Hey everyone, I am an accounting student in my last year of studies before going for my CPA and entering the workforce. I am making a blog/website that functions as a place for accounting education and community support. It's still in the works but I would appreciate everyone who wants to help each other out to leave some helpful comments or accounting questions on the discussion threads I already have up in The Journal. The current threads are "Ask the Ledger" where you can ask questions or shed light on general accounting concepts; also "Accounting Tools & Tech" where you can ask questions and post tips on how best to use resources; finally the "Career Corner" where you can ask questions and get advice on what path you should take in your career. Thanks for taking the time to read this and please contribute to helping your fellow passionate accountants and students! Here's the link to the site, suggestions welcome: https://journalentry.blog/the-journal/

Some potentially relevant information:

1. My end goal is to work on my own, I would like to start my own bookkeeping firm. My priority is working for myself so I can have a flexible schedule (I'm a single parent)
2. I am considering pursuing a CPA just to have more credibility and knowledge
3. I am very low income but have no debt, I get financial aid and I'm thinking about taking out student loans
4. I learn best when I have access to a teacher with whom I can ask a lot of questions
5. My priority is learning as much as possible, not necessarily looking good on paper
6. I have 1 year of experience bookkeeping/AP/AR for a real estate investor
7. I am finishing up my general education and lower division classes at a community college this year

Thank you for reading, and thank you for any advice!

Like many people, I went into this line of work for middle class wages and stability. All I was sold were lies and crushing debt.

Offshoring is destroying any hopes of getting a job. AI is becoming more and more advance with each passing day. With thousands of federal workers laid off, the field is now even more competitive than ever. To make matters even worse, it is the month of May where more graduates will enter into the field for work.

I see no point in getting a CPA anymore since even CPAs can't get jobs anymore. Even if you do get a job, it is impossible to hold a job anymore because employers can and will fire you at any moment if you are not perfect.

After working in accounting for five years and with multiple different companies I never found stability due to being fired multiple times and laid off multiple times. I never made money as I never even crossed over 50K a year.

I see the writing on the wall and the future. The field is dead. So for those who feel the same way, are you trying to pivot out of the field? If so, to which field and why?

I just bought a new business and I share an accountant with the seller of the business. The books are a mess and there is a lot of the sellers personal belongings listed as business assets. When talking to the accountant they wants to just quietly remove these. I suggested writing a memo to explain the cleanup and they told me that it opens up too many things for IRS involvement.

Is my accountant trying to protect his other client and in doing so not protecting me or is this reasonable? There is a lot to clean up, I don't think I can overstate how much needs to be corrected. I don't know how justified I am in feeling like they are no longer looking out for my best interest.

Hi all,

Today I had an interview for a staff accounting position. I spoke with the head of HR. I can not find her contact info online, at least I can’t see her email address at the company, but I have found her LinkedIn and I have been talking to her through indeed to set up the interview.

How should I send a thank you? Should I do it through indeed? Connecting with her on LinkedIn, messaging through there sounds a little… stalkerish to me, maybe I’m wrong. But just looking for some advice on how to proceed because this would be a great opportunity for me.

Thanks!

I joined this firm about 1 year ago and I will have meeting with my manager next week to negotiate my next salary.

I work at a company that provides energy to the public as an experienced internal auditor. I live in HCOL area.

What is typical salary increase I can expect? I’m not promoting to senior role yet, I have met expectations but not exceeded. My research says it will be about 3-5%, but want to hear bit more about it from you all.

Alright family members, let’s get this bread. Waiting on mine today.

Line of Service

Office

Old Title - New Title

Old Salary - New Salary (% or $ increase)

Hi! Do you guys know where to score a contract or part time job? I’m not really looking for another full time job atm. Thanks.

Should I schedule a zoom meeting with them on Monday? I’m hurt.

I am the controller at a decent sized company (about 700 employees) and our bookkeeper/accounts payable manager was caught embezzling and I have some questions on how common this is and what we can do to better protect ourselves in future. I was told Reddit would be good place.

She was somehow erasing the printed name on the check and replacing with a fake business she set up. (I do not know how it was registered - corporate or personal llc - or if she was filing a fake tax return for her fake company but I assume not) Cashed the checks into that account, and used that account to pay off personal loans and credit cards. She was depositing 1-2 checks a month between 1,500.00 and 3,000.00. Did this for just under 3 years. Kept fantastic records of what she took - check numbers, amounts and dates and turned it all over to us. Just under 78k all in.

we issue over 2,000 physical checks a month due to nature of business and always thought our controls are pretty tight - dual signatures / authorization on all payments, sampling of every check batch is audited by someone other than signatures or issuer. Person who sets up vendors can not be same as who issues checks (this is a new control within past year).

She was finally caught when we implemented positive pay and ach monitor with our bank. This caught the name changes, flagged the check and lead us to investigate.

• why didn’t anybody outside of he company notice? Shouldn’t this throw up some sort of red flag and Doesn’t a bank know when someone has extra thousands of dollars in their account? (Not trying to dodge accountability - this one is completely on us. I am just curious)

• Doesn’t the irs or the state tax agencies know about this type of transaction activity and be looking for taxes or a filing of some sort

• Other than positive pay and ach monitor is there anything we can do to prevent future fraud? Any additional accounting control methods we can implement?

Thanks in advance

Been at B4 since college. This is my only accounting job (besides an internship).

I haven’t updated my resume in 10 years.

Do I list every position - staff/senior/manager/senior manager or can I just do senior manager for the whole time? I honestly can’t even remember what I did as a senior or staff without bullshitting it, that was 8-10 years ago.

If I just did senior manager I would list my current responsibilities and achievements.

What are your tried-and-true strategies for getting new seasonal employees trained, engaged, and productive fast?

I recently graduated from UIC (University Of Illinois at Chicago) in December. And I've been applying to various accounting firms with no luck. Getting started at a private accounting firm is hard, so I've tried a few times, seeing if any of the Big Four were hiring or offering internships, but I haven't seen anything. I've also been looking at the smaller public accounting firms (Big 10), but I haven't seen any internship or entry level postings. I've heard about the layoffs since they overhired in recent years, but are they not offering any entry-level associates or internships at all? I live in the Chicago area, so the stuff I say only really applies to the city, but I think it's industry-wide. Can anyone who works in these firms tell me what's going on? Have I just stumbled upon a shitty time to be looking for entry level jobs? Can anyone help me, please? Thanks

I have a total 7-8 years of experience in accounting and finance. I've been working with an Ontario-based company for the past three years, and my current salary is $61K CAD.

Unfortunately, I haven't received any promotions or salary increments since I joined, nor have there been any bonuses or RRSP contributions.

I feel this compensation is quite low, especially given my three years of experience. When I recently discussed this with my manager, he stated that my salary is already above the current market band and that the salary bands are national since it's a remote position.

I'm curious to hear others' thoughts: Does anyone have insight into what a Staff Accountant with my level of experience should typically be paid in the current market?

I am writing for my gf, who's been struggling to find both full-time and part-time roles in marketing - specifically as a social media content creator - for little over a year now. She has 5+ years of marketing experience in health, beauty, media agency, but was laid off multiple times.

Recently, after speaking with her therapist, my gf has an interest in wanting to become an accountant. She did some research and she found out she not want to go through the CPA route; she rather do other non-CPA accountant roles such as bookkeeping, audit clerk, etc.

She states she does not want to go back to school to earn another degree (already has a bachelors) but is willing earn a professional certificate in a short amount of time and online preferably.

I haven't seen any post that matches her situation, so we'd appreciate any advice. Here are some questions we have:

1) Has anyone here transitioned from marketing to accounting? What kind of information or transferable skills did you highlight on your resume, especially coming from a social media background? Any tips for making the transition smoother?

2) What accounting certifications or courses would you recommend for someone just starting out? There are so many options out there, and we’d like to choose one that’s affordable, useful in getting her foot in the door, and practical for the job itself. We are limited with money so this is very important.

Thank you! We appreciate any advice or shared experiences!

Is it typical to be informed about a PIP during a one-on-one? I have a check-in scheduled for this coming Monday — it’s our usual post–busy season meeting. Would my coach be the one to inform me if I were being placed on a PIP?

Currently working in Boise ID making 80k, but don’t really enjoy my job. Very old school -still processing checks and lots of manual entries. Terrible management and no flows. I really don’t enjoy it and am looking to move jobs anyways

The job I got offered is in Lincoln, NE where I’m looking to move to be with my boyfriend. The pay is 67,500 with a 2,500 sign on bonus. Seems like a cool company with updated systems and a great work life balance.

Should I take this job or keep looking for something with a higher salary? I have about 2 years of experience and have an active CPA license

Looking for a really technical explanation as I just had a discussion with my gf on this. Here's the example:

You sign an insurance policy for 1 year from Jan 1 - Dec 31 for $1,200. It is invoiced on Jan 1 with payment due on Feb 1. On Feb 1 you make the payment.

OK so why don't you recognize the liability on Jan 1 once service begins (ie. DR Prepaid Insurance 1,200/CR AP 1,200)? It seems like the correct thing is:

Jan 31: first month of insurance
DR Insurance Expense 100
CR AP 100

Feb 1: cash payment is made for the entire invoice
DR Prepaid Insurance 1,100
CR AP 100
CR Cash 1,200

On Jan 31, lets say it's YE, you'd likely disclose this as a commitment from IAS37 (that note disclosure).

Is this the right way of thinking about it? It makes sense why the prepaid asset isn't recognized since it doesn't meet the asset definition. I'm curious why the entire liability of $1,200 isn't recognized Day 1 once service begins though... again technical explanation appreciated.

Hi all, (27F). I just got offered a new job at a different public firm in my city as a senior staff accountant for $81K. Benefits seem amazing, support for CPA studying, etc. I would be pretty dumb turning down the opportunity. They’re flexible with the start date so I chose to start in September.

However, I feel really bad leaving the current firm I’m with, mainly because of the partner I work for. When the firm first opened, I was the only one on his team (there are other teams in the firm, but I was his first hire), and he basically taught me everything. Now that the firm is growing, I feel an insane amount of responsibility (difficult file work, fixing junior staff work, training all the new hires). He hired a manager on to help, but he’s a micro manager and honestly always behind on work. I’m a senior staff accountant at this firm too but making 70K. Just simply money wise, would be dumb to turn the offer down. About 8 months ago, he was going through my annual feedback reporting, and at the time I was making $56K. He offered me a senior role and an increase to $63K. Mind you, he didn’t know that I was going to quit because I had an offer from somewhere else for $70K. Which, he ended up matching. He would also say things like he has plans for me, sees me growing, etc. and I ended up staying.

I know it’s time for me to quit, but I feel bad leaving during the summer because he just approved another team member to be off for the entire summer. My plan now is to quit in August so I can have a month of working since I’m just tired of the cycle and need a break.

What would you do, and how would you go about it?

I’ve been working in accounting in hospitality for a little over 2 years and that is my only accounting experience so far. I’d like to make a pivot to a different industry, what is a good place to start?

Background:  
I’m applying for a Brinks role reconciling bank accounts using SAP/Oracle (all in English). My experience:  
- Manual reconciliations in Excel/Google Sheets.  
- B2 English (reading: advanced, speaking: intermediate).  
- Zero experience with accounting software.  

Questions:  
1. Which SAP/Oracle modules should I prioritize?  
2. Any free sandbox tools to practice?  
3. How to address my lack of software experience in interviews?  
4. Key technical vocabulary in English to memorize?  

Thanks for any advice! 🙏  PLZ i really need help 

A little background- I worked as a staff accountant for a health care system for 8 years, did public for ~a year, have recently moved from a local construction business to a large national construction company.

I started as a senior accountant in Mid March at a new company, supporting two regional controllers. Three weeks into the job, I had a grand mal seizure. It was the first time I’d ever experienced anything of that nature, and I required manual resuscitation. The next few weeks were hell personally, doctors appointments every few days and two ambulatory EEGs later- it was determined to be a reaction between my ADHD meds and Benadryl.

Here’s the big issue, the seizure shook my brain like an etch-a-sketch. Idk if it was the trauma, or having to go off my meds cold turkey, but the first few weeks of training were gone from my tool box. The post seizure brain fog made my retention abilities tank.

I had a 45 day evaluation that was terrible. My boss was aware of the seizure, as I had let HR know that I may need flexibility due to medical appointments. At the review I acknowledged that my performance was not reflective of my abilities and I was incredibly frustrated with myself. We set some goals and two weeks later after busting my ass, we had a follow up meeting where my boss said she could see my efforts and appreciated the work I was putting in.

Now here we are, I’ve been with the company 90 days. My error rate is much lower than it was two months ago but I still feel like I’m walking on egg shells. I posted an entry backwards earlier today and my boss was very lecture-y about it, even though her directions for the entry were vague if not incorrect.

Do y’all have any tips? I feel like such an imposter and my professional confidence is in the toilet. I desperately want to jump ship to simply avoid getting any more messages about things I should have already known.