Georgia Accountant’s Instincts Prove Useful in the Wild

Posted on by Caleb Newquist

When someone of the debit and credit arts is functioning in its natural habitat (e.g. a cubicle farm), instincts are acute. Within these walls, all it takes is one glance at a schedule of figures and even the youngest accountants can spot something amiss. "That Excel formula has a circular reference," one might say, or "The inventory has been miscounted," or simply, "This number doesn't make a DAMN bit of sense."

And even outside the office, the bullshit detector is switched on. Observe this Atlanta-area accountant whose systems were running TIP-TOP when someone tried to pass off some season tickets to the Braves: 
Austin Lee said James Lally claimed connections to horse racing, NASCAR and then baseball, all in one short conversation. His NASCAR connection is supposedly to a metro Atlanta resident and former NASCAR driver Andy Lally. Lally insists there's no relation, Thomas said. Lee said Lally tried to sell him Braves tickets at half price. "I'm skeptical by nature, Im [sic] an accountant," Lee said. Lee didn't bite, but authorities now wonder how many people might have, then were turned away at Turner Field when the tickets proved worthless.
If the rubes had their very own pocket-sized Austin Lee to protect them, the world would be a much safer place.
 

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The funds will be available to those countries that experience a financial crisis similar to Greece. Portugal and Spain have debt to GDP ratios of 8.5% and 9.8% respectively, exceeding the EU’s mandated limit of 3%. package approved last week, receiving 110 billion euros “after agreeing to unprecedented austerity measures,” triggering riots in the country.


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UPDATE: KPMG and Deloitte are getting in on the fun as well, as the Financial Times reports that they have been engaged to advise Dubai Group and Dubai International Capital, respectively.

You Complete My Audit [CFO]
Had your auditor for awhile? If you want to crack the top 100 of longest auditor-client relationship, you’d have to be putting up with the same firm for over 50 years. According to the CFO’s analysis of Audit Analytics data, the longest auditor-client relationship belongs to Deloitte and Proctor & Gamble who have been together since 1890. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ longest relationship is with Goodyear Tire & Rubber, starting in 1898; Ernst & Young with Manulife Financial, 1905; KPMG and General Electric go back to 1909.

Of the 100 companies that have stuck with their auditors the longest, 97 of those companies were with Big 4 firms:
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CPA Suing Craigslist Vindicated by New Reviews

In Tuesday’s QOTD someone did not have kind words for Leo Kehoe, a Queens CPA. Specifically, “Watch out for this fraudulent scumbag! … He will botch up your tax returns and forget to submit them.” Scumbag? Fine. “Botch up” and “forget to submit” are also tolerable. Stuff like that happens (right?). What no CPA needs or wants, is their name associated with “fraudulent.”

Anyway, someone had a bad enough encounter with Kehoe that it demanded these words for anyone searching out both a CPA and perhaps some NSA coitus.


Mr Kehoe should be able to rest a little easier now as the Gothamist reported yesterday that a certain someone or someones has a completely different opinion on his services, “Leo Kehoe is a great CPA. He charged me a lower fee than what I had payed with someone else and he did a much better job,” and this one from yesterday, “Leo Kehoe: Much better than Cats. I’m going to see him again and again!”

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Accountant Sues Craigslist Over Negative Rant [Gothamist]