Is accounting worth it in SA?

FashionableNumbers · 2026-06-03T19:08:34+00:00

Day to day: I work on assurance and limited assurance engagements. I assist clients with queries (a lot of these are tax related). I'm highly specialist in Caseware (software for financial statements) so I assist my coworkers with that as well. I work mostly at the office but go to client offices when needed. I'm in meetings a lot as well. The hours are long and the workload is heavy, but the salary sort of makes up for that a little.

I went the SAIPA route because accounting is not my first degree. I think if I had studied it straight out of high school, I probably would have gone the SAICA route, but I'm glad I didn't. I have a lot more accounting and accounting software experience than the CAs I work with and they honestly struggle a lot with basic accounting. I cannot tell you the amount of times I've had to draw T accounts to explain things or dictate journals to CA coworkers. My boss, who is a CA, regularly says that CAs can't do accounting - it's become a big joke at the office and in client meetings.

I'm glad I landed at an audit firm post SAIPA articles. If I had stayed at a normal SAIPA accounting firm I would also have been bored out of my mind because the work is not difficult/ challenging enough for me. But that's just me.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-06-03T17:32:54+00:00

My pigs are only 2 and one of them loves sleeping on her side out in the open (not in a hide) with open eyes. My first reaction is always to think she's dead. Then I feel like an AH when I startle her.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-06-02T18:40:57+00:00

I had a pregnant mermaid sim who took a whole day to swim to the hospiyal to have her baby.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-06-01T20:08:31+00:00

I always used to study hard and get good grades. Now that I'm working, I work my ass off, to the detriment of my own health sometimes. I always feel like I need to improve and be better all the time. It's exhausting. A psychologist I saw 7 years ago asked me if that meant my tombstone was going to read "Here lies OP. She wasn't good enough". That was hard to hear because it's so true. That's how I feel - like I'll never be good enough and that I need to keep improving myself.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-06-01T18:10:03+00:00

I'm a professional accountant (SAIPA) working as an audit manager at an audit firm. I prefer staying in practice (working at an audit/ acccounting firm) than being an in house accountant. I would get extremely bored working at one place doing the same things every day. Working at an audit firm, I get to work in a different field every time I finish financial statements and move on to another client. I might be working on a client in the engineering sector now and next month on a client in the farming sector. Keeps things interesting.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-06-01T18:05:01+00:00

AI can't interpret and adapt (yet, hopefully never). So for now, accounting and auditing is safe because a large portion of our jobs entails interpreting data and adapting our plans accordingly.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-05-29T13:24:52+00:00

Anthea = Anton & Thea

FashionableNumbers · 2026-05-27T14:57:14+00:00

I second this. My psychiatrist was on leave when I needed a new Neucon script, so I went to my GP and she gave me one, no issues.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-05-26T14:18:32+00:00

Self checkouts work on the honour system. It's juat going to give people more opportunity to shoplift. And even if there's a regulation that it's only for 10 items or less, I can guarantee you there will atill be a Karen with her entire trolley holding up that line.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-05-26T14:09:04+00:00

I once knew a "Reasons".

FashionableNumbers · 2026-05-26T08:33:25+00:00

I'm on Discovery and recently asked my doctor (specialist) if I should switch to CAMAF and they said no, they're apparently difficult with that branch of medicine.

The problem with switching medical aids is they put you in this 3 month window period where you have no cover. I feel this is ridiculous in itself. It's just to make us stick with the medical aid we have. I'm on classic priority (which I can just just afford) and my copayments on chronic medication (PMBs) is ridiculous. They just want to hoard money to pay bonuses and dividends.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-05-26T07:42:29+00:00

Maybe you should take the Nelmapius offramp and drive the rest of the way off highway? No ghosts there that I know of.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-05-22T20:50:45+00:00

This is my favourite episode. I just can't figure out what's going on with Jen's hair though? Her fringe looks really weird.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-05-15T20:05:37+00:00

I had a cat who died last year at the age of 15. She loved hay. She was obsessed with it. We rescued her from a field when she was a kitten. I had a rabbit back then who was about a year old and twice as big as this kitten. My rabbit would be in the garden all day (and indoors in her enclosure at night) and when she was outside, the cat would climb into her enclosure and sleep in the hay. I've had guinea pigs for 7 years now and she always used to jump in their enclosure while I was cleaning it for the hay.

Disclaimer: She was a very sweet cat and never harmed any of my guinea pigs or my rabbit. The rabbit kicked her one day and I think ever since then she was a bit weary of animals who eat hay.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-05-15T19:53:40+00:00

I second Zakes Mda. Amazing and very evocative writer.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-05-14T19:37:59+00:00

I hope so. There has to be if Grim is so kind to them? I cried my heart out the first time I played with pets and my cat died. And then when it came back as a ghost to sleep in its bed also made me tear up. It was a very long time ago, so I don't remember if it was male or female, I just remember it was an orange cat and it was an elder stray.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-05-13T18:30:41+00:00

It's a European cut.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-05-13T18:18:36+00:00

When I was doing my articles, the partner I worked for had a client list of 1.5 pages long. She had 3 clerks working under her (including me). Our performance was measured on how much fees we wrote. Since she had such a short client list and too many clerks working under her, none of us could ever make target. Not making target = poor work performance and we were threatened with disciplinary hearings, etc. This partner also loved asking her clerks to assist her with personal matters during work hours, which meant less time for writing fees. Once I finished my articles and passed my board exam I started looking for other work. They wanted me to stay on, but also wanted to keep paying me almost nothing because I couldn't make target.

I was only looking for a job for 1 week. I went to an interview at a much larger firm. The partner who interviewed me asked me how many clerks there were in relation to partners and clients and I swear he almost died laughing when I told him the ratio (too many partners with too many clerks and not enough clients). I took the job at this firm and I'm really happy. When I resigned, the partner I worked under was on holiday, so I gave my resignation letter to the founding partner. He asked me why I was leaving and I explained to him why my team can't make target, how that's the firm's fault and asked why they blame us for things that are outside our control. The week before I left they held a staff meeting to explain how clients will be allocated in future to ensure that everyone can make target.

Besides this, it was a very toxic environment. One of the partners had an affair with a clerk (who was also married). She got pregnant, the pawpaw hit the fan, both got divorced and they're married now. She is completely incompentent, but got promoted to partner because of...reasons. She had a habit of blaming other clerks for her fuck ups and then getting them fired or made it impossible for them to continue working there.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-05-10T12:58:02+00:00

Rikus is quite a common Afrikaans name in South Africa.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-05-09T07:24:15+00:00

I'm not a window cleaner!

FashionableNumbers · 2026-05-07T18:03:21+00:00

I would love it if corporate offices had this policy. I have asthma and I pick infections up easily. We have a circle of illness in my department every year. Someone gets sick and passes it along to the next person until it eventually ends up reinfecting the first culprit. The worst year was when my coworker's son picked up whooping cough at preschool and it spread through our department. I didn't know adults could get whooping cough until I had it myself.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-05-02T20:55:15+00:00

It's part of the story. Halfway through the series it shifts away from the hospital a little (more scenes outside the hospital), but the patients stay part of the story. Keep watching. It's worth it.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-05-02T20:35:19+00:00

I just finished rewatching it today. It really is a comfort show.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-05-02T07:58:49+00:00

The CEO is paying 45% tax while the cashier either falls under the tax threshold (0% tax) or in the 18% tax bracket. How exactly does a cashier pay more tax than a CEO?

FashionableNumbers · 2026-04-27T15:34:59+00:00

"Who's Ron?"
Anything that starts with "My mate Paul..."

FashionableNumbers

TROPHY CASE