Category: Big 4

If it happens at a Big 4 accounting firm, we’re talking about it here.

Be Sure to Keep Your Guard Up at the Next PwC Happy Hour

We received a tip early last week that will could make you think twice about attending the next PricewaterhouseCoopers happy hour, or at the very least, keep your eyes open for the attendees that have clearly drank themselves blind.

Our original tipster told us the following, “You should look into a PwC male partner punching a male associate at a going away happy hour in Houston, TX. Allegedly, the story is the partner got drunk, walked up to the male associate and said “I know you want to kiss me” proceeded to kiss him on the lips and then pushed and punched him.”


Well! That sounds like a helluva party. We’ve heard of partners bullying other partners before but this is a new one.

Before we go any further, we should note that while we did learn the name of the partner in question, we’re withholding the name of the person at this time since we have yet to confirm the incident first-hand with an eyewitness to the events. If you were there and can confirm these events, including whether it was a left jab or round-house uppercut and whether it was a peck or a sloppy make out attempt, email us and tell us what you saw.

Okay. So, our source proceeded to tell us that the partner had been placed on the probation and didn’t acknowledge the event for several days saying, “he didn’t remember anything that happened because the engagement team brought drugs to the happy hour.” Fairly standard black-out excuse.

Anyway, we checked on this rumor with a source in PwC’s Houston office who told us the following:

A fellow associate of mine was at an audit happy hour last Friday and he said something along the lines of “things got really, really crazy.” And he wouldn’t tell me what he meant by “really really crazy.” I guessed table dancing / hooking up, but he said no, it wasn’t like that.

Luckily for all us, our source did end up talking to the witness and told us:

I talked to my friend — he could neither “confirm or deny the events” ; however, from talking to him, it sounds like the rumor is true. Per my friend, the “issues are still under investigation by the Firm.” So its all very hush hush evidently. The client is a high profile one, so I’m sure people are being very, very careful to not let the gossip spread if it all possible.

With all this, we thought we’d better call this partner up to see what’s what. We called the Houston office, requesting the partner in question (“PIQ”) and after a pause by the receptionist, we were connected. Expecting the typical partner buffer of an admin to answer, we were surprised when the he answered. We politely introduced ourselves and asked about “an incident that happened at a recent happy hour where your name came up.”

The PIQ immediately interrupted, “I’m not allowed to discuss anything about that. Thank you very much.” and promptly hung up the phone.

We tried getting in touch with PwC spokesman Jon Stoner to see what he knew about this alleged make out/fisticuffs situation but he has yet to return our phone calls or emails. If you’ve got more details on this story, get in touch with us and we’ll update the post if we hear anything more.

BearingPoint Trustee Shaking Down Old Employees for Sketchy Expense Reimbursements

The Washington Post recounts Deloitte’s purchase of BearingPoint’s Federal Services business last year and as you might imagine it’s mostly a glowing piece about various aspects of the deal.

These include revenue growth “The company posted about $1.65 billion in federal revenue this year — up from combined revenue of about $1.43 billion before the acquisition,” the increase in headcount, “Deloitte hired close to 1,400 people, and the firm is now planning to add 160 to 170 more per month,” and expansion of services, “Deloitte had a more expansive set of services and products than BearingPoint — including tax, audit and consulting services — but BearingPoint, with more than 35 years in the federal business, had access to a larger set of clients.”

Sounds swell but there are some loose ends to tie up, most notably the trustee of BearingPoint’s liquidating trust is sending letters to former BearingPoint employees under the Deloitte roof to get some cash back for expenses that were deemed unnecessary for doing typical business in DC Metro:

John DeGroote, whose firm serves as trustee to BearingPoint’s liquidating trust, confirmed his company is now trying to reclaim BearingPoint expenses that were improperly reimbursed — either because the expense should not have been reimbursed or because the employee did not provide the right documentation.

The trust has sent out between 400 and 500 letters to former BearingPoint employees seeking $750,000 in expenses, $250,000 of which has already been returned, DeGroote said.

Since the “the expense should not have been reimbursed or because the employee did not provide the right documentation” you can safely assume that these were the standard three martini lunches at the District’s finer establishments, rub ‘n tugs and other expenses that would normally be a-okay but less-so when a rival buys you out.

BearingPoint acquisition has extended Deloitte’s reach [WaPo]

Deloitte Employees Enjoy Boozing, Checking Out Men in Uniform Thanks to G-20 Protesters

Protestors of this weekend’s G-20 Summit invaded Toronto this week which promoted some companies in the TO’s financial district to take extraordinary measures so that their employees wouldn’t be bothered by all the jobless ruffians.

Most shops just sent people home as a precautionary measure as protestors gathered throughout the week but some diehards are camping out, as FINS reports on StatPro North America’s office that is near the red zone that surrounds the Toronto Convention center:

Andrew Peddar, chief operating officer of StatPro North America, said that the firm wanted to ensure that its clients, which include asset managers and hedge funds, could be assured of uninterrupted service during the week.

The campout was the employees’ suggestion. That way, they’ll avoid potential disasters on the client front and also sidestep protestors.

“We have sleeping bags, lot of food and lots of liquid,” said Peddar. The axes? “In case we need to break out.”

Or chop off some ne’er do well’s arm, you know, whatever is necessary. Obviously these guys are overachieving, bedwetting amateurs that don’t recognize an opportunity when they see one.

Fortunately, Deloitte knew better and told all its employees to work from home starting Tuesday. Some used the unexpected time off to get enamored by the security, “Junaid Zia, a risk analyst at Deloitte, had most of the week off. When he left the office Monday night, he said he didn’t see any protestors, only a lot of policemen…’They should just do G-20 every year,’ he said.”

But at least one Big 4 veteran saw this as a perfect opportunity to do some weekday drinking:

[A] senior analyst at the office, took the opportunity to spend time riding his motorbike and watch soccer… “I went to a British bar for the England game, an Argentinian bar for an Argentina game, a German bar for a German game,” he said. “But I’ve been working.”

By Thursday, he was lying down at home, having injured his back. He declined to elaborate on how the injury happened.

Probably hurt it tracking that fantasy football team, no?

What I Did During the G-20 Summit [FINS]

Compensation Watch ’10: PwC Starts Spreading the News in New York

It’s raining bonuses and raises over at PricewaterhouseCoopers these days. Unfortunately, all I’m seeing are news tips (monetary tips or buybacks at the bar are always appreciated). All of my sources are from the NYC office, so if you’re elsewhere in the country, please share your numbers in the comments below. Here’s what we know so far:


• Advisory/Consulting senior associate received a raise north of 18.5%. No, that is not a typo. So in the advisory practice it’s safe to assume the spread is 0% to 19% for raises this year, with the average being about 6% as reported by Caleb earlier.

• A recently promoted associate to senior associate in advisory received a 10.5% raise and a $3,000 bonus.

• Tax bonuses are being handed out now as well. Size matters in this instance, people. Cough up the details below.

This indicates that resources are being spent on what is being determined to be the right people in the right practices. Average performers should expect to receive 4-6% and take it to the bank.

Audit people, what are your numbers looking like? Email us or post your comments below. Practice/office/level are always appreciated

Thanks to everyone that is sharing information. Enjoy the weekend.

FERF Survey: Audit Fees Down, Big 4 Still Dominate Public Company Filers

This story is republished from CFOZone, where you’ll find news, analysis and professional networking tools for finance executives.

It looks like audit fees are stabilizing.

The 150 publicly-held companies responding to a recent survey paid an average of $4.8 million in audit fees in 2009, down 2.4 percent from the total shelled out by these respondents the prior fiscal year.

The 197 privately-held companies responding to the survey paid an average of $291,200, roughly even with the prior year.

Drilling further down, the survey found that total audit fees for 83 large accelerated filers-those with market capitalizations over $700 million–averaged $7.8 million, 3.6 percent less than what they paid the prior year. What’s more, this average of $7.8 million was possibly skewed to the high side this year due to the total audit fees reported by the 19 respondents from companies with more than $25 billion in annual revenues.


On the other hand, the average audit fees paid by the 22 non-accelerated filers were $579,900, 3.3 percent more than what they paid in the prior year.

These are some of the highlights of a newly-released annual report from Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF), the research affiliate of Financial Executives International. It stresses that the averages reported in this year’s Audit Fee Survey are not comparable to those reported in the 2009 survey because this year’s respondents are not necessarily the same as last year’s respondents. In fact, FEI stresses that this year’s average was skewed slightly higher due to representation from more companies with revenues of $25 billion or more.

The survey also found that the total number of audit hours averaged 21,458 for all public companies, and-not surprisingly–was directly proportional to both the size of the company and to the number of legal entities comprising the company. Of the 19 respondents from companies with more than $25 billion in annual revenues, the total hours averaged 108,571.

The average hourly audit rate was $218 for all public companies–$186 for nonaccelerated filers and $220 for the large accelerated filers. Surprisingly, the survey found that the lowest hourly rate ($110) and the highest hourly rate ($400) were both reported by large accelerated filers. It said the $110 rate was reported by a large multi-national consumer goods distributor and the $400 rate was reported by a large multi-national financial services firm.

Other interesting findings:

• 88 percent of public company respondents used Big 4 audit firms compared to 36 percent of private companies.

• After the Big 4, Grant Thornton was mentioned by four respondents and BDO and McGladrey were both mentioned once.

• 21 of the 197 private companies plan to switch auditors, compared to only 7 of the 150 public company respondents. Service issues and fees were key reasons for both groups.

• Just 16 of the 150 public companies indicated that their auditors broke out the cost of the Section 404 attestation.

PwC Will Be There for You When Your Gridiron Dreams Come to an Abrupt Halt

PricewaterhouseCoopers understands that their employees have big dreams. But if those dreams come crashing down into a heap of flaming shit on the doorstep of your life that they’ll be there for you when you have nowhere else to turn.

Case-in-point, Danny Brannagan is a football player. A Canadian football player. And he has a dream to play in the CFL for the Toronto Argonauts. He also has an opportunity to realize his dream to become an auditor for a Big 4 firm but PwC is accommodating his desire to be a tackling dummy until his knees need replaced:

[PricewaterhouseCoopers] is willing to wait while the young quarterback sees how far his skills can take him in the Canadian Football League.

“They (PricewaterhouseCoopers) understand I have a limited window to participate at a high level in sports and they told me to take advantage of that,” the Queen’s graduate said on Wednesday.

Brannagan will get to experience the life of a CFL quarterback while on the practice roster, but more importantly continue to develop the skills that helped him take Queen’s all the way to a CIS title in 2009.

“It will give me an opportunity to learn and develop as a quarterback, get used to the system and get used to the professional aspect of the game,” he said.

Brannagan will be paid the handsome sum of $500 a week while on the practice roster, which is undoubtedly less than he would be making at PricewaterhouseCoopers, even at an entry-level position.

“I don’t know if it’s a sacrifice, necessarily,” Brannagan said.

“PricewaterhouseCoopers has been very accommodating. They have allowed to me to have a flexible start date there. I don’t necessarily look at it as giving something up as much as I’m postponing a career after football.”

Argonauts head coach Jim Barker was thrilled to be able to accommodate Brannagan on the practice roster.

“It’s a lot better than working for an accounting firm,” he said half-jokingly.

$500 a week to get crushed by the defensive starters? Picking up the starting QB’s leftovers (if you catch my drift)? Get snapped on the ass by a linebacker’s towel who may want to get to know him a little better in the shower? These are the things dreams are made of.

Fortunately for Dan-o, PwC has elevators in its offices because he probably isn’t going to be able to walk up stairs after his “football career” is over.

Plus, the nerve of this coach. There was no half-joking there. He was dead serious. Would the Argonauts be there for Danny if he was part of the next round of PwC layoffs? Not likley.

Big 4 Rotations: Great Career Opportunity or Recruiting Gimmick?

We touched on international rotations yesterday, albeit one that probably would be provide more risk than most accountants are comfortable taking.

That being said, rotations – either to another practice, office or international – can be a way to re-energize your career if you’re feeling stagnant or a simple distraction from the distinct possibility that you don’t like your job. We’ll discuss all three of these possibilities and then open it up for discussion:

International Rotations – Offering international rotations is an excellent recruiting tools for the firms that offer them (primarily Big 4) and most people that work in firms that offer them would state that they are “an extremely rewarding experience,” whether or not they’ve actually experienced one. It’s one of the cliché message that firms put out without mentioning the fact that the politics of negotiating one can be tricky. All that being said, those lucky few that do experience them rave about their experiences (for the most part, there are some that just can’t be pleased) on both a personal and professional level.


Domestic Rotations – Again, firms market these as opportunities for those that are interested in them. There are less politics involved in the domestic versions although a particular office may have to demonstrate a need before it would be approved. A slight twist on these the domestic “rotation” is an unsolicited one, where one office has a desperate need for warm bodies and your firm offers you up to spend a significant length of time (e.g. two to three months up to a year or more) working in a different office.

Practice Rotations – You’re sick of auditing/tax/advisory. One day the idea of a rotation to a new service line or to a support department (e.g. HR) comes along and you jump at it because, well, you’re bored out of your mind. This can be a great opportunity to do something completely different which could be the start of a new career path. Or it could be your firm filling its need for grunts in a practice that is short-handed.

From a recent thread on staying or leaving public accounting, commenter Guest had this to say regarding internal rotations.

Internal rotations are also BS. They are generally looking for cheap labor to bridge them in times of need. Most people don’t get asked to stay on, in which case your peers that stayed in audit may have a leg up. If you do get asked to stay, you will be behind your advisory/tax peers since you didn’t start with them.

So it’s a bit of a mixed bag out there. On the one hand, landing one of these rotations is the first step and then you have to consider the repercussions of leaving an office/practice for a length of time. If you’ve got personal experience with any of these, discuss below for the wishers and dreamers out there mulling rotations.

PwC Is Making Your Dream of a Rotation to Rwanda Possible

PricewaterhouseCoopers is opening a field office in Rwanda, thus bringing the glorious PwC Experience to the African nation that has likely never known it. This means one more opportunity for anyone interested in an international rotation to country that barely qualifies as such.


Although this isn’t quite as adventurous as working the Somali engagement that the firm won last year (no pirates in Rwanda after all) but it’s nice to know that you have one more option on the continent.

The daily comings and goings still seem to be dicey enough to keep things interesting although authorities seem to be giving Americans fair warning. S’pose that’s the most you can ask for except the second you explain what an accountant does, they’ll assume you have money and you’ll get shaken down.

Dog Days: How Are Accounting Firms Helping You Enjoy Summer?

A fellow Big 4 expat once told us that Tuesday was the worst day of the week. The logic was essentially that Tuesday was no man’s land – you weren’t catching up on your weekend with your co-workers like on a Monday, Friday is an eternity away and plus Tuesday has no feel.

And since the summer months tend to be slower, the days can drag.

With that in mind, a current Big 4 soldier wanted to find out what firms were doing to help pass some of the hours either through internal initiatives or on individual teams. She was kind enough to share with us her team’s Friday ritual:

Every Friday we head out early to get manicures. Just wanted to know how/if other teams or firms were letting people blow off some steam this summer.

For the gents that aren’t so in touch with their delicate sensibilities, this probably sounds awful. Regardless, it beats the hell out of being the office, yeah? And spending over half of your day on Deloitte’s Fantasy Football doesn’t qualify as a substitute.

You may remember that KPMG is letting the troops don their best denim – baggy, skinny, nut huggers – whatever and they also shipped out some sweet flesh that Klynveldians may have burned on over Memorial Day.

So whether your summer consists of extra-casual dress, afternoons at the $5.99 buffet strip club or double-duty on your office’s landscaping, discuss how your firm is helping you enjoy (or not) months 6 through 8.

PwC’s “White Male Strategy” Is Working Out Pretty Well

According to a recent post on Fast Company, some people say that discussing diversity is dead. Barry Salzberg doesn’t buy that for a second.

And neither does PricewaterhouseCoopers. They and the rest of the Big 4 are all over this diversity thing, strategically placed fliers around the office, the constant barrage of emails and the training. Thank the Maker for the diversity training. However, we did note something that is part of the diversity strategy that probably has better intentions than it sounds:

One of those people I interviewed is Niloufar Molavi, who is the U.S. Chief Diversity Officer for PwC (PriceWaterhouseCoopers.) She is very proud of the diversity and inclusion work of PwC. When I asked Niloufar which of their programs, policies or processes were the most innovative, she said, “At PwC we’re proud of all our diversity efforts, but if I had to choose one to highlight, it would be our white male strategy. Men comprise over half our firm and it’s critical to engage them in the dialogue about inclusion.”

Diversity Is Dead? Not According to PwC [Fast Company]

Big 4 Refugees: Where Are They Now? Are They Still Miserable?

Unless you’re completely illiterate, you’re aware that we cover lots of news on layoffs and exoduses here at GC. Layoffs seem to be more of ’08-’09 trend while this year the exodus seems to be en vogue.

That being the case, some of the people that you knew while they were in public accounting have completely disappeared never to heard from again. Those of you still at the mercy of the billable hour might assume that these refugees are loving life in their new jobs – working 40 hours a week, making far more money and seeing more than an hour or two of sunlight on a regular basis.

But do these ex-Big 4 and public accountants really have it better? One reader wonders aloud:

Something came to mind recently when talking to my ex-Big 4 friends, who were laid off in the mass curling about a year ago. Being someone who was laid off by a Big 4, I somewhat have to agree and feel the same way. That is, I have heard from so many of these friends who hate their current jobs, and considering quitting. Even more are thinking about going back to school. So I wasn’t sure if this only applied to my friends, or is a general trend among those laid-off from Big 4s.

So I thought it would be interesting in the thought of other people who were laid off by the Big 4s. Where are they now? Do they like their jobs? Or do they feel the same way? If they don’t like their current jobs, what are their intentions? And maybe even the question of whether they would consider going back to a Big 4?

Lots of questions in there, so it’s really a grab bag. Jump in on whatever applies to you – headed back a life or Ramen and frozen pizza to get at Masters or PhD? Still glad you escaped public accounting with your sanity intact? Thinking of – gasp – going back?

Firms are definitely looking for help as evidenced by the pleas by PwC and Ernst & Young to their current employees to refer everyone and their dog for possible employment, so hey, it’s an option for those that feel that the non-Big 4 grass is faux-green. Discuss.

Three Things Public Accounting Can Learn From the World Cup

World Cup fever is sweeping the world, if not your office. Sure it’s not March Madness and a much needed relief from busy season but it is the world’s biggest athletic event. And regardless of whether you are wearing your country’s colors to the office or still confused as to what FIFA even stands for, your friendly employer should be paying attention; there’s plenty to learn from these games.


Loud noise is a powerful distraction – It’s rumored that Human Resources departments around the country are placing obscene orders for vuvuzelas, the long plastic horns that are causing a stir at the opening round games (and being banned at practically all future sporting events). Their hopes are for all Big 4 partners to use them when year 2010 bonuses and raises are announced. The news is expected to be rather bleak and disappointing, but the hope is that the horns make everything seem so much more FUN!

Seriously though – those horns sound like a swarm of drunk, football loving bees.

Timing is everything – The worst part about the World Cup games for football fans in America has been the timing of games. The first round games have been beginning at 7:30 am on the east coast and a bright 4:30 am in sunny California. Satyam hopes no one is watching their recent restatement troubles, much like West Coasters likely snoozed through Argentina/South Korea this morning.

Moral victories are still acceptable – In fact – if you spin things well enough – a moral victory is a real victory. (See Example A here) So what moral victories have we had recently?

E&Y is hiring…sorta. We still don’t know what that’s all about.

KPMG is making the suburbia-to-city commute just a thing of the past. How nice of them!

PwC raises might be decent after all. Or at least less awful than EY’s.

Deloitte made impacting the community a requirement.

McGladrey is on fire. Everybody out!

Hmm. Suddenly that 1-1 tie with the Brits doesn’t seem so mediocre, does it?