[jkpoker1]

How terrible is busy season in public accounting? I’ve interviewed with a few public firms and each one has varied to a degree on hours. I honestly can’t imagine working 6 days a week for 3 months especially when you don’t get paid overtime. One employer told me they work 8-6 hrs M-F and then work a half day on Saturday. Is it normal to think this will lead to a horrible life.

I mean I believe there is a huge difference between working 50-55 hrs during week vs working 50-60 and then having to work on a saturday.

Quest to be a CPA

BEC-74 (7/13),
REG- ?? (8/13)
AUD-TBA
FAR-TBA

[oilgaslb]

Even in a non-Big 4, and not public firm, I work Saturdays during busy season. I work a pretty solid 40 hours typically, but a busy season comes with the territory of being an accountant – sorry to burst your bubble.

[acamp]

Depends on the firm, depends on the client. I had a busy season working Mon-Fri 55 hours total. Had another busy season working Sun-Sat working 80+ hours per week.

Ninja + Wiley Test Bank: [FAR - 81] [REG - 76] [BEC - 88] [AUD - 73](doh!)

Becker Videos: [AUD - 82]

California CPA

[Mayo]

Depends on your office and client base. My office is fairly large (2000+), but my busy season is 60-70 hours from Jan to March. 60-65 hours is more typical for my type of clients. Of course, responsibility will increase as you move up in rank. Expect more hours from this

Some offices are notorious for long hours during non busy season times. This can be a combo of a good job market (hard to retain staff) and a situation with understaffed engagements (see the first reason).

Really, one of the main factors in how burnt out you are is your schedule. Personally, I got lucky, and my schedule is pretty sweet. Other co workers at my level are pulling 80 hour busy seasons easily. Sometimes it's the luck of the draw..

Mayo, BBA, Macc

[evesocal]

I work every Saturday Feb through April 15th, then again on Saturdays… let's see, when did I start, about 3 weeks ago? Until the Sep. 15th deadline. Couple more in October. And during the week (in the weeks leading up to deadlines) I'm there 9 AM – 8 PM about 3 days per week, a bit less the other two. Sometimes way more. Last Oct. 15th I was there until just before midnight, efiling a return at 11:57 although that's extreme.

It's a sh*tload of hours. That's life in public accounting. You could go into private. They have deadlines too but on average they seem to work less.

B: 75
R: 80
A: 77
F: 81
Ethics: 84, 92 and done!
Licensed in California

[evesocal]

I work every Saturday Feb through April 15th, then again on Saturdays… let's see, when did I start, about 3 weeks ago? Until the Sep. 15th deadline. Couple more in October. And during the week (in the weeks leading up to deadlines) I'm there 9 AM – 8 PM about 3 days per week, a bit less the other two. Sometimes way more. Last Oct. 15th I was there until just before midnight, efiling a return at 11:57 although that's extreme.

It's a sh*tload of hours. That's life in public accounting. You could go into private. They have deadlines too but on average they seem to work less.

B: 75
R: 80
A: 77
F: 81
Ethics: 84, 92 and done!
Licensed in California

[calicpa]

sounds brutal

BEC - 84, 4/6/13
AUD - 77, 5/28/13
REG - 83, 4/12/14
FAR - 83, 10/3/13

Ethics - 90% 4/24/13

150 unit education requirement met!
Work experience met!

[Ntw6817]

Even though there's no overtime, I think a lot of firms give a bonus. I could be wrong on this though.

[MintsRGood]

@OP Oh dear…maybe public accounting is not for if you are afraid of long hours!

Basically it lasts from January to April 15th and then you go back to a much more normal schedule. If tax season hours were 365 days a year, nobody in their right mind would do this job!!!! 🙂 Things pick up again for the 9/15 and 10/15 extension deadlines but its more like controled chaos.

During tax season I work anywhere from 70-75 hours per week. As the senior, I work way more than the staff accountants as they generally work 55-60 hours after February. I also get paid a lot more than the staff accountants, so I just suck it up! 😉 Saturdays are NOT optional and I often come in on Sundays to keep on pace with my workload once I get to late February and I keep this up until 4/15. I'm married and have lots of family in my area, so it's not like I'm a hermit with nothing else to do but work…but that is part of the job and you have to accept it. I worked 28 days straight through the filing deadline and sat for auditing on 4/16 BTW. Not fun but it was worth it to see that beautiful 92!!! 🙂

Is tax season a grind? YES.

Did my extremely large tax season bonus make it all worthwhile? YES. 😉

REG: 75 DONE 🙂
AUD: 61, 71, 68, 92 DONE 🙂
BEC: 76 DONE 🙂
FAR: 72, 74, 79 DONE 🙂
Licensed Michigan CPA 🙂
-Some people dream of success...others wake up and work hard for it!!!
-The cowards never start and the weak die along the way!
-You better work, b***h!
-Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.-JFK

[nbad311]

This might be a little off-topic but I didn't feel like it warranted it's own, if anyone has any input:

in what @Ntw6817 said about bonuses, does anyone else's firm do the bonus a YEAR IN ARREARS? Essentially, if you hit your billable hours goal busy season year 1, you will actually RECIEVE the bonus AFTER busy season year 2. And so on and so forth. I think my old firm used it as a sick retention policy!, like will you have to stay one more busy season in order to get the bonus you just earned!

REG - 65, 70, 80!
BEC - 35, 62, 79!
AUD - 73, 75!
FAR - 65, 73, 70, 75! DONE.

[Anonymous]

@nbad311 That definitely sounds like a retention policy to me…!

@OP, if they work a half-day Saturday, that's not bad at all…especially if you get out at a reasonable time through the week. As an hourly employee this past year (so OT hurt my boss and he tried to avoid it), I worked till 7 or 8 till 5 least 5, and stayed till 7 or 8 at least a couple days a week…and would be here half a day Saturday, and sometimes stay the whole day. So, I know that if I was salaried, I'd have been here till 8 every day and worked all day every Saturday. 😛 Like the others said, it comes with the territory!

But it is better generally in private. You generally make less throughout the year, but also work less…or at least have the busy season spread out more. I interviewed for one position in private that works OT the first 3 days of the month, since that's their deadline – usually around 8 hours of OT, but then normal hours the rest of the month. The managers maybe work 20 hours of OT throughout that week. So, that's more the outlook in private – 3-5 days of OT a month, which works out to 36-60 days a year…but they're spread out, so a lot easier on ya! Of course it varies from company to company, that's just to give some comparison. Because they basically do the same routine to close each month, instead of having everyone descend once a year, their workload is spread out much more evenly.

[Tncincy]

Busy season?….I can't imagine a busy season other than tax season Jan – Apr. There is another busy season?

It begins with a 75
Been here too long as a cheerleader....ready to pass

[MintsRGood]

@Tncincy The extension deadline for Corps/Partnerships/LLCs/Estates/Trust falls on 9/15 and the 1040 extension deadline is 10/15. Tax season is the “gift” that keeps on giving you might say! 😉

REG: 75 DONE 🙂
AUD: 61, 71, 68, 92 DONE 🙂
BEC: 76 DONE 🙂
FAR: 72, 74, 79 DONE 🙂
Licensed Michigan CPA 🙂
-Some people dream of success...others wake up and work hard for it!!!
-The cowards never start and the weak die along the way!
-You better work, b***h!
-Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.-JFK

[Anonymous]

It varies based on your client and your team. I'm at a Big 4 and this past year we averaged 55-60 hours a week, with a few Saturdays and one Sunday (that was a really bad week, worked 72 hours). It was pretty brutal while going through it, but looking back on it now it wasn't as bad as it seemed. My team was incredible and the work was interesting.

It's all about getting your stuff done. If you really want to have weekends off, I doubt your senior will stop you from putting in longer weekdays to compensate. At the end of the day, there's a set amount of work that needs to get done no matter what. It's up to you and your team to figure out how and when to do it.

[evesocal]

We get paid straight time for the overtime. And there's a billable hour bonus but it's hard to get to it. Some years I did, some not. Most don't.

The extra pay is nice, no doubt about it. But I think you have to enjoy your work or the money won't be worth spending SO much time in the office when everyone else is relaxing.

And yeah, there is a second tax season leading up to the Sep. 15 and Oct. 15 deadline. Sep. 15 is the worst since the due date changed to that for extended partnerships and trusts.

I got home at 9 tonight and will be working all weekend.

It does vary by firm, but if you want a 40 hr per week job do NOT go into public accounting. You will be miserable.

B: 75
R: 80
A: 77
F: 81
Ethics: 84, 92 and done!
Licensed in California

[Author]

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