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Going Concern Presents: Our 10 Most Popular Posts of 2019

Posted on by Jason Bramwell

Well, you guys did it. You made it through another year. 2019 was a pretty crazy 12 months in the accounting profession, and we were glad to be along for the ride.

This year we found out about KPMGers in the U.K. defecating in bathroom sinks. And we thought about who in accounting would survive the snap of Thanos’s fingers. There also were 10 new things we learned about #AuditorProud Day.

There were mass layoffs at Grant Thornton and Deloitte Digital. And we were surprised by how much firms are hiring more non-accounting grads than they used to.

We saw accounting firm CEOs come and go. And we broke the story about one who is on her way out. A former Big 4 CEO even became commissioner of a professional sports league.

This year we found out that, believe it or not, Grant Thornton nearly aced its 2017 PCAOB inspection report. More believable was that KPMG spectacularly failed its 2016 and 2017 inspection reports. And we learned how much of a clusterfuck the PCAOB is right now.

Speaking of the House of Klynveld, it got hit with a massive (but some say not large enough) $50 million fine from the SEC for all sorts of cheating. And the SEC fined PwC $7.9 million for making dumb independence violations. And EY probably should have been given a fine by somebody after news broke about its ludicrous training seminar for women leaders in 2018.

Former Dallas cop Amber Guyger got jail time for killing PwC accountant Botham Jean. And there were a lot of accountants who went to prison for a variety of reasons.

And Going Concern turned 10 years old this year. Holy shit.

All told, this will be the 607th post on GC this year. But of our 10 most-read posts in 2019, two themes have emerged:

  1. You guys really like content about the CPA exam.
  2. You guys still like the dumb, ridiculous, and stupid.

Here are the 10 most popular posts of 2019:

1. EY Congratulates EY for Achieving Record Global Revenue of $36.4 Billion In FY 2019
EY Global Chairman and CEO Carmine Di Sibio gave EY employees a pat on the back for all their hard work and building a better working world and stuff.

2. The CPA Exam is Changing Soon, Here’s What We Know
It’s been a few years since any significant changes were made to exam content (2017, specifically) beyond the usual twice-yearly small changes, so I guess we’re due for a shakeup.

3. Hey CPA Exam Candidates, Y’all Ready For Continuous Testing? It’s Coming
NASBA announced plans in May to open up CPA exam testing on a continuous basis, allowing greater flexibility in scheduling.

4. Deloitte Gets Big 4 Bragging Rights In 2020 Vault Consulting 50
Deloitte Consulting was ranked the fourth-best consulting firm in the U.S. (although the governor of Rhode Island might beg to differ), the highest among the Big 4 firms.

5. How Are Public Accounting Salaries Stacking Up for 2020?
The good news is public accounting starting salaries are up compared to last year, according to Robert Half. The bad news is salaries are only expected to increase between 1% and 3%.

6. What In the Hell Is Happening to CCH?
CCH was borked from May 6-8. When we say borked, we don’t mean “some users are having access problems,” rather the entire thing was nuked to hell. Like POOF.

7. Time to Panic? New CPA Exam Candidate Numbers Are Lower Than They’ve Been in Over a Decade
We’ve written plenty of times about the AICPA freaking out over low CPA exam candidate numbers, but for the first time in two years, we have actual numbers. You ready? It’s bad.

8. EY Thinks It Is the Harvard of the Big 4
We thought the days of Big 4 CEOs boasting that their firms are “more exclusive than Harvard” were over. We were wrong.

9. KPMG Is the Cockroach of the Big 4
But you guys already knew that.

10. CPA Exam Pass Rates For 2019 Are Off to an Excellent Start
It turns out CPA exam candidates did a kick-ass job in the first quarter of 2019, leading us to believe this will be a good year to pass the CPA exam.

Adrienne and I hope you guys have a great 2020. See you next year!

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