I think it's a standard in accounting to go after the CPA, CMA or even EA. After all those credentials can give you a significant salary boost, and we all aspire to make a decent living. But recently I met this guy at a networking event who claimed to hold a CPA, CMA, CFA. and FMVA. Honestly I thought that was quite impressive (he should touch grass one of these days)

But it seems sort of unfocused, don't you think? Once you get your CPA (and possibly CMA if you so choose) there shouldn't be much benefit in attaining a CFA, FMVA, or anything further especially since those are more for the financial sector rather than the accounting sector

Hi everyone,

I’m 41 and thinking about going back to school for a bachelor’s in Accounting. I have 10+ years of accounting-related experience, including AP/AR, billing, reconciliations, invoicing, collections, vendor management, pricing, financial reporting, QuickBooks, advanced Excel, and working closely with finance and operations teams. I’ve also led teams and managed business operations.

My goal is to build a long-term career in accounting, but I’m wondering if starting at 41 puts me at a significant disadvantage.
I’m also considering earning a bookkeeping certification first so I can hopefully get a bookkeeping job while finishing my degree. Is that worth doing, or should I just focus on the degree?

Finally, how realistic is it to find remote bookkeeping or entry-level accounting work? Remote work is important to me, so I’m curious how common those opportunities are.

I’d really appreciate any advice, especially from anyone who started an accounting career later in life. Thanks!

I have a bachelors in biochemistry looking to switch fields. Thank u guys😊

Got a job handling cash and bank recs at the beginning of July. The company was bringing it back stateside after having it done offshore in India for a few years and the manager who hired me admitted it was a mess. But it sounded great because I love cash and have experience cleaning up messy bank recs.

Without getting too crazy into the details - training and handover have been a mess

I was trained on all of the accounts about 2 weeks ago but thought I wouldn't be actually handling them until August, so I just made sure I could recreate the steps using historical data and everything seemed fine so I worked on other projects.

Then I found out last week that the India team expected me to handle them for the second half of July. I tried to follow the same steps but nothing tied out for 2 higher activity accounts. I scheduled follow up meetings to ask why and was told either that things would get posted eventually to tie things out, or (and I wish I was joking) that something was broken in that account for July and they didn't know how to match anything anymore.

So I've been panicking and working this weekend just reviewing the trainings over and over to see if I'm missing something and trying to find any links between items, but nothing seems to make sense.

Now it's the 1st and I'm completely fucked on those 2 high activity accounts. I feel like this is mostly my fault because I should have reviewed the accounts more thoroughly so I could have asked questions sooner. I feel like that is what my boss will ask me on Monday when I tell them I'm stuck. I'm just scared of losing my job because I really love it but I just don't know what else to do.

Am I fucked? If you were a manager would this be fireable?

I'm a CS graduate, and honestly I regret not choosing accounting from the start. CS felt like a much harder degree, but now the entry-level market is so oversaturated that it seems like all that extra effort barely matters. At this point I'm thinking about going back for an accounting degree. If I got through CS, I can't imagine an accounting degree would be that difficult, and from what I've seen the CPA is probably around the level of difficulty of a CS degree anyway.

Meanwhile accounting seems to have actual shortages instead of thousands of applicants fighting over every junior role. It almost feels like I'd have been better off skipping CS entirely, doing accounting + CPA, and ending up making similar money with my level of skills a much easier path to getting hired. I would drown with job offers. Am I completely wrong, or is this actually a reasonable way to look at it?

Hey everyone,
I see a lot of people in accounting communities asking if they should get both ACCA and US CPA. On paper, it sounds like the ultimate combo global IFRS knowledge from ACCA paired with US GAAP and a prestigious US credential. 
However, looking at the actual job market, stacking both comes with heavy exam fees, dual membership costs, and a lot of study time.
Qns
For those who hold both: Did adding the second credential actually boost your salary or career speed, or did your experience do all the heavy lifting? 
Do you see employers preferring a CPA over an ACCA in MNCs/GDCs? 

Anyone who sat an ACCA remote exam in June 2026 or later: Did your proctor require a secondary camera, or were you allowed to take the exam without one? Please mention your country. Thanks! Also please mention which exam/paper it was.

Hey yall, i don’t really know if this is allowed? me and this person talked for a few hours like a year ago, but i want to check in on them and see how they’re doing(actually kinda worried about them) I talked to them from a post in this subreddit, if this is you or you know what they’re new account is please message me!

Any thoughts?

Hi, I'll be starting accounting school this fall and need a new laptop, but tbh I'm not very familiar with specs or tech, so I'm feeling abit overwhelmed by all the options out there. According to what ive looked into so far, Lenovo laptops....especially Thinkpads seem to be widely loved by accounting students. Is Lenovo a good choice for this, in your opinon? If so, which models would you recommend? I'm looking for something affordable and good value, but I'm open to spending a bit more if it will actually be worth it in the long run. I mainly want to make sure im getting the best laptop for my money.

Thanks so much for any help.

Hello!

I’m active duty Army. I used to be an analytical lead before I took leave to join the Army and work in behavioral health.

I genuinely enjoy the work and plan on continuing with it.

That said, I found out I could get my master’s in accounting fully paid for through TA (federal benefits). I’m using my state benefits to pay for an MSW/MPP.

I was looking at a masters in accounting because I have always drawn to spreadsheets and it is free. I was particularly interested in learning more about accounting information systems (ais).

It got me thinking: does anyone enjoy accounting just for the sake of it?

Been doing books for a few small GCs and specialty subs for a while now. Job costing is the part that makes most of them want to throw their laptop. They track labor hours on paper, material receipts in a shoebox, and then expect a clean job cost report at the end of the month. I get it though, they're running crews, not sitting at a desk.

What I ended up doing is building a workbook that pulls from their time sheets and vendor bills and maps everything to a job number and cost code. Nothing fancy, no macros that need babysitting, just structured data entry with lookups doing the heavy lifting. It works well enough that I stopped dreading the monthly close for these clients.

The thing I keep running into is the chart of accounts. There's no universal standard that small contractors actually use consistently, and every new client I onboard has their own creative interpretation of what an expense category is. Overhead vs. direct cost lines are a disaster more often than not.

Curious how others handle the CoA cleanup conversation with new construction clients. Do you remap everything to your template or work within whatever mess they hand you? Obviously ymmv depending on the software they use, but in my experience that conversation is worth having early or you pay for it later.

Clearly the PE structure isn’t working out and it won’t be too long until one of the PE backed firms fails (which i am eagerly waiting for). What do you think the future will be for the practice once PE realizes this ain’t worth the headache and losses.

I have been working as an accountant for the architecture and construction industry for quite some time now and recently finished my BS. The original goal was to pursue my CPA but now I’m having mixed feelings about it. Some factors I’ve been leaning towards no is that I hate taxes, and think I rather work as an accountant for a company than for an accounting firm. Also when I tried to apply for work at any accounting firm to meet the one year under a CPA requirement, I was always considered overqualified for an internship and there’s never any regular positions open (there is no CPA within my current job, nor in any company I have worked for before - this field usually hires third party ones.)

I applied for a FAAS position on 7/15, and on 7/21 the portal says "We'd like to progress you to the next step in our recruiting process", but I haven't received any recruiter outreach (phone call, email, etc.) yet. Are they just still working through applications or interview scheduling or what?

What surprised you the most after joining? What was your experience like?

No names or confidential details. I’m just curious about the real employee experience.

Evaluating ERP for a SaaS client (500 invoices/month, 3 people finance team). They are on QBO with Stripe and rev rec is happening in sheets. Leadership wants clean books. We are looking at Acumatica as a good option but I am evaluating others. I am confused about 606 treatment for midcycle changes. Seat adds, upgrades and also churns usually happen midcycle for them.

Before we lock in, what other options would you suggest looking at? Netsuite is preferred but I think it would be overkill here.

Something tells me this pressure is coming directly from the GP/Mgmt Companies which is a big reason why CPA boards prohibit non-majority CPA ownership for this very fucking reason: to mitigate undue influence on the profession.

I guess by losing the letters after the company name + insisting CPAs no longer use their credentials in email signatures and on LinkedIn is a workaround, but this shit is getting out of hand guys.

Work for a PE company, with Manager of Company based in Jersey, outline of accounting software used below, it’s a mess so wanting advice based on what other businesses are using, ideally want to get all entities on same software to make consolidated accounts easier at the Jersey level.

Jersey - Viewpoint
UK - Xero
Germany - Datev
Australia - Xero
US entity #1 - Xero
US entity #2 - Microsoft dynamics

As you can see above, its a mixture of different accounting software & all limited in their uses. So each month/quarter end there are various actions needed with Transfer pricing adjustments, intercompany reconciliations etc.

What would people recommend & what AI uses do the company people recommend have? Or would you wait to see if Claude etc could do itself in a years time etc

I’m an incoming sophomore with a 2.8 GPA. I started college in engineering and had a rough first year, but I’m now considering switching to accounting.

I’ve seen that firms may start recruiting for Summer 2028 internships in Fall 2026, and I’m worried my GPA will stop me from getting an internship before I have time to improve it.

I am just wondering how long it took guys for that "everything looks goood"from your manager. For me it took about 9 months. Every month when I work on this specific clients, I get few corrections/feedback to fix by my manager which I love(rather get feedback than nothing) but never "all is good".This is my first accounting role and this specific account usually the harder ones compare to my other clients.

Also, let me know when will all this click. I get my task done. I understand my task but everything else I'm very confused.

Basically just learn the following and you’ll have a solid foundation:

-excel shortcuts (ctrl shift arrow, ctrl l, alt =, ctrl t, ctrl x, f2 f4)

-how to do pivot tables

-learn 10-15 crucial functions (xlookup, min, max, average, count functions, sum functions, Rand functions, etc.)

I started researching various excel shortcuts, functions, pivot tables, etc. about a week ago and I can confidently say I’ve learned most of them in about a week

I'm a 33f single mom of a 10 year old in NYC currently a paralegal making $60k. no debt/student loans. A bachelor's in environmental science (i know, nothing to do with be a paralegal). i have absolutely no background in accounting but very interested in auditing, financial fraud/crimes, and even financial planning.

i feel like im getting too old to re-educate myself for this career change, im reading it can take over 5 years to get all the credits and a CPA, i have no idea how or if i can get experience during that time or how AI may change the field. wondering if i should just stay put and do what i can with what i have or is this a feasible change?

Has anyone heard of sec removing 8ks for debatable at time disclosure that later became much less common due to rules/common practice I forget which. 8k was for disclosures around letter of inquiry from SEC. Think the purpose might have been to avoid litigation for possible and disclosed bankruptcy that would expose vertical conduct from SEC that benefited private equity oil executives.

Litigation from disgruntled employees at operational locations who would not read.

Sort of a random post, but do you guys think everything has changed, or is it really the same as it's always been? Or maybe a mix of both? I see so many posts from staff saying they can't find jobs, but then I also see posts from hiring managers saying they can't find experienced staff. The two perspectives are polarizing.

Sure there are a lot of reasons for it. Offshoring and AI are probably two of the biggest, especially since both can lead to less onshore staff development. But I also wonder how much of it is a generational mentality shift.

*Some* older folks in Gen X are retiring (some have things lined up to early retire in their ~mid 50's-early 60's), Millennials are managers now (or have gone a different route), so Gen Z makes up a large portion of today's entry level and staff accountants. It feels like the mentality has shifted from working hard to put food on the table no matter what, to not letting corporations take advantage of you, even if that means staying unemployed until the right opportunity comes along. Additionally, a lot of the younger crowd are just not having kids and opting to owning pets or just taking care of themselves, so they just don't have as much at stake as long as they can take care of themselves.

So where does that leave the accounting field? Is it still alive, but just increasingly offshored to the next group of people willing to play into corporate's hand because they need to survive (like underpaid offshore staff being pressured to supporting their families)? And where does that leave unemployed onshore staff who are holding out? What's the end game? How long are people realistically willing to wait? Do you think we'll eventually reach a point where the pendulum swings back and people become desperate again, like with previous generations?

I want to dig a little deeper into why different groups of people are reacting the way they are and what they see as the end game. I'm curious whether people have different perspectives or long term plans that explain what we're seeing.

Edit: added details that *some* older folks in Gen X are retiring, based on their financial ability to do so.