare this to public accounting where my normal stress level was like an 8. Either way you guys have some good music ain't gonna lie will definitely listen to some of the great suggestions provided below! 😊 BUT I was interviewing with Charles River and some public accounting firms in their forensic accounting departments. I would say the same thing about audit clients. 418K subscribers in the Accounting community. Attendance is crucial for this major. OP’s question is too broad to answer precisely since there are so many different types of accountants. Could be more… but you do not need a CPA to do accounting. An auditor may just do some type of the analysis as well. Wanted to know what specifically accountants (chartered or otherwise) do in their day to day jobs? Locked post. 50% of my current job is essentially bookkeeping with very specific coding needs where I need to navigate with several house managers and estate manager. they don't "mainly do bookkeeping", although lots of folks There’s basically a second tax season during the summer. There’s no way a PA firm does individual 1040s right? If that’s all I’ll be doing I’m sure I could figure it out but I don’t know what to expect if they start giving me complicated business tax returns to do. Whatever they manage to get their hands on, we assist with. The only time an accountant could pass and engineer, in terms of salary, is if they were comparing and accountant and Engineering with a Bachelors in the Engineer's respective discipline. Just to give you an example: a barebones senior accountant position at a local midsize is flooded with applications, like 500 CPAs have already applied for just one role. You don’t HAVE to go the audit track first, but it does help. Most experienced cost accountants I know make between $80-130k working 35-45 hours a week; cost accounting managers can easily run up to $200k+ depending on the industry and scope. 48 votes, 111 comments. 50%, if not 98%, of the students there didn’t care for it, and were merely satisfying an elective. Midwest large (Fortune 150) company. Wasn’t a vacancy or anything, a lot of the other accountants in the department had to pitch in for the work I do now. If you can get experience in both, you’re gold. Is this true? I do not want to work the long hours I just want the regular 40 hours a week job I don't mind making less than someone who works 60+ hours. Not much on my end, busy most of the time with work, when I have free time I will work out and take nice summer walks. If I had just one job I'd go insane and probably quit. A human will always need to check if the software is processing the invoices accurately. A couple regular accountants with a CPA would wear a suit, but most people look pretty relaxed. Sep 16, 2024 · I have no idea what tax accountants do. I used to do podcasts a ton, but my job is way more stop and go now where I’m working and then I’m not with WFH, so not as common. 54k (just got my increase) + around 4k yearly bonus I did an internship at the company as a sales analyst. I hate this and i wonder how i can leverage these skills to get actual accounting jobs… Accounting on the other hand is a massive commitment in terms of time, discipline, energy, and sacrifice. You can be a controller for a company also. tmievniueivvdswdvhjnrsjbuqwsbkecqydolynxbaaazlro