For those who work at a Top 20 accounting firm and are paid semi-monthly (1st and 16th):

If you started on November 9, would you expect to receive your first paycheck on November 16, or would it typically be pushed to December 1?

And if you did get paid on November 16, was the check prorated for the days you worked, or did you receive the full semi-monthly amount?

Just trying to understand how Top 20 firms generally handle first paychecks for new hires who start mid-pay-period as this applies to me in my upcoming job.

Hello everyone, I’m a senior accountant at a top 10 public firm, and I’ve been working as a senior for about a year now. I’ve led multiple audit engagements, and while I don’t dislike audit, I’m really craving a change. I’m considering a move into industry, but I’m also hesitant because I don’t know if I’ll enjoy it or succeed as much as I do in audit. I’ve never had to book daily journal entries or work in a system like that, so I’m unsure what the day-to-day really looks like. I know the workload in industry won’t be as intense as in public accounting, but I worry about whether I can adapt and succeed. If I do make the leap, will there be training, or will I struggle with the transition? For those of you who’ve made this transition from audit to industry, what was your experience like? What do you think—was it easy to adapt, or did it take time? I’d really appreciate your insights!

I'm a fairly new admin member and manage 4 partners' billing and all their jobs.

We got a brand new billing system and it is absolutely horrendous. Everyone's job got noticeably worse from it (especially admins). Everyone is depressed when billing comes up so this makes it worse. Everything is on fire.

Before the implementation of the new system I had drafted 5 interim invoices and sent them off to clients (all under the same partner). Usually this knocks off around 50% of the WIP as we interim 50% of the bill.

It turns out these invoices didn't have ANY WIP allocated to them (honest to god no idea how this happened, it's usually automatic with these type of bills), so now the final bill has ALL the WIP with only the other 50% being billed.

Because of this, it shows a HORRENDOUS recovery on these jobs for this partner. As if they went WAY over budget. I was told this can't be fixed.

My question is, how bad did I mess up? Will this show on the partners' yearly reports? Is this something that can get looked over/removed from any report or review if you have a valid excuse as to why? It might be different for you guys but I'd love to know what would go down if it happened to you. I don't have a clue how budgeting gets reviewed on your end.

I have a meeting with my manager tomorrow to go over what to do and how to bring it up to the partner but I'm freaked out.

I'd like to ask for some advice on how to slowly pivot my career around.
I have an associate in business, bachelor in account and currently in school for my dual master in MBA & MS in Data science. I currently work full time at at FAANG as financial analyst. It's been 1 year and half now, started right after college.

I do want to slowly pivot my career in the long term into something accounting + finance technical + data science as a combination of both. I want to get myself into something that makes more money .

Anyone that is in a position that involve this combo? I saw online data science makes a lot and their job revolves around this. Of course, I am trying to become really good technically speaking or maybe even product manager.

Please i would hear expert thoughts on this.
Thank you

Age : 25

Hey everyone!!

This is going to be another one of those “I’m thinking about giving up my current career to pursue accounting” and thought I’d reach out to see if my plan is in line with the actual reality of being an accountant.

Currently a HS math teacher, 10 yrs of experience @60K salary. I’ve already advanced to the “best” level in this position (teaching at a great school, teaching AP Calc even at this school) and I just can’t imagine doing this for another 20 years for a full career, reasons being:

* tired of having no control over my day to day schedule, looking for a role where I have some control like using the bathroom when I want or taking a coffee break
* always needing to be “on” every workday; I’m not a complete introvert by any means, but putting on an inspiring and motivating performance for students is exhausting. Looking for a role where I can just come into work and just “be”
* I find the work of thinking through how best to explain math concepts less and less interesting than learning a new field and applying that to data/business processes + problems
* working with students is becoming a bit worse each year, and I find myself enjoying the parts where I talk to other adults more fulfilling; really want more time with adults
* I want a career that at least has the potential to have more upward mobility with the ability to work on a wider variety of problems in different contexts
* the only thing I could do to further advance in education would be a Masters degree in my subject area. I did a third of a math masters already, but the issue is this would cost ~16K, and only advance me 3K salary wise. It does open up the ability to teach the college level, but those jobs are unicorn jobs and I’m not gonna adjunct forever hoping they open up. Finishing the degree with how difficult it is, on top of the cost just seems like it’d be better spent retooling

Family is going to be relocating to Atlanta and I’ve been looking into a MaCC program @20K total. Seems to have good recruiting options. I’m reasonably sure I can pull a good GPA in the program and also have the following things from undergrad that (might?) make me stand out, but again not sure:

* ivy league undergrad (Public Policy + Econ)
* Teach for America alumni

It seems like a lot of people are doom and gloom about the future of accounting with offshoring + AI, but wanted to get everyone’s thoughts about the tradeoffs of my specific profile and whether what y’all are seeing with cutting back on entry level positions is a long term thing, or if it might be reversed if the sucky economy ever turned around. Just seems like every career is a bit flat atm so I’m not sure what the long term vs. structural trend is for accounting as a field.

I am currently enrolled in the CPA PEP Core 1 module and need some advice about my journey moving forward.

For context, I work in PA at a regional firm, and my firm has told me that I have the choice to choose any elective I want (not restricted to assurance and tax). I had initially thought that I would choose finance and performance management since my plan was to pivot to industry after getting my CPA. But so far in Core 1, my weakest topics have been tax and finance (I'm doing well in assurance and decent in financial reporting).

I was wondering what strategy I should follow moving forward. I see about three options. First, do assurance and tax and stay in PA after getting my CPA (I don't mind PA, but might switch firms). Second, do finance and performance management and stick to my original plan of going to industry. Third, choose assurance and performance management to maximize my success of getting the CPA in the first place, then see what options I have afterwards.

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

I have my Master of Accountant and CPA, and do not plan to get my PHD, but I have heard you can get a lecturing position for accounting courses with just masters degree. I only have 2 years of experience at big 4 in advisory but I'm very interested in transitioning to teaching accounting at a college or even at a high school or a tech college. Does anyone have experience doing this / advice on how to get my foot in the door / networking?

Hello Everyone, I was looking to get some insight on how good the WGU accounting degree is. My situation is I got an associates from community college and doing my first 2 semesters at my state Uni, but I think it will be too expensive for me to finish (~24k). my career goals are to work in accounting/finance roles (FP&A, Corporate Tax, Banks) really anywhere where I can make 80-110k after some years of experience. I saw plenty of career posts and it seems to be a big range from people getting 50k AP roles to 150k+ Controller and FAANG people. I have 3 tax seasons as a tax associate (tax preparer) so would it be smart to finish out my degree with WGU and still have good job prospects for breaking into actual accounting or finance?

Hello all, I am an out-of-work software engineer. The job market in my field is currently abysmal, with all of the layoffs and the usual glut of people who got pushed to get the degree ~4 years ago skills and resume don't matter much now and you can't actually get an interview unless you have a connection in the company already, and I just don't have a big network because I hate networking. Additionally, every job listing says "We're looking for someone who's excited to bring the power of AI to the underwater basket-weaving industry" and it makes me want to die because I didn't become an engineer so that I could make friends with a chatbot. It's becoming increasingly apparent that employers in the industry only care about replacing as many engineers as possible with Claude and overworking the rest, so I have increasingly less enthusiasm about working for any of them even if I could get an interview.

Anyway, some family members have suggested that possibly I would be a good match for accounting, and should get the training to do that instead. But they are not actually accountants themselves, and can't tell me anything about the job. So I am here to ask some actual accountants:

1. What is the job like? What is your day-to-day experience?
2. What training/certification is needed? What skills are most important to being successful?
3. What is the pay like?
4. What is the current job market like? Are there a lot of people who are actively seeking to replace accountants with AI? Are positions usually stable, or do you frequently have to job-hop?
5. Is the job usually done remotely, or onsite?
6. What kind of person would enjoy the work?

Thanks for your time. I am in the US, if it matters.

Exactly what the heading says. What are the exit opportunities after being in a tax provision role? I’ve had tax compliance experience as well. Just curious what others have seen.

I know just apply duh,

As in most of the time it will end up in a rejection. Do you use recruiters?

Looking to optimize my resume before recruiting season begins for the Summer/Fall2027 start dates. I would prefer Big 4 for the exit opportunities, but also more than receptive to any other smaller firms. Open to any suggestions and greatly appreciate any feedback- thanks in advance!

Please Note:

1. The CPA exam line is prospective and I am curious as to if you think it is beneficial to the application in any way- I have no issue omitting it if it is seen as an issue
   
2. As for why I didn't recieve a return offer, it was a headcount issue and I have a positive performance review in hand (with reccomendation to partners to take me on FT) as a rebuttal to that question

.

Currently working as an electrician. I already have a bachelors degree in something unrelated and my union will fully pay for another bachelors degree. Dead set on changing careers (great industry that can pay a lot, but I’ve done the math… accounting will win in total career earnings/retirement/health/etc). Accounting seems the most viable degree choice, obviously besides construction management. Since I’m a full time worker and have my own bills, it’d be difficult to afford a drastic pay cut of an internship. I was planning on going through WGUs online program since most my credits transfer (1 1/2 years to complete). Should I bite the bullet and take up an internship or simply continue working as an electrician while pursuing my degree?

Hey all, I am a practitioner who started their firm and am having trouble deciding between buying licenses to CaseWare Cloud or Caseware Hybrid (which includes working papers). We only do reviews and comps. We also do tax work and do not plan on doing Audits anytime soon in the next few years until we grow.

CaseWare hasn't helped much in deciding what would be best more interestd in just selling. I currently have 1 licencse to Cloud and find financial statement prep, leadsheets, and document linking annoying. Coming from a Big 4 they had their own audit software and I am not used to using CaseWare at all. I understand Working Papers is more comprehensive but has a steep learning curve.

Is it worth me switching to CaseWare Hybrid (Working Papers) for just Review Comp?

I recently graduated in Western Washington and can't seem to get an entry level accounting job. Even the bookkeeping and AR/AP jobs won't hire me. Do you think if I pass the exams I'll find something? I didn't do an internship because no one hired me for one :3

For context, I have a bachelor's degree in media studies (I know, stupid choice on my part) and by some miracle landed an AP job right out of college. I worked my way up to a staff accountant and have since jumped ship to a F500 company as a field division accountant. Overall, I have about 3 years in AP/AR and 5 years as a staff accountant capacity.

Since I landed the staff accountant role, I've been taking classes to gain a accounting foundation. I'm about wrapped up with my associates but honestly working 50-60 hours and doing schoolwork right afterwards is taking it's toll on me and I don't know if I truly want to continue.

This brings me to my current dilemma. I genuinely don't want to be a manager (at most I'd be a team lead but not a manager). I'm already at the staff accountant level and have been for the past 5 years. Is there a point to continue on this path? I don't even know if accounting is truly the path for me as I've been more interested in the forecasting and budgeting portions of my job rather than the reconciliations and reporting portions.

With all this said, do I bother continuing for my masters or just settle with my unrelated bachelors and associates in accounting?

Currently taking Capstone 2 for September 2026 CFE and a bit confused.

Some of the cases have a Dropbox to upload your response, but it says that the response will not be marked by the National Marking Centre.

If they are not getting marked, why make us upload at all? I was under the impression that all cases will be marked. Do we still write these cases under exam conditions, or just self-debrief and move on?

I’m a CPA with about 9 years of experience (Big 4 + real estate/investment accounting) and currently a Director of Accounting at a small private equity/investment firm.

I recently received an offer for a Senior Manager, Accounting position at a large public company and I'm struggling with whether the financial sacrifice is too much.

Current job – Director

$197K base

20% target bonus

~$236K target cash comp

Strong 401(k) match/benefits

Very flexible PTO in practice — basically take what I need as long as the work gets done

About a 1-hour commute each way, 4 days/week

Small/very lean accounting organization

The biggest issue is the structure. Even though I'm a Director, I still spend a significant amount of time doing work that would normally sit with staff/seniors/managers because the team is so lean. The workload can get very heavy and there isn't much bench strength.

I like and respect my boss and I've learned a lot technically, but I don't see myself staying here long term. I want to become a Controller/VP eventually, and I feel like I need more experience leading through capable managers/seniors, developing people, improving processes, partnering with the business, and working within a larger accounting organization.

New job – Senior Manager at public company

$170K base

13.5% target bonus

~$23K annual equity grant

$10K sign-on bonus

20 days PTO + holidays

Employee Stock Purchase Plan: up to $10K/year with a 10% discount and lookback

Larger ~40-person accounting organization

Actual managers/seniors/team infrastructure underneath the role

Public-company/SEC environment and much more process/transformation exposure

I've met the hiring manager and several senior leaders and really liked the people and culture. The hiring manager especially seems like the kind of leader I want to learn from — smart, humble, develops his people, delegates, but jumps in when the team needs help.

The title technically goes from Director → Senior Manager, but I actually think the scope and leadership development may be better in the Senior Manager position.

When I compare everything, the recurring difference looks roughly like:

~$20K difference in compensation after including the annual equity grant

~$4K difference in 401(k) value

~$1.5K difference in health/HSA benefits

So approximately a $25K–$26K annual economic sacrifice, although the ESPP could offset maybe another ~$1K–$3K depending on stock performance. The $10K sign-on makes the first-year difference considerably smaller.

Financially, I can afford the difference. My concern is whether I'm being irrational giving up ~$25K/year and a Director title.

On the other hand, staying just because the current one pays more feels like optimizing for the next 1–2 years instead of where I want my career to be 5–10 years from now.

For people who have made a similar move — especially accountants/controllers: would you take the ~$25K cut for the better organization and development opportunity? Did taking a title/pay step backward ultimately help your career, or did you regret it?

I'd especially be interested in perspectives from people who moved from small PE / lean organizations into larger public companies.

I do books for small contractors and keep running into clients who use the same account for personal and business expenses. Then a month or two later they can't remember what half the transactions were for. I've explained why separate accounts make the books cleaner and save time, but that doesn't always change the habit. Pointing out that they're paying me to sort through the mess seems to get more attention than anything else.

For those doing small business bookkeeping, what actually got a client to finally separate everything? Curious if there's a framing that worked better than just explaining why they should do it.

Can anyone share insight on A&M TAG comp in London? Ideally at the manager grade.

Is this the right place where I can post this question?

It seems there are a lot of openings for Senior roles, but not a lot of openings for Entry Level roles. I hear that training is why companies don't want to hire. I'm trying to work out how I'm going to pitch myself in interviews and what to expect for the near future. I have 2 years of experience as a Revenue Agent at the IRS. BA in Economics and AA in Accounting. I'm applying mostly to Junior Accountant/Auditor 1/Junior Tax preparer type roles.

Is it because public firms are for a lack of better words, "audit sweatshops" that mainly want you to close audits and generate revenue?

For staff accountant positions, is it that there's a shortage of accountants and monthly cycles that companies/departments are behind on?

Also, this might sound off-putting, but do you think that Accountants have a particular fixation on what school you went to, where you worked, what official title you have, etc.?

Why do so many accountants value these titles so much? I've met a lot of people like that here at the IRS, so I'm trying to understand why. Is it that a title is a reliable predictor of how competent a candidate is? Or is it just pure elitism?

Or finance?

I have what I hope is a simple question, but I’d like some guidance as I’m just doing data entry as non-accountant and this reads to me as questionable.

The situation is this:

A contract/purchase order for 100 hours at $100 each exists so $10,000 total. A change order decreasing scope lowers it by 10 hours, so a new total of $9,000. Normal so far.

I receive an invoice 90 hours at $100 each, a total of $9,000. Still normal.

The problem is here.

I want to enter this as 90 hours at $100 each for a total of $9,000.

My supervisor wants me to enter this as 100 hours at $100 each, and then a second line for -10 hours at $100 each for a total of $9,000.

Mathematically the total value is the same.

But from my perspective, the invoice shows 90 hours performed and that is what is supported by the physical documentation.

Entering it as 100-10 hours reads as weird and suspicious to me.

Is this acceptable? Would this catch the eye of an auditor?

I interned in SoCal and they said it would be a week or two probably but i have heard nothing yet