[mla1169]

Just took a job as a finance associate for a very small company. They already have a bookkeeper and use an external CPA firm.

Been at my job a week and already told my boss he’d better rethink his CPA firm. I’m just looking things over and found a bunch of silly mistakes. Like the computer fixed asset acct is $30k but the accumulated depreciation is $140k. Meanwhile the heavy equipment acct has a $1.1m bal but only $6k in accum depr. The entries were from the CPA and no doubt they just transposed the G/L Account numbers but yikes. There were a dozen similar mistakes.

He asked me to talk to them about it but not mention that I’m a CPA because he doesn’t want them to think I’m edging them out already. The time for edging them out has passed, to be honest!

FAR- 77
AUD -49, 71, 84
REG -56,75!
BEC -75

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[teeteenounouche]

Congrats on your new job!!

Just my two cents, be as unassuming as you can with the external CPA so you get as much information about what's really going on before you guys get rid of them.

Florida:
AUD: 73, 81! Thank you Lord!
BEC: 73, 77! Thank you Lord! and WTB
REG: 71, 82! Thank you Lord! and A71
FAR: 72, 78! Thank you God and my Mommy in Heaven!

CPA Excel, Ninja Notes & Audio, Wiley Test Bank, CPAreviewforfree

[teeteenounouche]

Congrats on your new job!!

Just my two cents, be as unassuming as you can with the external CPA so you get as much information about what's really going on before you guys get rid of them.

Florida:
AUD: 73, 81! Thank you Lord!
BEC: 73, 77! Thank you Lord! and WTB
REG: 71, 82! Thank you Lord! and A71
FAR: 72, 78! Thank you God and my Mommy in Heaven!

CPA Excel, Ninja Notes & Audio, Wiley Test Bank, CPAreviewforfree

[Study Monk]

Well hopefully you score brownie points 🙂

I spoke to an ancient wise man who sent me on a mushroom induced journey through an ancient forest to find the key to passing the CPA exam. A talking spider monkey told me to throw the last of my drinking water in the dirt to find what I was looking for. So I followed his instructions and the following message appeared in the soil:

"Do 5000 multiple choice questions for each section"

[Study Monk]

Well hopefully you score brownie points 🙂

I spoke to an ancient wise man who sent me on a mushroom induced journey through an ancient forest to find the key to passing the CPA exam. A talking spider monkey told me to throw the last of my drinking water in the dirt to find what I was looking for. So I followed his instructions and the following message appeared in the soil:

"Do 5000 multiple choice questions for each section"

[005]

Perhaps the external CPA firm is keeping a separate file offsite used solely for month/quarter/year end reconciliations and tax purposes containing all proper depreciation and adjusting entries. The offsite file would contain the proper financial statements. So the internal file would be used mainly for internal bank register/ledger/payable/receivable record keeping but lack all period end adjustments or entries throwing off your reports.

Just a thought since I know this is the practice among many small businesses and small CPA firms.

OR

they just really suck lol

BEC - ✔
REG - ✔
AUD - ✔
FAR - 11/29/14

CPAExcel, Ninja MCQs, and a sh*t ton of coffee

[005]

Perhaps the external CPA firm is keeping a separate file offsite used solely for month/quarter/year end reconciliations and tax purposes containing all proper depreciation and adjusting entries. The offsite file would contain the proper financial statements. So the internal file would be used mainly for internal bank register/ledger/payable/receivable record keeping but lack all period end adjustments or entries throwing off your reports.

Just a thought since I know this is the practice among many small businesses and small CPA firms.

OR

they just really suck lol

BEC - ✔
REG - ✔
AUD - ✔
FAR - 11/29/14

CPAExcel, Ninja MCQs, and a sh*t ton of coffee

[mla1169]

I'm assuming the external firm does have a different looking set of books as you said. But if the company is bringing in a financial analyst (me) their internal books have to at least make sense.

The other problem is that my experience has been in larger and publicly traded companies. It's completely different to work in a small start up, lol.

This job is very much a recon mission for me as I want to start my own bookkeeping business but wanted to work in Quickbooks full time first. The good news is that I feel comfortable already analyzing and proposing entries and procedures. Now to get a few clients on the side.

FAR- 77
AUD -49, 71, 84
REG -56,75!
BEC -75

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[mla1169]

I'm assuming the external firm does have a different looking set of books as you said. But if the company is bringing in a financial analyst (me) their internal books have to at least make sense.

The other problem is that my experience has been in larger and publicly traded companies. It's completely different to work in a small start up, lol.

This job is very much a recon mission for me as I want to start my own bookkeeping business but wanted to work in Quickbooks full time first. The good news is that I feel comfortable already analyzing and proposing entries and procedures. Now to get a few clients on the side.

FAR- 77
AUD -49, 71, 84
REG -56,75!
BEC -75

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[Anonymous]

When I worked in public accounting, anyone who had gone to work for 90% of our clients would have thought that we must be entirely incompetent as accountants, because the only records the client had were in a total shambles. So, I'd agree with the others that until you see what the CPAs have, it's hard to tell whether the CPAs are useless, or the company is just too stupid to realize that they need to do their books right! The things clients would do sometimes were shocking…and it was oh so much fun to try to back track and correct it all in our records (yes, that's sarcasm…especially when you don't get the records till Mar 14 and they want to file their return by the Mar 15 deadline -.- ). So, I'd try to give the outside firm the benefit of the doubt till you see what they have in their books.

And good luck with the new job! 🙂

[Anonymous]

When I worked in public accounting, anyone who had gone to work for 90% of our clients would have thought that we must be entirely incompetent as accountants, because the only records the client had were in a total shambles. So, I'd agree with the others that until you see what the CPAs have, it's hard to tell whether the CPAs are useless, or the company is just too stupid to realize that they need to do their books right! The things clients would do sometimes were shocking…and it was oh so much fun to try to back track and correct it all in our records (yes, that's sarcasm…especially when you don't get the records till Mar 14 and they want to file their return by the Mar 15 deadline -.- ). So, I'd try to give the outside firm the benefit of the doubt till you see what they have in their books.

And good luck with the new job! 🙂

[Anonymous]

I'm the external CPA for a lot of my clients and I can tell you that I would NEVER allow their books to look like that. I also give them a full set of financials every month. I wouldn't worry about hurting anyone's feelings or stepping on someone's toes. With a license comes a specific set of rules. They are required to give you everything regardless of whether you tell them you are a CPA. If they don't give up the info, then it's time to call the state board. I don't play games! Ain't nobody got time for that!

[Anonymous]

I'm the external CPA for a lot of my clients and I can tell you that I would NEVER allow their books to look like that. I also give them a full set of financials every month. I wouldn't worry about hurting anyone's feelings or stepping on someone's toes. With a license comes a specific set of rules. They are required to give you everything regardless of whether you tell them you are a CPA. If they don't give up the info, then it's time to call the state board. I don't play games! Ain't nobody got time for that!

[Anonymous]

I work for a CPA firm where many of our clients use QuickBooks and give us their copy for month, quarter, and/or year end. One client specifically, gave me a copy of their QuickBooks and 2011 depreciation was posted in 2012 and 2012 posted in 2011. My boss had me hand deliver their tax return and fix the journal entries at their site instead of giving them the journal entries to post like in years past. We are starting to convert to site visits to clean up “mistakes” so we don't have to do prior years work (again).

[Anonymous]

I work for a CPA firm where many of our clients use QuickBooks and give us their copy for month, quarter, and/or year end. One client specifically, gave me a copy of their QuickBooks and 2011 depreciation was posted in 2012 and 2012 posted in 2011. My boss had me hand deliver their tax return and fix the journal entries at their site instead of giving them the journal entries to post like in years past. We are starting to convert to site visits to clean up “mistakes” so we don't have to do prior years work (again).

[san4596]

OP – you may be missing some key details. I have clients that give me a set of books in shambles, and I make all the corrections. However, they fail to make all the journal entries, and they do not want to pay me to make the adjustments at their location. You need to get the facts straight first, and make sure it's not your bookkeeper. I have one client that has a bookkeeper who refuses to make journal entries.

QuickBooks – I have a pet peve now. You give me an accountants copy or nothing at all. After fixing their books, they can just import the changes, and do not have to worry about the client posting entries backwards.

CPA EXAM: DONE!!!!
Ethics Course: Passed
Application Mailed: 3/16/15
Professional Conduct Exam: 97
Certification Date: 4/2/15!!!

[Author]

Replies