Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Do More Work to Get More Work, Says PwC Leader; Can You Teach Interns to Think? | 7.27.26

KPMG’s Exercise in Critical Thinking For Interns

Wall Street Journal “went to the boot camp where KPMG teaches auditors to think critically” and wrote a story about the experience:

Minutes into the assignment, the teams lose a member. Management needs them for another project. Design a logo. Don’t use the color blue. Only senior associates can use scissors. Except all the senior associates are out sick. Make it an animal corresponding to a KPMG founder. Make sure the lion or owl is in business attire.

So went the training exercise for KPMG summer interns.

In a new program this summer, KPMG brought nearly 1,000 of its audit and assurance interns to the accounting firm’s sprawling $450 million training facility near the Orlando, Fla., airport for several days of training in critical thinking and judgment. The logo challenge was one of several exercises designed to use those skills, alongside a scavenger hunt and a whodunnit fraud exercise.

Here’s r/accounting pissing on the idea of trying to teach interns critical thinking four months ago.

Comp Slows at Senior

Something interesting from CPA Practice Advisor on the salary front: Public Accounting Salary Growth is Shifting – The Biggest Increases May Come Later than Expected

Salary progression in public accounting may no longer follow the steady path many professionals expect, according to new placement data from specialist recruitment firm Distinct.

Drawing on more than 400 public accounting placements completed across North America during the past three years, the analysis suggests compensation growth often slows considerably at Senior level before increasing significantly once professionals move into management.

This appears to be Distinct’s full report.

That reminds me, we need to talk about how the big increases from jumping to industry that used to be commonplace are fading due to starting salaries having increased. It’s always something, eh?

Do More Work If You Want More Work, Says PwC CEO

Paul Griggs, who we hear is not exactly winning over hearts and minds over at PwC, shared some career advice with Business Insider.

Success in professional services, and at many of PwC’s clients, still comes down to what he called “that old adage that we can’t stand to hear from our parents.”

“What you put into it is what you get out of it,” Griggs said.

He then said this:

[Associates] can leave work on Friday, enjoy the weekend, and return on Monday. Or they can spend a little time doing research on the weekends to better understand a problem, so that they come better prepared on Monday.

That person does the extra work because they were curious, not because they were asked to do it, the senior partner and US CEO said.

“Monday, they both come back in, and you know what happens,” Griggs said. “The person who did the research picks things up just a little bit quicker. What happens then? That person gets more work to do,” Griggs said.

Oh goodie, more work!

Telework Coming Back to the IRS?

IRS employees got a favorable decision from a third-party arbitrator. The roach-infested moldy office people will be especially happy to hear this.

Reports Federal News Network:

In a decision issued July 17, Arbitrator Christopher Shulman ruled that the IRS violated its collective bargaining agreement with the National Treasury Employees Union when it mandated fully in-office work beginning in March 2025. The arbitrator determined that IRS’s actions also constituted an unfair labor practice (ULP) by ignoring a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the union.

Shulman ordered the IRS to return telework and remote work arrangements to pre-return-to-office levels for tens of thousands of bargaining unit employees. The decision also tells the IRS to cease any further violations of its collective bargaining agreement.

So Does the IRS Have a Staffing Problem or Not?

In other IRS news, Senate democrats have questions about the staffing situation over there:

Amid a reported hiring binge at the IRS following a monthslong spree of staff cuts, more than a dozen Senate Democrats launched an investigation Thursday into whether the tax agency’s chief executive misled Congress about workforce issues.

In a letter to Frank Bisignano led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the lawmakers painted the puzzling picture of an agency that shed more than a quarter of its staff only to later request special authorities to hire 8,000 staffers on an accelerated timeline, according to NOTUS.

Church Audit Drama

Those of you who like a little accounting with your church news or church news with your accounting might appreciate this story. The Australian-born founder of a NYC church is dipping out and heading back to his country after being accused of spending $900,000 in church funds on personal stuff. CapinCrouse LLP did an audit and massive global law firm Dentons came in to do a more thorough audit. Dentons said they found that church founder Josh Kelsey and his wife Georgie did not engage in fraud.

Anyway, ChurchLeaders has the story:

The founding pastor of Fount Church in New York City has stepped down months after being accused of misspending hundreds of thousands of dollars in church funds and dissolving the church’s board dissolving the church’s board to reconstitute it with handpicked replacements. In March, the church’s board cleared Pastor Josh Kelsey, saying that the accusations were based on “fundamentally flawed” information.

A watchdog group comprised of former members of the church does not think the Dentons guy is independent:

Speaking of Trinity Jordan, the lawyer who led the audit, Fount Transparency said, “He is a ‘pastor-attorney’ who specializes in providing ‘creative solutions’ for churches facing legal and financial crises…His service is to ‘resolve the issue with zealous advocacy’ rather than independently investigate and hold another pastor accountable.”

That watchdog group, called FountTransparency, has a big ol’ report here and they speak specifically on Dentons here.