Accounting Firms: The Worst Thing They Do

In this video, I tell you the worst thing that public accounting firms do.
Public accounting firms do plenty of wrong things, but this one takes the cake. I'll give you a hint: it has to do with what firms do with new team members.
0:00 Introduction
1:00 Same as last year
2:21 The worst thing
3:08 Train new staff
4:22 Training videos
5:45 Retaining employees
7:10 More about training videos
8:18 Need for supervision
9:04 Summary
#cpahalltalk

[@allprolemontonz8448]

Still like that to this day Same exact experience, really did not enjoy public audit at all.

[@CPAHallTalk]

Public can be good, but it depends on the firm and the people there. But yes, the experience has not changed in 40 years for many firms.

[@allprolemontonz8448]

@@CPAHallTalk yes I’m not giving up on public I want to try a small tax firm instead of big audit

[@uhhcounting]

I wish I found your content earlier in my career, Sir. A similar thing happened to me: I was a staff 1 at a top 50 firm and the manager voluntold me to do inventory observation and just told me to read the audit program (I suspect the manager had no idea how to perform an inventory observation). I got pretty good at it because they kept assigning me to other inventory observations. This is not a good staff retention strategy.

[@CPAHallTalk]

Sorry to hear you had a similar experience. Sadly, it’s common. Thanks for sharing your story.

[@noelvisramirezaccounting]

Wonderful video . The toxic environment in public accounting is scary. The brutal competence. They don't want to teach you . I understand that you are paying for the employee to know what they assign you but most of the times they don't value your knowledge .The big problem at the time to price a job is that everything is mixed . If the jobs are priced based on experience and knowledge , people will be motivated to move on to the next level.

[@CPAHallTalk]

The crazy thing is firms shoot themselves in the foot by not training. They make less profit on the present jobs. Then, the employee leaves and they have to hire again-and start all over. It makes no sense.

[@noelvisramirezaccounting]

@@CPAHallTalk I agree with you 100% when I get to the point to hire employees, because I recently started my accounting service business , and I am studying for my CPA license , I will negotiate the job offers to potential employees. My goal is to make an impact in the accounting field , building and growing the professionals careers.

[@manager4409]

Blows my mind people with a masters in accounting aren't taught how to do most of these functions. There's a severe lack of accurate training in school and firms

[@noelvisramirezaccounting]

@@manager4409 we are trained to do all these functions but technology is the big problem , not accounting . Also , accounting in school is not the same as real life . The tax laws change and the complexity of the clients cases are different . Technology is another story , you are told to figure it out with complex softwares .

[@rossstremme394]

This was an excellent video! How would you adjust training and on boarding for a more seasoned hire? Like a manger?

[@CPAHallTalk]

The initial training is much the same, even for experienced personnel. Why? They need to understand the firm's audit software and processes, just like someone just out of college. Then, offer the experienced person more advanced training in the areas they will be working in, such as construction or benefit plans. The additional training could come from other online CPE providers or send them to conferences.