As usual, time is flying by.
I'm taking three classes this semester, and they're all accounting. Blahhh..... One of them is Auditing and, to be honest, it is not for me. At least, not yet. I'm not talking about the subject itself, but I just don't feel auditing has much teeth in it. Of course, I have no auditing experience, so I don't know and I could be wrong. But if SOX is effective, how did this financial crisis happen all of a sudden? Where were the auditors? I was debating if I should take Corporate tax or Audit II next semester, and I decided to take tax class.
As for my job, things are really peachy. My company is doing really good and we have huge order backlog. Thanks for high gas price. Needs for public transportation is high and demand is strong. My department hit all the target figures, and everyone is happy. I will get a bonus in December for sure.
Since I've been super busy, I'm not even paying attention to deals. Well, I bought 15 bottles of softsoap body wash last week that I paid approx $3 for 15 of them. I was using the last bottle I got for free 2 years ago (I got more than 20 bottles for free from Rite Aid), and the deal does not come around very often. But, that is about it. I may stop by today to get a Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner from Walgreen today. There's $10 internet coupon and Walgreen has $10 rebate for the product that make it free this week. I may not use it but I can donate it for silent auction item when my DD's marching band host holiday dinner.
Talking about donation, I just donated a bunch of travel size shampoo/conditioner/lotion to holiday stocking program. I also donated 5 bottles of Windex to fund raising car wash DD's marching band had last week. These free/cheap items are really handy during holiday season because people are asking to donate many things.
Tax or Audit
October 9th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
October 10th, 2008 at 12:31 am 1223598681
When I graduated we had to do audit to get our CPA license (they quickly threw that out soon after, around 2000). I think it is a shame that it is no longer required - awesome experience. You get to see the big picture of many companies and gain a very wide variety of experience very quickly. There is no more efficient way to train, that I Can think of. I would have never done any auditing otherwise.
So I don't regret it. But I mostly hated it. I could write a novel on why I think the system simply didn't work. For one, most of the work is done by staff with little or no experience. We sorely lacked middle management. I was running entire audits within 6 months, but what experience did I have to base it on?
Also, since the firms pay us to audit them, I could never wrap my brain around this. You jump through all these hoops to be "independent" but at the end of the day they pay your bills and I never felt we were independent.
My firm was ethical but it was like wheeling and dealing at times. "We know you don't want to do it this way, but it is illegal to do it that way, so let's try it this way." A government auditor wouldn't wheel and deal with you because you don't pay their paycheck. They tell you how it is. Believe me. LOL.
Anyway, that's just the tip of the ice berg.
For my education I go to about 5 seminars a year and have heard a lot of interesting perspectives on this, and find I Am clearly not alone.
I went to a recent one on SOX. IT seems like SOX was a great move in the right direction. (Kind of getting past accountant linear thinking). A lot more outside the box thinking and making it less obvious to the client what you will be looking at and how. So I Think it has potential. But that is just one issue of it all - as I mentioned others.
Anyway, now I work at a small firm and so it has been interesting having both experiences. Such a large top-down approach from auditing much larger companies (I worked on a few public companies - mostly private). & now I mostly work from the bottom with all the little small business things - payroll, tax filings, bookkeeping, everything. Most of the bookkeepers for our clients do not have accounting experience so we are kind of there to do all the stuff they can't handle and don't have the knowledge for (like taxes, primarily).
I honestly do not enjoy tax that much. It's just way too complex. But really 80% of my job is small business bookkeeping. That part I like.
So I say both tax and audit suck. Yeah, that's pretty much where I stand.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:31 am 1223598710
You are just speaking my language - hehe.
At the education level tax is better. It just seems to get more complicated by the day out in the real world here. But you will enjoy tax class much better I am sure.
October 10th, 2008 at 02:21 am 1223605260
It's interesting to read Monkeymama's comments, too, from a few years down the road!
October 10th, 2008 at 04:00 am 1223611235
It's just very different.
October 10th, 2008 at 03:19 pm 1223651980
My job involves more of budgeting/forecasting/controlling and some book keeping to close the numbers at the end of the month. So, it is not related to tax or audit. Since both tax II and audit II are offered on the same time/same day next semester, I had to decide which one to take. My conclusion is tax II : )
Audit is a required subject at my school, and AIS is one of electives. I was considering taking AIS but they don't offer it at night next semester
October 10th, 2008 at 03:23 pm 1223652227
October 10th, 2008 at 06:13 pm 1223662426