The PCAOB would like all of you auditors to know that you better learn how to use this Codification thing and quit your bitching about how you don’t like it because they can hear you screeching about how much it sucks.
Nevermind that the P is already making your lives difficult with new rules and leaving lame ducks on their board.
Seriously. Get with the program.
Layoff Watch ’26: KPMG Cuts 4% From Consulting
We've got another RIF at KPMG, a consulting cull that went down yesterday (that's Wednesday the 29th for those of you reading this a week from now). Let's start with…
The Department of War Broke Up with KPMG, KPMG Gives Up Federal Audits Altogether
The other day -- and by the other day we mean like more than a week ago -- we received a text on the tipline that read "KPMG US to…
KPMG Shoves 10% of Its Audit Partners Out the Door
We're sure you've seen this FT headline floating around today: KPMG to axe 10% of US audit partners. And if you, like most denizens of the internet these days, read…
PwC Tells Remote Tax Staff to Get Their Butts Into the Office
So much for PwC letting all their people work remotely forever. Remember when that got headlines five years ago? See: PwC Just Announced That You Never Have To Go Back…
KPMG Plans to Hand Routine Testing Off to AI
Did you happen to see this WSJ article from the other day? In "In This Critical Part of Audits, the Accountant’s Role Is Shrinking Fast," we're given a look into…
Layoff Watch ’26: RSM Trims Down in Audit
Seeing a couple Reddit posts about a wave of "Business Update" meetings being forced on people's calendars at RSM yesterday. As we all know, "business update" is code for "you're…
SEC Says “What If We Just… Didn’t” on Quarterly Reporting
So that thing that started with a Trump shower thought last fall and that WSJ said would be happening imminently is, in fact, now happening. Catch yourself up on earlier…
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Claude Starts a Turf War With Consulting; An Article About How Much Big 4 Sucks | 5.4.26
Good morning! Not a fan of Star Wars so I won't be making any May 4th puns today, sorry. In this news briefAnthropic Aggressively Elbows In on Consulting's TurfThat's a…
Friday Footnotes: Maybe Deloitte Doesn’t Need Employee Trust and Retention; Minnesota Wants to Tax Fraud at 100 Percent | 5.1.26
Footnotes is a collection of stories from around the accounting profession curated by actual humans and published every Friday at 5pm Eastern. While you're here, subscribe to our newsletter to…
Layoff Watch ’26: KPMG Cuts 4% From Consulting
We've got another RIF at KPMG, a consulting cull that went down yesterday (that's Wednesday the 29th for those of you reading this a week from now). Let's start with…
KPMG Plans to Hand Routine Testing Off to AI
Did you happen to see this WSJ article from the other day? In "In This Critical Part of Audits, the Accountant’s Role Is Shrinking Fast," we're given a look into…
AI Will Be EY Auditors’ New BFF, According to EY
While staff in tax at EY US will soon be spending more time with their flesh-based colleagues due to a return-to-office mandate that requires them in the office for an…
ICYMI: According to This AI CEO You Won’t Have to Go to Work in a Year
Commence to fantasizing about what you'll do with all that glorious free time when you lose your job to AI in 12-18 months because that's the confident prediction made by…
Another Early AI Accounting Startup Just Bit the Dust
TIL that early AI accounting platform Botkeeper has died. I found out via this CFO Brew article which pointed to a post on Botkeeper's own site. Turns out r/accounting was…
KPMG Brings Cheating Into the AI Age By Using AI to Cheat on AI Exams
The image is upside down because Australia. This story sounds like a joke but we assure you it is not. KPMG Australia has expanded KPMG's storied cheating repertoire by being…
Top Remote Tax and Accounting Candidates of the Week | October 16, 2025
Struggling to Find Remote Accounting or Tax Talent? We’ve Got You Covered.If your firm or internal team is having a tough time sourcing qualified remote tax and accounting professionals, you're…
Top Remote Tax and Accounting Candidates of the Week | October 2, 2025
Struggling to Find Remote Accounting or Tax Talent? We’ve Got You Covered.If your firm or internal team is having a tough time sourcing qualified remote tax and accounting professionals, you're…
Top Remote Tax and Accounting Candidates of the Week | September 25, 2025
Struggling to Find Remote Accounting or Tax Talent? We’ve Got You Covered.If your firm or internal team is having a tough time sourcing qualified remote tax and accounting professionals, you're…
Top Remote Tax and Accounting Candidates of the Week | September 18, 2025
Struggling to Find Remote Accounting or Tax Talent? We’ve Got You Covered.If your firm or internal team is having a tough time sourcing qualified remote tax and accounting professionals, you're…
Top Remote Tax and Accounting Candidates of the Week | September 4, 2025
Struggling to Find Remote Accounting Talent? We’ve Got You Covered. If your firm or internal team is having a tough time sourcing qualified remote tax and accounting professionals, you're not…
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Layoff Watch ’26: RSM Trims Down in Audit
As noted by the national taxpayer advocate, a court's ruling that a taxpayer’s refund claim filing deadline was automatically extended due to the COVID-19 disaster declaration could have implications for other taxpayers’ refund claims. Here's why.
Whenever I take a workplace harassment training, I think about the partner at Deloitte who said to the about-to-retire partner at Deloitte, "Look at us, just a bunch of Micks," and the about-to-retire partner looked at the first partner and said, "What the fuck did you just say?"
Here Are Tax and Audit Salaries at Top 25, Top 300, and Regional Firms
Recruiting firm Brewer Morris has released its 2025 US CPA salary guide and should you want to read the whole thing you can request it from them here. Perhaps you,…
Friendly Reminder Not to Work Yourself to Death For This Profession
Saw this on the bird app yesterday and thought its message would be worth passing along what with 20 days remaining until April 15 and nerves as strained as ever…
Accounting Firm Abruptly Nopes Out of Tax Season Early (UPDATE)
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This Deloitte Office Has Eliminated Trash Cans at Desks to Make Staff Get Up Off Their Asses
Boston Business Journal wrote an article about Deloitte's new office in Boston and for some reason they chose to lead with this: You won’t find trash cans at the desks…
The IRS Decided to Troll Tax Pros For 10/15
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Top Remote Accounting Freelancers: February 3, 2024
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10 Essential Project Management Principles for Accounting Firms
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6 Ways Email is Secretly Destroying Your Accounting Firm
Email: The word itself sounds innocent, doesn't it? Kind of like "snail mail," but faster, sleeker, and without the slimy trail. But don't be fooled—email is secretly a sinister beast,…
Don’t Grow Your Accounting Firm Out of Business! Break Up With These Unscalable Practices Now
Business growth is always a high priority for accounting firms, especially small-to-midsize practices. Take care, though, because growth can be a double-edged sword. If your firm expands too quickly or…
What Does Labor Day Mean for You?
Since it’s Friday for some of you, we’ll squeeze in a participatory exercise today.
The lucky ones are MIA until Tuesday or farther out. Others of you will not see the outdoors, your homes, or loved ones at all. The rest fall in between. This, all while trying to comply with your firm’s needs. We’d say, “vote early, vote often” but considering some of the attitudes out there, we’re only allowing one vote per person. Feel free to leave your thoughts on the subject in the comments.
Vote, after the jump
SHOCKER: Joe Francis May Have Attracted Slimy Business People
Joe Francis, perhaps thinking that his strategy to deduct anything related to topless girls might not pan out, is now claiming that he was the victim of three former executives who conspired to embezzle millions of dollars.
“Using shadow companies doing business…the men allegedly filed and then approved phony invoices they wrote themselves. The lawsuit also accuses [one former executive] of filing hundreds of thousands of dollars in false expense reports, for which he reimbursed himself through the company payroll.”
Hard to believe that a pillar of wholesome entertainment like Joe Francis would have attracted people that would take advantage of his lack of knowledge about internal control structures but maybe we don’t know the whole story.
‘Girls Gone Wild’ Founder Accuses CPA of Going Wild [Web CPA]
Think You’re Bitter?
Since some of you might not be spending your weekend consuming massive quantities of red meat, and thus, might be a little bent out of shape, we thought we would present a couple of quotes from “farewell emails” provided by readers.
Granted, these have probably made the rounds but we’ve included our favorite passages to demonstrate just how bitter some people are. Hopefully this will result in self-reflection for some of you but for some of you, it may be the sign that you’re beyond help.
Feel better about yourself (or pretty much the same) after the jump
Former PwC, who is obviously concerned about the mass soda consumption:
I would greatly encourage some kind of weight loss challenge to be implemented firm wide. The herd of water buffalo you call your work force is embarassing and a bit gross. When I call a co worker over from 2 cubes down and they are legitmately out of breath when they get to my cube it may be time to knock off 10 or 80 pounds. The company seems to encourage this obesity; each busy season we get a giant package full of pixie sticks, chocolate and assorted sweets. As much as I would enjoy type 2 diabetes, I think I’ll pass.
This particular former Green Dot should seriously consider some Dr. Phil time:
I would like for you to take note that Deloitte’s continuous lying and deceit is not acceptable to me or anyone else. Deloitte has been the biggest Disappointment because they are Deceitful, Demoralizing and De-motivating to their graduates who they should be uplifting as they are the foundation for future leaders of this country…When I started at the DGA I was promised many things, house on the hills and a black convertible to name a few. I was told that all the sacrifices I make during the programme would be worth it in the end. I ask how will it be worth it and when is the end?
iPhones are one thing but if the new recruits are promising black convertibles, for crissakes, please let us know.
These two examples certainly give credence to the notion that on call psychoanalysts for Big 4 employees should be given serious consideration. If you’ve got more examples out there, shoot them our way. We’re here to help as many of you as possible.
Are the Big 4 Driving Away Small Clients?
Accountancy Age reports today that smaller firms in the UK are cleaning up at the expense of the Big 4, specifically audit clients. The Four Horsemen are claiming cost pressure but small firms see it a little differently.
More, after the jump
Melissa Bowers, partner with Macclesfield-based firm Harts LLP, points to the Big Four’s practice of using senior partners to ‘seal the deal’ while leaving junior employees to do the grunt work, which has alienated smaller clients. This practice, combined with cost pressure, has driven audit clients into the arms of local firms. She has won work from clients who employed the same auditor for more than a generation…’It is possibly smaller work for them and they are possibly not giving them the same priority and attention.’
There’s no question that the cost pressure is an issue but what small clients really want, like a fat kid wants cookies, is some love from the partner. They’re not interested in a barely sober first year associate doing testwork. Clients want the partner to show up with the corporate card in hand ready to charm the pants off of them.
The other consideration is that clients just don’t care if they’ve got a big name on their audit:
Michael Good, partner at Oxford-based firm Critchleys, said that he believed smaller clients are no longer willing to fork out money for a big brand name firm. ‘They are asking themselves “do we need to pay the premium?” and “what are we getting for the premium?” and they are saying “actually not a lot”,’ he said.
‘Up to £20,000 for a big firm is not a big audit.’
We’d assume that here in the States, the sitch is no different. Small clients want to save money and they want to be someone special not just another contract that a partner has to take the rubber stamp to for the sake of his practice.
Discuss in the comments the trend here in the States. For you Big 4 types, are your smaller clients jumping ship because you’re treating them like the red-headed stepchild? Small firm bean counters are you picking up these clients? Feel free to get ugly about it, since most of you checked out on Monday, it will probably be a slow day.
Smaller firms clean up as recession sees audit clients shun the Big Four [Accountancy Age]
Preliminary Analytics | 09.03.09
• Treasury Retreats From Standoff With TARP Watchdog – “Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, a position also known as Sigtarp, declared victory Wednesday in his effort to clarify that he doesn’t answer to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.” [WSJ]
• Oracle Faces In-Depth EU Probe Over Sun Purchase – Larry Ellison will not stand this aggression. [Bloomberg]
• Will AIG Rein In Its Brash CEO? – “Mr. Benmosche said New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo ‘doesn’t deserve to be in government’ and that Mr. Benmosche would leave dealing with ‘all those crazies down in Washington’ to the company’s chairman, according to an account by Bloomberg News that was confirmed by Mr. Benmosche.” For the sake of the rest of us, let the man say his piece. [WSJ]
• Stanford Has Surgery; Receiver Defends $27 Million Fee – “Jailed fraud defendant R. Allen Stanford had surgery for an aneurysm in his leg Wednesday morning and was back in a Conroe-area prison before noon.” Recovery time for a stud such as Stan is not nearly as long for you mortals. Meanwhile, the receiver in the case is telling the SEC to BTFO. [Houston Chronicle]
• Stanford’s Bellagio debt, redux – Stan’s attorney suggests that if the Bellagio wants its money it should go after the aforementioned receiver, Ralph Janvey. Old school style of course, ‘Maybe the Bellagio should revert to the time-honored method of Vegas debt collection and send someone to make the receiver an offer he can’t refuse, or just break his legs,’ or may we suggest a hammer? [FT Alphaville]
Review Comments | 09.02.09
• Google’s Gmail knocked offline for ‘majority’ of users – Which was the cause of all the Tarantino-esque stand offs yesterday. [NYDN]
• Economy Sheds 298,000 Private-Sector Jobs, ADP Says – Unfortunately, some of you are in that number. [WSJ]
• Geithner Says Too Early to Start Withdrawing Stimulus Measures – Just in case you were worried. [Bloomberg]
• Goodell: NFL Teams Could Face TV Blackouts – For some of you, this is worse than Gmail going down. [NPR]
• The Great Recession – September 19th. NYC. Check it out. [Blackout Film Festival]
PCAOB Appears to Be Taking After Big Brother
The SEC has been setting a bad example for everyone. Now the Commission’s sloth-like urgency to appoint a chief accountant seems to have led the PCAOB to think that finding new board members really isn’t a big deal.
Chuck Niemeier announced that he will be leaving his position as a board member of the P very soon, even though his term ended almost a year ago. The PCAOB’s board members are allowed to stay on the board after their terms have ended until a replacement is found.
We suppose that you could give the P credit for having the foresight to write this rule in, as it’s pretty obv that no one really wants this job. Doesn’t make much difference anyway, as it’s not really clear just what the hell they’re doing over there, except making auditors’ lives more difficult and possibly ignoring independence violations.
IFRS Critic to Leave Accounting Firm Regulator [CFO]
Depantsing Day for the SEC
In the biggest shocker of the day, the inspector general of the SEC reports that the Commission never undertook a ‘thorough and competent’ investigation into Bernie Madoff’s operations.
This seems to be the official “our bad” statement by the SEC, although Chris Cox didn’t waste any time throwing worker bees under the bus, “Days after the conman’s arrest, the SEC’s then-chairman, Christopher Cox, faulted the agency’s staff for failing to act on ‘credible and specific allegations’ about the operation for at least a decade.”
More, after the jump
Harry Markopolos was soiling himself the whole time and no one bothered to listen probably because you called country club rules when you took the big chair, C-squared. Call us Monday morning QB but if some guy called us up with dirty undies screaming about the biggest fraud in history, we’re pretty sure we’d take him seriously.
Anyhoo, it’s all water near a bridge now. Schape and Co. are kicking ass and taking their sweet time naming key positions, so we’re sure that everything will be hunky-dory from here on out.
SEC Never Took ‘Competent’ Look at Madoff’s Firm, Report Finds [Bloomberg]
UPDATE: Check out more of the SEC sucking over at our sister site, Dealbreaker.
The Day the Audits Died
I will refrain from expressing my opinions on the PCAOB and do my best to keep this neutral, I swear.
Accounting Onion pointed out in 2007 that “more than half of the PCAOB’s inspection resources (> $65 million) are protecting the public against the equivalent of a flea bite on the hindquarters of a bull (market),” meaning a bunch of overpaid auditors are inspecting 1% of public company revenue. 1%! What do we need them for?
More, after the jump
And it gets worse. The PCAOB and SEC have decided as of August 13, 2009 that auditors need a whole lot more on their plates including but not limited to increased disclosures for:
• An audit firm withdrawing an audit report
• Any time a firm’s name is used in an unauthorized manner by an issuer without the firm’s consent
• Any time new hires are brought into the firm with a history of disciplinary sanctions
• Anytime professional licenses are revoked, suspended, or subject to conditions or sanctions.
The last one is my personal favorite. Watch your Ps and Qs out there kids, they’re coming for you.
Let’s hope State Boards of Accountancy aren’t as broke as the states they belong to (this means you, California BoA, with your 3 furlough Fridays a month and ELEVEN WEEK WAITING TIME to process CPA exam applications!) otherwise there might be monetary incentive for state licensure authorities to put more bad accountants in the back of their monthly pub just so firms can avoid as many of these reports as possible.
As of October 12, 2009, firms will be required to make these reports to the PCAOB, who will then disseminate the information to the unwashed masses as it sees fit.
The same PCAOB of which Skeptical CPA speaks so highly on June 4, 2009:
Another PCAOB triumph. Does the PCAOB think say KPMG is unaware of problems at Citigroup? Or is the PCAOB aware that it is? How can anyone take the SEC and PCAOB seriously? Is Spokane more fraud plagued than Wall Street? Or just less well connected? Now if Goldman Sachs moved its offices to Spokane …
Check out the article for the backstory.
The SEC is having trouble seducing accountants to its team because of the competitiveness of PCAOB salaries. So what, let them get the scraps? You hear that, soon-to-be-grads? Why are you at Meet the Firms when you could be off getting wined and dined by the PCAOB? Sounds like fun, right?
The Maryland Association of CPAs’ CPA Success made the new reporting requirements sound much tamer, as if it were just a polite, albeit groundbreaking request from the PCAOB.
Perhaps it is a benign request. But this appears to be a PCAOB power grab to me, not to mention a costly one.
Just my $0.02. Do I have to report that to the PCAOB?
Two Obscure Firms Get Together to Form a Slightly Larger Obscure Firm
Call us snobs for being ignorant about regional firms but until our New Firm Name Challenge, we’d never heard of J.H. Cohn and we’ve definitely never heard of Charles Brucia.
Regardless, the two firms are copulating to form a new firm but there won’t be a new name, which is pretty boring. According to Web CPA, “The firm will operate as Charles Brucia & Co., a division of J.H. Cohn.” Vomit.
This current get together follows JHC’s mergers with Frederic Kantor last summer and Good Swartz Brown & Berns last spring.
So at this pace of mergers, we’re predicting JHC will start throwing around “Global 6 Accounting Organization” somewhere around the 24th and one half Century.
J.H. Cohn Combines with Charles Brucia [Web CPA]
Religious Freedom Hanging By a Thread at the IRS?
Okay maybe that’s a stretch but we’re guessing, what with all the rebellious employees, that the IRS is a tough place to work. Because of this high stress environment, normally rational people may jump to conclusions about otherwise harmless religious symbols.
A judge recently dismissed most of the legal claims of a former IRS revenue agent that wore a kirpan to work.
Continued, after the jump
Web CPA:
The revenue agent, Kawaljeet Kaur Tagore, sued the IRS after she was fired in July 2006 for wearing a “kirpan” to the IRS office in Houston…The blunt knife is traditionally worn in a curved sheath and is supposed to act as a reminder of a Sikh’s duty to protect the weak and promote justice for all. Tagore’s supervisor objected to the dagger, even though she claimed it never set off the metal detector in her building, and she was told to work from home.
How can you not get behind protecting the weak and justice for all? Still, Tagore was fired after refusing to wear a knife with a shorter, 2.5 inch, blade and returning with the 3 inch knife even though, as the original story reports, she had sharper items in her office, including her scissors.
Tagore filed suit earlier this year:
claiming that the government’s conduct violated both the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The defendants included the IRS, the Treasury Department, the Department of Homeland Security, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and several of Tagore’s supervisors.
Bad news is that the judge threw out the some of the Title VII claims but good news is that the one against T. Geith still remains. We’ll continue to follow this story if new developments happen to drop on another painfully slow news day.
IRS Dagger Carrier’s Claims Partly Dismissed [Web CPA Debits & Credits]