Former Client Cockblocks the EY Split to Make Sure They Get the $2.7 Billion They’re Suing EY For
While it appears the EY split is going off the rails, despite assurances to the contrary from people who stand to make many millions of dollars from it, one former client — or rather, the client’s administrators as the client burned to the ground three years ago — is not satisfied with letting the drama […]
TIL EY Has Commoditized Space
Is there any limit to the robust and ever-growing suite of services offered by professional services firms? Apparently not. As we’ll learn in a sec, not even the sky is the limit. It was less than a year ago that EY put $3 million Aussie bucks into a space business in partnership with Swinburne University […]
PwC UK Has a Soft Spot For Students Who Got Wrecked By the Pandemic
It’s no secret the pandemic screwed a lot of things up. Firms suddenly had to figure out how to manage an entirely remote work force, CPA exam candidates couldn’t test for months due to Prometric closures, and let’s not forget the poor interns and first years who had to wait for answers in Teams while […]
With Project Everest on Pause, Let’s Pause a Sec to Shed a Tear For EY’s Reputation As Transaction Advisors
Not a good look, you guys. Then there’s this — unconfirmed and now removed — post on Fishbowl a couple days ago: “This will be resolved within weeks, not months, because we not only need momentum across the deal but we need clarity for all our stakeholders,” said Patrick Winter, EY’s Asia-Pacific managing partner a […]
WTF Happened at SVB and Should KPMG Auditors Have Seen It Coming?
While the general investing public is asking “where were the auditors?” in regards to the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, the banks’ auditors are insisting that, having exercised requisite due professional care, their unqualified opinions were based on the information available to them at the time and as such, the firm […]
PwC Has a Fancy New AI Tool to Law Around With
Today is the day that PwC ushered in a new era for professional services: a global partnership with AI startup Harvey, offering PwC’s legal professionals “exclusive access” (that is, they are the only Big 4 firm who has it) to the platform. It’s a shame we had to scroll all the way to the bottom […]
Deloitte Global CEO Joe Ucuzoglu Just Mic Dropped EY’s Messy Split Drama
Joe Ucuzoglu, the former head of Deloitte US and current Deloitte Global CEO, has recorded a 20 minute video which was circulated to all firm leadership yesterday and then, just to be sure EY sees it to be as transparent as possible, had it published to the Deloitte website for all to see. In it, […]
The EY Split is Falling TF Apart
Ever since “Project Everest” was announced last year there have been delays, complaints, and constant reassurance from leadership that things are going forward as planned, depending on market conditions. Only a week ago Global Managing Partner Andy Baldwin told Bloomberg Radio that a few details needed to be hammered out — specifically how legal liability […]
People Angry About an Elevator Are Angrily Marching to Deloitte’s Vancouver Office Today
Today, residents of the Portland Hotel in Vancouver are marching to Deloitte offices to speak to Varun Banthia, Policy Specialist at Deloitte Future of Canada Centre. The issue? Their nine-story dwelling does not have a working elevator and Banthia sits on the board of directors of the PHS Community Services Society, a charitable non-profit that […]
PwC UK Fined £7.5 Million For Faking Evidence and Other Such Terrible Auditing of a Government Contractor
The Financial Reporting Council has fined PwC £7.5 million ($8.9 million USD) for work related to Babcock, a multinational corporation headquartered in the UK providing, among other things, engineering services. Babcock conducts most of its business with the government, particularly the Ministry of Defence (don’t @ us, that’s how they spell it across the pond). […]
PwC Australia Says It Will Not Be Firing People Just Because Client Work Slows Down
A few short weeks ago, KPMG US cut a few hundred advisory jobs and KPMG Australia followed close behind with a reduction of about 200 or two percent of its approximately 10,000 staff. This, they said, was due to a slowdown in consulting work. When Australian Financial Review wrote up the KPMG cuts, they mentioned […]
Legal Liabilities and Pensions Are Holding Up the EY Split
Although EY has already decided who will lead the divided factions of audit and consulting, the necessary vote through which roughly 13,000 partners will decide whether or not to split has a few more hurdles standing in the way before it can happen. When the news of the split first broke in May of last […]
China Tells Its State-Owned Orgs Don’t Use Big 4 Audit Firms
Some time last year PCAOB inspectors visited China and while details of their visit were kept somewhat quiet from both sides, we were told that the inspectors gained unprecedented access to Chinese audit work. This event did not come about because China suddenly warmed to the PCAOB, rather Congress urged their cooperation along with the […]
Fans of Punit Renjen Will Be Happy to Hear the Former Deloitte Global CEO Has Landed a Sweet Board Chairman Gig
This morning, SAP announced that it has picked former King of Deloitte Punit Renjen as designated supervisory board chairman. You’ll remember he was liberated from Deloitte last fall after many years and many billions of dollars together with the firm. Deloitte US CEO Joe Ucuzoglu succeeded Renjen as Deloitte Global CEO at that time and […]
EY Hong Kong Consultant Alleges Sexual Assault, Bullying, and Ghislaine Maxwelling By Her Superiors in This Detailed Account
Late last week, South China Morning Post reported that a consultant at EY Hong Kong has accused Steven Xiong, Head of Greater China Business Consulting, of sexually harassing and assaulting her and another colleague at a karaoke bar. It appears the accuser, Nicole Wang, has written a detailed account of the incident in which she […]
New Recruits Are Allegedly Telling EY They’re Really Excited About the Split
Amanda Iacone has written a piece for Bloomberg Tax about the EY split and how it stands to shake up an already shaken industry, the whole thing is worth a read. We already know there is a talent war, and we also know that PwC in particular is eager to snap up unhappy EY talent […]
Getting Tough on Mid-Tier Firms Will Only Cement the Big 4 Oligopoly, Says Audit Partner Whose Firm Needs to Git Gud
Much like here in the U.S. with the PCAOB, the Financial Reporting Council across the pond has been busy at work inspecting audit firms with a fine-toothed comb and handing out fines like beads at Mardi Gras (Financial Times calls it “swift with the stick”). At first these efforts were largely focused on Big 4 […]
Layoff Watch ’23: KPMG Let Some Advisory People Go Today
Article photo from a scathing review of KPMG’s metaverse space Alright folks, the moment we’ve been saying wasn’t going to happen to us now has: layoffs are here. Bet you feel dumb for saying firms won’t be laying anyone off because they don’t have enough people to lay off eh? I know I do. We’ve […]
BDO Will Audit EY Consulting, or Whatever That Business is Gonna Be Called
The Wall Street Journal has written a pretty detailed account of comments EY Global Chairman and CEO Carmine Di Sibio made to WSJ’s CFO Network Summit earlier this week, scroll down to skip past a bunch of words and watch the clip. Of note, the split vote is now expected to happen in April. “I […]
Former KPMG Employee’s Parents Awarded $6.5 Million In Wrongful Death Lawsuit
The family of 25-year-old Peter Smith, an audit associate at KPMG who died of Lyme carditis—which occurs when Lyme disease bacteria enter the tissue of the heart—on July 2, 2017, was awarded $6.5 million by a jury in Cumberland County, ME, last week after deciding that a Mercy Hospital doctor had failed to accurately diagnose […]
The Largest Accounting Firms in Portland, Ranked by Number of CPAs Working There
Been a while since we’ve ranked anything, thankfully Portland Business Journal came in clutch today and gave the world a good old fashioned ranking of Portland accounting firms. The full list of 30 firms costs $30 and we don’t have money like that so we’re looking at the five we can see for free. There’s […]
EY OMPs in Philadelphia and Kansas City Have a Food Wager on Super Bowl LVII
The last time we wrote about EY and the Super Bowl it was regarding the firm’s cringey “Question Everything” ad—loved by then-U.S. chair Kelly Grier—that aired two years ago during Super Bowl LV between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs are back in the Big Game this Sunday against the Philadelphia […]
Unable to Bill For It (Yet), PwC Australia Tells Staff They Can’t Use ChatGPT For Client Work
Hate to be the burster of bubbles for anyone out there excited to unload your work on ChatGPT but PwC Australia has told its people that for now, playing around with AI should happen strictly off the clock. Australian Financial Review reports that in this morning’s internal newsletter, PwCers were told not to feed client […]
Advice on How to Get Hired at EY From the Vice Chair of Talent
Insider has published an ‘as-told-to- essay from EY Americas Vice Chair — Talent Ginnie Carlier in which she offers insight on what the firm is looking for from prospective hires. One takeaway: add a “personal purpose statement” to your résumé if it doesn’t already have one. This is not a bland objective — those have […]
The Most-Fined Big 4 Firm in the UK is Raising Audit Fees, Knows Clients Will Complain About It
Bloomberg reported today that KPMG UK CEO Jon Holt told them the firm plans to raise audit fees, news that comes on the same day we find out KPMG UK revenue increased 12% to £2.72 billion ($3.3 billion) for their fiscal year ending in September. Much of that did not come from audit however, deal […]
An Audit Associate at KPMG’s NYC Office Has Died
Ed. note: an earlier version of this article used male pronouns based on the information available at the time. We have been informed the associate was female, confirmed this information with the NYPD, and have updated pronouns in this article. We have also removed a link to a dubious outside source. I debated even posting […]
EY Germany Gives 40 Partners and 380 Staff the Boot to Boost Profitability After That Whole Wirecard Thing
EY has been tightening the purse strings over the past several months ahead of the big Project Everest split, the vote on which remains delayed and should happen before the end of this quarter. The firm did not hand out mid-year bonuses in December and sources say that travel, training, and even hiring are on […]
Do Ex-Big 4 Accountants Make Good NFL Team CEOs?
Last week the Chicago Bears introduced Kevin Warren, most recently commissioner of the Big Ten Conference who also has 21 years of experience as an NFL team executive, as the franchise’s fifth president and CEO in its 103-year history. Warren succeeds Ted Phillips who is retiring after 40 seasons with the Bears, including the last […]
KPMG Vice Chair Hopes All the Tech Layoffs Will Scare College Kids Into Accounting
KPMG Vice Chair Greg Engel has been having trouble sleeping lately. It isn’t climate change or social justice or the price of eggs keeping him up at night, like most accounting leaders he is consumed by the talent shortage. No really, that’s what he told CFO Dive. Not to worry, Engel has hope. Hope that […]
Local Accounting Firm Baffled That Desperate Laid Off People Don’t Want to Work There
When big layoffs began in tech last year, accountants everywhere justifiably celebrated for having chosen a career that may not be the most prestigious (or exciting or lucrative…) but will always be in demand. While their employees were quietly boasting about not losing their jobs, it seems EY leadership was waiting in the wings hoping […]
We Had to Scroll Really Far Down to Find a Big 4 Firm on This Glassdoor Best Places to Work List
Life at Deloitte was trumpeting an appearance on Glassdoor’s latest Best Places to Work list yesterday so naturally we swung over to the list to see what’s what. At @Deloitte, we’re committed to our people’s professional & personal well-being. That’s why we’re thrilled our organization has been named one of the Best Places to Work […]
If Your Parents Were Poor, It Takes Longer to Climb the Ladder at KPMG (No Really)
Big 4 firms spit out all kinds of research — very little of which rates a mention beyond maybe somewhere in a linkwrap if that — but this research from KPMG we’re about to share with you (which we did bury in a linkwrap some weeks back) deserves a callout of its own. Not because […]
A Spanish Communist Is Concerned About Excessively Long Hours at Big 4 Firms
This story was highlighted in yesterday’s Monday news brief but it deserves its own spot so that future generations might Google “Big 4 abusive practices” and stumble upon it. Financial Times reported that the labor ministry of Spain sent inspectors to the Madrid offices of Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC back in November in the […]
Remembering the Time Everyone at PwC Had to Work on MLK Day As a Noble Gesture to Honor Dr. King
The following message we’re about to share with you was sent out as a firmwide email from then-Chairman Dennis Nally to everyone at PwC almost exactly 15 years ago to the day. To my knowledge it’s never been published here, because back when it went out to everyone working at PwC US in January 2008, […]
Deloitte US Picked a New CEO and Chair, Sent Out an Email
How many times can we reuse this stupid Deloitte billboard picture? Deloitte US announced this morning that Jason Girzadas has been selected as chief executive officer and Lara Abrash has been selected as the chair of the board, beginning June 4, 2023, subject to a partner ratification vote. Jason succeeds outgoing CEO Joe Ucuzoglu who […]
Woman Quits Her Job to Be CFO For Big 4 Business That Doesn’t Exist Yet
Although EY’s 13,000 partners have yet to vote on the audit/consulting split, the firm continues to march ever onward toward separation, announcing in December that Global Chairman and CEO Carmine Di Sibio would head up consulting and US chair Julie Boland will oversee audit. And a few days ago Financial Times reported that EY has […]
No One Cares But Here Are PwC’s 2023 Metaverse Predictions Anyway
What’s next for the metaverse and what — if anything — should you do about it? PwC has answered the question no one is really asking in its 2023 metaverse predictions. These predictions are, as you’d expect, dumb made assuming that businesses and consumers alike will begin using the metaverse in earnest rather than making […]
KPMG Still Rocks at Having the Worst PCAOB Inspection Report Among the Big 4
The last of the 2021 Big 4 PCAOB inspection reports belongs to KPMG, which has had the highest audit deficiency rate of the four firms for six out of the previous seven years—the lone exception being 2019. Make that seven out of the last eight: In the 2021 inspection of KPMG LLP, the PCAOB assessed […]
Even People Who Majored in Accounting Don’t Want To Be Accountants
Pay extra close attention to accounting firm press releases this year, they will be packed with claims of record applicants, excess hiring, and huge numbers of incoming interns. Why? Firms have a vested interest in acting as if teams are fully staffed and everything is OK because were they to admit things are decidedly not […]
Apparently Staff at Deloitte UK Did Not Warm Up to the Firm’s Money-Saving Cold Office Policy
In what was a particularly dry day for news seeing as it was the first Monday of a new year and nothing ever happens in accounting anyway, yesterday’s Monday accounting news brief included a story ripped from BBC about Deloitte lowering the temps at its UK offices as policy. I shall endeavor to copy and […]
EY’s Auditing Has Reverted Back to Being Bad, 2021 PCAOB Inspection Report Shows
Next up on the PCAOB’s hit list is EY, whose 2021 inspection report was released on Dec. 19. The Black and Yellow had been slowly but surely not screwing up as many audits in recent years. After having a not-great audit deficient rate of 31% in its 2017 inspection report, EY’s error rate had dropped […]
Apparently Custom Deloitte Stan Smith Adidas Sneakers Are a Thing
As seen on LinkedIn and Instagram: Deloitte and ServiceNow have a partnership/alliance so that’s why both brands are on the shoes. Anyone got a pair? Related article: Would You Rock These KPMG Kicks?
Deloitte’s Latest PCAOB Inspection Report Is Its Worst Since 2017
Uh-oh, this cant’t make Joe U., Lara Abrash, and other Deloitte audit folks happy (bold part added by us for emphasis): In the 2021 inspection of Deloitte & Touche LLP, the PCAOB assessed the firm’s compliance with laws, rules, and professional standards applicable to the audits of public companies. We selected for review 54 audits […]
PwC’s 2021 PCAOB Inspection Report Shows Once Again It Is Less Awful at Auditing Than the Other Big 4 Firms
The 2021 PCAOB inspection report season kicked off right before Christmas with the release of a batch of six big ones: PwC, Deloitte, EY, KPMG, BDO USA, and Grant Thornton. It would be tough for PwC to top its 2020 inspection report as it was nearly blemish-free. Of the 52 audits reviewed by inspectors during […]
Deloitte Transparently Informs Us Asians and Males Have the Highest Attrition at the Firm
The 2022 Deloitte Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Transparency Report somehow flew under our radar when it came out in August, probably because Deloitte puts out approximately 263 reports a week and it would be impossible for your average person to read and understand each and every one of them. As the name implies, the […]
Do Looks Matter at Big 4 Firms? And If So, Do They Matter at PwC the Most?
Remember forums? The younger folks among us may not but those of us in the 35-55 age bracket likely spent some time in the forums of yore talking about cat care and car parts and whatever other nonsense we now discuss on Reddit like civilized people. I don’t spend much time in forums these days […]
Deloitte UK Got a 27.5% Discount on Audit Fines For Admitting They Screwed Up
That sound you hear? It’s KPMG leadership breathing a heavy sigh of relief for not being the name attached to audit failure headlines this week. Our lucky winner today is Deloitte. The Financial Reporting Council has fined Deloitte UK more than £900,000 (a cool $1,081,444 Federal Reserve notes) over its shoddy audit work for building […]
Big Clients Bitch to Big 4 Firms About Audit Fees, Get Pissy About Partner Pay
Across the pond, audit fees are up (22% in four years) and apparently the companies paying these fees are unhappy about it. Financial Times has seen a letter written from CFOs at FTSE 100 companies in the UK to their Big 4 auditors that says “[it is] difficult for us to sit quietly as Big […]
Carmine Di Sibio Will Be King of Advisory If EY Splits
It was 1985 when Italian-born Carmine Di Sibio joined EY as an auditor, 34 years later he would ascend to global chairman and CEO, a role he continues to occupy today. Soon, he might end up leading the consulting business should the firm’s 13,000 partners vote for a consulting/audit split in a few months. Although […]
KPMG Pulled In a Kool $34.6 Billion in Global Revenue in FY 2022
Well, well, well, KPMG had a 14% increase in global revenue in its 2022 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30—the second largest year-over-year increase in revenue among the Big 4 firms behind Deloitte’s 18.1%. And of course there’s a press release: KPMG International announces strong annual aggregated revenues for KPMG firms globally of US$35 billion […]
EY Dumbly Nixes Mid-Year Bonuses
On a Friday all-hands call, EYers learned not to expect a bonus from Santa this year. This despite EY having its best year in 20 years. In September, EY announced revenue of $45.4 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2022, an increase of 13.7% from prior year and the most year-over-year growth the […]
We Forgot to Mention KPMG Got Caught Cheating Again
The PCAOB announced Wednesday it has imposed $7.7 million in penalties against KPMG Colombia (Firm: $4 Million Penalty; Individual: $25,000 Penalty), KPMG UK ($2.6 Million), and KPMG India (Firm: $1 Million Penalty; Individuals: $75,000 Penalty) for a variety of infractions. Failure to cooperate with a PCAOB inspection, cheating on training exams, signing off on blank […]
Deloitte Gave a Million Bucks to the New Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum
The Smithsonian American’s Women’s History Museum is still in planning stages and has received a generous donation from Deloitte to support the project. There is of course a press release: The Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum has announced a $1 million gift from Deloitte to support the development of the new museum. The donation establishes […]
Sounds Like the EY Split is Going Forward Whether Partners Want It to Or Not
EY Global Managing Partner Andy Baldwin was on a Reuters Breakingviews podcast recently and in the interview — besides suggesting that other Big 4 firms will follow EY’s lead toward a split despite these other firms saying they have no plans to do that — he made it sound like the split is happening one […]
Deloitte and PwC Top This Indeed List of Companies Hiring Tech Workers
The tech sector continues to lay off talent in droves (don’t worry, it doesn’t affect you) and Indeed has helpfully put together a list of companies looking for tech talent to assist the newly laid off in finding a new gig. At the top of this list with the most jobs? Deloitte and PwC. Interestingly, […]
Apparently Interns Are Flocking to PwC to Learn More About … HR
Getting an internship at PwC is a pretty big deal for college students looking to pursue a career in accounting or consulting. But in human resources? Apparently so, according to the latest ranking of the best HR internships for 2023 by Vault and Firsthand. Only five companies’ internship programs made the list for 2023. Coming […]
PwC Declares a Poaching War on EY
As EY continues to hammer out the details of the audit and consulting split, PwC has set its sights on adding EY partners to The New Equation. Lots of EY partners. In October, PwC Global Chairman and 2012 Going Concern Hottest Accounting Firm Leader winner Bob Moritz told the Financial Times in no uncertain terms […]
Lonely Workaholics at PwC UK Will Have to Find Some Other Place to Go For Christmas
Last year, PwC UK chairman Kevin Ellis wrote a lovely advertisement article in The Telegraph letting his people know that if they have literally nothing better to do, PwC employees can spend Christmas at the office. He framed it as a kindness for those who may be lonely — or the opposite, ready to beat […]
EY Reports a Rise in Naughty Behavior Now That People Have Returned to the Office
EY Oceania has released its second Value Realised Scorecard — a wide-ranging report on how the firm is doing — and Daily Mail Australia immediately latched on to page 33: Workplace Incidents: DM’s salacious headline “EY rocked by soaring number of sexual misconduct and bullying complaints as big four accounting firm workers return to the […]
How Do Big 4 Consulting Internships Stack Up Against MBB?
McKinsey, Bain, and Boston Consulting Group—the Nos. 2, 1, and 3 best consulting firms to work for, respectively, in 2022, according to Vault and Firsthand—either have really crappy internship programs or didn’t want to participate in Firsthand’s internship survey because MBB is not among the top 15 consulting firms that provide the best experiences for […]
Carillion Liquidators Roast KPMG: “A Competent Auditor Would Have Detected the Misstatements”
The Carillion failure is still working its way through the courts and now KPMG is accused by Carillion’s liquidators of missing multiple red flags, the likes of which should not have been missed had KPMG had any clue what it is doing. So say the liquidators. WSJ: KPMG received £29 million from Carillion without qualifying […]
What Shortage? EY Is Supposedly Hiring 220,000 People This Year
According to the horse’s mouth, EY is buried under millions and millions of resumes and on track to hire nearly a quarter of a million people this fiscal year. Bloomberg: EY is on track to hire around 220,000 people in the twelve months to July 2023, having achieved its highest growth in nearly two decades […]
EY Survey Ironically Finds the Four-Day Workweek is the New Standard at Many Companies
According to the latest EY Future Workplace Index survey, many companies are moving toward a four-day workweek thanks in part to competition for talent. The survey reveals surprisingly optimistic attitudes from company leadership on real estate investment despite economic tightening, says the press release, a sign that employers want you back in the office at […]
Confirmed: People Who Work For Deloitte Are Zombies
We always suspected there was something odd about people who work for Deloitte, now we know. They’re zombies! It seems Deloitte offered up a unique recruiting ad during yesterday’s long-awaited Walking Dead series finale. Excuse the potato quality of this screen recording, I’m on a Windows 3.1 machine. I’ll see if I can dig up […]
A Certain Big 4 Firm Gets Another Chance to Screw Up a State’s Unemployment Benefits System
We can’t fool you guys. Of course it’s Deloitte! Hopefully Uncle D will do a bang-up job this time for the state of Michigan, unlike some of the other state unemployment benefits systems it has handled (or mishandled) like Florida, Illinois, Colorado, and California. The Detroit Free Press reported on Nov. 15: Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance […]
A Couple PwC Partners Have Been Quickly Assigned as Joint Provisional Liquidators of FTX
Kevin Cambridge and Peter Greaves of PwC were approved by the Supreme Court of the Bahamas as joint provisional liquidators of failed crypto exchange FTX. From the press release [PDF]: On 10 November 2022, the Securities Commission of The Bahamas (“the Commission”) applied to the Supreme Court to appoint Mr. Brian Simms, KC as a […]
Begging for a Signing Bonus *After* Accepting an Offer is Not How This Works
A disappointed new Deloitte hire must have gotten wind that the firm offers signing bonuses if it’s desperate for warm bodies, but this person wasn’t presented with one when they accepted their job offer. So they went on r/Deloitte to ask for advice. And the responses this person got back are about what you’d expect […]
Some Partners at PwC Cyprus Did Not Want to Lose Their Russian Clients So They Started Their Own Firm
In March of this year, Deloitte Global posted a little message on its website about the then-developing situation in Ukraine saying the firm had “suspended business operations and client service in Ukraine as we focus on taking care of our people and their loved ones.” Within days, that message changed to saying they are “currently […]
The Supreme Court Had Better Things to Do Than Hear Appeal From Ex-Dallas Cop Who Murdered PwC Accountant
Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger knows a thing or two about someone being shot down. The Dallas Morning News reported on Monday: The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to review the case of former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence for the murder of Botham Jean in his apartment. The high court’s […]
KPMG Australia Recruits From High Schools to Meet Demand For Talent
KPMG Australia was in the news the other day for a new recruiting program involving high school grads (who were clearly rounded up from the burnout section behind the building joke) and it’s an interesting idea: on-the-job training in lieu of university. You’ll note these are technology recruits, we’re not desperate enough for accountants yet […]
Deloitte Just Canned a Bunch of Old Leaders to Make Way For Younger Ones in the UK
FT is reporting that Deloitte just axed half of UK executives this week, a surprisingly abrupt move that was announced to staff yesterday. The reason? “The changes were driven partly by a desire to replace older members of the management team with younger partners who would be young enough to run for election as chief […]
Let’s Speculate About Who Will Be the Next CEO of Deloitte
With Joe U. going global, there will soon be a vacancy in the office of the CEO at Deloitte. Fortunately for the Green Dot, it has enough people waiting in the wings who have the bona fides to fill that seat. Let’s take a look at a few of the top contenders who could be […]
Did a PwC Partner Leak Client Financial Data? A Court Will Decide
We briefly mentioned the following case in an August 2020 link dump of several Big 4 lawsuits going on at the time, there is now a date set for court so we’re throwing out an update. The allegation is that former PwC north of England head Ian Green leaked sensitive information about his client, telling […]
Our Audits Sucked Because the Auditors Are Exhausted, Says Deloitte Australia
Last week the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (think Aussie PCAOB) informed us that Deloitte and KPMG need to take “continued deliberate and concerted action” to improve the quality of their audit work because apparently it is just that bad. Deloitte did not meet ASIC standards on half of audits inspected, KPMG came in at […]
Joe Ucuzoglu Ascends the Throne of Deloitte Global, Maybe Someone Will Care This Time
Deloitte announced today that the man with the hardest to spell last name in accounting Joe Ucuzoglu will be taking over for Punit Renjen as Deloitte Global CEO. Yes, there’s a press release: The Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (Deloitte Global) Board today announced the selection of Joe Ucuzoglu as Deloitte Global CEO, subject to a […]
EY Reminds Us That Audits Provide ‘Reasonable Assurance,’ Not a Guarantee That Billions of Dollars Aren’t Hidden From the Balance Sheet
The NMC Health collapse of 2020 is still haunting EY UK, this time in London High Court as NMC administrators accuse the firm of failing in their duties and not noticing “one of the biggest frauds ever alleged at a FTSE 100 company.” The administrators, whose job it is to find some funds to repay […]
Another Deloitte Survey Says ‘Purpose’ is Just as Important as Pay (Yeah Right)
Deloitte pushed out some survey results this week that confirm what leaders have been telling themselves ever since the first Millennials entered the workplace at the turn of the century: ‘purpose’ is just as important as pay. Sure, guys. Sure. A Deloitte survey of over 4,000 respondents* found that over half of employees (62%) consider […]
Compensation Watch ’22: Just How Scary Were Raises at KPMG This Year? (UPDATE)
[Updated original post from Oct. 19 with KPMG raise percentages for 2015 and 2013.] As the leaves start changing to PwC colors, it signals the start of compensation season at another Big 4 firm: KPMG. The results of the most recent round of comp talks are in and can be found on r/accounting, per usual. […]
ICYMI: KPMG Screwed Up
Didn’t see this press release when it came out last week and because we delight in taking every opportunity possible to point out how objectively terrible KPMG is we’re sharing it with you now. Via the PCAOB: The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) today announced settled disciplinary orders sanctioning three audit firms for failing […]
PSA: Even in This Market, It’s Still Uncool to Quit Your Big 4 Job Without Notice
I was a bit surprised by the responses to this question on r/Big4 about quitting without notice. It seems even in this market we are in agreement that the least you can do is give the customary two weeks. Best case scenario they cut you loose immediately so you don’t drag your team down, steal […]
EY Israel Has Rejected the Split
Financial Times is reporting that EY Israel is joining EY China in rejecting the proposed split of audit and consulting services. “From our point of view in the Israel business, the split will not create benefits,” said EY Israel Managing Partner Doron Sharabany to FT. EY China’s decision was based on regulatory hurdles that could […]
Watch Ex-PwC Intern Sack Tom Brady
Happy NFL Sunday! Here is a video of two-time former PwC summer intern and New Orleans Saints defensive end Tanoh Kpassagnon (90) sacking the GOAT last year with a little help from his friends. Tanoh Kpassagnon sacks Tom Brady pic.twitter.com/JUjAQvjhFF — Jason Bramwell (@bramweller) October 23, 2022 Kpassagnon, who double-majored in accounting and finance at […]
The Canadian PCAOB Says One Big 4 Firm Keeps Screwing Up Audits But Won’t Say Which One It Is
Shall we speculate wildly which Big 4 firm is not meeting the Canadian Public Accountability Board’s generous standards? The Globe and Mail reports: One of Canada’s Big Four auditing firms continues to have a significant number of problems in its work, the national industry regulator has found. For now, the Canadian Public Accountability Board, which […]
This EY Split Thing is Going to Be Responsible For a Lot of Dinners and Golfing in the Year Ahead
The EY split is yet to be official — that should come late next year after a vote in a few months — but technology consultants that would have to go up against “the competitive edge” of a liberated EY consulting house for clients should get to work now if they want to stand out […]
EY Is Haunted By Some Lingering Independence Problems
Yesterday the PCAOB made public additional portions of EY’s 2018 inspection report “because the firm did not address certain quality control issues to the satisfaction of the Board within the 12 months following the date of the report.” EY’s 2018 PCAOB inspection report is dated April 28, 2020 and in it, the Board said EY […]
Deloitte Partner Who Got Sh*tfaced Drunk and Made an Ass of Himself at the Horse Races Will Be Retiring
You know how they always say accounting is a small world and you should take care not to burn bridges? Well Stephen Cahill, partner and head of Deloitte UK’s executive compensation practice, decided to say “fuck that and fuck you too” this past June when he went on a sexist, racist tirade in the company […]
College Accounting Programs Are Taxpayer-Funded Training Programs for the Big 4 and Other Such Muckraking
Ed. note: the following is penned by Bob Jennings CPA, EA for his Taxspeaker.com newsletter. Bob has given us permission to reprint in full and we are enthusiastically doing so in the hopes it will spark much-needed conversation about one of the profession’s most significant issues: the Big 4 oligopoly. According to the SBA, small […]
PwC Plans to Poach Unhappy Senior Managers From EY
While the pundits are talking about how the EY split could completely change the accounting industry as we know it and inspire other firms to split once they see the truckloads of cash pulling up to EY partners’ houses, one industry vet is perched at the periphery with a stack of offer letters just waiting […]
Promotion Watch ’22: KPMG Admits 186 to Partnership
Now that summer has turned to fall and Deloitte, PwC, and EY have all had their comp discussions with employees, released their global revenue numbers for 2022, and deified all of their new partners and principals, it is KPMG SEASON! The firm with a Sept. 30 fiscal year-end has begun comp talks with Klynveldians (we’ll […]
When it Comes to Global Revenue, PwC is Still Deloitte’s Bi*ch
2015. That was the last time PwC held the distinction of being the world’s biggest accounting firm by revenue, edging Deloitte by a $35.4 billion to $35.2 billion margin. But since then it’s been all Deloitte, overtaking PwC in 2016 and widening its lead in 2022 to about $9 billion now that PwC has officially […]
The Talent Shortage Has Gotten So Bad Clients Are Now Doing Their Own Audit Documentation
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Deloitte China with failing to comply with fundamental U.S. auditing requirements because in numerous audits over numerous years Deloitte China asked clients to select their own samples for testing and to prepare their own audit documentation. From the SEC press release: The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged […]
According to This List, Deloitte is the Best Big 4 Firm For Women
Fortune has come out with their 100 Best Large Workplaces for Women list and while no accounting firms made the top ten, Deloitte managed to claw their way up to #16 from #51 in 2021 thus making them the highest-ranked Big 4 firm on the list. To determine the Best Workplaces for Women, Fortune research […]
EY UK Chair Insists Audit Will Not Be the Red-Headed Stepchild of Professional Services if the Split Goes Forward
For years, audit has struggled to attract talent and especially leadership because let’s be honest, audit is awful. You’re clients least favorite person, you have regulators breathing down your neck, and one little mistake can ruin your whole career. Plus the pay is…not great compared to other service lines. EY UK Chair and Managing Partner […]
Promotion Watch ’22: Deloitte Admits 279 New Partners and Principals
Deloitte recently unveiled its latest class of overachievers, which includes 107 new partners and 172 new principals for fiscal year 2023. This newest class is a biggun compared to others in recent years—Deloitte admitted 169 new partners and principals for FY 2022, 125 for FY 2021, and 150 for FY 2020. Want more numbers? OK, […]
The Pope (Yes, That Pope) Has a Message for Deloitte: People Over Profits
So apparently Pope Francis had a meeting at the Vatican with a roomful of Deloitte consultants yesterday? And in his address, the Holy Father told them business has the power to help suffering people and to help tackle crises worldwide, including the pandemic and war. As if there weren’t enough pressure on people at Big […]
EY Basks in the Glory of Third-Place Revenue (Maybe for the Last Time) in 2022
The Big 4 firm with a split personality officially announced today its fiscal 2022 revenue of $45.4 billion—a figure we knew several weeks ago thanks to the Financial Times. EY has always seemed perfectly fine with being the third biggest accounting firm in the world by revenue, knowing it’ll never catch PwC for second place […]
EY Might Not Make Buckets of Money From This Split Thing After All
The Wall Street Journal has an article today suggesting that the EY audit/consulting split may not be the big money pay day EY is banking (heh) on. Why? Consulting is a competitive market and the economy isn’t looking so great these days, and EY’s separated consulting biz will not necessarily have the brand recognition in […]
EY China: We Are Not Splitting, Sorry
The Financial Times was one of the news outlets that reported last week about EY China saying it wasn’t going along with Carmine Di Sibio & Co.’s plans to split EY into separate auditing and consulting entities. Not because EY partners in the firm’s Mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, and Mongolia offices don’t wanna become rich […]
KPMG’s ‘Do As We Say Not As We Do’ Tips to Prevent Employee Turnover
KPMG has some sponsored content in Harvard Business Review about how to keep employees from defecting (defecting? Really? It’s a job, not the Sandinistas) and in it, the firm offers some suggestions to encourage employee loyalty. Suggestions that they themselves would be wise to implement should KPMG want to hang on to their own people […]
Listicle of the Day: The Accounting Firms on Fortune’s 25 Best Large Workplaces in Consulting and Professional Services
Yikes that headline was a mouthful, sorry about that. Anyway, Fortune has released its 25 Best Large Workplaces in Consulting and Professional Services list and you might be surprised to learn that only one Big 4 firm cleared the top ten. Actually you might not be surprised by that at all once you learn the […]