[William H Bonnie]

This may seem like the ramblings/rant of a disgruntled employee. There’s a bit more depth to it than that. I’m not so much disgruntled, as I am worried.

So, I just finished the last section of my CPA and am about start my application for licensure in NJ. I’ve been in public accounting for 3.5 years, until recently I transitioned to private at a Fortune 500. When I was in public, I loved the work – at least conceptually. I would often get frustrated and jaded with the overload of various forms and their redundancy, but for the most part, I liked auditing. I moved to private, because I didn’t see myself staying in the industry. It may have been a short-sighted conclusion, but at the time I felt that going to private would broaden my career path. Anyway, after several months at my new position, I’ve concluded that private accounting sucks. It’s one thing to have to step away from GAAP and financial reporting, but there is no single ERP here. The GL interfaces with numerous separate systems that maintain various components of the sub-ledgers. In even the most unsophisticated accounting systems of my clients in my previous career, there was a single ERP with component modules. Maybe one account, such as inventory, was maintained in a separate sub-ledger. It makes life hell to try and pull resources from these systems and to reconcile one system to the other. When I try to get an understanding of the process flow, no one really seems to be able to answer me straightly. It seems like these questions are more of a burden for the person to whom I ask, and I become a pariah/idiot who can’t shed his old auditor-hat. It makes it hard for me to learn without seeing the big accounting picture, since I don’t know how the journal entries I’m posting are effecting the systematic entries flowing from other divisions and their respective systems. Then, of course, I make mistakes and lose any credibility as to why knowing this information is important. I feel like a drone having to learn how to assemble a component without seeing the final product. The thing that irks me the most is that at the site/division level, we are pretty much on a modified cash basis… as a MANUFACTURER! Raw materials are not capitalized at all. I was in disbelief when the financial analyst who was training me told me we expense all raw materials to COGS because “if we went out of business today, we would still have to pay…” Not to sound pompous or arrogant, but how is it that the idea of a liability was lost and mistaken for an expense? This wasn’t just that the analyst was ignorant, this is policy. My best guess is that a consolidated level, GAAP adjustment(s) is/(are) made at corporate for reporting. But still, here at the sites, we are speaking to financials that are not presented on an accrual basis, and have to explain financial performance without the concept of the matching principal. It’s like I’m at a multi-billion dollar mom-and-pop whose only real concern is cash flow.

At the risk of sounding like I’m just b*tching and moaning about a new career that isn’t what I expected it to be, at what point does it become detrimental to my career development for me to adjust to this new environment? Almost all job postings I saw when I was searching/interviewing, required the intimate knowledge of an ERP, whether it’s SAP, NAV, JD Edwards, Great Plains, etc. I apologize if this comes off as vindictive or spiteful. I’m really trying my best here to see the bright side of things, but I SINCERELY worry about adjusting to this system. I feel like I’m going backwards… The system and framework seem a bit archaic to me. I feel like I’m in the 90’s learning how to be the best typewriter operator as the world transitions to the PC.

I know if I stayed at my old firm, I could have eventually made partner. The training there was excellent and I knew WHY I was doing things. I just couldn’t see myself spending so much time away from my, now wife, and possibly soon, kids. It’s a solid 5 months out of the year where personal things are just blocked out. The irony is that I’m spending more time at work now, then I was when I was in public. It’s like busy season during close, and since I’m still adjusting (yes, even after 6 months, I’m still adjusting) it takes time for me to review/reconcile and find my mistakes, so I’m there for busy season hours for the 2 weeks following the close. Before I know it, it’s close again. I can’t even eat into the work that was piled up from before I was there… the workload just keeps going backwards.

So back to my initial question, what do I do now? Is all private accounting this.. ridiculous? I don’t think I have a mindset for book-keeping, truthfully. The good thing about this position is that it gives me a lot of exposure to forecasting and analysis, but I completely struggle with the book-keeping aspect. It really is a completely different skill-set. I can’t keep track of a 100 small dollar transactions. I get so tempted to waive these as immaterial! I loved auditing, like I said, conceptually, but I hated that the work was inherently viewed as me pestering people. Life’s too short to be spending 15 hours a day with hostile/combative accountants who view your work as value-less. My only exposure to private accounting has not been a good experience, and I literally dread going to work in the morning. Is another designation my best bet? Should I be considering ABV, or maybe CITP? I have a bit of interest in these two areas, but I’m reluctant to pursue these fields as my last maneuver in my career path utterly blew donkey chunks. Any input/help would be sincerely appreciated. I need to know if I’m being unreasonable in my expectations, or if my concerns are valid/justified.

[FlipACoin]

Wow. It's late here so quite honestly I didn't read all of that but I certainly get the gist. Poor outdated systems, poor structure, when I got to modified cash accounting I had read enough. I get it, it's somewhere between laughable and disgusting but I know you don't honestly believe that all private accounting is like that. I currently work on the division level of a manufacturer. We use absoprtion accounting for all purposes, and although our systems are pretty disjointed right now we are in the process of implementing SAP. I guess it helps that our division controller is awesome, and a CPA at that. He would fall on the sword before allowing what you guys doing there. Looking back, I've worked for a ton of companies ranging in size from 40M to 6B, with a few mom and pops in there as a consultant. Nobody beyond mom and pops use cash accounting! It seems like you are either working for a small company or a division/company that has grown from a small company and the leadership just prefers their internal reporting that way. My question to you, why didn't you ask about any of this stuff in the interview? Systems are so directly critical to work life balance that's one of the first topics I dive into when it's time for me ask questions….

End of the day, I'm not saying corporate accounting is perfect, because it's not, but I would not let this experience set the bar for what corporate accounting is, because you have stumbled upon an anomaly. Most accountants I know who operate with solid systems work pretty much a straight 40 hrs with a 50-60hr week on month end and maybe a 60-70 at quarter end. As you move into management, the time during month end and quarter end actually decline some because at that point you are doing more review/analysis/meetings, but your 40 hr weeks turn into 50 hr weeks because then you have people to deal with:). Directors/Controllers you can figure a straight 60 hrs on average but at that point you have much more flexibility so you can go home at 5 spend time with your wife/kids and then work a few hours before bed. Of course this changes drastically depending on the company, industry, economy and major projects on your plate but that's about what you can expect on average. I've never worked in public accounting so I have no idea if that's better or worse but it seems to be much more consistent….

If you do decide to give corporate accounting another shot, be picky and ask more questions! Systems, structure, culture, accounting basis: You should know ALL of these things before ever signing an offer letter…

[mla1169]

It sounds obvious that industry isn't the right match for you. Its good that you tried it so that you know for sure, but now you do know.

Also, I know I wouldn't like accounting on a modified cash basis, but I certainly wouldn't say that doing so is improper in any way. GAAP prefers accrual basis accounting but it isn't a set in stone requirement. You're just not used to seeing it any other way 🙂

FAR- 77
AUD -49, 71, 84
REG -56,75!
BEC -75

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[William H Bonnie]

That's all fair enough. To be honest, I did ask about the accounting system, as I had a nightmare of a time with one of my manufacturing clients and their 20+ year old, out-of-the-box, few modifications/updates since implemenation systems. I would kill for that system now! When I say I'm at a Fortune 500, I mean it. It's probably in the first 250. Definitely an industry leader. Never in my life would I have imagined the system to be in this condition. When I asked, they definitely were honest and said “it's not perfect,” but in the process of upgrading. The only thing is that they aren't updating to an integrated ERP. They are upgrading their component systems to be utilized slightly better. I'm sure at corporate conditions may be a bit better, but I wanted to be in the fields. My strong suits in public was always inventory. I wanted to get a chance to utilize/implement absorption costing, and apply some sick variance analysis to see how well I can manage costs… but that doesn't seem possible at this point.

Anyway, thanks for your input. It seems the company may not be the best fit for me. It just sucks because I really believe in what they are doing. I just needed an outsider's perspective. If I was being an unreasonable jack-ass, I needed to hear it so as to know where I stood.

[K_Sunshine5]

Now, I'm not an expert on systems or anything but my advice would be to maybe talk to someone there and see how the process of updating their system is going. Maybe you could help them/give them advice on it and work to implement changes. Would that be possible? Or are you not in a position to do that? Just a thought…

FAR: 65, 77!
AUD: 72, 72, 80!
REG: 64, 84!
BEC: 83!
Ethics: 98!

Delaware CPA as of May 23, 2014 at 10:43am EST.

"She believed she could, so she did."

[William H Bonnie]

No, I'm in no position to do so. I'm just an accountant for a few sites here. Those are corporate decisions. Even if I had some sort of pipeline to the decision-makers, like I said earlier, no credibility. New-guy still learning, still making mistakes… just has to adjust to the Company's “way.”

[Author]

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