KPMG Is Putting ChatGPT to Work, It Probably Won’t Be Stealing Your Job For Now
KPMG Australia has joined PwC in deploying AI to get some work done, finally giving us the “robots taking your job” scenario we’ve been eager for since at least 2010. It’s here! Funny enough, KPMG blocked staff from using ChatGPT a little less than two months ago, though it did allow certain IT professionals to […]
EY Split Update: There’s a Battle Royale Going Down This Week
Does anyone still care about the EY split? Did anyone ever? Well, here’s your semi-weekly update anyway. Wall Street Journal reports that EY Global CEO Carmine Di Sibio and EY US Chair Julie Boland will be going head-to-head in Palo Alto this week to hash things out. As you may remember, Boland dared to raise […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Big 4 Consulting Salaries; Accounting For Dummies; PwC Boomerangs | 3.27.23
They just had to use this picture, didn’t they? Alright, here are some other headlines for ya. Deloitte, Accenture, McKinsey: Who Are The Top Consulting Firms For B-School Students? The world’s largest accounting and professional services firms in terms of revenue and workforce, these prestigious firms are renowned for offering high salaries with a generous […]
Friday Footnotes: Disengaged Team? Do This; Deloitte’s Huge India Expansion; Auditors Yelled At…Again | 3.24.23
Reminder: you have until April 17 to weigh in on a proposal to extend the CPA exam window Practice Is it time for firms to transform their business model? [Journal of Accountancy] Pandemic pressures have worn the workforce thin, and the economy is in the thick of rapid, radical change. It’s time for firm leaders […]
Layoff Watch ’23: Accenture is ‘Streamlining Operations’ But Don’t Worry, It’s Mostly Back Office Staff
It’s a rare day we write about Accenture but because the firms we do write about have begun tightening their belts and even cutting advisory people (KPMG, BDO), we thought it prudent to inform you of what appeared in the 10-Q the company filed yesterday. This is from Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of […]
Whitley Penn Finds Out New Yorkers Do Not F*** Around
On March 20, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a motion to compel (aka “gonna need the court to make someone do something thx”) Whitley Penn to hand over documents and communications relating to her civil fraud case against their client Donald Trump, three of his adult children, and the Trump Organization. Whitley Penn […]
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 […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Bad Audit Haunts EY; Big 4 RTO in India; Why Can’t PwC Hire?? | 3.20.23
Hello and happy Monday. Or just Monday, I’m not here to force emotional responses. Here are a few things going on in our little corner of the world. From Forbes’ America’s Best Management Consulting Firms: For the second year in a row, both Bain & Company and Deloitte were the most-recommended consultancies, with star ratings […]
Friday Footnotes: An Outsourcing Shortage Now Too?; Finally, Some Disruption; PwC Haters Celebrate Government Inquiry | 3.17.23
There’s a lot happening this week. Which YAY because hooooo boy can it get boring around here when there isn’t. First things first, check out what the AICPA is working on and when you’ve had a chance to review their idea, reach out with your feedback if you want. Comments are closed on Footnotes because […]
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 […]
Alan Whitman Is Suddenly No Longer Baker Tilly CEO As of Today
Mere hours ago, Baker Tilly announced via news release that Alan Whitman has resigned from his role as CEO and chairman of the board effective immediately. This is a surprise to say the least, Baker Tilly has been making a lot of big moves in the past year or so, honestly we expected an explosive […]
This SVB Securities Exec’s Resume Reads Like a Wikipedia Page For 21st Century Accounting Trash Fires
The fallout from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank — the 16th largest bank in the country up until Friday — is only just beginning and while pundits and scribes at better publications than this one dutifully debate why it happened and what comes next, we’re here to point out the hilarious resume of SVB […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: PwC Didn’t Screw Up the Oscars; Deloitte India Doubles in Size; ‘Sham Audits’ | 3.13.23
Hello and Happy Monday! Here’s some stuff going on in our little corner of the world. A former Deloitte partner is suing Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. for disability benefits, saying he’s unable to return to his “highly-demanding” position because of multiple mental health conditions: The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the US District Court for the […]
Friday Footnotes: KPMG Client’s Spectacular Failure; PwC Gets Defensive; Kids Doing Taxes | 3.10.23
Some things are happening today. Bank Fail Friday is back! What does Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse mean for the financial system? [The Economist] Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly. That is how Silicon Valley Bank (svb), the 16th-largest lender in America, with about $200bn in assets, went bust. Its financial position deteriorated over several years. But […]
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, […]
Why NASBA Can Be a Bully and What CPAs Can Do About It
By Sharon Lassar, PhD, CPA (Florida) John J. Gilbert Professor and Director of the School of Accountancy, University of Denver Going Concern previously reported on bits of an interview with Ken Bishop, President and CEO of NASBA, published in Journal of Accountancy. A cut out in the article includes this quote, “Should any state or […]
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). […]
Philadelphia Woman Engages in Passionate CPA Awareness Campaign in a Pizza Parlor
A 55-year-old Philadelphia woman is being charged with ethnic intimidation and harassment — a hate crime under Pennsylvania law — after an unhinged, racist rant in a pizza shop brought on by Spanish language programming on the shop’s television. The original TikTok of her bizarre rant, which took place on February 23, has been removed […]
Actual Kids Are Working at EY Now
Just the other day we were talking about initiatives around the profession to ease the burden of the 150 hour requirement for CPA licensure that tie together education and work experience, like work-for-credit programs or 5th year education partnerships between firms and universities. Today, we’ve learned of another education-experience partnership: a high school in North […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: EY Split Gets Ripped Apart; Advisory Slowdown is Here; KPMG Snubs Promotions | 3.6.23
Good morning and happy Monday! Things were a bit quiet last week as much of the profession currently has their heads down grinding through the best time of the year, this week will likely be much of the same. BDO layoffs were the significant story from last week and may signal the start of a […]
Friday Footnotes: KPMG’s ESG Conflict; PwC Fails to Deliver; FASB Turns Attention to AI | 3.3.23
Big 4 How auditing giant KPMG became a global sustainability leader while serving companies accused of forest destruction [International Consortium of Investigative Journalists] The firm vouched for an Indonesian company with a supply chain beset by deforestation allegations and a project in Canada that led to an Indigenous forest’s “death by a thousand cuts”. ‘Happy […]
Survey Says: Virginia Accountant Salaries By Experience Level
Skipping the smart-ass headline for this one and getting right to it: Virginia Society of CPAs surveyed a total of 84 public firms, 17 solo practitioners, 133 accountants in corporate/industry, and 48 in government/nonprofit for the 2022 VSCPA Compensation & Benefits Survey and here are the results: Virginia Accounting Salaries Mean Median Accountant I: 0-1.9 […]
Layoff Watch ’23: BDO USA Cuts 85 People in Advisory, Wishes Them the Very Best on the Way Out the Door
Fresh off the rumor mill: BDO USA has cut 85 people from advisory, announced via internal email from brand new advisory head Eskander Yavar to all of his service line this afternoon. We were provided part of the email which reads: Today was a difficult day for our practice — we reduced our workforce by […]
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 […]
Armanino’s Former Crypto Team Has Left and Formed Their Own Shop, Allegedly
Having happily offered services to crypto clients since 2014, Armanino very nearly marked ten years in the crypto space until the catastrophic collapse of crypto exchange FTX in November 2022 forced them to part ways with crypto clients seeking assurance, FTX being one of them. As a reminder, here’s what happened in December: Armanino is […]
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 […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: EY Embarrasses Itself (Again); Archaic IRS Tech; Partners Battle It Out | 2.27.23
In Australia, EY is still bungling this one up: EY accidentally leaked the personal details of current and former employees while trying to launch a massive review into the firm’s workplace culture. The Big 4 Accounting firm announced the independent review following the tragic death of EY worker Aishwarya Venkatachalam, 27, who fell to her […]
Friday Footnotes: Eff You, Pay Me; KPMG is Reading Your Thoughts; EY Adds Meme Coins to Blockchain Tech | 2.24.23
Talent The new math in recruiting at accounting firms [Puget Sound Business Journal] You have to scroll way too far down in this article to see a mention of salary. Shocking. When they’re not striving for the pinnacle of their sports, internationally famous mountaineer Jimmy Chin and teenage tennis phenom Coco Gauff are promoting accounting […]
The Beef Between the AICPA and Minnesota Over the 150 Hour Rule Heats Up
I’m dating myself here but do you remember the East Coast/West Coast rap beef of the 90s? That’s sort of what’s happening in the profession right now over proposed legislation in Minnesota that offers an alternative to the traditional 150 units of education required for licensure. Except in the case of 90s rapper beefs, Tupac […]
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 […]
Utah Accounting Firm and Dudes Who Work There Busted For ERC Fraud
BUSTED. Get it? The report from KSL-TV in Salt Lake City we are about to share with you refers to a Department of Justice news release but we weren’t able to find one so we’re going to have to go off the TV station story. TL;DR Two guys and their accounting firm are accused of […]
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 […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: EY’s New Harassment Case; Who’s Happy in Consulting; Bare Minimum Monday | 2.20.23
Since it’s Monday and all, let’s start with this: ‘Bare Minimum Monday’ is the latest workplace trend hitting productivity We’ll write this one up later: Accounting firm Ernst & Young launches probe into sexual harassment claim filed by Hong Kong employee after allegation goes viral online [South China Morning Post] Employee says she and her […]
Friday Footnotes: Deloitte Partner Scammed By Other Deloitte Partner; Big 4 Legal Grows; A $3.5 Billion Error | 2.17.23
Big 4 EY expects ‘massive approval’ in vote to split up company [Reuters] Partners in EY are expected to give approval for spinning off the company’s consulting arm and listing it on the stock market by the end of the year, a senior EY official said on Tuesday. Over 13,000 partners – out of EY’s […]
Minnesota Throws TPTB the Finger and Introduces Legislation to Offer an Alternate Pathway to CPA Licensure
It was only a couple days ago that the Journal of Accountancy published an interview with NASBA CEO and President Ken Bishop in which Bishop sternly warns states against even thinking about lowering the CPA licensure requirement to 120 units, something something mobility blah blah. To save you a click, here’s a relevant snip of […]
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 […]
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 […]
The Accountant Shortage Isn’t Bad Enough For NASBA to Entertain Dropping the 150 Hour Requirement
When we talk about why no one wants to be an accountant anymore, a handful of things come up in every thread. Let’s quickly get them down in case an alien who just landed on Earth this morning Googles “accountant shortage,” arrives on this article, and wishes to learn more about the causes. Salaries — […]
Morning Morning Accounting News Brief: NASBA Sticks to the 150 Rule; PwC Reports a New Gap; 60 Years of Misery | 2.13.23
Good morning and welcome to a brand new week. Last week was oddly quiet but that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, right now is “keep your head down and get your work done” time for a good chunk of the profession. Oh, here’s last week’s Friday Footnotes if you want to catch up […]
Friday Footnotes: Florida Man’s Tax Problem; Accountants Are Walking Out; BDO Assures on Tether | 2.10.23
Talent As tax season approaches, accounting firms are short on staff [Marketplace] Oh hey! Planning ahead: How these employers will grow and retain talent this year [Silicon Republic] When it comes to engaging with talent, PwC recently launched its people value proposition, which aims to give employees flexibility with how they work and help them […]
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 […]
Robert Half Reports Finance and Accounting Talent is in High Demand (Duh)
According to the results of a recent Robert Half survey, companies across the U.S. are hungry for talent and of all professional roles, finance and accounting are nearly the most in-demand, second only to technology. The survey also shows that few respondents expect to freeze hiring or eliminate positions in the first half of this […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Auditor Demand; EYer Not Coming in on Monday; Reentering the Workforce | 2.6.23
Good morning and Happy Monday! Here’s some news to start the week and give you something to talk about around the virtual watercooler. Auditing is the most “in demand” finance career right now according to a new study from CMC Markets, an online trading platform, which analysed monthly Google searches using Ahrefs for jobs within […]
Friday Footnotes: Know Your Value; Retired EY Partners Complain; ‘Rest For Success’ | 2.3.23
Hail Eris! Today is 2/3/23 and this is your Friday roundup of all the week’s news that wasn’t fit to print (or make fun of). We appreciate you stopping by! Big 4 EY considers handing retired US partners cut of proceeds from spin-off [Financial Times] EY has told retired US partners it is considering giving […]
If You Let 23-Year-Olds Sign Off on Audits, You’re Gonna Have a Bad Time
On January 24, short seller Hindenburg Research dropped a report called Adani Group: How The World’s 3rd Richest Man Is Pulling The Largest Con In Corporate History, in which Hindenburg accuses Indian conglomerate Adani Group of engaging in “a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades,” among other things. A […]
Berdon Got a Lot of Dates But Ultimately Chose to Hook Up With Citrin Cooperman
Thanks to the commenter who brought this to our attention. Accounting firm merger madness continues, this time the union of Citrin Cooperman and Berdon announced on the 1st. We should have seen it coming as Citrin Cooperman has been busy the last 15 months, growing revenue by $200 million and completing several mergers since private […]
Accountants Are the Referees of Business, Says Guy Who Would Know
There’s another article about the accountant shortage today and this time it’s in Insider. There’s nothing in there you don’t already know — enrollments are down, boomers are retiring, the process of becoming a CPA is extra and sucks, kids need to be convinced that accounting is great, blah blah — but they did get […]
CliftonLarsonAllen Just Gained 200 People
Image via CliftonLarsonAllen CLA has merged with New Jersey’s SobelCo (a firm we’ve heard only good things about) and produced the obligatory press release about the union. Shout out to Allan Koltin, the prenuptial counselor of accounting firm marriages, who helped with the deal. News release: Today, CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen LLP), the eighth largest accounting firm […]
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 […]
Here’s How People Did on the CPA Exam in 2022
The AICPA has released Q4 CPA exam pass rates which means we have a cumulative score for all of 2022 YIPPEE. As we did not discuss pass rates at all last year, let’s take a look at the whole chart and see how CPA exam candidates performed in 2022: Section Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Cumulative […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: ESG Compliance Heats Up; Deloitte Disclosures; AI Says It Isn’t a Threat | 1.30.23
Deloitte & Touche LLP partners and staffers failed to make financial disclosures required to ensure the independence of their audit work, according to new details from the firm’s 2018 PCAOB inspection. [Bloomberg Tax] Britain’s accounting watchdog said on Monday it will monitor whether auditors were making spot checks on their compliance with environmental, social and […]
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 […]
Friday Footnotes: Higher Salaries Lead to Higher Fees; EY Auditors Quit; Senator Rags on Greedy Accounting Firms | 1.27.23
Big 4 EY auditors escape potential Wirecard sanctions after leaving profession [Financial Times] Germany’s audit watchdog closed investigations against four current and former EY auditors involved in inspecting collapsed payments firm Wirecard after they handed back their professional licences and left the profession earlier this month. Under German law, Apas can only probe and sanction […]
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 […]
RSM Does Not Aspire to Be KPMG
RSM International CEO Jean Stephens spoke to Financial Times recently and let everyone know that her firm is totally open to a little wheeling and dealing that would bump them up from their current spot as the sixth largest firm (#5 on the IPA 500). Coincidentally, RSM just released their revenue numbers and they are […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: PwC Partner Banned; Salary Predictions; Public Accountants Have Had It | 1.23.23
Last week someone complained about the format I’ve been using for this linkwrap since I started doing it many, many Mondays ago so just for them, here’s some bullet-free bullet points in lieu of one giant paragraph. Don’t say I never did anything for you. Brazilian retailer and PwC client Americanas filed for bankruptcy, its […]
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 […]
Friday Footnotes: EY Can’t Hire Tech; John Doe Sues the PCAOB; Auditors Can’t Find Torpedoes and Missiles | 1.20.03
Practice Management How firms use stay interviews to boost retention [Journal of Accountancy] Job interviews have long been an essential part of the hiring process. But now, some public accounting firms are turning the lens on themselves. They’re conducting “stay” or “retention” interviews with existing employees. The goal is to understand how they can be […]
The Largest Accounting Firm in Kentucky Thinks a Tower Will Win the Talent War
You ever been in a position where you’re juggling a few different offers from roughly equivalent firms? Of course you have. What factors do you consider when making this important decision? Salary, obviously. Culture, perhaps. Was the guy who interviewed you a dick? That definitely rates. What about commercial real estate? Anyone? MCM CPAs & […]
Fourteen People Who Inspired Future Tax Criminals in 2022
The IRS Criminal Investigation unit has released its top cases for 2022 and in it we get reality TV personalities, a rogue tax preparer, some garden variety PPP fraud, and even a former decathlete with his own Wikipedia page. Pretty sure some of these people showed up in Accountants Behaving Badly, an irregular feature we […]
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 […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: KPMG Vet Quits on Christmas; PwC Resigns; ‘A Veil of Legitimacy’ | 1.16.23
An accountant used his position in the accounting department of the Volunteer Energy Cooperative (VEC) in Tennessee to steal nearly a million dollars, he used a refund scheme to transfer money into his personal checking account and make payments to his credit cards and his wife’s credit cards. A discussion about money laundering in Australia: […]
Friday Footnotes: PwC in Trouble?; A Backwards Accountant; Audit Committee Musical Chairs | 1.13.23
Big 4 Isio Group inks deal to acquire Deloitte’s U.K. retirement advisory business [Pensions & Investments] Consultant Isio Group agreed to acquire Deloitte Total Reward and Benefits, the U.K. pensions advisory business of Deloitte, a spokesman confirmed Wednesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approvals from the […]
Remote Accountant Who Billed Too Many Hours Owes Her Former Firm $2700 For ‘Time Theft’
NPR has a strange story of a Canadian accountant and a firm with time tracking software installed on work laptops that should give remote workers pause before submitting their next time sheet. NPR: When Canadian accountant Karlee Besse was fired for being unproductive at her job, she found herself up against not only her former […]
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 […]
PSA: Change Your AICPA Password NOW (UPDATE)
Who penetrates networks in the dark with a hood over their head? Silly. h/t @cbriancpa for tweeting this story out Hackers are claiming they gained access to a database with more than 140,000 emails and passwords from the AICPA according to Cybernews, the only outlet reporting on this as yet. We have reached out to […]
Guidehouse Laid Off a Bunch of Old Grant Thornton Partners After the Public Advisory Practice Merger (UPDATE)
Ed. note: a previous version of this article included “Rumor” in the headline. As it is considered confirmed, we’ve removed it. Update at the bottom. Back in August when it was announced that Guidehouse would be buying Grant Thornton’s public sector advisory practice, we wondered out loud if layoffs might be expected as they so […]
House Republicans Go After IRS Agent Funding But Leave Technology Funds Alone Because Even the GOP Agrees IRS Call Wait Times Suck
This lady is going to be on hold for a long time, her phone isn’t even plugged in to the wall. The GOP-led House voted 221-210 on Monday to eliminate almost 90 percent of $80 billion in new IRS funding under the Inflation Reduction Act, much of which is supposed to be used to fund […]
Netflix Picks an EY Alum For Its Next Chief Accounting Officer, Replacing the Last Guy Who Dipped After Three Months
I was going to make some kind of Sense8 “canceled before its time” joke about Netflix’s last CAO leaving after just three months alas nothing came to me which is probably for the best because it would have been a stupid joke anyway. Deadline reports that Netflix has found a new CAO, hopefully this one […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: EY Wants to Buy; Losers Dump NFTs For Tax Purposes; CPA Demand in 2031 | 1.9.23
Deloitte announced today that Anna Taylor — former tax and economic policy principal advisor to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) — has joined Deloitte’s Washington National Tax practice as the deputy managing principal of the Tax Policy Group. KPMG chief economist Brendan Rynne said the key emerging obstacle that the firm found in its […]
Friday Footnotes: The Metaverse’s First CPA Firm Gets Sued; CPA Exam Blueprints; Mad Mergers | 1.6.23
Wooooo it’s the first Footnotes of 2023! Here’s what’s going on, there’s not a whole lot of it: Long Read FTX Customers Take Enron, WorldCom Path in Legal Fight for Cash [Bloomberg Law] FTX customers going outside bankruptcy court to recover losses from Sam Bankman-Fried’s failed crypto empire are using a legal path that has […]
It’s Official: 120 Units is All You Need to Sit For the CPA Exam in Illinois
Ed. note: I couldn’t find a good image to go with this post so I’m using this dog. Dogs are always good. According to the AICPA, a traditional four-year undergraduate program is not adequate for obtaining the requisite knowledge and skills to become a CPA. The reasons offered for this center around the increasing complexity […]
FASB Took It Easy in 2022
While the PCAOB has been on a mission to scare the pants off of auditors everywhere in the past year with record fines and scary speeches, the Financial Accounting Standards Board took a much more chill approach to 2022. A Thomson Reuters piece published last week informs us that FASB ended the year having issued […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Welcome to ’23; Deloitte Gets Chilly; Stop B*tching About Busy Season! | 1.2.23
Welcome to 2023! You made it! So happy to see you. Let’s see if anything happened while I was gone last week. … Wow, nothin’ huh? Alright, this news brief is going to be extra brief I guess. Deloitte has lowered its UK office temperatures by 2 degrees Celsius (35.6 degrees F) to cut costs […]
Friday Footnotes: EY Cancels Christmas; A Very Sucky PwC Report; Should We Tax Robots? | 12.23.22
Welcome to the last Footnotes of 2022! We appreciate you stopping by as always and hope you get a chance to recharge over the holidays. We will be out of office next week but have scheduled some things to run while we’re gone for those individuals who are severely addicted to accounting shitposts and simply […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Social Class and Career Progression; New GAAP Taxonomy Dropped | 12.19.22
Quick note: there will be no news brief next Monday, we are out for the week and will be running nothing but shitposts, repeats, and tedious top ten lists. Monday Morning Accounting News Brief will resume on January 2, 2023. Please try not to do anything newsworthy between now and then, I have the utmost […]
Friday Footnotes: EY Money Troubles; Fast Food > Public Accounting; From Athlete to Associate; | 12.16.22
Big 4 EY Looks at Backup Plans on Split Amid Higher Costs, Slower Growth [Wall Street Journal] Ernst & Young’s leaders are looking at backup plans for the firm’s split to address rising funding costs and a potential slowdown in growth that could imperil the rich payouts promised to partners, according to people familiar with […]
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 […]
No One Should Be Surprised to Learn FTX Used QuickBooks
Before the House Committee on Financial Services on Tuesday, recently-appointed FTX CEO John J. Ray III gave testimony to back up comments he made to the New York Times last month about FTX being a “complete failure” the likes of which he hadn’t seen in two decades. Back in the day, Ray was chairman of […]
Accounting Fraud Watch: Ex-Wirecard CEO’s Trial, Cronos Gets Smoked, Bad PR for Ex-PR Firm CFO
The Fall of Wirecard, a Tech Scandal That Rocked Germany, Reaches a Courtroom [New York Times] The fraud trial of former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun began in Munich on Dec. 8. Braun and two other former executives face charges of defrauding creditors of $3.7 billion, through false accounting from 2015 until Wirecard collapsed in June […]
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 […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Living in Mom’s Basement; OnlyFans Tax Investigations; Finance vs. Accounting | 12.12.22
“I don’t care how messy your accounting is … you’re definitely going to notice if you find an extra $8B to spend,” tweeted Coinbase Chief Executive Brian Armstrong about FTX. “Even the most gullible person should not believe Sam’s claim that this was an accounting error.” Today we learn that Arkansas is not being hit […]
Friday Footnotes: A (Fake) Day in the Life at Deloitte; DYNAMIC Merger For Grant Thornton; CPA Awareness | 12.9.22
News Trump Organization found guilty on all counts of criminal tax fraud [CNN] A Manhattan jury has found two Trump Organization companies guilty on multiple charges of criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records connected to a 15-year scheme to defraud tax authorities by failing to report and pay taxes on compensation for top executives. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Gen Z Ruins Accounting; EY Hammers Out Some Deets; Internal Control Controversy | 12.05.22
How is it December already? Not a lot going on this time of year, let’s find some things anyway. Deloitte believes 2023 will be the year of virtual reality. E. Cohen and Company, CPAs of Rockville, Maryland, merged into Marcum effective December 1, adding to Marcum’s presence in the Mid-Atlantic. The PCAOB has been busy […]
Friday Footnotes: Why People Leave Public Accounting; Audit Workloads Up; Terrorist Clients (Literally) | 12.2.22
Slow news week this week. We managed to find some things worth mentioning anyway as we are experts in slow news weeks (698 weeks and counting!), enjoy. Talent Why People Leave Public Accounting [CPA Journal] Writes Edward Mendlowitz, CPA/PFS, ABV: There are many reasons why CPAs decide to leave public accounting firms. Based on my […]
By the Numbers: The Accounting Firms That Received $635 Million in PPP Loans
Remember PPP loans? The Small Business Administration defines PPP as “an SBA-backed loan that helps businesses keep their workforce employed during the COVID-19 crisis.” Remember all the layoffs and pay cuts at accounting firms we were meticulously tracking in early 2020? Transparency group OpenTheBooks.com crunched the numbers using Small Business Administration data and found $635 […]