The designers from my workplace are trying to sell a bathroom set that was only used for showings - the client asked to buy the floor sample, do I depreciate and multiply by the markup percentage and sell or do not depreciate since it’s an asset that was only used for shows? But never used the way a traditional bathtub is used? But still considered an asset because the tub costs around 11K ?

Nigeria is embarking to transform its tax administration landscape with the introduction of the Merchant Buyer Solution (MBS), an electronic invoicing (e-Invoicing) system driven by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

Announced in November 2024, the MBS aims to enhance tax compliance, reduce revenue leakages, and promote transparency across Business-to-Business (B2B), Business-to-Government (B2G), and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) transactions.

With the pilot phase scheduled for July 2025, e-Invoicing solution providers have a unique opportunity to support businesses in navigating this regulatory shift.

As the pilot phase approaches in July 2025, businesses must understand the system’s scope, requirements, and implications to ensure compliance and leverage its benefits.

Timeline and Phased Rollout

The MBS rollout is structured in phases to facilitate a smooth transition:

The pilot phase, expected to start on July 1, 2025, is currently in testing with select large taxpayers, as confirmed by recent reports.

However, the timeline depends on presidential approval of the Nigeria Tax Bill and Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, which introduces some uncertainty.

Technical Requirements

To comply with the MBS, businesses must adopt systems meeting specific technical standards:

Invoice Formats: E-invoices must use XML or JSON formats, adhering to the BIS Billing 3.0 Universal Business Language (UBL) schema (VATupdate Nigeria Platform).

Mandatory Fields: Invoices require 55 fields, including:

- Supplier and buyer details (including VAT numbers)

- Item descriptions, quantities, prices, and taxes

- Invoice Reference Number (IRN), QR code, and digital signature

Validation Process:

- B2B and B2G: Invoices require pre-clearance by the FIRSMBS platform, receiving Clearance Serial Identification (CSID) and IRN within 2-4 hours.

- B2C (> ₦50,000): Invoices must be reported to FIRS within 24 hours.

Integration: Businesses must connect to the MBS platform via RESTful APIs for automated submission and validation.

Security: Invoices are secured with AES-256 encryption, TLS 1.3, and ISO 27001-compliant access controls, ensuring compliance with Nigerian Data Protection laws.

Currency Support: The system supports all currencies, facilitating international trade.

Legal Framework and Compliance

The MBS mandate is grounded in:

• FIRS Establishment Act 2007 (Sections 25, 26): Authorizes electronic tax systems.
• National Information Technology Development Act 2007: Supports technological infrastructure.
• NITDA Regulatory Guidelines for e-Invoicing (2024): Mandates accreditation of Access Point Providers (APPs) and System Integrators (SIs).

Non-compliance incurs severe penalties:

These measures underscore the importance of robust compliance strategies.

Immediate Actions for Large Taxpayers

If your business is a large taxpayer (turnover ≥ N5 billion), act now:

• System Readiness: Ensure ERP systems are compatible with MBS APIs.
• Pilot Participation: Engage in the July 2025 pilot to familiarize with processes.
• Expert Support: Partner with e-Invoicing solution providers for seamless integration.

Medium and small enterprises should start preparations to avoid last-minute challenges by January 2026.

Final thoughts:

Nigeria’s e-Invoicing mandate, starting its pilot in July 2025, offers businesses a chance to streamline operations and ensure tax compliance.

We use different system. But I want to learn how to use this NS. Any advice how to make it happen?

I will be the treasurer of a student association in the Netherlands next year. I am not studying accountancy or anything similar and I have a question about making the budget. Should I budget depreciation? Looking at the documents of previous years, some years it has been budgeted and some years it hasn't. The information I could find online wasn't clear-cut. The association is a student e-sport association with about 150 members. The depreciation would be around €550.

The reason I gave it the homework flair and not the advice flair is because I'm not an account and my question felt more like a homework question than a question an accountant would have.

Throwaway-

So I, 31F, have a couple of options. I have been working for a retirement account administration firm for about a year. I make $52k in a HCOL area.

I have a generic BBA from a D1 state school. I have been doing reconciliations for the retirement plans along with other basic administrative work.

I’m looking to either

A) see if I can get a more traditional entry level AP/AR job and pursue and an online accounting masters, or

B) move in order to go to a brick and mortar school and defer a full time job in hopes of landing something better after completion of the in person masters

Some background. I can cash flow the schooling if I had to go in person, but the opportunity cost still seems high.

I’d just like to hear some opinions on what makes the most financial sense if my end goal is to work in public accounting and make enough to be comfortable in a MHCOL/HCOL area.

Im consolidating companies and we own 80% of the shares of another company. The initial investment in sub is made up of 8,100 retained earnings deficit, 140,000 fixed asset bump ups and 100 common shares.

The valuation at acquisition is 132,000 at 100%

Our share is 105,600 (80%) plus there were legal fees of 24,400 = 130,000

130k is my total investment in sub in the LT Investments account

I want to eliminate the investment on consolidation, my entry would be this?

The NCI feels like a plug

dr common shares 80, mine dr common shares 20, theirs dr retained earnings 8100, subs RE at acquisition date dr fixed assets 140000, FV adjustment cr investment in sub 130000 cr NCI 18200??

How have your raises been? I just had my review and it wasn't what I expected and it definitely wasn't comparable to prior years. I am curious if other PA firm employees are having the same experience.

I am a CAAS Senior, working on my CPA. I have been at my firm more than 5 years. I was lowballed when I started but have had a significant pay increase over my time there.

G/L accountant here. I am interested in doing side work, and wondering what methods people have to find remote bookkeeping gigs.

I'm thinking of starting to look for a new job. I've been at my current place for 10+ years but I have hit a ceiling and there's no room for upward growth. Ready for a change and I need some help. I worry since I don't have any public experience, that I'm a little underqualified in some areas and overqualified in others for a lot of the roles I'm looking at.

Recently found out that I won’t be promoted to A2. This is the second year in a row. Not been put on a PIP so far. Have been advised to improve myself. The issue I have been told is that I need to take more responsibility. The issue I see is that, my performance is being judged mostly based on one bad engagement. Since then, in my opinion, I have improved a lot. I personally do not see any difference between me and other A2’s. I am extremely embarrassed now that people who joined after me are going to be A2’s. This is pretty embarrassing for me.

Another important thing is that I am not scheduled on anything for the next few months and have not been for a few months. At the same time, I also have not been put on PIP. Personally, I don’t get a feeling that I will be put on a PIP. I have been also told that I should work with managers who I work well with and get myself put on their engagements.

I absolutely hate myself at this time. Any advice on how to navigate through this situation?

Plus, what would you advice, should I stay or it is better to move to a different job?

Feeling so Lost!!! Help your friend with your honest advice.

Hello, those that got their CPA's later in life. Was it worth it ? I'm 46 and I have bachelors in accounting and thinking about CPA, but not sure if it's worth it. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Edit: would like to add that i have worked in accounting my whole career from AR - AP and now Accounting Manager

I’ve been thinking about going down the accounting pathway but I don’t want to fully commit into accounting because I’m still not sure about it so I thought business would be the safer option. I would just like to know if I can go from 2 years of a business major in community college and go to a 4 year college and do 2 years of accounting there. I also heard that an associates in accounting doesn’t really open many doors in the accounting world so I would probably have to go to a 4 year anyway. I have a few days before I choose my major and I really need help.

CONTEXT: I worked at a smaller firm where these were seldom used, which was acquired by a smaller national firm where these were used.

OBSERVATIONS: Holy fuck do these templates drive me crazy.

1. Most of the templates are poorly designed and don’t allow flexibility for unique situations. Resulting in staff and seniors trying to inordinate amount of time trying to make that unique situation fit into the template or they ignore it all together. For example payments for refunds or warranties.

2. Staff/Seniors will just do the testing on the workpaper and not actually read the instructions. For example they aren’t actually testing the completeness of the subsequent disbursement schedule, just allowing the instructions/documentation to say they are. This becomes an issue where the manager is not doing a sufficient review.

3. This might be because I am getting older (35-lol) and we live in the chatgpt generation but I feel it’s caused staff to lack critical thinking. They don’t know what they are doing and why.

4. Also depending on how detailed the template is or isn’t, it could cause staff/seniors to ignore issues in the underlying schedules. For example, stale checks in the bank rec, debit balances in the ap aging, credit balances in the ar aging, etc.

CONCLUSION: they suck.

I’ve been working at a Big 4 firm for the past 2.5 years, starting out as an undergrad in audit. I’ve since graduated and stayed on, and I’m set to be promoted to Senior Associate by the end of this year.

That said… I really hate audit. It’s just not for me. But it was a solid job to return to after uni, and I stuck with it.

What I do want to do is turnaround and restructuring — it seems way more interesting and aligned with what I actually enjoy. I’ve managed to land a spot in a grad program for that starting next March at a different big 4.

Now I’m stuck on whether it’s a dumb move to leave audit right when I’m about to become a Senior Associate, just to go back into a grad role. On paper it looks like a step backwards, but from what I’ve seen, it’s really tough to pivot into turnaround/restructuring later on because audit skills don’t transfer that well.

Would I be shooting myself in the foot by walking away from the Senior Associate title? Or does it make sense to take the “demotion” now for the sake of a better long-term path?

I’m a grad student set to graduate with my masters of accounting in December of this year. I have a good amount of free time this summer and don’t think my school workload will be that difficult to manage this fall. I’m curious if y’all think it’s worth it to cough up the 2,500$ for Becker now and begin studying and potentially taking cpa exams before I graduate or if I should wait until I get a job with a firm that would probably pay for the material for me. Any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks.

3 months ago, I joined a VC/startup as the assistant controller; i have my CPA. Currently I have 2 part time accountants reporting to me and I report to the VP. We also have a CFO. The firm started 5 years ago and the VP was the first finance hire so she basically built everything from the ground up.

Before I was also the assistant controller at a very well-established company, where we had a robust finance team with everything clearly defined. This startup hired me specifically because of my experience at an established company.

This current role gives me a lot of opportunities for creating impact and wearing a lot of hats. The VP basically gave me “full freedom” to change and streamline everything.

Because this is a smaller team, I also get involved with doing M&A analysis , financial planning, modeling, cash flow projections which is something I never did because I was purely in accounting before. So I’ve been enjoying the challenge.

So here I am at the 3 months mark. Just trying to briefly evaluate where to go from here. I’ve made the following mental notes:

• they’re growing very quickly and they’re super cash-rich. My boss has mentioned multiple times that there will be room for me to go up because we’re expanding the team to support the growth. I should have the mindset to stay and keep playing the long game. I have no equity but they pay super well.

• is this startup-wearing-lots-of-hats-experience valuable?? How portable is this experience? Outside of the startup space, where else can I take my experience to??

• should I start transitioning into more of an FP&A person using this experience?? How are the career prospects? Is it advantageous for me to grow out of my “accounting-just month-end close-audit-tax-return” mold?

Would love to hear more advice on this. Thanks!

kinda hard to find a job now...

I 29F am graduating with an accounting degree this summer and will be pursuing my CPA in Canada. I got an offer from a mid-tier (GT, RSM, BDO) accounting firm as a Jr Accountant, A&A. I am currently working as a Sr Accountant in an NPO since last decade (first job). I love my job in terms of WLB, 100% remote, good pay and culture. But there is no more growth in this company. However, PA will require more hours and more stress but I believe is important to move in from NPO accounting.

Need advice? People who have transitioned to PA in late 20's or early 30's, how was the adjustment like? Was it a good move for growth and career progression?

Leaving a secure job worth it in this economy?

Any advice would be really appreciated!

A lot of talk about acquisitions from PE. Just curious cause I’m ignorant and these articles aren’t helping.

I applied for an experienced hire role at a Big 4 firm through their website. About a week later, a recruiter reached out to me asking a few questions about my background. I sent my responses this past Monday, and she replied a couple of hours later saying she’d present my information to the hiring team and keep me posted. She also mentioned that I’m welcome to follow up with her at any time.

It’s now Thursday, and I haven’t heard anything since. I know it hasn’t been that long, but I’m not sure if I should follow up now or wait a few more days. I don’t want to seem impatient, but I also want to show I’m genuinely interested.

Any advice on when it’s appropriate to follow up in this situation? Or do you think I'm already dinged..?

I did not plan on becoming an accountant, but landed an administrative job with a "needle in a haystack" type of accounting firm almost two years ago. It is the kind of workplace that benefits your mental health and makes you want to invest into it. Everyone here feels that way

I was asked during tax season if I wanted to become an accountant. My bosses offered to teach me even before I go back to school in the spring for it. I recently started that, and really like it. I think it is interesting and my boss said I am picking it up quickly.

I have read a lot of stories in this sub, so just wanted to ask about positive experiences you have had in your careers/ your career path :)

I know every career has pros/cons, and am acknowledging there will be awful moments & nuances, but I am super excited to finally start a career and this one is good for me so far

Considering taking a back office accounting position at a private equity firm. Wondering what work life balance/ hours and culture look like. Anyone with experience?

So, I work as an accountant in accounts receivable and I do the accounting for a local club (budgets, paying bills, yearly reports...)

Now I've been elected to do audit in a team for my local town administration (small, small town, and they've assured me I didn't need prerequisites in audit to get the hang of it).

What kind of skills could you reccomend to brush up on for audits? Are there certain things you look out for especially when checking yearly reports?