[kellycpa87]

Hi everyone,

Hope all goes well for you guys!

My name is Kelly and I am new to the forum. I am kindly seeking your help as I have encountered a problem with getting my boss to certify my general experience. Currently I am working for a government agency.

My boss rejected to sign off my general experience request verbally. Upon my request, my boss put the reasons in a written response for his basis to refuse my request. In one of the copies that he mailed to California Board of Accountancy, he stated that my work performance was not in compliance with applicable professional standards, particularly in the area of due professional care as defined under the Code of Professional Conduct, due to the following reasons:

1. Lack of technical skills

2. Lack of analytical skills

3. Lack of initiative to tackle complicated issues

4. Lack of planning and time management skills

He stated that he rejected my request based on his comments on my annual evaluation report and he hoped the Board would support his decision.

I had conflicts with him in the past and I knew he was intentionlly to impeding my certification progress.The evaluation report was brought up to me after I requested for my experience certification.

Saying my work performance lacking in compliance with applicable professional standards is a fairly serious charge to me as a professional and I have to defend it. Because I don’t want the Board to leave any negative records for me based on his comments. I am thinking if I should hire a lawyer to represent me to sue him for defamatory and to file a complaint to the enforcement division.

Any advise from you guys to fight against this unfair statement will be much appreciated!

Respectfully,

Kelly

[GoVPI]

Yeah.. no time management or any of those skills but passed the CPA…? I haven't even passed and I have 2 people who have offered to sign off when I get it done. If you do not have those skills, you think they would have forced you out of your job by reviews?

It sounds personal to me.

BEC 8/14/14 - Passed
Graduated from college 12/13/14
AUD 8/31/15 - 74. Retake - Passed
REG
FAR

[StephAV]

What a jerk! I'd venture to say many staff accountants with 1 year of experience are lacking in skills. In my opinion accounting is a field you can learn and grow with over time. I have 9 years of experience now and wow, I was really lacking as a staff accountant, but that is why years of experience are taken into account for different jobs. That is why staff accountants aren't CFO's or Controllers.

I think if I were in your position I'd try to handle it with the CBA and let it be known to your boss' superiors that he is a jerk, via your resignation and the reasons for your resignation. Working in that type of environment is no good. I dealt with a few managers in public accounting that were just jerks. Public accounting and accounting in general you are constantly learning and there is no need to put others down just because of that. The upside of this is, use this experience as a learning experience and be sure that as you progress you are kind and encouraging to those below you.

Good luck and keep us posted!

FAR - 7/13 - 72, 11/13- 74, 2/14- 82!!! Best score ever (for me)!!!
BEC - 1/14 - 75!!! Perfect score! First Pass! YAY!!!
AUD - 8/14 - 80!!!
REG - 5/14 - 72, 10/14 - 66, 1/15 - 78 - DONE FOREVER!!!
I did 5 of the UNA and CPAExcel classes to earn units.

[Anonymous]

Not sure how CA works but you don't have to have a supervisor/manager in most states. Get a coworker and or switch states.

[ScarletKnightCPA]

I was in a similar situation in a previous job

My new manager for the year actually gave me a favorable review, but certain superior of my manager tried to cover that out and quietly cut her out of the process.

I immediately escalated the issue. I benefited from the fact that my manager was supporting me though, otherwise the outcome could have been much different. It really showed demonstrated

me how much your ‘performance' is actually due to how much you are liked for reasons outside of just professional reasons. If you are liked, you get more support, coaching, accomplishments are magnified and people generally more willing to interact with you. Nepotism.

I think you should fight for it, you will always be mad at yourself for not doing anything about it if you just let it go. It won't be fun though.

Keep us updated.

Far: 76 (Wiley Test Bank)
Aud: 77 (Wiley Test Bank)
Reg: 61, 76 (Wiley book, Wiley Test Bank)
Bec: 86 (Wiley Test Bank)

MBA in progress

[How many letters do you need]

The other thing with performance. It can change drastically from environment to environment, boss to boss, sometimes even quarter to quarter. People go through tough personal times and as much as every professional tries to leave that at home a person's performance is going to fluctuate. He says you aren't qualified because of that stuff? I say shame on him for not developing you. He's a terrible manager and the whole world needs to know this when you leave OP. (I'm sure you have great plans already for that).

The problem with a lot of CPAs is that some of them get a God Complex from it. He won't allow you to become a CPA because HE doesn't think you are worthy. It's a certification….A damn good one and difficult one…but just a certification nonetheless. A GOOD manager would say something like “wow congrats. You passed all of the exams. You clearly have tons of potential…now let's see how we can develop all of that potential into a solid accounting career. Sit down…”

MBA,CMA,CPA, CFF?, ABV?

[Sir Study Alot]

He is a horrible person 🙁

Passed all 4 exams in 2014!

[wolfcpa]

Hi Kelly,

I'm sorry you have to go through this! Does the actual evaluation that your manager is referencing include concrete examples of how you didn't exersize due professional care? If not, I would provide the CBA with copies of your evaluation showing that it is vague. I would also provide details of my job duties to the CBA to show that you do have the required analytical experience. Also, if you have any other documentation regarding complaints made to HR about how he is treating you, that should provide some evidence to the CBA that he is retaliating in some way.

Good luck with this.

AUD | 76
FAR | 76
REG | 80
BEC | 78! I'm done

California candidate

[kellycpa87]

Guys,

Thank you so much for all of your supports and comments. 🙂 I don't know how much I can express my appreciation for all of you.

My boss had a history of not certifying my other coworkers but none of those people take it to the Board. That made him in very confident in refusing to sign off people.

My boss knew that I have taken the matter to the Board as the Board sent him a letter for stating the reason for not signing off my experience. The licensing unit received his response and notified me that he has fulfilled his obligation as a CPA to state the reason not to cerify my experience. However, it also states if I believe he is impeding my ability to get certified, I will need to file a complaint to the enforcement division and that's where investigator will get involved. And that's where I am now writing my statement to against his statement.

So performance is just an excuse for him not to sign off the form. According to the CA General Experience Form, it basically states you need to qualify for the following three things :

1. Your boss is a active CPA

2. You work under him/her for a year

3. Your work involves the use of accounting skills

However, on the certification form, there is one paragraph which is used by him to go against me, “General accounting experience may include providing any type of service or advice involving the use of accounting, attest, compilation, management advisory, financial advisory, tax or consulting skills. To qualify, experience shall have been performed in accordance with applicable professional standards.”

I called the Board and asked for the exact defination of “applicable professional standards” as stated on the certification form but people working there seem like they don't even know what it means exactly.

So my boss tried to link performance issues to professional standards qualification since he is not able to deny the fact that I have worked under him for more than a year and I am doing accounting work.

I am a compliance officer and I need to do a lot of paperwork and writing. Just like what “wolfcpa” stated, he is retaliating me in some way now by documenting every single mistakes I have made, such as typos and rounding errors, and give me unreasonable deadlines. I believe he will use these stuff to go against me and state to the Board that I am such a incompetent employee that does not deserved to be certified, or even worse, he would like to write me off for my current position due to so-called “performance issues” and “not following manager's instructions by not meeting deadlines”.

I just want justice from the Board because people in our office will never get certified if he wins this battle, knowing that the Board will support his excuses not to certify people by saying they are lack in professional standards in their performance.

[kellycpa87]

Hi billbrasskey,

Thank you for your comments. May I know what board were you referring to to address this subject ?

Thanks again.

[kellycpa87]

Hi CPAin14,

Thanks for your comments. I am happy for you that someone already offered to sign you off before you pass the exam. Good luck to you and I know you will pass it.

For me, certifying my experience is even harder to pass the exam since it falls out of my hands.

[M.O.D.]

@ kelly

This guy sounds like he has a mental issue, an ax to grind. I don't understand why he is still in charge.

If you have the money, I would hire a legal adviser to look over your counter-complaint, and temper some of your emotions as well as sharpen your arguments.

You sound young, and could use an experienced point of view.

The fact that he is still in a supervisory position over many young CPA candidates, and he is actively hindering their careers is justification for his demotion as supervisor, because it is counter to a supervisors' managerial duties.

See if you can strategize such a move and get some signatures and go to his superiors or even a state politician for help. Perhaps because this is the govt he knows he cannot be fired. But I don't understand how he has time to file these complaints. Does he do this during work hours or in his spare time?

I life in California and pay California state taxes, and am shocked he is on the payroll. I am sure most Californians would feel the same, including the board of accountancy.

Send copies of your (well-written) compliant up and down the political ladder.

BA Mathematics, UC Berkeley
Certificates in CPA and EA preparation, College of San Mateo
CMA I 420, II 470
FAR 91, AUD Feb 2015 (Gleim self-study)

[kellycpa87]

Hi Tripp11,

Yes, He is very specific in his reply as he is that kind of person that would do all kinds of research to cover himself up nicely to stand his position, if he lose this, he will just explain that he misunderstand the defination of professional standards.

We have a very unfriendly culture in regards to the CPA certification in our office. Due to limited number of CPAs in our office, we even established certain policies to get to request o tranfer to work under a CPA supervisor, like meeting some kind of quota, number of years of experience, doing special projects, etc .All these are subject to approval. I believe the chain of command even supports his position or probably asks him not to certify me. For what reasons? They don't want people to get certified and get CPA bonus, another way to cut costs for the department. or because most of management people up there are not CPAs and they don't like people under them to get certified? I don't know. I have heard a lot of stories for them. Why risking his own license? Because someone in the back might tell him to do and he has to do this to save his bone.

Just like ScarletKnightCPA, one manager favors my work performance, but the upper manangement tried to cut her out of the process.

[kellycpa87]

@StephAV,

Thanks for your support.

I just feel like we all as CPA applicants have spent so much time to prepare for the CPA exams, experiened so many emotional moments when passing or failing happened, sacrificed so much time that could have been used to spend with our family and friends, carried so many hopes from our loved ones, just to achieve one goal, to become a CPA.

I feel like this is very unfair when my fate of being a CPA falling into a hand of a single person who is intentionally impeding my certification process. I hope the Board will be in a fair position to judge this matter.

As M.O.D. stated, I will hire a legal adviser to look over my counter-complaint, and probably represent me in this process.

[GoVPI]

@kelly I still think you could find someone else to sign off on your experience instead of going through the legal process. Are you going to lose your job? He will make work miserable I am sure

BEC 8/14/14 - Passed
Graduated from college 12/13/14
AUD 8/31/15 - 74. Retake - Passed
REG
FAR

[Anonymous]

Kelly-

https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-forum/topic/if-former-boss-does-not-sign-off-work-experience-form-what-are-the-penalties

Don't be afraid to get an attorney, but I personally (and I do litigation consulting for a living) would probably refrain until you pursue the professional avenues.

[Author]

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