[linnjr02]

I have been working as an auditor for two and a half years. I now have an offer on the table for a company that prepares XBRL filings for clients in various industries. I am leaning towards rejecting the offer for two main reasons. One, the work-life balance involved in the position does not meet my goals in that area. Two, I am uncertain if the skills involved in the position will transfer over well to another position.

I already talked to a former supervisor in the financial reporting field about the second issue, and she said that she was not sure if she would hire someone who only has experience with XBRL, because there is so much more involved in the financial reporting process.

I wasn’t sure where to turn for help from there, so I thought I’d post a question on this forum. My question is: Would experience in a career focused on XBRL be marketable when seeking out financial reporting career opportunities in the future?

AUD - 91
BEC - 87
FAR - 92
REG - 86

[MaLoTu]

I don't really have an answer, but I would be interested to know if the position has other responsibilities and if there was a clear career path progression. If you are going to be a glorified data enterer then you should holdout for a better prospect.

FWIW, I feel there is value in learning XBRL, but I would take your friend's caution seriously.

[HoldMyBeerCPA]

In my opinion it would depend on the type of work you do as a financial reporting associate. In my current role, I prepare XBRL filings for a number of clients. Though I work as the third party so I don't get an extensive look at the financials of the company, only the finished product.

I started out with 1 month experience in accounting from a job where I was let go before I took this position. I made sure that I could do as much as I could with the company I'm at to supplement the XBRL filings I did. I did some A/R/, A/P, and reconciliations as well. Recently, I got an offer from a CPA firm for an auditor position. The partner at the firm let me know that my experience with XBRL filings helped in a sense because I got to work directly with auditors when there was issues with numbers not tying together, omissions in the financials and footnotes as well as providing outstanding share counts. Though the position I'm in is more of a data entry position, it helps to have some accounting experience to go along with it when it comes to identifying the right U.S. G.A.A.P taxonomy tags to use.

In sum, I would not take the position offered by the company if it's doing XBRL filings as a third party. If the position is financial reporting within a SEC registrant company, then I would be a bit more inclined to take the position since you're assisting if not managing the entire process for the company internally. However, you still may be reviewing the filings from a third party who tagged the financials. A career as a Director of Financial Reporting has always intrigued me, however, I would not want to do so at a company that performs the XBRL tagging such as RR Donnelley.

TL;DR

– I started my career as a financial reporting specialist.

– I did my best to work with as many auditors as possible when issues arose when we tagged filings for SEC Registrants

– I was able to use my clientele to get an interview and job with a CPA firm

– The partner noted that my experience in XBRL helped in the sense that I was able to spot issues within the financials when accounts did not reconcile.

– I would only take the job if its financial reporting within a company and not for a third party such as the job listed at this link: https://careers.mhfi.com/ShowJob/Id/500277/SR%20ANALYST,%20FINANCIAL%20REPORTING

[linnjr02]

Thank you for the responses so far – they are very helpful!

The company is a third party – they prepare XBRL filings for client after the clients send them the draft of their financial statements. From my understanding – XBRL is all you do, but it's for clients from a variety of industries. There are quarterly “peak” times where you work 60 hour weeks, and then during the “off” times there's the same type of work to do, but just not as much.

For career path progression, they talked about becoming potential to become a trainer for staff members, or getting more into the technology side of things. And of course moving up in the company and having more responsibility. I don't think there's much opportunity to move to another field within the company (since there are not a lot of fields to go to).

I hope that gives a little more detail into what this position looks like. If you have any other questions/comments, let me know. Thanks!

AUD - 91
BEC - 87
FAR - 92
REG - 86

[HoldMyBeerCPA]

@linn: It seems like the position is identical to mine. However, since the company I work at is also a transfer agent, I had a chance to get my fingerprints on the day-to-day accounting responsibilities within the company. Though, since it's a third party, I would decline the offer. I wouldn't envision much opportunity to move laterally within the same field, i.e. becoming a Director of Financial Reporting for a fortune 500 company by taking this role.

That and learning XBRL varies from program to program and company to company. It was a hassle for me to learn and took me a couple of filing periods to hit my stride. I'd expect that you'd want to pull your hair out if you're coming in inexperienced in XBRL.

[MaLoTu]

I agree with RKintaudi. The growth potential you described is not worthy of your CPA accomplishment. Just doing XBRL is not going to be an asset on your resume like financial analyst or SEC reporting analyst would.

[linnjr02]

Thank you again for the responses. I did reject the offer this morning. I am currently living and working a few hours away from Minneapolis, and will be continuing to seek career opportunities in the Minneapolis area.

AUD - 91
BEC - 87
FAR - 92
REG - 86

[Author]

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