[PasstheCPA23]

Hi everyone, I wanted to ask some questions regarding working at a College or University and doing the accounting for them. A little background about me: I currently work in public accounting, and audit manufacturers. However, I’m trying to get into auditing Colleges and Universities. Has anyone ever audited colleges and universities? If so, how has your experience been with that? Do you like it or hate it? I’ve just been intrigued by colleges and universities as I think it would be pretty cool to audit them (versus the traditional manufacturing and distribution clients I have). How does auditing a college or university differ from auditing a manufacturer? Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated!

My other question was: Has anyone ever worked at a college or university and done the accounting for them at that level? How does THAT role differ from a traditional accounting industry role where you work in industry and are a senior accountant?

Finally: Do you guys prefer I get experience auditing colleges and universities? And then if I leave public accounting – I can easily get a job at a college or university where I’m doing the accounting for them? I am just a little confused on some career choices, that’s all.

Thank you for your replies!

[Recked]

I had a whole response typed up but the forum glitched and my post was lost.
Cliff's
I don't, my sister does (works in college accounting department). It sounds like a nightmare of government red tape and bureaucracy.
If its a state run school you will deal with both governmental and not for profit accounting, and they don't always agree.
You will also have multiple agencies reviewing your budget, with conflicting goals, and conflicting accounting methods.

[Anonymous]

there used to be a user on here who was a controller at a university but I can no longer access my messages and I dont recall her user ID offhand…

[IwannabeaCPA2017]

@allegra, if I recall you're referencing Lila? I think that is her user.

[PasstheCPA23]

Anyone here have any thoughts?

[FutureCPA18]

I'm an auditor at national CPA firm, I don't have experience in govt accounting yet but I will be part of the team that will be auditing a university starting next week. I will be there for like a month and I hope it's interesting. I will let you know how it goes 🙂

[Tangerinemdr]

I audited universities while working at D&T and then worked in a few different departments at universities during my career. The drawbacks are tons of red tape and a sort of “old boys club” i.e. certain people will be able to get away with doing nothing or making their own rules, while a few work themselves to the bone and try to maintain their integrity, not unlike most government jobs. The pay is low (except for executives) and there is always a fire that needs to be put out. I would hope that your experiences are better than that. The benefits are usually getting a free education for you, your spouse and children. I could see myself working through the crap to save over $200k to get my kids through a good school debt free or as close to it as possible. There is also a benefit of getting some of your loans forgiven if you make qualifying payments for about 10 years. Not sure if these things mean anything to you, but they are game changers for some.

[Allergic2CPA]

@OP

What follows is not a trolling post. The dry humor parts is to outshine the user Skynet with humor…even if dark humor.

I worked at a public university for seven years.

Not sure how much experience you have now but be warned that you can definitely be pigeon holed into “not in industry” attitude. You might even have some question whether or not you actually been given “complicated” work or dealt with “stressful” situations. Basically bad stigma.

The other issue is that career advancement can be extremely limited. You might need to become or continue to be a serial killer to get a promotion. If you don't come in with supervisory experience, it can be virtually impossible to get such roles at a Univesity. You can try sleeping your way to the top…or bottom…hey it works for porn stars :).

Your last question was odd as it started with “do you guys prefer,” I mean do what is best for your career path…as in becoming a serial killer bwahaha.

I mean their exceptions but also keep in mind salaries might generally be lower than industry but benefits can be great (full benefits free for employee).

Parking can be an issue but it depends on where you plan to work. I never had that issue but you never know. You might also have to buy a parking permit yearly and pay between $50+.

But hey its not all bad… it's a University so some younger eye candy is there :).

FAR 46*, 77
AUD 70, 79
BEC 67, 82
REG 75

Texas License July 2013

Used Yaeger lectures based on Wiley textbooks

*Studied less than two weeks, forgot I had purchased NTS.

[PasstheCPA23]

I guess I'm trying to learn more about being a senior accountant at an university or college and how that experience relates to being maybe a senior accountant at a manufacturer who has inventory? Any experiences with people doing that? Which one do you prefer and why?

Thank you everyone for your replies!!!

[Anonymous]

yes! Lila!

[Anonymous]

I currently audit government clients, more specifically, my main client is a community college. I would agree that the industry is definitely prone to getting pigeon holed, thus I am leaving here shortly. I think that the actual audit work isn't too bad, but the clients are generally not that accounting intelligent. That leads to a lot of questions from the clients on proper accounting treatment. On top of that the client's financial statements are almost always a mess because they don't know what they are doing or how to treat new GASB's. Depending on what you end up doing, you may end up doing Single Audit work, which is kind of a nightmare for anyone who has never done it before. On top of all that the guidance for Single Audit standards are changing and going to require more IT test work for the Student Financial Aid program, which every college will have audited yearly. That means you'll be doing more IT testwork. To top that all off your exit opportunities will be limited to government clients or college/universities, which are notoriously underpaid, hence the poor accounting staff. I would stick with the audit work your doing and look for a good exit opportunity to a client or something related.

[PasstheCPA23]

@ 4eyelove: Thank you for the excellent summary. However, shouldn't community colleges be using regular FASBs (since it's a not for profit)? I am not sure why you said they use GASBs? I would love to learn more about your experience. Are you on LinkedIn by any chance? I would love to connect with you and learn about your current role. I just find community college/universities interesting, so, not sure which route to take 🙁

[Anonymous]

If you know of a community college that is not a government organization, then maybe, but I don't know of one that is. You can always pull up their financial reports and look to see what standards they were audited under for quick reference. All my audit work has been conducted under GASB standards. That would be a huge reason that the field is limited and hard to transfer. Not that the standards are entirely different, employer will just look at it as not directly transferable knowledge. I am more than willing to talk with you more about it over email. Just post your email and I'll send you a message.

[PasstheCPA23]

@ 4eyelove: Thanks!

[Anonymous]

here's her profile: https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-forum/users/elisabeth/

[Author]

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