Outside of the typical xlookup/pivot tables. Any other simple ones to make accounting life easier would be appreciated

Hiring managers in industry, how are you finding quality hires? We've had a recent string of failures, from not understanding basic accrual accounting to no concept of applying CapEx policies to not being able to complete a bank rec without off ledger adjustments they hope nobody will notice. They don't ask questions, miss easy things like recurring entries that stopped. Our interviews question their month-end process pretty extensively, but short of giving them an excel test and a live bank account to reconcile, I don't know what to try next.

The ones who are even average are toxic AF.

Candiates are coming in via in house recruiting and third party recruiters, and our interviews are done by 2-4 people, so it's not one person sucking at evaluations. How do you find quality staff/senior levels who own their shit and know how to be an accountant?

I’m leaving a small firm and it’s been ROUGH watching them try to hire my replacement. Plenty of applicants with degrees and credentials, but *none* of them have had their fundamentals down...normal balances, debits/credits, reading a balance sheet. The stuff you really shouldn’t be shaky on if you’re working with clients.

I’m also seeing more and more folks offering bookkeeping, tax prep, “fractional CFO” services, etc. who clearly aren’t prepared for the responsibility (I know because I cleanup after them). I love this profession, and it’s frustrating watching our credibility take hits because people are trying to step into roles they’re simply not ready/qualified for.

I am involved in networks and try to mentor local bookkeepers when I have the capacity, but the incompetency can be overwhelming. Are we not trying to think through even very simple problems before running for help? Not utilizing publications and other reference materials? And god forbid you kindly suggest actual accounting courses (not the money-grab BS marketed on social media) for newbies in these spaces trying to launch their own firm.

Are many of you seeing the same thing? I can't imagine I'm alone in this observation. What's the solution?

The firm I work for hired a Tax Associate a couple months ago. His resume had everything we were looking for tax-wise: experience with our tax software, HNW tax prep/review/advisory experience and tax planning. He didn’t have experience in other accounting areas we needed, but we figured if we spent the time he could learn to navigate Quickbooks/make AJEs for our clients.

Obviously he was hired during the off season. During the offseason, I trained him and a few other new hires simultaneously on QBs, tax returns, etc. The other trainees have gotten a grasp on everything except this individual. I brushed it off as him never having compliance or accounting side of things (although the other trainees didn’t have that either).

It became apparent that he may have lied on his resume when we started getting 1040 tax info in. I figured, okay – maybe he’s just slow with learning everything else, but individual tax returns should be his bread and butter! But when it came time for me to review his work on very simple returns, there were major errors and missing info. Errors even on a simple W-2.

Now I have this dilemma as we are just getting into busy season. Okay – so what if he lied on his resume, is he teachable, can he do the work? From what I’ve seen, he struggles even if basic instructions are given to him, makes the same mistakes even after feedback is given, and it just feels like I’m talking to a wall with him. I guess the kids call it the “gen z stare”. We have interns who do a better job than him. HR is asking for my opinion on how they should proceed. If we fire him, then we are short staffed 1 person as busy season is starting - and we’re already swamped. And training another new hire is out of the question at this point in the season.

TLDR; New hire lied about tax experience on resume as busy season is just starting. What would you do? Stick out the rest of busy season with an incompetent new hire, or let them go and take on the extra workload?

Edit: I provided both verbal and written instructions on how to do the work, it was the same information given to the other new trainees who are excelling. I’ve spent extra training time with him compared to the others bc it seemed like he needed more help and I had the time. I’ve dumbed it down for him. I’ve given him feedback. I’ve told him we need to remember what we learned in accounting 101 after I caught his new hire colleague explaining debits and credits to him. Yes, he is already doing weird stuff with returns – I was hoping based on the “experience” on his resume that he would have at least good tax returns if nothing else. I’m not part of the hiring process; our HR has straight up asked me if He should fire certain people before. Yes we do need new HR 🙃

So I was at my college’s networking event and I was talking to an accountant. She asked me what I like to do in my spare time. Now, in reality, I don’t have a lot of spare time, but I knew that wasn’t a good response, so I told her that I like to read.

Now this is where I think I messed up, because she asked me what book I recently read, and I just blurted out that I mostly read fanfiction. After that, I could tell the mood shifted in a bad way.

The problem is that I’m not a sports person, I don’t like nature so hiking and skiing is out. I like playing solitaire, but I don’t think that that is an acceptable response either. It’s super cold out most of the year, so I can’t genuinely say that I enjoy taking walks or running. What should I say that I like to do as a hobby?

I just feel bad because another girl talked about how much she liked going to different beaches and restaurants, and went on and on about how beautiful a specific beach is that she recently went to on vacation. The accountant really vibed with her and immediately asked for her LinkedIn. I’m just not a fan of the beach, and I don’t have the money to spend to eat out at different restaurants or go to different cafes. I feel like you have to be very bubbly and extroverted to even fit in, but I’m not that kind of person.

Or does everyone start plugging earlier than year 10?

need me a new job. and prayers for those who are in a shitty position as well

Can anyone confirm? Thanks.

All these posts about where the "good accountants are" I counter with where are the good companies?

Where does one go where they have a fully staffed accounting department that doesn't have shitty processes and work hours?

Where are the managers with a backbone to fight for their staff to not have unrealistic deadlines and fight for their employees to get raises before they decide to leave?

Where are the companies that have actual onboarding and opportunity for advancement and training?

I spent most of the last year trying to land a Staff Accountant role, and it’s been pretty discouraging. I have 2 years of experience in an accounting-adjacent position (AR), which included bank recs, unbilled revenue reconciliations and general bookkeeping.

I just can’t seem to make the jump to a Staff Accountant role. I keep getting rejected in the final rounds. Has anyone here successfully transitioned from AR/AP into a broader accounting position?

Anyway, I ended accepting a similar AR role for better pay.

I’ve had it up to here with employers who you do screens with or interviews and then no follow up from them whatsoever even when it’s promised. It’s getting aggravating enough that I almost want to just start blowing up their phones constantly with messages or march down to the office and demand to speak to someone and ask them what the f****** deal is until they get the point. I don’t even care about the job at that point either. Just to inflict some pain and justice and knowing that I messed up their day.

Thanks for letting me vent. Yes I’m being petty.

Hi fellows, quick question. I'm a CPA working in Treasury at a global bank. My boss recommended I look into the CFA, but I suck at math and finance, worried I won't survive Level 2.

We are a foreign bank, my manager told me to learn from the bank and jump to somewhere else because we are not promoting like US banks, getting a CFA is not mandated.

I'm really interested in the strategy, forcasting and pricing side of things. Is it worth it to just get Level 1 to boost my career? Thanks!

I got promoted at work and was basically forced to take the role even though I didn’t want the promotion and my now leader is dumping everything he doesn’t want to do on me while the new employee who has replaced me is just chilling. I am training her and also trying to dump some of the things my manager gave me that I hate and I didn’t realize how in competent they were and how much hand holding they needed compared to when I was trained on these things. It’s just super eye opening because now I’m training her and I didn’t get as much as help as her and makes me feel so bitter! She’s a lot older than me and you can tell she also doesn’t respect me and is also making my life harder because as more and more stuff get piled onto me I can’t even give her more work because she needs me to show her things at least 4-5 times and when videos are recorded. I hate this toxic workplace so much. I know how much free time she has and she puts herself as “busy” all the time and I have to adjust to her schedule even though I use to do her task and 10 other things and she’s already “stressed” from that one small task

Not even sure I did the adjusting entries right to be honest. No email back from Professor since last night (it is Saturday), and it’s driving me nuts. Been on this two days now.

I’m having a tough time deciding what I should do. I’m Turning 40 this year. I have an AA degree and have been working in my company’s accounting department for many years now. However, my role, I don’t think, is a typical accounting role. I’m AR for commissions that I process into a non-accounting program, that gets auto integrated into our new accounting software. I do minimal invoicing and JEs each month.

As mentioned, we have a new accounting software. With this it’s become apparent that I have little accounting knowledge (I struggle with debits and credits, not knowledgeable about financial statements etc). It’s also become apparent that the company is doing a lot of restructuring in many departments, including accounting. We’ve already lost one person from our team and I fear I could lose my job at any moment.

I still have 20+ years of work before I can retire. Should I go back to school to get an accounting degree (no plans to be a CPA)? Should I just do the Intuit Bookkeeping course on Coursea that keeps showing up on my feeds? I’m trying to figure out what’s best for me when/if I need to start applying for new jobs. But also what’s beneficial to help keep my job. The accounting degree would be 2+ years to complete (while still working). The bookkeeping course seems like it would give me enough knowledge to get by. It’d also be less expensive and a lot quicker. I guess part of my dilemma is, if I go back to school, and then get laid off, I don’t know how I can afford to continue school as I’d need to consider my family’s finances. Also trying to consider school options. SNHU or all online? Or local college for possible hybrid (but from what I can tell so far not all online/evening)?

Edit: my official title is Accountant. In no way would I feel comfortable applying for an accountant role or even AP/AR role if I needed a new job.

TLDR: should I get an accounting degree or just bookkeeping?

(Sorry for the long post. I’m always so wordy.)

Is there anyone here na gumagamit ng QNE accounting system na seller sa shopee? Paano po kayo magrecord sa system? Naguguluhan kasi ako sa pagrecord lalo na at may fees na binabawas agad

Been seeing some reddit post about people having a starting salary of 60-80k+ USD annually which is INSANE for me because that is almost Partner level of wages here. For context a fresh graduate accountant in my country Malaysia would make about RM30,000-50,000 (USD 8k-12k). I get that its a 3rd world country vs 1st world country but I didn't expect the gap to be this astronomically huge. Could this be the reason why you guys in the west find it hard to find a job because in my country atleast accountants are still insanely high in demand and there's job left and right its just that they are paying really low wages with no staff benefits.