[CPA2BEE]

Anybody else out there feeling like something is wrong because your not billing out 50+ hour weeks right now? I guess I’m talking to my fellow tax peeps. We’re pretty fresh off of the 10/16 deadline and it has been soooo slow. I even had a talk with the managing partner yesterday asking him “Is there anything I need to get done right now??” His response – “Just enjoy the slow times right now, you know its not always like this.” You know its bad when you are more concerned than the partners lol.

So with all this free time at work, when I’m not busy making sure the Equifax hackers don’t get me, I’ve been wondering if the highs and lows of our seasonal work is actually messing with my mind. I go from being completely overwhelmed with work, to almost nothing, then back to the mayhem, and repeat. When its busy I’m calm, but when it gets slow I get anxious. Is anyone else crazy like me?

FAR - 80
AUD - 82
BEC - 80
REG - 85

ETHICS - 90
EXPERIENCE - COMPLETE
Application for California license mailed 8/4/2016

[jbergmann1]

I agree with you. But you really do have to go with the flow. I too get anxious when there is less to do. I now work at a firm that allows me to do accounting for companies when I am not doing tax, so that has kept me mostly busy so far but it is only my 3rd week. I tried private tax but it is just as seasonal because our returns we did depended on big 4 returns for the hotel owner. We would own between 1 and 99 percent with some still as multiple levels in between. With a trust as the ultimate owner. It was complicated but imo needlessly so. Maybe over my head. So just be glad you understand what you're doing and why. Lose that and you lose YOUR why. Just appreciate what you have and he grateful.

Passed all 4 parts of the CPA exam!
License application in progress

[Tncincy]

First of all I would love to be a CPA but I am in the seasonal mix nevertheless. I am anxious and worrying about when I'll get to study for this crazy exam. Since extensions are over, I have been pacing the floor, checking the phones and asking myself why am I not studying. It's something to get over, but I do. I need some money so I am ready to get back to tax season. When I pass this TEST, I hope to contract with bigger clients. Tis the season to just wait,

It begins with a 75
Been here too long as a cheerleader....ready to pass

[shawn in VA]

I have been in tax for almost 10 years at a 3 different CPA Firms and ALL 3 have had little to no work from 10/15 to about 1/20. Just take a deep breath and enjoy the slow times; I agree with your managing partner. It is 3 months of basically free money. All you have to do is show up. I am lucky if I get 15 hours billable per week b/w 10/15 and 1/15.

perhaps a XANAX would help ease your mind? Go see a doctor.

[Anonymous]

I am about to go into my 4th tax season. I remember feeling the exact same way in the slow periods. Thankfully the owner of the CPA firm I work at let me study for the CPA exam when there was no billable work to do. now that I have passed the CPA exam, ill just work on CPE credits.

[CPA2BEE]

I love all your posts, especially the Xanax comment lol. Similar to @bornontheblue I have been doing a ton of CPE at work the last few weeks, I need my first 20 hours done by the end of this month and I haven't been too proactive about CPE this year so far. Also at the end of next week I am taking off to Australia for a bit and won't be back until after Thanksgiving, I'm sure that will help get my mind off of how “slow” work is for a while.

I also took a couple weeks vacation back in May after the 4/15 deadline, and I remember coming back thinking I could've taken another month off because work was STILL so slow and I came back to almost nothing to do. But several of you are right, just go with the flow and show up, and those 10-12 hours days that are 100% billable will be back before I know it 🙂

@jbergmann1 how did you get your company to allow you to do outside work when it wasn't busy season? Would you just contract with companies to do their in-house books, or what kind of work were you doing? And were you still being paid by your firm while working for the other companies? Sorry for all the questions but I'm intruiged.

FAR - 80
AUD - 82
BEC - 80
REG - 85

ETHICS - 90
EXPERIENCE - COMPLETE
Application for California license mailed 8/4/2016

[jenpen]

While I'm not nearly as crazy busy as I was a couple of weeks ago, my firm has still been pretty busy. We have peer review in a couple of weeks, so on top of trying to wrap up a couple of our NFP audits, we are working on fine-combing all of the files for that. I'll be happy after November – I will be done with exams for the year (hopefully forever, but time will tell), work should be fairly calm, and I can just relax for a few weeks before January.

AUD - 56 - 68 - 61 - 9/8/16
REG - 75
FAR - 7/15/16
BEC - TBD

Wiley CPAexcel and NINJA 10 Point Combo

[Ryan – Just Another Dollar]

I have zero issues with the few slower months of the year in tax. I spend my 9-4 crushing CPE and looking back over returns or topics that confused me during busy season. I'm also taking every other Friday off until we're busy again. Enjoy the downtime while it lasts!

B - 88 (2/16)
A - 84 (4/16)
R - 73 (6/16), 82(7/16)
F - 67 (1/16), 84(4/16)

Ethics - 93

Roger course & Ninja MCQ - HiYa!

[runegoblet3xx]

I've been busy after 10/15 this year because I got roped into our not-for-profit team, and therefore working on a lot of stuff due 11/15. It's sadly why I decided to push my BEC exam back from Dec. 8th to Jan 8th. I went on vacation a couple of weeks ago, but the mental exhaustion from 11/15 work weighed on my decision…that and BEC Chapter 2 in Becker was way more involved than I thought.

Anyways, as mentioned above, enjoy it while it lasts. November for my firm is the big CPE/vacation month. Hardly anybody is ever in the office. After 11/15, as happened last year, I may even be able to study during normal working hours. Part of the hopeful perk of pushing my test back.

I get the same anxiety though; it just feels so wrong to be crazy busy and then have a drop off to the point of twiddling your thumbs.

[TommyTheCat]

my firm does lots of NPO returns as well, and we do our best to get FY filers so that the work is spread out around the entire calendar. But tax season still sucks the big one, no doubt about that.

[ellejay]

I have been in tax for 4 years. I have to say after a busy season I do feel anxious, like I should be doing something. I also feel a little bit depressed afterwards for some reason. But I do enjoy the slow months after a few weeks of getting acclimated to my new schedule (only to have it uprooted again in a few months). So I guess the feelings are normal. Like others though, my firm is still fairly busy in off season – but we do bookkeeping and payroll, and I help out with that and review of bookkeeper staff work. I still have a lot of stuff to do but it's not really deadline driven or as stressful.

[RE2PECT]

I just started my first accounting position in July and really had no idea what to expect. It was pretty slow, but I kept myself busy playing around with some of the software and looking through prior year returns and workpapers. It picked up a little in September, but I wasn't given as much work as I expected. I'm guessing it's because I'm not experienced and some of the returns were pretty complex and had a lot of moving parts.

I was getting anxious about the whole billing process and didn't like billing out so much admin time, but there wasn't much I could do. I'd be lucky if I was billing 15-20 hours to clients based on a 40 hour week. I'd constantly ask my supervisors if there was anything I could do, but whatever they gave me didn't take very long to finish. I don't like sitting around and it makes me uneasy not being busy. I'll probably regret saying it, but I'm actually looking forward to busy season so I can get a taste of what it's like.

FAR: 75 Roger & Ninja (notes/flashcards/audio/MCQ)
AUD: 73, 81
BEC: 71, retake 8/29
REG:

[Author]

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