Kill the Audit Industry, Says Ex-Auditor
In the WaPo opinion pages yesterday one Duncan Mavin, who got his start in the 90s, says the best way to solve the audit industry’s many conflicts is to kill it altogether. He starts the piece summoning the ghost of Enron, as all writers do when discussing what happens when audit goes wrong. Bringing things […]
Integrating Experience and Education is One Way to Ease the Accountant Shortage at Least a Little
There’s a contentious battle raging over the 150 unit requirement for CPA licensure as we speak and in the meantime we have to figure something out to ease the accountant shortage that has a bit more immediate impact (and doesn’t involve paying people more because clearly the firms are not down with that idea). Wherever […]
Grant Thornton is Trialing a “Nine-Day Fortnight” Schedule to Ease Burnout in Australia
In a profession already notorious for burnout, staffing crises continue to wreak havoc on the personal lives of accountants everywhere much to the detriment of firms that refuse to turn down work yet lack the warm bodies to get it done. Grant Thornton has a crazy idea to alleviate at least a little of that. […]
Just Abolish the CPA Exam, Says Guy
For at least a year now, we’ve been getting emails from some guy who really, really doesn’t like the CPA exam. And for at least a year now, we’ve pretty much ignored them because, well, abolishing the CPA exam is up there with curing cancer and people learning how to use turn signals, as in […]
Headline of the Day: ‘The CPA Exam Should Adopt Remote Testing’
I’m sorry to tell you that’s not an article on the NASBA blog, but rather an opinion piece in The CPA Journal by John “Jack” Castonguay, PhD, CPA. In it, he argues that remote testing benefits candidates as they will have certainty around scheduling their dates, and the profession overall as it ensures a steady […]
Labeling Big 4 as Systemically Important Would Only Confuse Their Sense of Importance
Way back in 2008, a small hiccup in the United States financial system brought upon by an even smaller hiccup in the U.S. housing market led to the mild threat of the collapse of the world economy.
Accounting Firms Allowing Side Gigs: Good Idea or Independence Mine Field?
These days, you hear more and more about people juggling multiple projects at once. You know, a day job, the moonlighting gig, a passion project, the "I was just fucking around and it became a thing"1 thing, among others. You would think that accounting firms, known for working people so hard that it renders them […]
Should More Accounting Firms Use ‘Blind’ Methods to Improve Their Diversity?
I like the idea of blind recruiting that this WSJ story discusses. Not knowing a person’s name or alma mater forces “hiring managers [to] form opinions based only on that person’s work,” therefore reducing the likelihood of nepotism, favoritism, racism, basically any negative -ism you can think of. This results in, you guessed it “more […]
Accounting Firms Should Get Rid of Managers
Hey look, no one wants to be a manager. That's not too surprising. Managing is a thankless job. Just ask any manager. It's why when we think of managers we think about Lumberg from Office Space. People still want to be promoted, naturally, but it is kinda silly to promote someone to a job they […]
Lifehacker Makes the Crazy Suggestion Salaried Workers Should Calculate Their Hourly Wage
My fellow salaried workers, take a moment to read this: In a (very good) Quora post, [film producer Christopher] Pollock lists 10 lessons everyone should know about personal finance. They're all great, and many are lessons we've talked about before—but this one caught our eye: "Your hourly earnings are important. Your annual earnings are not. […]