[Stibbs]

Hello Another71
I’m an early bird and was wondering as a CPA how would firms respond to my desire to start work at 5AM? A 5AM-1:30 schedule would be ideal for me. Is that really plausible? I’d be perfectly happy in private or public practice.
Thanks in advance for your responses.

[TommyTheCat]

when did i ever say my firm was inflexible? Entry level staff accountant positions at most CPA firms are not open to flexible and fixed hour arrangements for their full time employees. That's just a fact.

I am a senior manager now and have plenty of flexibility and see many firms that offer such flexibility to management level or folks that have proven to the firm that they can handle the responsibilities of the job and their own schedules. But to go into a first time position at a CPA firm looking to set odd hours AND a fixed 8 hour workday is a false expectation. Do you disagree?

To indicate to the OPer that they have some hope in this expectation is doing them a disservice IMO. Best to get the reality check now rather than turn down (or turn off) any job offers holding out for someone to accept this rigid schedule request.

[Stibbs]

Thanks for all your replies. Since I was kind of vague in the first post I figured I'd give more detail. I'm in Los Angeles and have 5 years of experience in billing in a law firm. I'd planned on passing the exam before moving to an accounting firm somewhere in LA. The reason I wanted to start early is because I'm Christian and teach the bible to college students. Starting early means getting out early and getting to campus sooner when there's more students. I would think having all 4 parts of the exam passed would make me desirable enough of a candidate to hire that those hours would at least be plausible. Do any of you think thatd be the case?

[Pork Flavored Bacon]

So it sounds like you'll be going into accounting as a first-year associate.

It's going to be nearly impossible justifying those hours to your employer. As many have said, we are in client services and oftentimes, working only 8 hours a day is not enough. Leaving at 1:30pm sounds pretty unreasonable especially given the fact you confirm you will not be available after you leave the office.

Think about this scenario: You are given an assignment which you complete and then leave the office at 1:30pm. Your senior or manager reviews the work and they need you to make changes. Uh oh, wait a second, you've already left the office and you're not available. Waiting until tomorrow to do the work may not always be feasible. So what will happen? Another associate or your senior/manager will have to make the changes which takes time away from what they are doing. This scenario does not exclude client requests. Clients will make requests at all hours of the day (within reason, of course) and you have to be agile enough to meet those requests.

Leaving the office at 1:30pm is not realistic, I don't care which accounting firm you are working at whether it's the Big Four or a boutique. If the above happened and you were on my team, I would request a replacement after the first incident to nip it in the bud. If it happens enough, you won't last long wherever you are.

Also, in my experience (I work at a Big Four), having passed the CPA does not make you more desirable or give you any leverage.

FAR - 75 | REG - 87 | AUD - 82 | LAW - 81

[Anonymous]

Although I respect your devotion to teach the bible, unfortunately this isn't going to fly in Public. Passing the exam might get you an interview but there are plenty of candidates that are willing to work 10 hours outside of busy season a day with flexible availability. Working in public is time consuming and draining especially in a tough market like LA. You might want to reconsider getting into public or giving up teaching.

[Missy]

I still think your best shot of convincing an employer this benefits them (end of the day no matter how awesome you are its about what they think is best) is to live/work on the west coast in a position that primarily serves the east coast somehow….that way you're working 5a-2p local time but available to your client/customer base 8a-5p their time.

Licensed Massachusetts Non Reporting CPA since 2012
Finance/Admin/HR Manager

[x260bm]

Look for small firms that specialize in tax or smaller private companies. Contrary what people that work in the big 4 think, there's a lot of those out there.

[Author]

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