[Anonymous]

I work in AP and discovered that I made a big boo boo during my 2nd week on the job. (Been with the company for a month now) I mistakenly entered 6 invoices totaling $2000 under the wrong vendor name and a check was cut and sent out to them. Got in touch with their accounts receivable person. They had already cashed the check a while ago but we eventually worked something out. I told my supervisor what happened but not until I resolved the issue myself. Surprisingly, he didnt get too mad at me.. maybe because i’m still kind of new. But oh man… that sinking feeling that I got upon discovery of my grave.. grave.. mistake.. holy god i wanted to cry!!!

So what about you guys? What was the biggest mistake you’ve ever made at work?

[soyanks]

How does a check get issued without someone checking your work and signing off on the disbursement? Isn't there an internal control in place to prevent the above example?

FAR - 86
REG - 85
BEC - 90
AUD - 84

[thechapman]

@soyanks I bet you're fun to drink with

Passed - 2014

[Anonymous]

Let's just say this company is lacking in the internal control department…

[Anonymous]

Geez. I bet the vendor creator in that company is having a field day.

[Gatorgirl1231]

I transferred 250K to the wrong bank account.

Florida Candidate

AUD: 77
REG: 86
FAR: TBD
BEC: 79 (Expired)

[CM]

I'm also new at my company, and I have made some mistake mostly because I have never worked in that particular industry and also because I feel super tired lately. I'm taking FAR next Monday, and the last few days have been very difficult for me to make it through the day with lack of sleep.

AUD - 80
BEC - 73
FAR - 78
REG - NINJA in Training

"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible." Francis of Assisi

I really cannot believe BEC is giving me such a hard time.

FAR: 78 (5x)
AUD: 80 (3x)
BEC: 9/07/2016
REG: 12/06/2016

Failure is never an option.

"Faith in your own powers and confidence in your individual methods are essential to success." Roderick Stevens

[VR]

I was filling in for our AP girl…and misread CFO note ….and transferred to our foreign vendor all the cash my company had for that day…about 1-2 mln. My supervisor who had to approve that wire….didn't notice that mistake…until CFO saw it on our bank report. I had to call our vendor and ask them to wire money back…..it was very embarrassing moment not to mention that the CFO and my boss were upset with me….

[taxman89]

@ VR your boss should have remembered he signed off on the thing….lol

AUD - 75
BEC - 77
FAR - 78
REG - 82

AUD: 61-67-75 (Thanks ninja aud)
BEC: 77
FAR: 78
REG:69-73-70-82

Aud-75 3x I knew i never liked you
Bec-77 1x being in the bubble is stressful
Reg-82 4x its not me its you...and no we cant be friends
Far-78 1x easiest section

[RachelP]

I think probably the “biggest” mistake I've ever made was we literally used excel to manage our fixed assets at a previous company I worked in. (We had many plants & tons of assets, so not really that great of an idea, In my opinion) Well… we closed down a plant and moved a bunch of assets, sold some, and scrapped some…. like, in July. So I am literally 1 week away from our hard year-end close, and 1.5 weeks away from my official end date when I find out that BOTH of my excel worksheets tie to each other, but NOT to the GL. (and it was definitely material) I did not tell anyone (my boss was a veritable witch) and looked & looked in between doing all the other year-end clean up. Well… thank goodness she neglected to verify those worksheets. I left a pretty note on the file explaining that the two worksheets balanced to each other, not the GL (at least I didn't leave it for them to find themselves next year-end close lol!)

I heard from a friend that my replacement spent months working on fixed assets… poor bloke.

"Don't worry, beeeeee happy!"

Unhappy with job, long distance boyfriend, not much studying:
FAR- 66 [08/28/12] AUD- 61 [10/04/12] REG- 59 [11/28/12] BEC- 63 [01/11/13]
Year off (from exams): Got new job, got married, moved, etc
✓ AUD- 79!!! 01/10/14 FIRST PASS!! WOOOO!!!
✓ REG- 73 02/27/14, 81 10/27/14
✓ FAR- 83 5/16/14
✓ BEC- 80 7/24/14
✓ Education ✓ Experience
Ethics Exam

[Texan_Stuck_In_OK]

Mine was just recently. Our company pays payroll every other Friday. One of those pay dates fell on July 4, a banking holiday. In June, I was aware that we needed to make sure that the payroll direct deposit had an effective pay date of July 3. I mentioned it to the payroll coordinator and she changed everything she could to reflect the July 3 paydate. Well, on July 3 I start getting phone calls that people have not received their pay. Turns out there was one little box in an obsecure screen that still had July 4 as the pay date, so the ACH file we sent to the bank had everyone being paid on the 4th. My staff and I spent the entire day calling individual banks to see if they would change the effective date on the deposits to the 3rd. It was a nightmare since we have about 900 employees.Fortunately, after the initial frustrations everyone got paid on the 3rd and my boss, the CFO, was really understanding about it. The worst part was that we had a new CEO start about three months before this and it was an awful first impression I gave him.

A 88, B 76, F 84, R 76 Passed 2014

Licensed in OK

[RachelP]

Bet you'll never miss that box again! I always make sure to say in interviews that I do my dangdest to never make the same mistake twice. Hopefully the CEO can understand!

"Don't worry, beeeeee happy!"

Unhappy with job, long distance boyfriend, not much studying:
FAR- 66 [08/28/12] AUD- 61 [10/04/12] REG- 59 [11/28/12] BEC- 63 [01/11/13]
Year off (from exams): Got new job, got married, moved, etc
✓ AUD- 79!!! 01/10/14 FIRST PASS!! WOOOO!!!
✓ REG- 73 02/27/14, 81 10/27/14
✓ FAR- 83 5/16/14
✓ BEC- 80 7/24/14
✓ Education ✓ Experience
Ethics Exam

[mhueycpa]

Years ago, I Fedexed one client's tax return along with another client's tax return. I was with the company for about a year when it happened. I would have fired myself. Fortunately, these were two none high profile clients who didn't mind the mistake, and I didn't get fired. But i'll always check packages before sending them out again! We're human, mistakes happen.

THE 300 CLUB WILL DO JUST FINE!

[Anonymous]

I almost got a boss pregnant in one of our employer's properties, nonetheless.

[golfball7773]

At non-accounting job in High School, I totaled a Pizza Ranch delivery car when I was out on a delivery. It was a piece of shit Geo Metro anyway

AUD - NINJA in Training
BEC - 86
FAR - NINJA in Training
REG - NINJA in Training

AUD - 71, 73

BEC - 74, 86

REG - 77*

FAR - 57

*expired

(I have been trying to become a CPA since 2013). only one test down.......

FAR: 63, 55, 62
REG: 65, 77*
AUD: Fail, 64, 71
BEC: 72, 74, 81

*expired

[mmp7183]

@ bill – is that a big mistake or just almost? 😀

Oh-Hey-Yoh Candidate

FAR - 89 Dec 2013 (CPAExcel)
AUD - 89 Feb 2014 (CPAExcel)
BEC - 83 Aug 2014 (Becker)
REG - 85 Oct 2014 (Becker)

CMA (Aug 2011), CFSA (Dec 2008), Philippine CPA (Nov 2004)

[Author]

Replies