Dealing With People Is Much Harder Than Dealing With Numbers

Today is another day that is filled with aggravation. When I was a college student,  I chose to major in accounting thinking that I could make a  living doing what I was better at, which is, working with numbers and rationality. I avoided majors like marketing or law because jobs in those fields involves too much human interaction than I can handle.

The reality is, dealing with people, particularly annoying and aggravating people accounts for most of my working hours as  a CPA in public accounting.  All the emails, phone calls, in-person meetings, video conferencing with people  have taken up most of my working hours each day.

Working with numbers is easy, but dealing with people is way too stressful and aggravating.  There are so many aggravating people that I have to deal with everyday that it's sickening.  There are people who have too much ego.  There are people who are too dumb.  There are people who are too lazy. There are people who are too incompetent.  There are people who are too sensitive. There are people who are too rude and self-absorbed.  Then there are people who are too demanding.

The people that a CPA  in a small firm has to deal with are at very different levels than the people that an associate at a Big 4 firm has to deal with. I have a feeling that the people that I am dealing with everyday have to be much less educated, or literate (in accounting, business, or taxes)   The is one of the cons that I find from my years working with small CPA firms.

Tired of Working With Incompetent CPAs

I'm the only person in my firm who is working today even though it's Sunday.  It's not because I am the only one who doesn't go to Sunday Service at Church. It's because I have to review the audit workpapers of my fellow CPA co-workers.

I'm really pissed off because if these people are the slightest bit of being competent, I won't be sitting here today and correcting their sloppy and unacceptable audit documentation.

How can CPAs who have been licensed for five and more years be giving me this kind of sloppy audit workpapers.  It is as if they don't give a damn.  All the test procedures are without explanation, without definition of test objective, test procedures.  All of the documentations are so sloppy that the only documentation that shows their audit work is a tick mark right next to each line item on the reports provided by the clients, and the one line at the bottom that says  "Vouched without exception".  Excuse me, what does this really mean???  It's shocking.   Their audit programs are even more shocking, they just filled out the cookie-cutter programs from PPC and just put their initials on each procedure and wrote "Done" on the column where specific audit workpaper of the work done is supposed to be referenced. "Done" where? "Done" how?

So after spending an entire Sunday reviewing and putting comments and questions on their sloppy workpapers, I will have to spend probably the next few days to go over with them exactly what they did.  I was told by the Partner that the clients weren't going to paid for that.  Too bad. If only the Partner hired more competent CPAs, he wouldn't have to worry about all these wasted hours that clients won't pay for.  I am the one who is the real victim here because here I am stuck in this office alone on a Sunday writing all these comments and review issues. Both the labor law and the firm policy don't entitle positions like mine for overtime pay.

I'm so sick and tired of working with these people that I am so going to look for better pastures.  These CPAs are hopeless and they shouldn't be doing auditing.  It's too scary that they are.  I bet this kind of aggravation doesn't happen in the Big 4 firms because I guess they probably have more competent accountants there.

Tax Returns Assembly Factory

Today, I have finished 15 tax returns, several of them are corporate tax returns that have a filing deadline on September 15, 2012.  Most of them are individual tax returns that were put on extension from April 2012.  I don't know why many CPAs like to do tax returns.  Most of the time it's really data entries, particularly for the individuals' tax returns.  I guess one thrill of doing tax returns is the quick turnover.  With professional tax software's powerful diagnostics, it really doesn't take that much thinking to do tax returns anymore.

With the occasional special issues of tax free exchanges for real estate partnerships, enterprise zone and other industry specific manufacturing credits, and the occasional debt forgiveness, the 15 tax returns that I did today presented no time consuming challenge to me.  At times, I was feeling not like an accountant but a bored  data entry clerk.

The main difference between working in small CPA firms vs Big 4 is that you get to do the boring tax returns during times like this, after you are done with your financial audits and you missed out the tax season back in April.  You will get to do tax returns and plenty of them now.  It's as if there is a second tax season.  I never liked doing tax returns because I hate data entry and I get bored by the process easily.  But I am pulled into this tax filing fun because of these September 15 and October 15 deadlines.

A lot of the tax codes are only applicable to very few people and situations.  The ones that apply to majority of the people are always the same old same old....  This is why even a hair dresser and a travel agent can do tax returns and they put tax returns filing signs outside their barber shop and travel agency.  Pretty soon, I believe I will see car mechanics putting their tax sign up saying "Have your tax return filed while having your car's oil changed."

As a CPA, I often feel like doing tax returns is like doing something that even my high school grad grandpa  can do on Turbo Tax (yes, he never let me do his returns, he loves doing his own on Turbo Tax ... ). I feel kind of being degraded.  After all, one doesn't have to be a CPA to do taxes.   I wonder what it's like to do taxes in the Big 4, may be their tax clients' situations are so complicated that doing taxes can actually be fun and challenging?

Anyway, I'm looking forward to have this Sept and Oct 15th deadlines over, so I can go back to work on attestations and other advisory projects.

Many Small Privately Held Companies Have Very Shady Accounting

Most clients in small CPA firms are small privately held companies.  From what I had seen throughout my years in small CPA firms, these clients often have very shady and questionable accounting practice. It's always up to the small firms' partners to correct their clients' questionable financial statements.

Today, I was fired by a small privately held company and was removed from the review engagement.  I am actually happy that the client requested my firm to remove me from the engagement.  It's so hard for me to get satisfactory answers during my inquiry that, I can  no longer perform the review.

If this is my client and this is my firm, I will withdraw the review engagement, or at least step it down to compilation only. The reason that this client needs a review is their need to renew their millions of dollars line of credit from the bank. They had already violated  a few loan covenants in 2010 and also in 2011.  They got a waiver from the bank in 2010 and also 2011.  Their only cash inflow is really from this line of credit, which they use to finance their operating and also investing activities. They have been in business for many years.  The bank is waiting for the reviewed financial statements from us for consideration of further extension of the line of credit.

So, during my inquiry, I asked some questions, but the very first question I asked got a very angry response from the client and they refused to even answer. The client's CFO and controller just snapped.  The subsequent questions only got them  more upset and I got nothing back from them either.  So they called in the firm's partner and demanded him to remove me from the engagement in front of everybody.

Have you ever been fired by a client when you were working for a small CPA firm or a big 4?  If so, please let me know I'm not the only CPA who experienced this......

Shell Companies Seeking IPOs are Small CPA Firms' New Best Friends

Recently, our firm had received quite a lot of leads from shell companies seeking accounting services for their IPOs.  Traditionally, IPOs engagements mostly belong to the Big 4s. But with the JOBS Act that makes it easier for small companies to go public, we are suddenly seeing shell companies coming out of the woods to inquire us about potential IPOs related engagements.

I'm not sure if my firm will take in these potential new clients. I only know that they are interested in my firm because we are small and we charge a lot cheaper than the bigger CPA firms.