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My dad has his own CPA firm and has been a CPA for over 30 years. The firm is very successful with over 100 clients and pulls in a strong six figures a year (it’s literally just him, no outside help until I came along).

I’ve been working with him for about a year and honestly I hate it. Much to my dismay I’ve found that most of what my dad does is basic bookkeeping. Most of his time (now my time) is spent doing payroll, creating P&L statements, and doing things like submitting online payments for clients. He also does individual and corporate taxes (which I’m more fond of than the bookkeeping).

Unfortunately this is my only exposure to accounting and while I’d like to think that there is more to being a CPA, I can’t help but start to resent the field. His advice is to just to what he’s done all these years when I get my CPA and he doesn’t recommend me branching out in other directions so he hasn’t been too helpful in providing me with direction. He doesn’t see anything as being lucrative outside of how he’s done things.

My questions (they’ll sounds stupid):

What else is out there for a CPA? I have multiple degrees in biomedicine and people tell me I should look into accounting for biotech firms, drug companies, medical laboratories, but what does that even mean? I love real estate as well and would love to tie accounting in with real estate investing, but beyond taxes, what does accounting for real estate investors entail? If I don’t want to do bookkeeping, what other services can I offer companies/businesses? I’ve read about financial consulting, mergers & acquisitions, wealth management, etc. but how does being a CPA fit into those beyond what someone with a financial certification or an investment banker do?

Thank you!!

[Recked]

Lots of options out there, that I have no experience in, but I can tell you how to use yours fathers business model to make your life more fulfilling.
Grow the business to the point that you can hire a bookkeeper/staff.
Have the staff do the data entry, payroll, etc small jobs, so you can focus on the tax returns, tax planning, and consultation services for the business clients.
Or, join a larger firm that has staff to handle the write up, and focus on doing the tax end of it.

I started doing the QB data entry, creating P&Ls etc. But have since moved on to higher order functions and let the lower level staff do the mindless stuff.

[Author]

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