[Pete]

It depends on the circumstances of your position and the state. In my state, it might not; they require your supervisor to hold the CPA license.

I've pretty much found that the majority of people in private industry/corporate let their license lapse to escape the massive CPE fees charged by the state.

I passed the exam many years ago, but have found myself unable to fulfill the work experience requirement.

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[Pete]

You would have to adjust the balance sheet to the schedule, after the adjustment. You would basically reverse the journal entry for deferred revenue, plugging it to the schedule.

You originally recorded a credit to some liability and a debit to some revenue to reverse the original revenue and make it deferred?

Don’t feel too bad. I have a year end negative AR balance and have the books locked for the audit.

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[Pete]

I'm currently an accounting manager and make $55,000 per year (which is pretty low for those hours).

I received an offer from another organization, which paid $52,000 per year as an accounting manager, but the commute was one plus hours, each way. Had this organization kept the job remote (I gave them that option) or offered more money, I would have jumped at the offer. In addition, I also had a fourth round interview a while back for a senior accountant position, which paid $70,000/year (shows how little I actually make – a position with less responsibility was essentially paying close to 100% more). Sadly, I didn't receive an offer at that company.

Currently, I get very few interviews, despite my experience. I'm wondering if organizations view the not-for-profit experience in a lower regard as compared to for-profit experience.

Unfortunately, I'm not licensed yet; despite passing all four sections of the exam. I passed 3 or 4 years ago; however, I lack the experience required for said license. Most firms won't speak to you, unless you're either a campus recruit or have direct experience. I've stayed in touch with a partner from a fairly large firm. Might try to getting him to refer me after tax season.

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A=76 Slacker I am, I'll happily take it
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[Pete]

The above poster is absolutely correct. It’s nearly impossible to get into public accounting, unless you have the on campus recruiting. He’s doing better than I am because I can’t even get interviews despite passing the CPA/CFE. I’ve been sitting on this piece of paper for years as well. They discriminate heavily against non-interns/campus recruitees. It’s Almost as if they consider it a plague on your resume to not be hired while on campus. I even did an internship At a National firm to try getting my foot in. They ended up going with the partners/manager’s sons for full-time. Go figure. Now I’m essentially acting as an accounting manager, making under 50k/year, working 50-60 hours per week. Most places won’t even look at me because I don’t have the public accounting/CPA background. To the above poster, I absolutely feel your pain in this area. Hell, I’m barely able to get entry level accounting interviews. I recently had a 4 round interview, only to get rejected for an industry job.

B=84 This exam was such a b**** that I thought I failed-don't know how these things work
A=76 Slacker I am, I'll happily take it
R=81 I LOVE taxes
F=80 I don't wanna get banned for an expletive I'm thinking with "yea" proceeding it

[Pete]

Yup, I remember this question from a few years ago. Al Capone should have listed his illegal activities. You simply wouldn’t disclose the nature of that income, just a “source of income.” Oddly, the IRS can be worse than most police agencies. Uncle Sam doesn’t care too much about how he makes his money.

B=84 This exam was such a b**** that I thought I failed-don't know how these things work
A=76 Slacker I am, I'll happily take it
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[Pete]

I’ve found firms don’t care about having the cpa exams passed that much. They would much rather have you be available for on-campus interviews/hire from their intern pool. I’ve found it incredibly difficult, just to get the firms to send a response rejecting me. I’ve networked hard for a long time to no avail.

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A=76 Slacker I am, I'll happily take it
R=81 I LOVE taxes
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[Pete]

CT – my state doesn’t have that verification option so I need to work under a CPA in industry. I’ve found a lot of people in Industry let their license lapse within this state due to the high Cost of maintaining it. My former boss let his lapse. Now I’ve been networking with multiple partners, hoping to get back in, but having a very difficult time, since they will typically only pull from interns – even a lot of interns don’t get the offer anymore. Mind you, I’ve also passed the CFE exam, which I also can’t get licensed for, so I keep having to pay $100 to keep the application active, every few years. Kind of frustrating.

B=84 This exam was such a b**** that I thought I failed-don't know how these things work
A=76 Slacker I am, I'll happily take it
R=81 I LOVE taxes
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[Pete]

I figured it out on excel, it looks like it's very possible ironically. Assuming payroll on the following dates (May 8th) for the prior two week (two weeks in arrears before the week of the 8th. May 8th's payroll is 90% accrued back, 10% to May. June 5ths and July 3rds payrolls are 100% applied to the prior months. I guess i was right.

May 21 Business Days
8- 100 -1000
22- 1000-
1000
Total Pay- 2100
June – 22 Business Days
5 -0
19 -1000
Total Pay -2000
July
3 -0

B=84 This exam was such a b**** that I thought I failed-don't know how these things work
A=76 Slacker I am, I'll happily take it
R=81 I LOVE taxes
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[Pete]

Yea, whatever you do, don't leave the firm, until you have the CPA license signed off on. I was at a smaller firm, but laid off. I passed my CPA exam, but still (2 year later), can't fulfill the licensing requirements. It's relatively hard to get back into public accounting, once you leave and not many people within industry retain the license. So now I've got a worthless piece of paper.

B=84 This exam was such a b**** that I thought I failed-don't know how these things work
A=76 Slacker I am, I'll happily take it
R=81 I LOVE taxes
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[Pete]

I'm curious about this myself. If you suddenly start leaving early late and taking time off work, when you normally didn't previously, you run the risk of them finding out.

You also have to be very careful about not wearing a suit to work, assuming you didn't before.

B=84 This exam was such a b**** that I thought I failed-don't know how these things work
A=76 Slacker I am, I'll happily take it
R=81 I LOVE taxes
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[Pete]

@tncincy

I’ve passed both the cpa and cfe exam years ago. Even interned at a firm (sadly it didn’t convert to an offer), but I can’t get licensed without the experience. Granted, I’ve been employed doing accounting work. I got a new job and stopped looking for a bit because I like to stay at a job for some time. Am now at it again.

B=84 This exam was such a b**** that I thought I failed-don't know how these things work
A=76 Slacker I am, I'll happily take it
R=81 I LOVE taxes
F=80 I don't wanna get banned for an expletive I'm thinking with "yea" proceeding it

[Pete]

There is absolutely some age discrimination, but the biggest issue I’ve faced is a lack of opportunities from the absence of campus recruiting.

I’ve networked like crazy, yet am still unable to find a cpa to work under years later. I’ve been sitting on this test, doing accounting work, yet am unable to find work to fulfill my license.

The people at even mid-sized firms won’t even consider me for staff roles because I’m too experienced in industry and not a campus recruit. The problem is I’ve found I can’t really advance in industry because of my lack of public accounting or higher level industry experience.

If you have campus recruiting, which it sounds like you do, I would highly recommend utilizing it,

B=84 This exam was such a b**** that I thought I failed-don't know how these things work
A=76 Slacker I am, I'll happily take it
R=81 I LOVE taxes
F=80 I don't wanna get banned for an expletive I'm thinking with "yea" proceeding it

[Pete]

I was gunna ask if your date was with Peter Olinto, but (assuming I were a girl), he’d be an easy 10. If it’s not with him, you should cancel with the girl and spend your night with Olinto.

B=84 This exam was such a b**** that I thought I failed-don't know how these things work
A=76 Slacker I am, I'll happily take it
R=81 I LOVE taxes
F=80 I don't wanna get banned for an expletive I'm thinking with "yea" proceeding it

[Pete]

Just be careful you don’t look at only the correct answer when going through the multiple choice. You should only focus on what you did wrong. The problem with merely looking at the correct answer is that you’ll memorize it with a pass or two. I found understanding what I did WRONG was a far more effective Studying method.

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A=76 Slacker I am, I'll happily take it
R=81 I LOVE taxes
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[Pete]

Sorry about not being super active in this chat that I created. I really appreciate the feedback.

I concur with the posters above about not going to the board. At the end of the day, they (the board) were responsible for the quality of the organization deteriorating. They were responsible for hiring the new people in leadership.

The board was also responsible for misappropriating funds in the past, years before I even knew the organization existed. We are currently dealing with those issues now; however, the only way we can deal with them is to essentially misappropriate more funds to survive. Overall, it's just viscous cycle.

You can't pay for project A, get money to cover that project from funds dedicated to project B. Uh oh, now we're short on project B – better try to push for a new “project” to cover the shortfalls from it. We'll deal with the shortfall from the new project, which we now can't afford to complete, on a rainy day. Eventually, this tactic will catch up to you; it's becoming evident that is happening now. There are now currently projects on our plate that we can't afford to complete, yet we've already spent the corresponding restricted funds (ie. the project needed to be completed before the restriction would be released). To make matters worse, we typically go over budget and LOSE money on most projects (ie. we obtain $5,000 and it costs us $10,000).

I've been searching for a job for over 2 months – 1 month of hard searching. I've yet to even get an interview; can't even get interviews for entry level positions.

B=84 This exam was such a b**** that I thought I failed-don't know how these things work
A=76 Slacker I am, I'll happily take it
R=81 I LOVE taxes
F=80 I don't wanna get banned for an expletive I'm thinking with "yea" proceeding it

[Author]

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