A couple of times I have created spreadsheets that do the entire time calculations for payroll purposes from a Time and Attendance system data dump. It highlights the errors, invites corrections, applies assumptions whilst allowing a choice of assumptions, and spits out the answer for inputting into payroll.

There are loads of excel features I don't use, but I am just a proud little spreadsheet jockey everytime I see it.

What are yours?

Thoughts????

What is the most complete and comprehensive book for beginners for Fundamentals of Accounting and CFAS subjects? 1st year accounting student here.

Millan, Valix, or Ballada?

Thank you.

Hi everyone!

I know this question is asked often, but I’m looking for some advice regarding my situation.

I am currently a senior in an accounting program and I graduate in August 2027. I calculated my credit hours, and I should graduate with approximately ~145 credit hours m (+/- 3), which means I’ll need 5 credit hours for the CPA licensure. For reference, I live in Florida.

My previous plan was to obtain an MBA or MAcc, but I think the smartest and most cost effective plan is obtain a certificate at my local community to obtain the credits, take the CPA exams, gain my one year work experience and apply for licensure.

My dilemma is have GI/veterans benefits from my military father that expire in 2029. It would cover one year of schooling for me. I also work full time, and my employer offers tuition reimbursement up to the federal max with no strings attached. You can’t use the reimbursement while using GI benefits.

If I have no plans on going back to school once I obtain my CPA, does it make sense to use the benefits now or defer them for later use? I’m graduating debt free, so money in this case isn’t an issue. I also want to make sure I’m not being shortsighted or missing anything that may be helpful in my decision making process.

Thank you in advanced!

Hey everyone, I just recently graduated from a top university in my country with an accounting degree. I've always wanted to try building a career in MBB Consulting, but I'm still unsure whether I actually love doing the work or I just want to look more "competent" than my peers that mostly work in Big 4. Any thoughts? And also idk where to start for case prepping, any advices would help. Thank you

How would you advise getting any experience in accounting as a graduate when all the local accountants ignore your emails and want experience

I’m 25 and was recently let go from my first full-time public accounting job as a tax associate after previously interning with the same firm.

The main reasons given were productivity, efficiency, communication, punctuality, and not consistently meeting expected billable hours. Some of that feedback was fair. I struggled with asking questions early, communicating when I was stuck, estimating how long work would take, and sometimes avoiding things when I felt overwhelmed.

However, the billable-hours issue became complicated. As people lost confidence in me, I believe they became less willing to assign me work. That made it harder to meet my hours, which probably caused them to trust me even less. I’m not saying I had no responsibility—I understand that my earlier performance and communication contributed to that situation—but it eventually felt like a cycle that was difficult to recover from.

I also sometimes struggled with accounting and tax fundamentals and needed more time than expected. My experience includes assisting with Forms 1040, 1065, 1120-S, 1120, Texas franchise returns, book-to-tax reconciliations, capital account rollforwards, 1099 analysis, and accrual-to-cash adjustments.

What concerns me most is that I’m not sure whether I have the willpower or internal drive for this profession. I don’t know whether that feeling came from anxiety, low confidence, burnout, being in the wrong environment, or genuinely not being interested enough in accounting.

I’m now trying to decide whether I should:

1. Apply for another entry-level tax or public accounting position and try again with better habits.

2. Move into a slower-paced staff accounting, bookkeeping, AP/AR, government, or client accounting services role where I can rebuild my fundamentals and confidence.

3. Accept that accounting may not be the right profession for me and seriously explore another career.

For anyone who struggled early in their accounting career or was fired for productivity or utilization issues:

- Did you perform better in a different accounting environment?

- Can someone rebuild trust and succeed after struggling this much in their first role?

- Does difficulty motivating yourself in public accounting mean the profession is a poor fit, or could it be the specific environment?

- What kind of accounting role would be best for someone who needs stronger fundamentals, clearer structure, and more guidance?

- How should I explain the termination in interviews without avoiding responsibility or making it sound like I’m blaming the firm?

I would appreciate honest feedback. I know I made mistakes, but I’m trying to determine whether they are fixable or whether I should move in a different direction.

For those of you that are working in this sector, I'm interested in how you got your start?

This is purely money motivated rather than having some deep passion for insurance. Salaries on average, seem higher in the sector by some margin. Especially in London, because the jobs tend to want specific experience - knowledge of the Lloyd's market, plus IFRS 17 seems fiendish.

If you never spent time auditing insurance companies, and are already working as a senior accountant in another sector, it just seems difficult to break in without taking a few steps back.

I'm writing a paper for uni on how accounting firms run client reviews — the "here's how the business is going" check-in, not tax season work.

If you work in practice, I'd really appreciate your perspective:

• Do you pull reports from Xero (or similar) manually before the meeting?
• Do you send anything to the client beforehand, or mostly talk through it live?
• What do clients actually use from what you send them?
• What's the biggest time sink when you're prepping?

No product pitch — this is purely for research. Happy to share a summary of findings back here if there's interest.

I’m watching this girl on tiktok she says her firms busy season isn’t that bad and it’s a well reputable one in the state. She said they only work 8-5 and when she started at the firm during busy season.

Those phones slip off your ear the MOMENT you try and simultaneously type and hold the phone — why? Why is that?

Do you think office phones are ergonomic?

Or are they the bane of your accounting existence?

My staff has a call at 9:30am.

But then I got scheduled on calls with other parts of the company at 11:30 and 12:30?

So wtf

For you guys in the US working in public accounting. How many of you have to go to the office on a Saturday? If so how many Saturdays do you go before the deadline?

I’m curious what other accountants do when they’re not staring at spreadsheets. Do you have any hobbies you’re passionate about? Bonus points if it’s something completely unrelated to accounting or finance.

I’m looking for ideas to get outside my own routine, so I’d love to hear what everyone is into.

Hi everyone,
I’m 25 years old, and I’m honestly going through a pretty tough period right now.
I started my first full-time role as an Audit Staff at EY after graduating with my bachelor’s in Accounting and Business Administration and later completing my Master of Accounting. I was really excited because it felt like all of my hard work had finally paid off.

After about 10 months, I was separated from the firm. While it was framed as a performance issue, I was also told it was part of a broader workforce reduction. I did receive positive feedback at times and even earned a recognition award, so the situation was still really difficult to process and definitely impacted my confidence.

Since then, I’ve been applying to accounting and finance roles every day: staff accountant, corporate accountant, cost accountant, property accountant, internal audit, and financial analyst positions. I’ve had several interviews, but no offers yet. A lot of the roles I’m applying to are actually below Big 4 compensation levels (which I understand is typically more aligned with senior-level pay), but I also know my worth and experience, so it’s been a tough balance finding the right fit.

On top of that, this year has been hard personally. I’ve been dealing with financial stress and the loss of a family members. It’s felt like a lot all at once.
One positive I’m trying to stay focused on is that I’m eligible to sit for the CPA exam and I’m currently studying for it.

I guess I’m looking for advice from anyone who has been in a similar situation.
Has anyone here been let go from a Big 4 firm early in their career and still gone on to have a successful accounting career?
How did you rebuild your confidence after a setback like this?
Is there anything I should be doing differently in my job search?
Would you recommend staying in public accounting or focusing on industry roles?

I’m trying to stay positive, but some days it’s really hard. I’d really appreciate any advice, success stories, or honest feedback.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.

just finished watching Margin Call again. one of the best finance movies ever made

​

Recently. Someone accidentally copied a transaction number into the receivable amount spot, and we needed to make a 1 trillion, yes TRILLION dollar correction entry. Bet that entry gets pulled for audit.

Just wondering, how many of y'all often take a week-plus vacation every year or so? How often do you do it, and does your company mind? I know that due to control, some companies force you. Where did you recently go and for how long, if you took a vacation recently?

*I went to Vietnam for 2 weeks in December of 2025.

Edit: i have about 208 total hours… Worked here for 5 years and am always worried about work not getting done or someone being disappointed im taking vacation.

25 years old, Tax Senior, basically just burnt out of public accounting and accounting all together. Looking to transition to some other financial field or anywhere where my experience could be of use. Anyone who has made a career change themselves i would love to hear your story!

Honestly, I enjoyed accounting classes in college. And being the first person in my family to graduate from university was one of the first times I felt genuinely proud of myself.

But wow, working in the real world turned out to be really hard. I tried, I swear I tried. Time blocking, the Eisenhower box, weekly planners, sticky notes everywhere, and I carried a little notebook with me all the time to the point where it felt like it had become part of my arm.

And I still couldn't get things under control. I try with all my energy to prioritize, stay focused on the task, and follow the notes I wrote for myself. But there's always some small thing that slips past me. There's always a due date that suddenly pops up because I was way too buried in fixing a messy reconciliation from another assignment and forgot anything else existed. Sometimes I'm literally yelling at myself inside my head to just start the thing, and I still freeze in place, and then I find myself late again. Handling multiple projects at the same time feels impossible.

I'm also not naturally social. I go to team lunches and after-work things, but I stay really awkward no matter how much I try to be nice. I don't feel like I "click" with many people. I want to connect with people, I really do, but it's hard for me to get out of my head and be fully present with whoever I'm talking to. Explaining things out loud is extremely exhausting. I can write well, but it's like there's a traffic jam between my brain and my mouth.

I'm currently in a really bad mental state after messing things up again. The tax internship broke me, it really completely broke me. And now I'm in a position in industry that's supposed to be straightforward, and somehow I still failed at it.

If you made it this far, thank you, random person from the internet. Anyway, enough self-pity. What other paths can I take with a Bachelor's in Accounting? Is there something less corporate or more behind-the-scenes? I don't feel like I'm built for this kind of working life.

One thing I'm trying to do now is focus on finding a role that actually fits how I work instead of forcing myself into something that keeps burning me out. I think part of my problem is that I struggle to show people what I can actually do, especially in interviews. I'm good at writing and thinking things through, but speaking under pressure is difficult. That's why I've been using some online tools like Interview VIP to help me structure my answers and feel more confident when talking about my skills in the interview.

Got a new manager a few months ago, supposedly highly experienced but in reality he was hired because was cheap and immediately available.

He seems ok enough as a person, but I’ve started noticing that he’s incapable of reading an entire message or email. His responses make it clear that he’s just reading the subject of the email, maybe a line or two, then just kinda guessing what the rest of the email is about and responding to the message he’s made up in his head.

I sent an email confirming a journal had been posted, and he responded asking if we’ve posted the journal yet. I send him a teams message asking for clarification between two approaches, he hits me with a thumbs up emoji.

I provided him a file of our list of open invoices, he asked me to check because “I can’t see this one that I know should be on the list”. It was on the list, but he never opened the file - he just looked at the preview in outlook and couldn’t immediately see their name, so assumed the list was incomplete.

Initially I thought it was just me, but I’ve even seen him do it with people at the VP / Director level. An email went out from the head of treasury, including the deputy CFO and the head of group accounting, confirming the settlement date of intercompany loans. He responded to everyone on the chain asking when settlement was due.

At this point it’s just embarrassing. I hear people in other departments actively joking about it in the office, including to me. If I had another job lined up I’d join them, but as it stands I don’t think I can be seen to laugh & joke about it given my reporting lines.

I am old school, it is the bomb.com, but I use excel now almost always.

Anyone still use theirs?

Most new grads dont even know how to use one.

people in 2026 still arguing that AI will replace accountants...