[Anonymous]

I work in AP and discovered that I made a big boo boo during my 2nd week on the job. (Been with the company for a month now) I mistakenly entered 6 invoices totaling $2000 under the wrong vendor name and a check was cut and sent out to them. Got in touch with their accounts receivable person. They had already cashed the check a while ago but we eventually worked something out. I told my supervisor what happened but not until I resolved the issue myself. Surprisingly, he didnt get too mad at me.. maybe because i’m still kind of new. But oh man… that sinking feeling that I got upon discovery of my grave.. grave.. mistake.. holy god i wanted to cry!!!

So what about you guys? What was the biggest mistake you’ve ever made at work?

[10keyLeah]

I was having a bad day today and made a stupid mistake so I came looking here for encouragement. lol My mistake today doesn't seem so large now. I sent paperwork to a client that was not ready so my boss called them today to ask them to return it.

I'm in a small 2 and 1/2 person office, and the biggest mistake I've made so far is paying off a client's line of credit that should not have been paid off. It was like a 100K line that had been paid down to several K. They can't re-open the line now until they go through property appraisals.

Ninja Combo, Yaeger, Wiley -- Licensed CPA, May 2015

[Anonymous]

If you aren't making mistakes then you aren't doing your job. It's part of the territory. I'd probably be more alarmed if you never made a mistake. Enjoy your weekend and the tomorrow is a new day!

[Anonymous]

Its okay as long as you learned your lesson. One thing you know for sure is you wont be making the same mistake twice

[golfball7773]

I understated the 3rd quarter financials back in October by 280k for a corporation operating at a 10 million dollar loss……. My upper-exec didn't like that too much

FAR: 63, 55, 62
REG: 65, 77*
AUD: Fail, 64, 71
BEC: 72, 74, 81

*expired

[hasy]

I made my first mistake at my FIRST REAL accounting job. As an accounting assistant, I was the bitch that had to man the front desk, grunt work, AND prepare tax returns for the company. So I was in charge of assembling and mailing out all the returns. So, on a day where he demanded a BUNCH of returns to be mailed out and I still had a bunch of tasks left on my day. I was still trying to get off work on time because I had class an hour RIGHT after work. I was RUSHING so hard. So I accidentally sent a list of our clients who were put in extension to a client who received her tax return as well.

My boss caught the error, he was somewhat okay with it since the client who it was sent to, is NO LONGER a client. But I want to say, I was laid off after tax season.

BUT, they called me the following year asking if I wanted my job back when they found out that I was job searching.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved - Helen Keller

-

BEC 80 (10/23/15)
FAR 72 (4/2/15); 83 (7/11/16)
REG 52 (4/28/15)
AUD (9/9/16)

Roger + NINJA MCQ + WTB

[ThisBetterBeIt]

I know this post is old, but I wanted to add my biggest mistake 😉

At my old company I was in charge of regulatory filings for both exchanges we traded on. At one point, we changed our fiscal year-end which required filings with the various exchanges. I filed the 8-K with the SEC and, with everything going on at that time, forgot to file the corresponding form with our other exchange. In February, when our quarter report would have been due, we received a notice from the exchange I forgot to file with that our filing was late and trading would be suspended. Of course we received the notice late as there had been a glitch in their system and we hadn't received the initial warning as a result. So, we got the change in year end filed with the exchange immediately, however the exchange halted trading for one day. Nothing like a work mistake being blast across a press release… thankfully they didn't name names 🙂

[Anonymous]

^ Holy crap I've heard of some mistakes of paying the wrong vendor or causing a concession and lost revenue but halting trading for a day is up there lol.

[ThisBetterBeIt]

I definitely went big in the work mistake arena.

[Author]

Replies