[PasstheCPA7]

Hello, I can’t seem to find any information on how is it like to work in Private Client Services (PCS) in public accounting as an auditor? I start working in Private Client Services in a few weeks as an auditor, but, I’m not sure what types of clients I can expect for this type of industry. My previous audit experience involves working in the healthcare sector and consumer products. But, how is Private Client Services different than other industries in audit? Can someone share their experience if they worked in audit in Private Client Services? Did you enjoy it? Do you wish you were in another industry? I’m not sure what to expect.

Thanks!

[taxsage]

Private client services is not an industry. Private means not held by the public. Therefore you could work in numerous industries as long as the companies are not publically traded. You will have way less of the PCAOB compliance stuff to do so that could be a good thing. If you want to work AT a publically traded company after public accounting your resume may be less strong. Your resume and experience would be stronger for small and midcap jobs. With private client services you may find that you have less control over what industies you work on. This could give you broad exposure early in your career which could allow you to find your niche. Its likely that these companies will be smaller than their publically traded counter parts. The smaller clients may result in more variety of engagements, which translates to picking up experience that can help you move to a smaller firm down the line. Ultimately working in private client services is like doing regional fitm work but getting the Big 4 name. You may actually develop stronger accounting skills in private client services because you will see more of the audit engagements due to the size of the entities and also will be doing less compliance checklists for PCAOB. Its also possible that you might end up with experience in a random industry because you might get a super large private company. Basically you are in an “everything” else category and experiences will vary more so office to office then any other group you could of been assigned to. There are literary 100s of different industries you may be assigned to and an even higher variation of sized clients. If i was in Big 4 sudit I would be happy with PCS because i would feel like there is more potential to navigate clients and try to get a feel for different industries. On the other hand if you know you want to specialize in banking or technology you are siht out of luck.

[PasstheCPA7]

@ taxsage: Wow, that was super helpful. Thank you so much for that. Have you worked in PCS audit before? It seems like you did. Why do you say that PCS often has smaller clients versus bigger clients like public ones? Is that the nature of PCS clients?

Thanks again.

[PasstheCPA7]

@ taxsage: Also, does Private Client Services include Not for Profits and Governmental clients?

[taxsage]

I do a lot of tax work for the equivalent of PCS at my Big 4 firm. I was also an auditor for both large and small firms. You can have PCS clients that are super large, but most publically traded companies are large. PCS will pick up a lot of clients who have the money to pay the fees but are not the typical clientel of a big 4 office. Get enough of those clients and the office creates a PCS team. There are very large privately held companies out there, so it is possible you might get one client.

[PasstheCPA7]

Thanks! Anyone else have any advice or tips about Private Client Services?

[Author]

Replies