[itooshallpass]

This is gonna sound like I’m whining, so feel free to skip to the end. Just looking for advice.

So I’m 6mo out of college and 3mo into my first job as a staff accountant/tax preparer at a local firm. My initial training was good, and the partners and other cpas are friendly, helpful, and for the most part approachable. I’ve definitely got the basics of preparing a return using the software. But I think I’m missing a lot and still make too many mistakes.
My college tax classes were 3 years ago and honestly horribly taught, so I don’t have much to go on there. I haven’t had a ton of experience yet at work either — I was hired during extension season and got to do a number of simple returns then, but got hung up a lot on more complex ones and didn’t get much feedback on my mistakes cause the partners are so busy (understandable). I still have trouble looking at returns or work papers and figuring out the logic of what goes where and WHY. I get especially confused with entity returns and adjusting entries and the flow of information there. I really feel like I’m behind where I should be and I don’t know what to do.

TL;DR: can anyone with some tax experience advise a newbie on how to improve? Research, resources, or even how to ask my bosses for help without looking like an idiot? I feel like an idiot. Feel stupid even posting this.

(if this ends up being a duplicate post sorry I tried once and it didn’t show up anywhere…)

[kay]

Practice returns are great, and although hrblock isn't the most prestigious tax job to get. I recommend it to accounting students in college, and non traditionals looking for tax experience while working a full-time job that they can't give up because they would take a pay cut starting in entry level accounting.
The hourly sucks, but in commissions I made more working for hrblock in 4 months than I do in 6 working as a staff accountant. And I have a level of familiarity with IRS forms and letters that someone brand new just doesn't have. So to say hrblock isn't worth a potential CPAs time I think is vastly unestimating the value of working in a retail tax environment.
Is hrblock, PWC level of tax prep,no never. But to keep with your food analogy, even the best chef's started out flipping burgers or washing dishes before working at Michelin Star restaurants.

[Josh]

Kay there are small CPA firms that would gladly take anyone during tax season even it were only for a few hours a week. The type of experience you get working directly with a CPA is going to be vastly different than a tax shop like H&R. The average hourly wage at a small CPA firm (4 CPA's or less) during tax season is typically $16/hr with no experience plus commission. The target person for most firms is someone who wants to be gone after 16 weeks which usually means you're taking someone with a limited schedule. You typically don't find people with credentials in those tax shops and you're certainly not going to see things like Like Kind Exchanges, S Corp returns, or multi-entity structures like you get in a firm. The biggest loss being those 2000 hours of experience directly under a CPA you need in most states to be licensed.

I should just rephrase and say experience of any kind is great but there's specific experience that's going to get you farther quicker. You're already pushing a boulder uphill going for the CPA, do you really want that boulder to be the size of a car or the size of a tire?

[Stilgoin]

@miguy22- unless there are not small firms around to hire you during tax season while you are in college. In my area, that is the case. A real CPA will tell you that any experience that relates to accounting is good experience. You guys can diss tax prep all you want, but that is a multi-million dollar business. If you were a CPA, you would know how unprofessional you sound. lol

B | 62, 78
A | 73, 67, 79
R | 82
F | 59, 59, Waiting

Ethics | 93

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
~Winston Churchill

“In a world full of critics, be an encourager."

[Josh]

@Stilgoin – No one is putting down tax prep, just tax shops that don't utilize a CPA. I'm not sure about the CPA folk you associate with but all those I've worked with at the national firm level and within academia will also steer you away from tax shops. There's always a CPA in any area willing to take someone on for the experience, we all know important it is that a future CPA be taught correctly. Bad habits are learned in those environments without credentialed professionals.

[Stilgoin]

“There's ALWAYS a CPA in any area willing to take someone on for the experience, we ALL know important it is that a future CPA be taught correctly.” L O L That is the opposite of the truth in any area besides a large, metropolitan city. I don’t know where you live, but there have been MANY people on this forum who could not find a job in their area to get their experience- I first came here in 2015. Maybe you are somewhere metro with little experience in locality and job availability??

“Bad habits are learned in those environments without credentialed professionals” Bad habits are learned from people with bad habits in any work environment. I have known several people on this forum who worked in tax prep shops while they were in school and/or taking exams. Just because someone is not a CPA does not mean they are unprofessional and do a bad job. How are your reviews at work?

There are people that come here for genuine advice form professionals, and generalizations and assumptions are not professional. I don’t know any CPA that uses those qualifiers ALWAYS and ALL when giving advice. The most important lessons in public accounting is knowing that you don’t know everything, and knowing you can be better.

B | 62, 78
A | 73, 67, 79
R | 82
F | 59, 59, Waiting

Ethics | 93

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
~Winston Churchill

“In a world full of critics, be an encourager."

[Author]

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