Hey Andrew,

I came across your post/ site and wanted to thank you for the inspirational story. I’ve been paying interest only on my $60k loans since graduation and am ready to be more aggressive. 

From your post, it seems like you saved extra monthly income in order to make a large payment over putting extra income toward your loans each month in small increments. Did you see better results this way?

My current plan is to begin tracking my money and set a low budget, save up toward a 3-month emergency fund, then begin saving all extra income toward loans until I can make a large payment. I plan to attack loans in order of interest rate.

Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks again – appreciate anything else you can share.

Jeremy 

I was so excited to see this question.

I have received so many emails about my debt story, but I know this feeling.

Once you look yourself in the mirror and say, “let’s get this thing in gear!”.

Questions come up. Lots of questions.

How much should I be spending on food?

Should I save for retirement or pause?

Which loans should I pay off first?

How big should my emergency fund be?

And many more.

So let’s get into the questions Jeremy asked above:

Should you save extra each month, or save up big chunks to throw at your debt?

I through big chunks at the debt, but I wouldn’t always recommend that.

If you have a stable job, with no plans to leave, and little to no chance of being fired, I would pay the monthly amounts.

The 14 month period where I realized I needed to save and pay down debt, I had no job.

I had by businesses I had started and a little bit of contract accounting work.

I was scared to throw all my money at the debt until I had a very comfortable nest egg that could last me through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship.

So as a general rule:

Stable income: pay monthly

Unstable income: stockpile until you can throw big chunks

Should I attack the loans in order of interest rate?

Generally now.

I would try to have a plan to pay off your debt in less than 2 years.

At the maximum, you will probably only save a few hundred dollars by doing that.

But I think more important than the few hundred bucks is your confidence.

My wife and I knocked out the smallest loans first:

$3,5K – BAM, gone

$5K – BAM, gone

$8K – BAM, see ya!

Many famous personal financial professionals call this the “Snowball Method”.

You pay off your debt smallest to largest. Why?

Because it builds confidence. You gain momentum as you see your bills closed and fewer payments made.

Any other suggestions?

Get an extra job, or three. Never give up.

You may be a successful accountant, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be an Uber driver on Saturday and Sunday.

Ya, your friends might make fun of you.

But guess what? They’re probably broke.

Find out what you can do in your free time to earn a little cash. Throw 100% of that money at your debt and you will finish much faster.

The post Should You Pay Off Student Loans Each Month Or Save Big Chunks? appeared first on The Bean Counter.

For me the answer was simple, and here’s why.

Logic, evidence, reason = Audit

Rules, legislations, research = Tax

Things need to make sense in my brain. I don’t find opinions interesting unless they make sense. Weird answer huh? It honestly had nothing to do with seeing clients more, working in teams, or future career paths.

But there is a lot to consider. This question is HUGELY important in the recruiting process.

APPLY: Regardless of Audit or Tax, you NEED to Apply for the CPA Exam.

The more things you know (where you want to work, when you want to start, audit/tax), the more likely you are to get hired. Firms like someone who knows what they want, has a plan, and is fully prepared.

Don’t be fooled by thinking: “Oh, if I say audit or tax I will increase my chances as they will consider me for twice the positions.” WRONG.

Audit Pros:

• You tend to work in teams.
• There are a LOT more audit positions than tax. In recent years the audit industry has grown. Internal audit, IT Audit, and new PCAOB regulations have greatly increased the number of positions available.
• With audit you’ll have limitless exit opportunities in various industries and for different types of positions in the accounting world (CFO, Valuation, Controller, IT Audit, Financial Accounting positions, Finance, etc.).
• You see the full picture of the business. In many cases, you are responsible for parts of the tax work as well as the financial statement audit.

Audit Cons:

• People will ALWAYS ask you, can you do my taxes? You can’t.
• Audit gives you the chance to be yelled at by the client starting day one!
• Being an auditor requires being skeptical and being independent. This can often times be a problem for people who want to “help” the client, or be on their team like a consultant. At the end of the day your goal is to minimize audit risk (the risk of a bad opinion).
• Tend to be quite a bit of travel involved and you almost always have to be at the client sites. While many see this as a pro, over time less people love the travel (though the hotel points are nice).

Tax Pros:

• They tend to pay a bit better for tax since it’s more specialized
• If you really wish to open up your own firm, tax could be for you. Many small firms are focused on bookkeeping and taxes first! Audits tend to come as you grow.
• Food. The tax team almost always gets the best food catered to the office during busy season.
• Dual, tri, and quad monitors! As you’re always in the office, you typically get the best computer setup.

Tax Cons:

• In some cases may take you a year before you even meet a client.
• There is less teamwork in tax preparation. You are on your own much more than with audits.
• Many (large) firms require a Masters in Taxation.
• There are fewer positions available at larger firms than audit.

While you want to try and make the best decision for yourself, you can alway change. I’ve seen countless people start at small and large firms in one department and move to the other.

The truth is, it’s a guessing game. You will not know until you get in the game.

Do you best but don’t say, “I want to do both” or “I would do either”.

If that’s true, pick one for now, and if you hate it, switch once you’ve accepted your offer and you’re at the firm!

Have another audit or tax pro/con? Let me know in the comments!

The post Public Accounting: Audit or Tax? Here Are The Pros & Cons! appeared first on The Bean Counter.

Hi Andrew,

I’d really love to see some articles about interpersonal work relationships and generational differences.

My stint in public accounting ended because of crap coworkers.  I wish I would have had the resources to cope/deal with them.  I had encountered bullies, people taking credit for my work, peer pressure, gossip, you name it.  I didn’t want to deal with it, so I left.  Went right into the same thing at my next job.  A brilliant coworker of mine said every job is the same sh*t, different smell.

I need to develop the tools and resilience necessary to “rise above” or whatever else is recommended.

Thanks,

Amber

The truth is… public accounting is hard.

I felt so overwhelmed the first week of my PwC internship.

You have to dress up.

Work in an office.

Appear smart and prepared (when you have no idea what you’re doing).

And what happens on top of that?

Some people are just plain mean.

You could have a fellow co-worker that’s jealous.

Someone that’s more senior than you that doesn’t like you.

Maybe they’ve given up on their career and they can’t stand you still have the bright light many interns or first years have.

My biggest piece of advice to anyone entering the profession:

Never, and I mean NEVER let your enthusiasm die! No matter how many things you have to change or jobs you have to quit.

There is nothing more important to the next 30+ years of your professional life than your be excited, happy, and find purpose and meaning in what you do!

The truth is, everyone has bad bosses.

People that require you to work as much as they do – even if you’re more efficient.

People that force you to say you worked 9 hours when you worked 13.

People that leave 52 review notes on a single word document (ya, it happened).

In the first few years, you tend to have these terrible bosses because the best people have already been promoted to work on higher level issues!

Here is the secret I used to overcome this:

It’s okay to say:

“This person has been here longer than me and they have seniority over me. But they are a terrible manager, miserable person, and hurting the company:

It’s probably true.

But I wouldn’t go shouting that down the halls.

This is for you to know and tell yourself.

Then you bust your a$$ for them.

Don’t give them any objective evidence that you…

Showed up late.

Don’t know as much as you should based on trainings.

Missed a client deadline.

Aren’t prepared for meetings.

Don’t give them anything to show that you aren’t rock solid.

Then after a few weeks, speak with your coach.

Say something like this:

While I feel I’ve learned quite a bit while working on ABC client, I’m not sure it’s the best team fit for me. I think for some people, this could be the perfect environment, right people, and right client.

But I’m not so sure that’s the case for me.

I’ve worked hard and I think I’ve done a great job. I expect to see that in my review.

But I can’t say that I’ve personally enjoyed it.

And that’s surprsing for me.

I really enjoyed XYZ and MNA client. And I really enjoying working here. I am incredibly greatful for the opportunity.

But I know that if I spend another few months on this job, I won’t be happy. And I don’t want that.

I plan on working here for many years, but I can see how I’ve started to feel in just a few short months.

What would you recommend I do?

In public accounting, things don’t change overnight. Especially when it’s your first year.

The truth is, you need to be a little patient, a little political, and don’t let anyone have objective reasons to doubt you are an incredible asset to the company.

The next week, pop-in and have the same conversation with HR. Then maybe a Partner your close with.

People can’t help you if they don’t know what’s going on.

The best way to deal with these situation is to:

Talk with the right people, behind closed doors, in a consistent and patient way until you get what you want. Then show tremendous gratitude!

By taking these steps you showing:

You are the mature one.

Yo haven’t given up on your career.

You are looking out for you and the company.

If you keep handling conflicts this way, you’ll rise quickly in the organization and leave the terrible bosses in the dust to whine, cry, and be miserable for the next 30 years!

The post How Millennial Accountants Should Deal With Crap Co-Workers appeared first on The Bean Counter.

And it raises the question:

What do young people and new hires to the profession want their career to look like?

I am always encouraging people who use my course or work with me on a resume to realize interviews work two ways.

The firm has to make a decision about you.

And YOU need to make a decision about the firm.

If you follow my steps through the recruiting process, you’ll almost certainly have multiple offers.

And that should be the goal, to have multiple choices. The more choice, the higher the quality.

The most basic analogy is the incredible human success that is the grocery store!

Lots of choices, incredible quality.

Your job search is the exact same.

When you have choices and options in your career, you’re negotiating and deciding from a position of strength.

Once you have options, then you have to make a decision of what’s important to you.

Here’s an excerpt from Jody’s article:

The other day, as I was browsing LinkedIn, I saw a job advertisement for a tax manager.  Now I can honestly say I know nothing about the firm or even the location, but the first three words in the ad made me stop dead in my tracks (and no, I’m not looking for a new job.)  

“Beautiful Downtown Office.”

I read those three words as stifling, painful, and horrifying.

But what shocked me the most is how “old school” firm management believes this is important. Important enough for it to be the first three words in an ad intended to catch a new hire. What is wrong with this picture, firm, and our profession?

Regular readers of my column know work is no longer a place you go. 

It’s what you do, who you are, and a lifestyle. 

A job is not “location based” – especially at the manager level. Yet, this “old school” firm believes that a downtown office is something a “tax manager” level professional would choose. 

(full article)

I remember when I worked at PwC, I thought the Big 4 was the entire accounting profession.

Let me tell you a little secret, it’s not.

There are well over $1.2M accountants and auditors in the US.

According to Accounting Today, in the top 25 firms, there are 217,000 employees.

That means over 80% of accountants don’t work for large firms.

They work for companies and firms that have all sorts of different company environments and cultures.

So what is important to young people?

When I went through the recruitment process, I chose the firm that paid the most attention to me.

The one that courted me.

They showed interest in me.

They believed in me and my potential.

That, more than the office, more than pay, more than prestige, is why I chose the firm.

Why did you choose your firm?

If you haven’t chosen a firm, what will you use to make your decision?

A few months ago we released 15 Things Bean Counter Readers Want From Firms (survey results):

1. Great company culture
2. Work life balance
3. Advancement opportunities
4. Great learning environment & training
5. Care about me as a person, not just a “faceless employee”
6. Enthusiastic employees who are excited about their job and the people they work with
7. Ability to travel
8. Stability
9. Good benefits
10. Good compensation
11. Helps me to grow into the best professional I can be
12. International assignments
13. Staying current with technology
14. Forensic accounting opportunities
15. Community service

The first two are hitting on exactly what Jody is talking about.

The truth is, young people are becoming more and more valuable as technology continues to make accounting and auditing easier.

Young people increasingly want a firm that’s hip, allows flexible or remote work, and is in tune with what’s important to young people today.

A corner office, a nice pension, and office parties aren’t as relevant as there were in the “Mad Men” days.

So what about you? Do you work at a firm that really understands you? Or have you ever interviewed at a firm that was clueless about what’s important to our generation?

The post Millennial Accountants Don’t Want A Corner Office With A View appeared first on The Bean Counter.

Hi Andrew,

I hope this message finds you well. I have a situation I was hoping you could help me with. Thanks to your program I was able to land a tax accountant position with McGladrey last semester. I have been involved with Beta Alpha Psi for the past two semesters, which has also been a great tool that helped me land the job. As I’m going into my final semester, does it make sense to continue being a part of BAP?

I will be taking my first section of the CPA exam in January. Would this time be put to better use studying for the exam? I don’t hold any position within the organization, so I wouldn’t be bailing on any responsibilities. I feel that BAP has served its purpose and that it wouldn’t have much value now that I have a job.

Thanks so much for sharing your insight!

Best regards,

David

This is a constant problem for Beta Alpha Psi (BAP) Chapters.

While BAP offers tremendous opportunities for professional development and community service, most people use it to find a job.

And that makes sense.

Perhaps the greatest thing you can get as a result of your experience in Beta Alpha Psi is a full-time job offer.

But while most people never attend another meeting after that achievement, I think that’s short-sighted.

I always try to look at the bigger picture.

When I got promoted in 2 years at PwC (the normal is 3 years), it was because I went above and beyond in a number of areas.

One of which was recruiting.

I attended a number of recruiting events at many different Universities.

Before I worked at PwC, zero people worked there from my University.

A few short years later, the PwC office had hired 10 people!

10 people in one office from a small school like The University of Tampa made a big difference.

So while I understand you’re thinking of quitting, what are you missing out on?

Can you help McGladrey get the inside scoop on who the rising stars are?

I literally sent the recruiting at PwC a list of every person in the Chapter and who are thought would make great interns or full-time hires in the next year. They loved that!

While I did a number of other things to get promoted, this was part of the pie.

When you are trying to get the biggest raise, biggest bonus, and going for promotion, every little battle helps win the war!

That’s my attempt to appeal to your self-interest.

But what about giving back? You’ve done well for yourself.

Remember when you were a little more scared?

Didn’t know if you would get an offer?

Would you implode during the interview?

Had sweaty palms at the career fair?

I’m not saying you need to commit your entire semester to BAP, you need to pass the CPA exam.

But stopping in for a few meeting and helping people that are struggling like you were just a few short months ago sounds like the right thing to do…..

Enjoy you semester, and let us know what you decide!

P.S. Be sure to read this post when making your study plan for the CPA exam!

The post Should I Quit Beta Alpha Psi? appeared first on The Bean Counter.

We were broke and now living on one income. On top of it all, I still had about $55,000 dollars of student loans! YIKES!

That was last year.

This week, I made my last student loan payment and in these 14 months have managed to save almost $70,000 on top of that!

Here is the screenshot from when my FINAL payment posted this week!

Here are the 4 things I learned from being BROKE to paying off all my student loans in just over a year.

1) Without a written budget, you are wasting money.

You don’t even know where the money is going. Once we got on a written budget, and looked at every transaction at the end of each month, it was amazing to see what we simply wasted. How did we both work full-time, making over $100,000/year (~$7k per month take-home) and save nothing?

HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?

It is.

For being an accountant, I sure was clueless about my own personal accounting.

What an irony.

2) The only way debts go away are GREAT BIG HAIRY PRINCIPAL PAYMENTS. Not interest rate changes, loan consolidations, or time.

It hurts. I know it hurts. Paying off $19,574.76 (Chase Student Loans) one day made me feel like vomiting… But FAT principal payments are the only way to reduce outstanding debt. You have to chunk as much as possible at these puppies until they crumble.

Here were my loan balances in January of last year:

• ~$19,000 Sallie Mae (Navient)
• ~$26,000 Chase Student Loans
• ~$5,500 Nelnet

I start paying back my students loans (interest only) in January 2012 with about $55,000 total. I made very little progress until we went NUTS on them last January:

• From January 2012 to January 2014 ~$0 decrease in debt (as I was only paying off interest)
• From January 2014 to April 2015 ~$55,000 decrease in debt.

FAT principal payments are the only way to get out of debt in any reasonable period of time.

3) Being married helps A LOT.

It’s not just the two incomes that help support household expenses, it’s the teamwork. You have a partner that can support you. You aim at a goal together and you achieve it. Once you accomplish that, you feel like there is nothing you can’t do.

It’s not always easy. My wife, in particular, didn’t get too excited when I proposed cutting the food budget to $600/mo. It was definitely an adjustment.

But once you get a plan together, it’s shocking how quickly things start to move and how fast your savings grow!

4) The most successful thing we did was cut our lifestyle to NOTHING.

Literally nothing. We have hardly purchased any clothes in 2 years. I did get two pairs of pants as my other ones had holes in the knees and my wife bought a pair of heels when her’s broke.

The trick is Produce > Consume and save the difference. Just because you have more money due to a raise, or a business success, doesn’t mean you spend it. You SAVE IT!

Don’t just increase income OR cut expenses, do both. Income is harder to increase than cutting expenses so first step is to get on a scorched earth written budget. No Netflix, no eating out, no clothes, nothing!

From there, work on a plan to increase income. In the last 14 months, I’ve done a lot to increase income. Start 4-5 businesses, worked part time accounting jobs, took on extra writing gigs to earn cash, etc. Anything I could do to make it happen.

We literally saved 60-70% of our income in the last 14 months, and now it’s paid off!

As a reward to ourselves, we’re spending the rest of the year traveling while working in North Carolina, Costa Rica. Virginia, Spain, Italy, and Austria.

We can do that and still save our goal each month because we have learned how to budget. Embarrassing but yes, most accountants have no clue!

I tell you this story not to brag. I’ve been there. Completely BROKE! Owing $55,000 more than I am worth plus having a lease I can’t afford. It was a mess!

It was embarrassing as an individual and a new husband that I let things get that bad.

But every day is a chance to cut the shit and get on a new game plan. A little over a year later, look where you could be!

Helpful resources that helped us get there:

• Paying for all food in cash, stop eating out
• Detailed excel budget reconciled monthly
• Dave Ramsey podcasts for inspirational stories
• Finding free things to do in your area for dates/events (here’s what we did when we lived in Orlando)

Now it’s time to fess up. Post in the comments:

1. How much student loan debt you have?
2. How long you think it will take you to pay off?

The post How I Paid Off $55,000+ in Student Loans in 14 months appeared first on The Bean Counter.

“check the P&L, check the P&L, check the P&L”

I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about!

But I felt like I should’ve known. Eventually, I mustered up the courage to say, “what is P&L”?

So here are 10 terms I struggled with in my first year of public accounting.

1. Search for unrecorded liabilities (SURL) is an audit test accounting firms perform on almost every client. It’s almost always assigned to first years and interns. The purpose is to try and find liabilities that have gone unrecorded as of the balance sheet date under audit.

You do this by selecting payment transactions subsequent to year end (January or February in the case of a 12/31 year end) and determining based on the invoice and shipping documents, “should this have been included as a liability as of 12/31? If yes, was it? If no, was it excluded?

You team should always walk you through their entire procedures, but if you hear SURL, you’re now prepared!

2. Profit and loss statement (P&L) is the income statement! How simple, I know. The statement of profits and losses for the company for any given period.

3. General Ledger (GL)  is a complete record of financial transactions over the life of a company or for a given period. The ledger holds account information that is needed to prepare financial statements (descriptions, account numbers, account totals, etc), and includes accounts for assets, liabilities, owners’ equity, revenues and expenses. Not going to lie, GL threw me off just as much as P&L. Then I started mixing them up because they sound the same.

4. Trial Balance (TB) is a statement of all debits and credits in a double-entry account book, with any disagreement indicating an error. It honestly took me 6 months to figure out how this was different from the GL. The trial balance is like the account summaries whereas the the general ledger has every journal entry posting from the entire period!

5. Immaterial (IMM) is also known as, we don’t want to do anymore work over this area. What the term should mean is based on the materiality thresholds set for the engagement (materiality is basically the $$ of an error we don’t want to miss)

6. Workpapers (W/P) are where the team includes the work they perform. These docments typically make up the file, binder, or database (name varies by firm) which is the collection of audit work supporting the partners opinion on the financial statements.

7. Footed (F or ^) performing addition on a given column in workpapers.

8. Tickmark (T/M or TM) mean a digital mark in work papers. It’s used to document the work performed by referencing across parts of a document. Think of it like a legend.

Be aware, it is NOT a physical item. My second week as an intern I was asked to “pick up a box of tick marks from the office supply room”. The sweet admin lady help me for 15 minutes before someone asked what we were doing.

Digital, not physical. Never forget!

9. Pass on further work (P/F/W) is a term used to basically communicate that this is where it all comes to an end. Nothing else was done. Usually this means the appropriate level of work was performed so its time to stop. Usually…

10. Permanent File (PF) is a section of the audit file where you keep documents you may need for long periods of time. Debt agreements, articles of incorporations, shareholder documents, etc.

BONUS: Cumulative Audit Knowledge and Experience (CAKE) “AKA” grasping for straws. Using CAKE is almost like saying, “rely on the engagement teams opinion because they couldn’t or didn’t find any more evidence”.

What did I miss?

The post 10 Must Know Audit Acronyms For Your First Year in Public Accounting appeared first on The Bean Counter.

When I took the exam, I was determined to pass in 6 months, it took me 7, and I failed one section, audit.

Funny enough, that was the type of work I went on to do, auditing. When I took the exam, I was working a full time 40-hour a week job, taking 12+ hours of masters level courses, homwork, and I had a girlfriend.

I was determined to pass in 6 months. Here is what I did.

Online vs. Live Classes

I spent one Saturday at in-person classes and it was terrible. It started at 8am and went to 5pm with a 30-minute lunch break.

I went back and looked at the online lectures for the sections we covered and I realized that if I would have taken the online lectures, I could have been done by 2:30pm. The in-person instructor got off track and was constantly on tangents. And all the other students asked question on topics I knew in and out.

I vote online, always. And I took every lecture for every exam and read every textbook, all from home, Starbucks, and Panera.

Multiple choice practice questions

I took every single multiple-choice question I could, and many twice. You need to make sure you know why you got answers wrong, but there is also a benefit in memorizing questions and answers.

Many of the questions on the actual exam are similar if not exactly the same.

Practice Exams

I never, not once, had a passing score on a practice exam. Passing score for the CPA exam is 75% and no joke, I never got that on any practice exam.

Yet I passed 3 out of 4 exams on the first try and here were my scores:

REG 85 | BEC 84 | FAR 81 | AUD 71, 91

Setting Study Hours

Even though I had a full-time job and class, I was determined to study.

Nights without class – study from 6-10pm

Nights with class – study from 9-11pm

Weekends – study from 9am-8pm

I would also occasionally sneak in some multiple choice on lunch breaks at work and at slow points during class.

This was perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle, I was hard-core disciplined about this regimen. I stuck with it and almost never compromised.

Setting The Exam Date

I always took the exam at 8am and I took most of my exams on a Monday.

I should I also not that while I lived in Florida, I registered the exam in Alaska. I still took my tests at Prometric centers in Florida, but I did this for a specific reason. Alaska allowed me to take the exam 6 months sooner than Florida. In Florida I needed to have business law II completed to sit for the exam, which would’ve taken me another semester.

As a result of registering in Alaska I completed the exam 6 months earlier than I otherwise could have.

How did I react to failing?

The night I found out I failed audit I was surprised. It was the last of the four scores I received and I thought I passed with flying colors. In fact, I had already went out celebrating. The audit exam only took me about 100 minutes. But I rushed it. I got a 71.

This is perhaps the biggest mistake people who fail make. If you’re close to a passing score, don’t spend weeks studying. DO NOT spend more than 3-5 days, and then re-take it.

I did and got a 91.

The story is that I probably bombed a simulation or got a string of multiple choice questions wrong. I just needed a new batch of questions and new simulations. I knew the material, I just needed another shot at the test.

My mentality

While my study regimen was perhaps the most important part of passing the exam, this is close second. I have never been a huge believer of any real value in exams. I see them for what they are, an attempt to measure ones ability to memorize concepts and answer questions. That’s it.

And I don’t want to wear a badge that says, “I’m a memorizing monkey”. It’s not something that cool to be good at memorization. But if you want to be a CPA, it’s necessary.

Memorize and pass you will pass. In the real world, most of the knowledge you learned while studying won’t be useful.

I see so many people judge themselves based on whether or not they pass, and they build up all this pressure. Don’t worry about it.

This test does not define you. And you’re certainly not defined by how many times you take it. Here’s a quote I heard back in the day and this pretty much sums up how I feel about the exam:

It’s just like a fraternity, in order to get in, they run you through a series of confusing steps and test you to the breaking point. Those that make it through are now in the club.

It’s just a silly hazing exercise. Not a life defining moment. Don’t let other people passing and posting on Facebook bother you. Don’t let you parents who keep asking you if you pass bother you. Don’t let your friends bother you about it.

All of those fears and doubt cloudy up your mind and prohibit you from achieving the objective. So here is my final advice, which I heard from the founding CFO of Apple Retail at the Institute of Management Accountant’s Student Leadership Conference in 2010:

KYFHD – Michael Kramer

(Keep your f*$#ing head down)

See the full video version of this post in recent Webinar: “Pass the CPA Exam in 7 Months And Fail At Least Once”

Did you use any of the methods I mentioned above? Do you have any questions on how you should take the exam?

Would love to hear about them in the comments down below!

The post How to Pass the CPA Exam in 7 months (and fail at least once) appeared first on The Bean Counter.

Hey Andrew,

I just recently stumbled across your podcast and I really enjoy your episodes, they’re fantastic!

I was wondering if you could shed some light on my question, with your experience and industry exposure, or point me into a direction that may help.

Quick background info:

I’m 36 and have been working for 17 years, primarily in IT Management, Production And Process Control (Manufacturing) and IT Service in the Medical Device sector.

I’ve decided to go back to school as I don’t have a formal education.  I’m interested in accounting as a second-career possibility. I’m worried about not having an undergraduate degree until I’m 40 and maybe licensed by 42.

What would you recommend as a good path for entering into the industry and somehow potentially leveraging my experience to expedite the process?

Any advice or insight you could provide would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thanks

Jim

When I first started The Bean Counter, I thought I would just be speaking to young accounting college students.

Then came young professionals…

Then people already working in the profession for years…

And lately I have had a ton of interest from people looking at accounting as a second career!

The truth is, accounting is a great second career.

With a Bachelors or Masters degree and the 150 hours requirement for the CPA license, you can start at around $50,000 in many public accounting firms across the country.

Many people think being older works against them, but I know TONS of people in their late 30’s and early 40’s that worked for Big 4 and other major accounting firms.

You have the best chance to find a job while you’re completing your degree.

So if I’m looking to make accounting my second career, what would I do?

If I didn’t have a degree, I would enroll in a Bachelors of Accounting.

If I had a non-related degree, I would enroll in the Masters of Accounting even if I didn’t meet all the requirements. I would ask to complete the undergraduate accounting courses as part of the Masters degree.

Whether you have a Bachelors, or a Masters degree, the most important thing is that you have the required 150 credit hours to become a licensed CPA in most states. That is more important than whether you have a Masters.

Being that this is your second career, we want to get into the industry as quickly as possible.

And honestly, I wouldn’t do an online degree.

Being non-traditional – you especially need to get immersed into the industry.

This includes meeting professors and fellow students.

And joining Beta Alpha Psi Chapters (make sure any school you join has one).

Once you join a University and get on the fast track to complete your 150 hour requirements for the CPA exam, I would find a full-time job in accounting.

It may pay less than what you currently make, but we’re taking the long view here.

If you get a full-time job in accounting, it will be a low-level position, but great experience. You can earn anywhere from 20-40K per year while completing your degree.

Then, once I am within 18 months of graduating, I would go crazy looking for a job.

One of the great things about the accounting profession is that accounting firms regularly hire people 12-18 months before they graduate.

Often times you get a paid internship ($15-23 per hour). At the end of the internship, they offer full-time positions to 90%+ people that go through their programs.

Once you get the offer, completing the rest of your degree becomes a lot less stressful.

Jim mentions in the email above, he has past work experience he wants to leverage.

I wouldn’t focus too much on this.

The big benefit you have is maturity and experience in the workplace.

But most of the technical skills you learn won’t directly relate to this new profession.

You will have to learn everything from the ground up.

And sometimes, you may be taking instruction from people 15-20 years younger than you.

If you don’t see that as a problem, accounting could be an incredible experience for you!

Keep us posted on what you decide and good luck!

The post How To Enter Accounting As A Second Career appeared first on The Bean Counter.

Hey Andrew,

I wanted to follow up with you in regards to the webinar yesterday. I really enjoyed it. I recently discovered The Bean Counter and am really glad that I did. I really like all of the information that you put out and I am looking forward to continue following you.

Little background about myself, I just graduated this past December in accounting and went immediately into a busy season internship at KPMG. It was ok but I decided to pursue other opportunities and will be joining a regional accounting firm in Atlanta this summer.

In the meantime, I am trying to get as much of the CPA exam out of the way as possible. I am starting with FAR and I am progressing through the material much slower than I thought I would. I was expecting to wiz though it like all my friends did. Any tips on what I could possibly do to increase my speed or should I be okay with moving at the slower pace?

I could also use your advice relating to transitioning into a professional. I was given feedback from my KPMG internship that I could learn to utilize excel more (i.e. I work too slow). I purchased a, excel, “teach me” course but it seems to cover the basics only. Do you have any tips on what I could do to increase my work speed overall?

If you have not noticed, there is a correlation of slowness about me – studying for FAR and my work speed. It is an overall skill that I really need to improve upon and not just in one particular area (i.e. work, studying, etc).

Once again, enjoyed the webinar and glad I discovered you. I look forward to getting some solid advice from you.

KMFHD (keep my effin’ head down) Studying,

Bean Counter Reader

This is a great question and in accounting this is a tough balance for a lot of people. You want to be right, but you need to ACTUALLY take the CPA exam and actually complete work papers! I tend to lean towards speed rather than accuracy in my first year because no matter how long you take, you are going to get things wrong! Better to be wrong and done in one hour than wrong and done in three!

You should start here for how long you should be studying for each CPA exam section. Today I want to cover the top 10 excel tricks and shortcuts I learned to speed up my work in the first year of public accounting:

1. Alt + Tab

This allows you to skip between different programs or difference instances of the same program rapidly. It works with excel and all other programs. Rather than taking your hand off the keyboard, grabbing the mouse, dragging the mouse to the bottom of the computer, and clicking around to find your program, use this shortcut!

2. Shift + Control + up/down arrow

This will help you move between pages in the spreadsheet rather than having to click through each one.

3. Alt + e + s + v

So many times you want to paste something in excel, but it’s a formula. If you paste it, it gets all screwed up. Instead, copy it, then hit “Alt + e + s + v” and you will paste the values of the previous cell without copying the formula. This is a amazing quick trick!

4. Print formatting in excel

While I didn’t use this often, there were some partners that required all the workpapers they needed to review to be printed out. If that’s your partner, watch this video!

5. Filtering Colors

6. Vlookup

7. Ctrl + Arrow Key (Excel)

This will help you jump around the worksheet much faster than using the mouse. Watch the video below to see what I mean:

8. Highlight Duplicate Values

9. Alt + F + D + E (varies slightly by firm)

I can’t demostrate this one for you as I don’t have my old PwC laptop! But I used this every single day. If you use this shortcut, whatever document you are currently in will be attached to a new mail file to be emailed. Rather than searching for the document on your hard drive after you create a new message, this skips through that and allows you to start writing the recipients, subject, and body with the file already attached.

10. Subtotal Function (VERY COOL)

Email me if you have questions on any of these functions or want resources to better learn excel tricks! – andrew@thebeancounter.com.

The post The Top 10 Excel Tricks Every 1st Year Needs in Their Arsenal (VIDEO) appeared first on The Bean Counter.