Life of an auditor

Enough said..

Is it just me or does it seem like every incoming college graduate seems to have their CPA? Kinda dilutes the whole thing. I understand there's a shortage, and so the AICPA is doing everything they can to increase the number of CPAs (reduce restrictions, increase pass percentages). It makes the senior associates w/o the certification look pretty bad. Wouldnt be surprised if the interns start coming in having passed their exams and all they needed was the hours to get the certification.

How about KPMG's sponsorship of Phil Mickelson? He's giving them great air time, especially at the US Open. None of the other firms even come close in their sponsorships. I guess Accenture with Tiger Woods, but it's been years since they were part of a public accounting firm. KPMG national and a few other lucky partners must love this sponsorship since they get to play with him a few times a year.

Ah office trainings. Good times. People stock up on crossword puzzles, sudokas, hit up gaming websites, doodle like crazy, surf the net. Some people actually audit. Some people zone out and just stay dormant. Oh yea, and some actually listen. Then the office lunches. Catered lunches, cans of diet sodas, and bottles of fruit juices. Very creative. There are the extremely dry trainers, who read off the slides, and force you to zone out. There are the ego-driven trainers who make you shut your computers, pick on people and test their knowledge of what they just learned. The best ones are the ones who only pick the relevant slides to teach, provide real audit examples, and get you of there early. It's a good time to catch up with your peers, and more importantly, get some CPE credit.

It gets so frustrating in the summers when we do the small clients and everyone's all over you to not exceed their budgets. First off, financials for small private companies rarely ever get issued quickly. They always linger on, and there's always small things we have to do every week. So this takes up some of our time on a weekly basis. What about the research? To get ready for meetings, one would have to do a little research on the various issues they need to talk about. Where can I charge these hours to? We've already set the budget, and I know I'll be above the budgeted hours for the planning meeting, so i'm already over? Sure, I should have realized this while the budget was being set. But trust me, some battles can never be won. And what about client inefficiencies? Yes, we have to charge that to the client, that's what the book says. Not the case in reality. So that makes us struggle to mix and match hours between clients. It makes you wonder how the norm...

Okay, it's getting nauseating. Stop kissing up to your superiors. I know you have to play nice, but come on, don't go overboard expressing your love for the firm and especially the work. Gotta hate those token peers who do everything but physically kiss a partner's behind.