Skip to main content

client defense


You know when you're in high school, and the teacher singles you out or goes after you, but you can't say anything, or you'd get suspended or go to detention. That's how I feel when dealing with certain clients these days. How do i explain to them that calendar years can be different than fiscal years, when they're certain there's no difference? It's almost like any request my team asks them gets attacked. "Well we gave you everything you requested prior to the audit, so why do you need more?" Well, that isn't exactly how an audit works. And how about some of their excel schedules? Oh god, i mean..don't just give me an excel schedule and say that my answer's in there. If it takes more than 20 mins sifting through different unnamed tabs in the schedule to find the reconciliation i'm looking for, please take them back and make them look presentable. And don't go into fight club mode everytime we question your accounting. That just makes more pissed off and make it unlikelier for us to back off. The nicer a client, the more likely it us for us to work together and get your numbers to be more presentable. If you make a valid argument to question why we need a certain document, or if you listen to what we have to say and take the time to understand our reasoning, it'll make both our lives much easier. I hate client contacts who play more aggressive defense than the baltimore ravens before even listening to you. Look, i know you hate us, and it's cool, we understand. But if you want us to go away faster, help us out more. I mean, in our line of work, defense isn't the best offense.
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
hullo, recently some friends sent me this article on some survey done on accounting firms clients in UK : http://www.accountancyage.com/accountancyage/features/2258452/audit-services-top-bottom

what do u think abt it?
February 28, 2010 at 6:49 PM
Anonymous said…
just stand up, open the cupboard and get the documents for me how difficult can that be? I dont understand the clients, eventually i still have to get the documents. so why must you make me pester you everyday?!?!?!??!
March 2, 2010 at 5:13 AM
Anonymous said…
yea i hate excel spreadsheets with no titles nothing to even give me a hint of what the numbers mean.. clients shld understand that such work (which can only be understood by themselves) will only raise more questions so they shld be prepared haha!
March 2, 2010 at 5:16 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ADP/Payroll

Just realized that the very payroll/adp reports we all enjoyed looking at in order to see how much our client contacts made, now seem to piss me off. Especially when your main contact, who couldn't tell a debit from a credit, makes significantly more than you, and leaves at 5. It's almost guaranteed to get you in a foul mood and yak with your team about the ridiculous salaries that certain employees get when compared to yours.
36 comments
Read more

should you choose to audit financial services?

I'm trying to decide whether to audit financial services companies or non-financial services companies. What would you say are the pros and cons of either industries? Do individuals who choose non-FS have less career mobility within the firm or if they decide not to stay with the B4 after a few years? Really depends on what you'd like to do after (unless you really love auditing). If you want to a controller,etc. at a p/e firm or a hedge fund down the road, you'd want to go into financial services. The pay won't be too bad, especially if you get a share of the insane bonuses they dole out. If you want to audit industries with tangible products and want to get a better understanding of the operations of such businesses, then other industries are the way to go.In terms of mobility outside the firm, auditing other industries is the way to go since you have plenty of options when you exit the audit world. For example, in 2008, after Lehman collapsed, it was incredibly hard ...
47 comments
Read more

auditing vs consulting

I was wondering if you could break down the career opportunities in auditing and consulting (in a big 4). I know that consulting pays more in a big 4 and has more interesting work, but it seems that auditing has extremely good exit opportunities (Financial controller, CFO etc). Any thoughts on which is better in the long run? Well there's different consulting services offered by public accounting companies - the most popular being IT consulting and risk consulting. There are also other consulting services offered, but these two hire the most. Do they pay more? Yes, but not by much. Not enough for you to say: Shoot, the $$ is a huge reason for me to move over. Is the work more interesting than audit? Yes. You're actually looking over a company's processes and telling them what to do instead of what not to do (audit). Everyone I know who's made the switch likes it waay better than audit. In the long run though, choosing audit vs consulting really depends on what you want ...
66 comments
Read more