Maybe This Busy Season Video Will Get You Fired Up For the ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 8 Premier … Or Maybe Not
Full disclosure: I’ve never watched a single episode of “Game of Thrones.” I realize I’m in the minority here. It’s not that I don’t want to watch it; I’m just too cheap to buy HBO or HBO NOW. My wife and I started paying for Netflix two years ago because we were told all the […]
Here’s Your Authoritative Guide for Likening Game of Thrones to Public Accounting
I came late to the Game of Thrones party. After hearing rumblings about a “Red Wedding” and the emotional scars it left on people who I thought didn’t have shred of empathy in their bones, I immediately stopped watching Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 5 to binge on GoT.
Crony Links: Turn Strangers into Clients; Reasons to Stop Performance Reviews; Game of Thrones Business Lessons
Nobody puts links in the corner. Open Items Will a degree on hold sabotage a full-time offer with PwC? AccountingWEB How to Make a Stranger a Client The Queen's AccountingWEB Accountant at the helm in Pfizer AstraZeneca deal HRZone 5 reasons to stop giving performance reviews TrainingZone How to ensure [CPE] doesn’t become a chore BusinessZone 6 things your […]
4 Reasons Why the Profession Is Struggling to Convince Students to Become CPAs, #4 Will Not Shock You
I buried the link I’m about to share with you all in Footnotes last Friday; however, since its author intended for it to spur a conversation about the profession’s pipeline problem, I thought it best to highlight it in its own post should any of you feel like discussing it. “In my view, the future […]
Friday Footnotes: Marcum Gets Slapped; FASB Foot-Dragging; PwC Makes a Promise | 10.2.20
FASB Further Delays Accounting Rule on Insurance Contracts [Wall Street Journal] The rule maker, which sets accounting standards for companies and nonprofits in the U.S., in June proposed a delay of another year for the new rule amid the economic harm caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The rule was first delayed by a year last […]
Tips For Working From Home From Experts In the No-Pants Lifestyle
Hi there, Going Concern faithful. How is everyone? Hanging in there? I hope so. So look. Bramwell and I realized the other day that you guys new to regular work from home (WFH) — which is pretty much most of you — might need some tips on how to stay sane. Not that either of […]
Escaping the Dungeon: The Hottest Accounting Jobs for Q2 2019
A lot of us at Going Concern would’ve rather been chained up in the dungeon with Tyrion Lannister instead watching last weekend’s “Game of Thrones” finale. But we’d prefer just about anything over being trapped in the figurative dungeon of boring, thankless accounting jobs. Here’s something that’s more omg-so-awesome “Breaking Bad” finale than fade-to-black “Sopranos” […]
To Partner or Not to Partner: That Is the Senior Manager’s Question
A while back, a Big 4 senior manager reached out to share his plight. In short, this person told us making partner in a big firm is nothing but a game; in this person’s words, “[There’s a] Game of Thrones-esque BS that goes on in the firm as people try to jockey to be promoted […]
Accounting News Roundup: CPA Ambassadors and Auditor Rotation Lives (Somewhere) | 05.22.17
CPA ambassadors In recent years, the gap between the number of accounting graduates and the number of people sitting for the CPA exam grew to levels that made some people — mostly AICPA executives — uncomfortable, so a new urgency around convincing graduates to obtain a CPA license emerged. The AICPA sold this to firms […]
Learn Something New When You’re Bored and Stuck at Your Job
Need some career advice? Email Rachel at [email protected] and your question may be featured on Going Concern.
Tim, The White Walkers’ Accountant, Is Here to Keep Winter Coming
I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but one of the most enjoyable aspects of this job is stumbling across weird things on the internet and sharing them with you fine people. Today, I'm happy to report that there is a video featuring an accountant for the army of the dead from Game of Thrones. This […]
FYI: IRS Doesn’t Accept Payments via iTunes Gift Cards
I guess TIGTA needed to put this out there: The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration issued an alert Friday warning that it has received information that callers impersonating IRS employees or the Treasury Department are demanding payments on iTunes Gift Cards. TIGTA noted that the scam callers may also request payment of taxes on […]
Accounting News Roundup: Jay-Z’s Former Accountant and Narcissistic Bosses | 04.01.16
Self-prepared tax returns Earlier this week, we talked about boycotting TurboTax, a noble but flawed idea. The idea being that if everyone gives up TurboTax, H&R Block, et al. and prepares their returns manually themselves, then BIG TAX PREP will give up and go home and we'll get 10-second tax returns. In reality, the problem […]
How I Managed to Pass REG in the Middle of Busy Season
Did you pass all four parts of the CPA exam on the first try? Well, lucky you. It was score release day. I'd passed AUD, BEC, and FAR –- REG was the last piece. The worst piece. The bane of my existence. To this day, my shoulders clamp up a little if you ask me […]
Your Firm’s Website Sucks; How to Help Improve It and Boost Your Career at the Same Time
When you visit most accounting firm websites, you see poorly designed pages that offer no valuable content. They don’t address clients’ needs, they don’t encourage interaction and fail to drive users deeper into the site. Plus, no Game of Thrones recaps. In short, most accounting firm websites suck. And as a staff member, new partner […]
Friday Footnotes: Take a Vacation, Get a Promotion?; FedEx and Toshiba Have Fun with Numbers; Well-Liked CEOs | 06.12.15
Enjoy the weekend, capital market servants. Share news or tips with us by hitting the button at the top of the page or emailing us directly. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and pen your financial reporting thriller short story in Open Items. Are the People Who Take Vacations the Ones Who Get Promoted? […]
New Partners, Robots, and Hell
Where else can you read the scuttlebutt of PwC partner promotions, robots, and accountants being cast into a lake of fire? Nowhere but Going Concern, I tell you. Diversity, CPA exam drop-outs, loyalty bonuses. The only thing missing was the FIFA scandal. Which we got to today. Yes, last week’s stories ran […]
Friday Footnotes: Recovering From Work Outbursts; Auditors and Shoes; Words to Eliminate | 05.08.15
Don't forget Mother's Day this weekend, capital market servants. Also, remember to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and that Open Items is never closed. This is what CEOs give (and get) on Mother's Day [Fortune] Recovering from an Emotional Outburst at Work [HBR] ‘Game of Thrones’ Leadership Lessons for the Office [Speakeasy/WSJ] Tesla's Battery Grabbed $800 Million […]
Accounting News Roundup: Lowballing the Competition; EY Starts ‘e-Discovery’ Business in India; SEC on Pinterest | 04.20.15
‘Lowballing’ a continuing threat to firms, claim analysts [Accountancy Age]DUMB. DUMB. DUMB. "Last year, top ten firm Baker Tilly claimed that lowballing pricing competition was one of the factors behind its £8.6m reduction on pre-tax profits." How successful people work less—and get more done [Quartz]If you're working more than 55 hours a week, you're wasting […]
Accountant’s Jail Sentence Conveniently Allows for Sunday Night Television
An accountant in Syracuse was sentenced to 16 weekends in jail and 5 years of probation for stealing $44k from her employer. Syracuse.com reports that Kathleen M. DeFillippo aka Kathleen M. Rogowski will report to Onondage County Jail on Friday at 6 pm and be released on Sunday at 6 pm to serve out the sentence. I […]
Going Concern Editors’ Picks 2014
It's been a fun year for us around here, between the audit partner banging the chief accounting officer at the client and a certain acquisition that took up lots of our time and effort to smoke out. We successfully launched Open Items and wrapped up our awesome year crashing AccountingWEB Live. So all in all, […]
Use All Your Vacation Days, Even If It Means Making Less Money
Last week, we linked to this WSJ article about how some companies are getting their employees to take time off by paying them. The mere idea of this is ludicrous, but this is America and if there's one surefire way to get Americans to do something, including use paid time-off that's part of their benefits package, it's […]
Accountants Love iPhones and Shun Android, Says This
The latest CPA Trendlines survey — which is worth a glance if you're into mobile tech trends within the profession — reveals accountants favor iPhones to Android phones by two to one. More interesting, 10% of respondents say they use neither smartphones nor tablets at work. Yet half of respondents are billing at least 11 […]
Accounting News Roundup: An Autopsy of a Chinese Fraud; PwC Squeezes in Some Oscar PR; The Nitti Gritty of Tax Reform | 02.28.14
A China Fraud Dissected: Part 2 AgFeed’s Auditors [Re:The Auditors]A good longread for your Friday morning: "Is it irrational to believe that auditors are capable of acting capriciously, in a self-interested manner and, perhaps, like any other human being, against the law? Are auditors the market eunuchs in our capitalist system, immune from the influence […]
Friendly July 4th Reminder: Social Media Meltdowns Can Be Career Limiting Moves
The vast majority of you GCers are American and are probably already on your way to a long weekend of barbeques and fireworks, while yous Canadians are coming off a long weekend of your own. All of you are nursing summer hangovers and the general summer “don’t give a flying ***k” attitude. Know who else […]
Let’s Welcome Ernst & Young CEO-elect Mark Weinberger to Twitter, Everybody
M. Dubs broke his Twitter cherry on a Saturday: My congratulations to @hamdiulukaya CEO of @chobani – our World Entrepreneur of the Year 2013! #WEOY — Mark Weinberger (@Mark_Weinberger) June 8, 2013 This is only the second major accounting firm CEO to be on the Twits with ex-Deloitte global chief Jim Quigley being the first. […]
Severe CPA Cheapness, Fiscal Cliffs, and Big 4 Houses of Hogwarts: The Ten Most Popular Going Concern Posts of 2012
It's the last week of the year and that means no one is doing much of anything besides exchanging gifts for stuff they actually want and planning all the New Year's resolutions they won't keep. Your humble servants here at Going Concern are attempting to recharge our batteries this week, but we know you can't […]
Accounting News Roundup: Various Tax, Retirement Worries and Donald Trump’s $300 Tax Credit | 03.10.16
Linn Energy Looks to Ease Tax Hit on Investors [WSJ]It sounds like investors in energy master limited partnerships should be worried: A wave of expected bankruptcy filings and debt restructurings could trigger taxes for investors at a number of energy firms, a doubly unpleasant outcome that has companies searching for a fix. Linn Energy LLC, […]