For people that work for big 4 companies how many hours do you work a week when

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    Topic
  • #202285
    steve777
    Participant

    it isn’t busy season and when it is busy season?

Viewing 13 replies - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)
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    Replies
  • #778481
    CPAKING
    Participant

    When I worked in 1997 – 2000 We had 55 hour minimum work weeks during busy season.

    FAR - 8/24/2016
    BEC -
    REG -
    AUD -

    #778482
    PublicGuy
    Participant

    Big 4 tax here. Maybe 50-65 hours during busy season and 45-55 rest of year? Busy season is actually a bit less defined than what you would think in my experience. I get a few busy seasons a year really.

    #778483
    Credit Revenue
    Participant

    I like being an accountant, but the expected hours are ridiculous. Private expects long hours in a lot of situations too. Typically, the only reason you have to work more than 40 is because it's inefficient in private. Public you probably truly need to put in the hours…

    A - 79 expires 4/30/16 need a pass on REG
    B - 78
    F - 80
    R - 83!!! Can live again!

    #778484
    steve777
    Participant

    What shifts?

    #778485
    jules_cpa
    Participant

    I'm federal so only 40-45 hpw for me.

    AUD - 77
    BEC - 82
    FAR - 75
    REG - 76
     Licensed CPA - September 2017
    #778486
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    From my experience when it is busy season somewhere between 60 – 80. Off season between 40 – 50.
    I was billing around 68 hours frequently per week. There were rare occasions towards the end of the engagements where I pulled 77

    #778487

    Billing for 77 hours in one week is a rip off. No way in hell you were actually working efficiently lol. I would protest if any one person on my auditor's team billed me for 77 hours in one week.

    FAR - Passed (82)
    BEC - Passed (76)
    AUD - Passed (89)
    REG - Passed! (81)
    AICPA Ethics

    Licensed CPA

    #778488
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    “Private expects long hours in a lot of situations too. Typically, the only reason you have to work more than 40 is because it's inefficient in private.”

    I'd beg to differ. This may be true in some companies, but definitely not all. I've had 2 private accounting jobs; the first had overtime only during month-end, but during month-end, it was unavoidable. We had such a short window of time in which to get done such a large quantity of work, so there was no alternative. My current private accounting job initially only required overtime during the year-end close and audit process, so the rest of the year that statement would have been mostly true (brief overtime at monthly and quarterly close, but just 1-3 days each); however, now, we've had our staff cut fully in half, and there's no way to complete what needs to be done during the hours that are scheduled.

    Accounting is somewhat cyclical in nature, both in private and in public. In private, periods have to be closed and reported on, usually in a very brief window. Management wants reports ASAP and statutory requirements may require them overly quickly as well. In public, those same reports have to be audited within very short time frames, and taxes have to be prepared based on them, etc. Everything is based on data from an extended period that has to be compiled and completed in a very short time. So, accounting as a whole – private, public, etc. – is cyclical, requiring loads of work during a short time, then not as much for the next while. If it was more even all the time, staff could be hired to make everyone able to just work 40 hours every week, but with the cyclical nature, the only way to avoid overtime is to have weeks with less than full-time work. 😐 Or at least that's my perspective.

    #778489
    the LAST Coffee
    Participant

    Very close friends with someone at Big 4. Busy season (Jan – March) tops out around 80 hours a week and a -Blam!- ton of traveling.

    Currently May early June is supposedly the slow season but my friend complains about still working sometimes 55 hours a week. This particular Big 4 in this location really drives its employees to death.

    FAR 84 (AUG '15)
    BEC 83 (AUG '15)
    AUD 79 (OCT '15)
    REG 71, 78! (NOV '15, FEB '16)

    #778490
    Credit Revenue
    Participant

    I agree with that Lilla… I gave he short version and left a lot out. I have worked a couple of places where people were stuck in 1980 with their skill set and they ended up working 75 hours a week.

    A - 79 expires 4/30/16 need a pass on REG
    B - 78
    F - 80
    R - 83!!! Can live again!

    #778491
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Sorry, nobody works 80 per week – even 60 for more than a week or two is a ridiculous claim:

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/stop-lying-about-how-much-you-work/

    #778492
    Mayo
    Participant

    “Sorry, nobody works 80 per week – even 60 for more than a week or two is a ridiculous claim”

    O_o

    I regularly worked 60 hour weeks for almost the entire last year of my time as an auditor. And I had my fair share of 80+ hour weeks as well. We're talking come in at 8:30ish, leave at 10pm during the week. Eat at your desk, so there's no real lunch break. Take two hours off of that for Friday, and that's 65 hours right there. Then add in two more 8 hour days for Sat and Sun, and you hit 80 hours.

    This was in May…..

    Granted it's not typical for all Big 4 offices because I was on a pre-ipo client and we were trying to get them ready for an S-1 filing. But that happens all the time in the SF bay area.

    Before coming to the SF bay area I'd say my workload was lighter. But I'd still hit 50-55 hours here and there during non busy season months. I remember hitting 60 hr weeks in October. It sucks, and it's just getting worse for auditors with the amount of new procedures that are created due to the PCAOB reviews.

    Mayo, BBA, Macc

    #778493
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    @Credit Sorry – I may have been sensitive at the end of a particularly long few months and particularly long couple weeks. For a non-profit job that was supposed to have a cushy schedule, it's been anything but. 😛 I do agree that antiquated systems do slow down a lot of the private world (as well as small public firms – we use Lotus 123 at my job in public cause my boss preferred it to Excel >x-| ), since investing in up-to-date methods is often an expense that they won't invest in, but so much time would be saved if they did…

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