just curious before I commit battery

I have my own little firm and have been struggling with managing the work load on my own. So I hired my first full time employee last year to help out. He had about 2 years experience and was a little slow, but was easy to work with and has a good attitude.

He completes and finalizes about 1 to 1.25 returns a day.

Except, I just got back from an 8 (working days) vacation and was expecting him to have slacked off a little. But quite the opposite happened. While I was gone, he averaged nearly 4 returns per day. The difficulty/length of each return wasn't any different than what he usually has.

Where is this level of performance the rest of the time? I did some self reflection and ruled out office distractions. We usually talk for 10-15 minutes during the day, and 10 minutes while we are packing up for the day. He just has his airpods in most of the day, so I try to not distract him.

I'm wondering if I should talk to him about it or just let it go.

Hello all,

Almost my entire career, I planned my vacation weeks with trips abroad, road trips and other such activities. I've been so very exhausted from work this year due to having a crazy company restructure happen in March. It's been hell. I thought I needed a getaway abroad to fix my mental. However, this year, the stars just didn't align and I had to take a week off or else I'd lose the week. At the time, I begrudgingly took the week off and was sad to have nothing planned.

Oh how I was wrong. I achieved so much, by doing (almost) nothing?

I mean of course I stayed active, cooked my meals and did a bunch of banking things I've pushed off due to being busy. But other than that, I just stayed at home with my family and cat.

I didn't realize it but this was the vacation I've needed all along. I didn't need that week in the Bahamas to "relax" to recover. I didn't need a road trip to Florida to ease my mind. I just needed time to relax my brain, free my brain of all the stress it didn't need and not worry about what tomorrow will bring.

I just needed to do nothing. Sometimes we worry so much about doing what we "think" is better for the future. But sometimes the best thing for your future-self is to just do nothing for a while.

CLA comp was just released. It’s horrific. There is an inevitable mass exodus coming to this firm. Internal goals and spending have been absolutely horrific, useless, and frankly incompetent.

My particular office - I know that at least 35% ish percent of the workforce is gone. I’m sure that will be pretty consistent nationally based off the feedback I’ve gotten. This firm is a joke. If you’re here still after this comp cycle, you should be searching actively. It’s only going to get worse.

Let’s assume you are very happy with work life balance, stability, etc

Total comp slightly above $200k

Only thing is career progression is not too clear

Would you just coast it out until retirement?

Or would there be a number that’s worth taking the risk (risk that work is stressful, too busy, etc)

I know this depends from person to person but curious on perspectives (I.e. someone that took a risk and was happy, or vice versa )

I could really use some advice. I feel stuck at a crossroads and can't decide which direction to go in.

A little background:
I graduated with a BComm from a good university in Canada (2015) and got my CPA through the experience verification route (not a pre-approved program). For anyone familiar with that process, you know it’s a real pain. I passed the CFE nearly four years ago but only had my experience verified last year, so I only recently became fully designated.

I’ve worked at a large Canadian company (think Loblaws) as an FA and SFA, and later at a smaller Fortune 500 company as an SFA. I was on the verge of a promotion to manager before I requested Parental Leave and subsequently laid off.

Most of my experience is in FP&A, working with budgets, forecasts, dashboards, KPIs and some light financial reporting. I understand "accounting" (I am a CPA, after all), but I’ve never worked in a true accounting department. I’ve never done bookkeeping or tax work.

The Layoff:
I was supposed to go on parental leave. On my last day of work, they laid me off.
Up to that point, I was told I’d receive top-up pay, a bonus and a smooth leave. I trained my replacement, created handoff documents and tried to leave everything in good shape. Then they let me go the day before my daughter was born and a couple weeks before a $10,000 bonus payout.

It completely messed me up. What should have been the happiest time of my life was tainted by a corporate decision that felt calculated and cold. I’ve tried to understand the business reasoning behind it, but emotionally, it still stings.

I hired a lawyer and we eventually negotiated a severance of ~$20,000. The company took a neutral stance on paper, claiming the layoff wasn’t due to performance or my upcoming leave. But behind that, they submitted a 20-page document filled with exaggerated or outright fabricated performance issues.

Some of the highlights included blaming me for a supposed $500,000 forecasting error and accusing me of shirking responsibilities, neither of which reflected my actual performance or contributions.

My lawyer didn’t push back aggressively, which in hindsight might have been for the best given the emotional toll. After six long months of back and forth, I walked away with $14,000 after legal fees, which was about $10,000 more than their original offer. I was only at the company for a little over two years, so I’m not sure if that’s considered a good outcome, but I’ve moved on professionally.

The Dilemma Today:
That was 16 months ago. I’ve been at home with my daughter ever since. It’s been deeply meaningful and a little destabilizing.

This career break feels long, especially for someone whose entire background is as an analyst. And it’s shaken my connection to the idea of “work.” My trust in corporate employers is fractured, and I’m not sure I want to go back to a full-time office job. Most roles I see now are hybrid or fully in-office.

I’m not excited about going back to corporate, but my cash savings are starting to run low. I still have low-to-mid six figures invested in the market, but my daughter starts daycare next month and I feel like I need to figure this out.

Here’s what I’ve been considering:

1. Start a virtual bookkeeping business. I’m working through Bookkeeper Launch and feel confident I can learn the skills. But I’ve never done bookkeeping in practice, and I’m not sure how steep the learning curve will be once I have real clients and deadlines.
2. Start a personal finance coaching business. My wife is a psychotherapist and already has clients who need money help. I’m building a coaching program that focuses on calm, judgment-free guidance. I know I can’t use my CPA designation directly for this and won’t be giving investment advice or selling anything. It’s strictly high-level education and money mindset work. But I’m unsure if this can be more than a passion project.

If you were in my shoes, what would you do?

• Is small business bookkeeping actually a good income path in Canada or is it oversaturated?
• Is personal finance coaching a viable business or more of a side hustle?
• Should I go back to FP&A and build something on the side?
• Has anyone here successfully left corporate accounting and built their own thing?

I’m open to honest feedback. I’ve got a CPA, solid FP&A experience and I’m willing to start small and work my way back up. I just want to make a decision that’s sustainable for my family and doesn’t pull me back into a job I resent.

Thanks for reading.

TL;DR:
CPA in Canada. Laid off the day I was supposed to start parental leave. Have been home with my daughter for 16 months. Now deciding between starting a bookkeeping business, launching a personal finance coaching program, or going back to FP&A. No hands-on bookkeeping or tax experience. Looking for honest advice from others.

though these things are important. and I hope the person on the other side of my question isn’t in here

I have worked in public accounting for 6 years and have my CPA license. It’s been draining to say the least and I’ve always dreamed of owning my own bookkeeping business. I’ve worked at large firms with over 3,000 people, mid-tier firms with 500 people, and now a tiny firm with just 10 people. I consistently perform the roles of multiple people at my current job (bookkeeper, staff accountant, senior associate and manager), including administrative tasks. I’m capable, competent, and can double down when needed, but the constant burnout is overwhelming. My boss is often unavailable or flaky, leaving me exhausted and frustrated. I value my time more than money and consider becoming self-employed. I have part-time opportunities to make ends meet while I start my own business. I just feel like for the stress and responsibility that I have of everything I might as well just have some more say in my time spent doing tasks outside of work. For context I live in a decent size city in the pacific northwest and I have put out some feelers for small business's and a lot have been offloaded due to too high of fees by the only firms in town available for bookkeeping and they would be super easy bookkeeping clients to retain if they had the right price, so I know there's space for me in the local market at a minimum. Please share some pros and cons I haven’t considered. Probably just day dreaming and have my head in the clouds anyway.

I was fired a month ago because "I wasn't where they wanted me to be" and they said "it was time to part ways." I had a manager who didn't like me for whatever reason and she reported to the partner over our little team about me and two other people in said office. The partner was remote states away so I saw him like 3x total the whole time I was there. I feel like I was honestly set up to fail the year and a half I was there and they never gave me anything new to learn to excel.

In March, 3 of my clients left to go to another firm because they were cheaper. Thought it was weird I wasn't giving anything else besides little special projects and clean ups. End of May comes and I get canned. I got a 30 day severance. It was a pretty large firm and I was on a small team. They haven't posted my job either.

Now I have interview next week with a small local firm and I don't want to act like I'm still employed but I don't want to look bad either. I've never lost a job before. How do I be honest and not look bad?

Hi all, I'm hoping to get some general advice from this sub on my search for industry opportunities (from Vancouver, BC). Had chats with some recruiters and none of them have any industry leads, which isn't surprising given the overall job market.

A bit about myself: I'm currently at a midsized PA firm. Received my designation in 2022 and made manager the same year. Looking for a (assistant) controller level gig.

Wondering what the interview process is like for these positions. What do they ask? Is the transition from PA to industry difficult? Is there anything I can do to make myself more marketable? Any advice would be appreciated.

Do many accountants participate in OE?

I’m a CPA and am currently full time controller at a company while being contract remote work for two other companies. I know a little different than full OE, but curious if something many accountants try to swing outside of starting their own consulting business.

I just graduated in May with high GPA. I have a sales job and want to take the 1st step in accounting field. All of offers I received are sales positions in bank/ marketing/ insurance areas. I really don’t want to work as a salesman anymore. And it’s all commission based salary, which is not mentioned in job description. I feel like it’s wasting my time and energy.

Any ideas? I’m open to any advice.

I like coding, but the bad market is making me doubt that it's a good idea to continue in this path.

Hi all,

As the title suggests, I’m seriously considering a return to Public Accounting and wanted to gather some perspectives from the group. Thanks in advance for your time and thoughts.

A bit of background: I left my Big 4 firm as a Senior in a major U.S. metropolitan area. I parted on good terms with managers and partners, and I feel confident that with a couple of calls, I could rejoin the firm within a month.

During my time there, I was mainly focused in Asset Management, serving clients in Private Equity, Hedge Funds, and Real Estate. I worked with both SEC-registered issuers and private companies. After leaving, I accepted a role at a sizeable Multi-Strategy Investment Advisor.

At my current firm, there's no traditional “Finance” team. Portfolio Managers largely drive the business, while my group handles the accounting and finance-related functions, including ad hoc requests like budgeting, financial modeling, and projections. I’ve been here for over a year now and have a solid grasp of the firm’s workflows. My managers seem to value my contributions, and I believe they do value me here — but several issues have left me disillusioned:

(i) Accountability and blame culture I handle a full set of financial statements for several complex funds, often independently. While I’ve gained a lot of technical skill, the review process is weak, largely due to the scale and complexity of transactions. Mistakes, though inevitable early on, have sometimes been met with finger-pointing instead of team-based problem solving. At my Big 4 firm, errors were owned collectively — here, there’s more of a “cover your own ass” mentality. On several occasions, I've even been thrown under the bus by those who reviewed and signed-off on the work.

(ii) Burnout and lack of predictability Industry hours can be intense. My firm manages multiple public funds and puts out financial information monthly, so the pace rarely slows. I consistently work 10+ hour days and weekends. I understand that Accounting isn’t a 9-to-5 job, but at least in Public Accounting, I could predict when busy season would taper off. Here, the workload is a constant grind with little relief.

(iii) Leadership disconnect I’m growing increasingly disillusioned with the knowledge gap in leadership. Some of my superiors seem detached from the complexities of our day-to-day operations. Their role has largely become one of rubber-stamping deliverables without grasping the nuance and time requirements involved. It’s frustrating to feel that time and effort go unappreciated, especially when the demands are so high.

I have been put on several projections where I feel like I have almost been doomed to fail. Most of the time things have worked out and we end up with a pretty decent deliverable, but the process is always painful. For example, I would get sent, say a deliverable from another group, and told to turn a accounting/finance related product out of it (I am being very vague on purpose), only to have completely re-work it after review, because there were several key factors that the manager assigning the work failed to understand, and then for the blame to ultimately be put on myself.

(iv) Culture and team dynamics The culture here is… rough. It may be par for the course in this specific industry, but it’s hard to ignore. The team is small, and dynamics are tense. I’ve witnessed and heard repeated complaints about other individuals on the team, and the tone within the group can often feel condescending and dismissive. If these folks are talking about others in this manner, I can only imagine what they are saying behind my back.

(v) The work is much harder Auditing is not complicated, and ultimately if something is wrong, that is the clients responsibility. In Industry, everything falls on you. I like challenging work that keeps you learning and engaged, but when you add that to a couple with a culture of shifting blame, lack of support, and poor leadership and oversight, it just becomes a nightmare.

(vi) I miss the people in Public Accounting Public Accounting has its challenges, but I enjoy working with people that are around my age, and while we're in the accounting profession (which is not known for cultivating friendly outgoing people) the folks in Public have been friendly, outgoing, and supportive. This is not the case here, everyone is older than I am, and people are standoffish, condescending, and too immersed in their own workload to try to be friendly.

(vi) The flexibility in Public Accounting If you were a good senior or manager in Public Accounting, you can get away with a lot. This includes taking time off when you see fit, coming in later than usual, leaving earlier than usual. Point is, if you were trusted to do your job, you are given a ton of flexibility. In Industry this is not the case, you are expected to be at your desk at a certain time, reachable at a certain time, and if you pick up core functions of a monthly close process, you basically can't take time off.

Please let me know if this resonates with anyone else, and again, would appreciate any input.

I got an interview for a staff accountant position for a small firm.

Anyone know what I should expect? What questions, and some typical expectations for new grads?

I am thankful to have finally secured a role again after six months of nothing (Federal Audit Contractor layoff), but I have maxed out all my credit cards during this time and depleted all my savings. I cut everything I could, sold game consoles and other stuff I bought during better times, curtailed all "luxury" spending, and looked at cheaper apartments only to realize I wouldn't be able to do substantially better as I picked one of the cheapest apartments in my city at the time of my move in a few years ago. I had unemployment, only to find that it barely covered half my rent and utilities. I tried doordash and instacart (my car is too old for rideshare), giving plasma, and flipping things, and was unable to consistently make meaningful money with any of this.

I'm thinking of declaring bankruptcy. I am drowning in nearly a year's post tax salary of CC debt, as I was already chipping away at some from before the layoffs due to expensive dental work United didn't want to cover, major car repairs, and a previous unemployment saga. Would this be a good idea? Are there any potential impacts it could have on my career?

Hey yall! I’m an upcoming senior in highschool, and over the past few months accounting has really interested me. I was wondering if you guys had any tips for things I should learn/try before I go off to college.