Academics Pitted Human Accounting Students Against GPT-3, Students Won
As aspiring lawyers everywhere learned with horror that GPT-4 is capable of passing the bar exam (in the 90th percentile of test-takers, no less) a whole bunch of academics were not-so-quietly putting GPT-3 to the test on accounting. Literally. Published in Issues in Accounting Education, a total of 328 authors from 186 different institutions in […]
These Colleges Give Accounting Grads the Most Bang For Their Buck In the Real World
We’re less than two months away from the class of 2021 tossing their mortarboards high in the sky (either in-person with their classmates or virtually, not sure which at this point), thus signaling a new batch of eager beavers who will soon be starting their journeys in the meat grinder that is public accounting. But […]
Why You Should Just Read the Chapter Already
I had a dream the other night that I was back in managerial accounting. A few of my classmates back then would call it a nightmare. It was second semester of my sophomore year and somehow this general business course was harder than the first intermediate accounting that I was also taking at the time. […]
Why Pretty Much Everybody Should Major In Accounting
I was not a good accounting student. Despite trying hard, always showing up to class, and doing most of the homework, my brain just didn’t seem wired to be a great accountant. Regardless, I still think everybody should major in accounting, whether they work in the field or not. Let me explain. My experience To […]
Don’t Miss Accountingfly’s Meet The Firms Week
Starting Monday, Accountingfly will be hosting Meet the Firms Week, an online event that connects accounting students with firms from across the U.S. There will be loads of valuable career information and if you register, your resume will reach over 7,500 accounting firms who are hiring entry-level talent. Read more about the benefits for students […]
Sure, Accounting Students Should Learn How to Code (And a Lot of Other Things, Too)
Over at the AICPA's website, there's a post that makes the case for accounting students to learn how to code. It's hard to disagree with the premise — coding is a valuable skill — but there are several aspects to this topic that go unmentioned, that I'll try to cover here. First and foremost, anyone […]
Davenport University Guarantees Employment for Accounting Students
Well, this is interesting. Davenport University in Grand Rapids, Michigan announced that it will guarantee employment for its accounting students. If, by some chance, someone doesn't get a job in six months of graduating, (s)he can get up to 48 more credits from the university, tuition-free. That's a value of nearly $30,000. Students would have […]
EY Still Has Plenty Room for College Students That Prefer Gainful Employment to Eating Out of a Dumpster
Could someone please notify a certain Bloomberg BusinessWeek editor? Ernst & Young LLP plans to make roughly 10,600 hires in the U.S. during fiscal year 2014, the company told eFinancialCareers. The Big Four accounting firm is looking to recruit 6,300 students while making 4,300 experienced hires during the fiscal year, which began in July. The anticipated […]
Recruiting Season: Be Wary of Accounting Firms ‘Looking for a Fit’
And then Jesse said, "YO! MR. WHITE! LOOK OUT!" Hahaha. No, no he didn't. But here's something interesting not related to Breaking Bad that we read on Twitter this morning: Spoke to @UChicago MBA students Sat. about patsy "rogues". Surprised when I said walk away from recruiters looking for "fit". #RedFlag — Francine McKenna (@retheauditors) […]
The Only Thing Better Than Working an Eminem Lyric into Your Accounting Paper Is Your Professor Calling You Out For It
I haven't written anything for academic purposes in quite some time, but it's nice to know that some of the profession's future have some creative thoughts bouncing around the grey matter. The following was sent to us from a student who told us that "one of my buddies who was able to slip in a […]
Comp Watch ’13: This Year’s Accounting Graduates Will Be Resented More Than Ever
With an average starting salary of $53,300, the class of 2013 might have to endure some envious snipes from their Class of '12 co-workers: The average starting salary for accounting graduates this year is $53,300, up from $49,700 in 2012, Andrea Koncz, employment information manager for the NACE, told AccountingWEB. In 2011, the average starting […]
Dead Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect Didn’t Take to Accounting
The Associated Press reports that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the 26-year-old bombing suspect who was killed overnight, studied accounting part-time at Bunker Hill Community College in Charlestown. He only went for three semesters — fall 2006, spring 2007, and fall 2008 — and dropped out as he became more religious, according to the Wall Street Journal. He […]
Calling All Armchair Politicians: This Year’s AICPA Accounting Competition Seeks a Presidential Advisor
Unfortunately certain armchair politicians who frequent this website are likely too old to enter the 2012 AICPA Accounting Competition but for student members of the AICPA currently enrolled in school, there's a $10,000 prize waiting for the team who can come up with winning strategy for a made up presidential candidate you'll be advising: You’ve […]
The Stuff Your College Professor “Forgot” To Tell You About Getting a Job
While you're busy blowing off Intermediate Accounting to sleep off last night's bender, your college professors are busy telling your fellow students all about how to prepare financial statements, test controls and, uh, whatever else it is you kids are learning in skool these days. Unfortunately, there are a lot of things that fancy accounting […]
Saturday Open Thread: What Is Wrong With You Kids These Days?
Since we wouldn't want you all going through GC DTs over the weekend, we're implementing a Saturday Open Thread. You are welcome to hijack the thread with your own concerns such as salary issues, work-life balance or the lack thereof, disconcerting March Madness rules at your firm, your colleagues' unfortunate wardrobe choices or the bizarre […]
An Accounting Troll Gets Trolled
I think the guy who asked me what a troll was just trolled me. Freaking CPA can celebrate all over again as he is yet again appearing in Going Concern. Two things: 1) I'm not a "he" (I could see how one might think that but thought my obviously feminine first name gave that away […]
Here Are a Bunch of Opportunities for Accounting Students to Get Free Money
Alright so it isn't hundreds of thousands of dollars but if you're trying to scrape together a few bucks for school, try this super handy list via This Way to CPA. Just some examples of the scholarships listed: Accounting students in Pennsylvania can snag up to $15,000 from the Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs; New Jersey […]
AICPA Accounting Competition Offers Cash Prizes to Top (Pretend) Fraud Fighters
Are you an accounting undergrad interested in forensic accounting and cold hard cash? If you are, you might be interested in the 2011 AICPA Accounting Competition, which asks college students to flex their fraud and forensic skills in advising a fictional client on a major overseas expansion. The top three teams will strut their stuff in Washington D.C. on the AICPA’s dime, and the one that does the best job keeping the project on track — and on the right side of the law — gets a very legal $10,000. Legal if you pay taxes on the prize money, of course.
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants has launched its second annual case competition, challenging college students across the country to test their fraud and forensic accounting skills in a complex scenario that will earn the top performing team a $10,000 award.
The 2011 AICPA Accounting Competition, which unfolds in three stages, focuses on a fictional Texas company looking to expand its business into the Nigerian oil fields. The competition is open to undergraduate students at 2-year and 4-year degree institutions in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Because this contest is open to any 2 or 4 year accounting students, this would be a great opportunity for a few future fraud fighters from smaller, less prestigious accounting programs – so if any enthusiastic professors happen to see this, please pass it along.
“The competition is an opportunity for students to get a hands-on, real-life understanding of one of the fastest-growing interest areas in accounting: fraud and forensics,” said Jeannie Patton, AICPA vice president for students, academics and membership. “Those who participate will hone their teamwork and leadership skills, deepen their understanding of financial risks in international business strategy and potentially bring national attention to their college or university.”
Participants in the competition must work in teams of four students, two of whom must be accounting majors. One of the accounting majors must serve as team leader. First round submissions, which are due September 30, will be evaluated to determine a pool of 10 semifinalists. Those semifinalists will compete for three finalist spots, a chance to travel to Washington, D.C. for the final round and three cash awards: $10,000 for first place; $5,000 for second; and $2,500 for third.
Entrants will be expected to outline, in 750 words or less, double-spaced, the top three fraud risks for High Prairie Construction’s plan to expand into the Nigerian oil fields. Would this move increase the risk of fraud within the company? Are there factors within the company’s culture that leave it vulnerable to fraud? Is High Prairie exposed to risk under the FCPA and UK Bribery Act? All of these are considerations you’d make in your summary.
Teams may register and find complete details on the 2011 AICPA Accounting Competition section of the This Way to CPA website.
Former Bucknell Accounting Student Accused of Serial Flashing Had a MO That Would Make Most Women Suspicious
Jay Patrick Knaub, the former accounting major from Bucknell University accused of flashing four girls between the ages of 12 and 16, was back in court yesterday with his victims present. CBS21 reports that a few of the charges have been dropped and other charges consolidated but the most surprising thing we learned was that Mr. Knaub’s modus operandi was something that would have most women backing away slowly from the car with their hands in the air.
Each time the Middletown resident and former Bucknell University student would reportedly drive up to the girls and ask for directions. At least twice he’s accused of showing them a map, and then moving that map to expose his genitals. [At least twice he’s accused of showing them a map, and then moving that map to expose his genitals.]
Because of the age of these girls, chances are they’ve never been in the presence of a man admitting to being lost and needing directions since that is something simply doesn’t not happen unless A) he’s being forced to do under duress (e.g. future sex is being withheld) or B) he is not from this planet.
Any woman that has ever been lost with a man, knows that stopping and asking anyone for directions is something that men simply do not have the capacity to do. Accordingly, any man waving them down from a car and saying, “I think I’m lost and need directions,” would have send them running, arms flailing and screaming for the nearest police officer.
Unfortunately, these young girls had to learn this life lesson in a very shocking way and not in the normal course of experiencing the stupidity of men.
Accounting Student Attempts to Explain How He Wound Up in a Looted Computer Store
Saffron Armstrong tried to explain that he had gone into a looted computer store because he was inquisitive – and a freelance journalist.
This drew sniggers from the press bench, but not from district judge Elizabeth Roscoe, who told him he faced a prison sentence. The 22-year-old pleaded guilty to burglary after being arrested in a PC World store in Colliers Wood, south London, the day after it was hit by looters. The accounting student from Mitcham, who also worked for Marks and Spencer, was remorseful and admitted his intentions had “not been for the best”. [BBC via AWEBUK]
(UPDATE 2) Bucknell Accounting Student Accused of Being Serial Flasher
Earlier today I was tipped to this story about a man accused of being a serial flasher in central Pennsylvania. Last week WHTM reported that Jay Patrick Knaub, a “straight-A student at Bucknell University” was accused of “20 counts including unlawful contact with minors, indecent exposure, and open lewdness.”
Right. So you can use your imaginations about what “lewd act” actually is but personally, “jerking off” or “spit-shining the ol’ water pump” comes immediately to mind. Maybe you have other ideas. ANYWAY, Our tipster informed us that “this gentlemen may, in fact, be a [Big 4 firm] summer intern out of the Philadelphia office.” Right now I cannot confirm the firm in question but did find that a Jay Patrick Knaub who is a junior at Bucknell with a major in accounting. And yes, I also found a Jay Patrick Knaub on the prison list at Dauphin County Prison. All this dong exposure started a few of weeks ago and fairly crude police sketch was put together before Knaub was arrested. Apparently, Knaub was getting pretty confident in his skills as the third incident allegedly occurred one block from the police department. Knaub was arrested on July 1 thanks to tips, “especially the description of Knaub as a ‘computer geek,'” as the Fox43 anchor put it. I called Dauphin County Prison to see what I could find out more about the possible internship but the very nice woman who helped said that Mr. Knaub wasn’t interested in speaking with me. I also left a message with his attorney, Mr. Boyle, but have not heard back as of yet. Of course if you’re familiar with Mr. Knaub or worked with him, please get in touch. Updates to come. UPDATE: I know that he was an audit intern, and was working on some of our Harrisburg area clients. From what I’ve been able to gather, he was fired a few weeks ago, but nobody was really told why. One of the other interns who went through training with him saw the story online [Monday], and it’s been circulating the office ever since. Assuming Knaub was fired shortly after his arrest (over two weeks ago), the firm would have wasted no time in removing his name from the directory. I called the Philadelphia office of the firm in question, asked to be connected to Knaub but was told that he was not in the directory. UPDATE 2:
Some have noted in the comments that Jay Knaub hasn’t been found in their respective directories. This is because he isn’t in any directory. From our tipster:
If you’ve checked the directory lately, looking for Knaub’s name, you’ll find that it’s no longer in the directory. I’ve reached out to the registrar to find out what the story is but have yet to hear back. Will keep you updated.
Final Call for Any Accounting Students Interested in Free Money
Just a quick reminder gang – the deadline for the AccountingWEB Accounting Student Scholarship is tonight at midnight. So if you or anyone you know might be interested in winning some free money for college, I suggest you get on this ASAP.
We now return to your regularly scheduled inflammatory nonsense.
Attention Accounting Students Interested in Free Money
The following post is republished from AccountingWEB, a source of accounting news, information, tips, tools, resources and insight — everything you need to help you prosper and enjoy the accounting profession.
If you know an accounting student, or if you are an accounting student, get busy and get writing. The deadline for the AccountingWEB Accounting Student Scholarship is midnight Thursday, March 31.
The clock is ticking, but there is still a window of opportunity for accounting students to compose an essay of no more than 500 words with the topic, “There’s an App for That.” Essays will be judged on creativity, innovation, quality of writing, structure, logic, and, where applicable, sources and research.
Participation in the AccountingWEB Accounting Student Scholarship program is open to U.S., Canadian, and Mexican citizens who are students attending colleges, universities, and professional schools of accounting in North America. Students applying for the AccountingWEB Accounting Student Scholarship must have already completed at least one semester or two trimesters of full-time college and must be declared accounting majors, effective for the fall of 2011. Both undergraduate and graduate students are eligible to enter.
The scholarship is a $1,000 one-time award, payable to the educational institution where winning students are in attendance as full-time students, have a cumulative grade point average of at least 2.5 on a 4.0 scale, or the equivalent, and who are declared accounting majors. Transcripts are required as evidence of this status. More details and a link to the online application are available in the Scholarship Rules.
Students can submit their application online or by U.S. mail. All applications must be postmarked or submitted by midnight Eastern time, March 31, 2011.
Click here to forward this message to your favorite accounting student!
Accountants Still Can’t Not Write Good…or: Improving the Communication Skills of Students
The following post is republished from AccountingWEB, a source of accounting news, information, tips, tools, resources and insight–everything you need to help you prosper and enjoy the accounting profession.
“I am not good at writing. I want to be an accounting major so I don’t have to write.”
All of us who teach or advise students have heard this – our students’ dislike for writing papers. These students are under the false impression that accountants do not have to write, or at least not much.
Frequently, our students do not realize that written communication skills are essentia profession. As a matter of fact, communication skills are one of the five core competencies outlined in the CPA Vision Project, tested on the CPA Exam and demanded by employers.
The CPA Vision Project
The CPA Vision Project of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) addresses issues we must tackle to keep up with the challenges facing the profession. To remain competitive, CPAs need to demonstrate five core values and five core competencies.
One of the top five core competencies, Communication and Leadership Skills, is the ability to “give and exchange information within meaningful context and with appropriate delivery and interpersonal skills.” These core values and competencies are instrumental in providing the five core services outlined in the CPA Vision Project: Assurance and Information Integrity, Management Consulting and Performance Management, Technology Services, Financial Planning, and International Services.
If we want our students to offer these five core services efficiently and effectively, accounting classes must incorporate the ability to communicate well as a learning objective.
Writing on the CPA Exam
So what about the CPA Exam? Is the profession testing communication skills on the Exam? Yes.
The CPA Exam requires candidates to demonstrate their writing skills. Currently, CPA applicants complete constructed responses on the Auditing (AUD), Regulation (REG), and Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR) sections of the exam.
With the introduction of the new CPA Exam format (CBT-e) in 2011, writing will remain an important part. However, instead of testing writing skills in AUD, REG, and FAR, the constructed response portion of the exam will be entirely tested in BEC (Business Environment and Concepts). Starting in 2011, CPA candidates will write three essays in BEC.
Entry-level accountants lack written communication skills
The CPA Vision Project demands communication skills and the CPA Exam tests them. Does that mean employers of new CPAs are pleased with new CPAs’ writing skills? No. Many employers of recent accounting graduates complain that their new employees do not possess the requisite writing skills. While our students may have strong technical skills, their written communication is often ineffective and poor.
In addition, accountants are spending less time on gathering, processing, and reporting information, and more time on interpretation and providing strategy and decision support. Accountants prepare notes to financial statements, interdepartmental memos, plans, and proposal communications with various stakeholders, written personnel evaluations, and articles in professional journals.
According to an article in The Trusted Professional, one-third of the accounting firms surveyed are unhappy with accountants’ writing skills. Correctly using grammar, organizing information, and writing clearly, concisely, and completely are necessary for business writing. In the worst case, poor writing skills can lead to dismissal of the accountant or inability to rise to higher managerial levels in the organization.
Because of the CPA Exam requirement and the needs of future employers, writing in accounting classes is an important part of many schools’ accounting curricula.
Communication: The business of accounting
Accounting is much more than financial statements and debits and credits. Properly and broadly understood, accounting is all about communication. Written and oral communication gives the numbers meaning, context, and focus on a decision.
We need to continue working on improving the writing skills of entry-level accountants, but these skills must be further reinforced once students enter the workplace. Firm training and management programs in which writing is given a high level of consciousness and priority will help ensure users have the best product available.
About the authors:
Gabriele Lingenfelter, CPA, teaches accounting and auditing for the Luter College of Business and Leadership at Christopher Newport University in Newport News. Lingenfelter is actively involved on the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) Audit & Attestation Subcommittee and the development of future CPA Exams. She also is a member of the VSCPA Editorial Task Force. Contact her at [email protected].
Phil Umansky, CPA, Ph.D., is associate professor of business at the Sydney Lewis School of Business at Virginia Union University and chairman of the Accounting and Finance Department. Umansky is a CPA Ambassador, a regular contributor to the WTVR Virginia This Morning TV Show on money management topics, and a member of the VSCPA Editorial Task Force. Contact him at [email protected].
Accounting News Roundup: Tweedie’s Final Months; Lease Accounting Proposal Coming Soon; UCF Accounting Student’s Body Found | 08.16.10
Goldman CFO Viniar Gets $4.5 Million Options Windfall [Dow Jones]
“Goldman Sachs Group (GS) Chief Financial Officer David Viniar received $4.5 million by exercising more than 67,000 options as part of the investment bank’s disclosure Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
According to the filing, Viniar was among six top executives who have converted s ing stock options into a windfall of $24 million, cashing in on benefits they received years before the government’s 2008 rescue of the nation’s biggest financial firms.”
Tweedie faces greatest challenge in last days [FT]
“Sir David Tweedie says his staff are concerned about what he might do in his last months as head of the International Accounting Standards Board, the powerful global rule setter that he has chaired for a decade.
‘I think people are quite worried about how I might do in my last six months here, with all my vendettas and all these grudges I’ve been storing up . . . I think they are worried that I might let them go,’ he says with a laugh.”
Rulemakers Plan Global Overhaul of Lease Accounting [Reuters]
“U.S. and international accounting rule makers are planning to propose an overhaul of lease accounting as soon as Tuesday, in a move expected to affect some $1.2 trillion in leased assets.
Traditionally, accounting rules have given companies a lot of leeway in how they record leases for assets ranging from store locations and restaurant equipment to airplanes and machinery. As a result, only certain types of leases appear on the balance sheet, while a majority of a company’s leases can often be kept off the balance sheet and hidden from an investors’ view.
But the Financial Accounting Standards Board, which sets U.S. accounting rules, and the London-based International Accounting Standards Board, which writes accounting rules for more than 100 countries, will aim to change all that this week by proposing to bring many of these assets onto corporate balance sheets.
‘It’s something that needs to be done,’ said John Hepp, a partner in accounting firm Grant Thornton’s professional standards group. ‘Lease accounting is broken.’ ”
Hunt for IASB head hits hurdle [FT]
“The search for a successor to Sir David Tweedie, chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board, which sets accounting rules for most of the world outside the US, has hit difficulty in the face of opposition in Europe to how the process has been conducted.
Sir David has presided over deteriorating relations since the financial crisis, with some senior European officials raising concerns about the transparency of his decision-making amid criticism that he has prioritised an effort to get the US to adopt international rules at the expense of European interests.”
PricewaterhouseCoopers taps Kevin Kelly to head Birmingham office [Birmingham News]
Kevin Kelly is new the managing partner for PwC’s Birmingham office. He replaces David Pickett who is the new OMP in Nashville.
UCF accounting student killed [Central Florida Future]
“Orange County Sheriff’s officials have released the names of the two people who died Saturday in an apparent murder-suicide, after a woman was found dead in an apartment about five miles south of UCF, and a man was found dead at a local shooting range.
Jennifer Lynn Roqueta, an accounting major at UCF who had just turned 21 in May and a server at Buffalo Wild Wings in Waterford Lakes, was identified as the victim on Sunday.
The suspect, who was identified as Ryan Ray Scurlock, 24, was found at the Shooting Gallery gun range located at 2911 39th St. in Orlando.
The investigation stems from Saturday’s incident in which the OCSO received several calls from Scurlock’s acquaintances requesting they check on his well-being because they had received alarming text messages from him that indicated he was distraught.”
Former Fed official joins KPMG [WaPo]
Jon Greenlee is joining the Tyson’s Corner office as a managing director in KPMG’s financial services regulatory practice. He previously worked as an associate director of risk management in the Fed’s division of banking supervision and regulation.
Satyam auditors to face Sebi probe [Hindustan Times]
“Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) will have to face an inquiry by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). The Bombay High Court on Friday dismissed PwC’s petition challenging Sebi’s show-cause notice dated June 30, 2009 seeking to prohibit PWC from auditing accounts of listed companies.”
That’s not a tax bill, THIS is a tax bill: Crocodile Dundee star Paul Hogan hit with £8m in charges [Daily Mail]
“But in a American TV interview last year, Hogan, 70, vowed that the taxman would not get a penny more of his money and added: ‘Come and get me, you miserable b******s.’ ”
Eide Bailly merges with R T Higgins [Denver Business Journal]
Top 25 firm Eide Bailly’s merger with RT Higgins brings the the firm’s total staff to over 1,200 in nine states.
Is Deloitte Trying to Ruin Spring Break?
We kid, we kid. Deloitte would never want to ruin spring break but they are giving a few students an alternative to drinking themselves blind for a week and possibly getting a bad case of crabs.
The firm is teaming up with the United Way and Teach for America for the third consecutive year to offer “Maximum Impact: Deloitte Alternative Spring Break”.
We’ve got no idea if all the slots are filled up but since one of them starts this Saturday you best get on this if your Cancun plans have fallen through:
• March 6 – 12 — Deloitte and United Way will co-host 50 students from approximately 30 colleges and universities along with 20 Deloitte professionals during a week of hands-on and skills-based volunteerism in Atlanta, Georgia. Students will work to enhance childcare centers, refurbish playgrounds for low-income youth, guide students in college exploration and promote literacy in children.
• March 14 – 18 — Deloitte and Teach For America will co-host 25 students from six colleges and universities along with 20 professionals from Deloitte and Teach For America for a week of education-centered volunteerism in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Volunteers will spend time working with schools and local students who face the challenges of educational inequity through projects that include improving campuses, developing classroom lessons and helping with class preparation work.
You better get on this ASAP if you’re interested since only 75 students and 40 professionals get to participate. The problem for current Deloittians is most of you are eyeballs deep in busy season anyway so this isn’t an option. So does this mean that non-busy season types like Jim Quigely, Barry Salberg, and Punit Renjen will be in attendance? And if so will they be sporting new board shorts for the pool time they are able to squeeze in?
Deloitte Offers Students Chance to Give Back, Explore Careers on Spring Break [Press Release]