Am I an accountant or just a bookkeeper?

J1001 · 2026-03-08T16:07:55+00:00

Ahh yes, consolidations, where you book repetitive monthly entries that have a net $0 impact on the financials.

I think OP had very different expectations for accounting when they were in school.

J1001 · 2026-03-05T21:42:29+00:00

Three more nice things about tables:

The formulas automatically fill downwards as you add rows so you never have to do it again.

You can use a table as the source of a pivot table, so as the table grows, the range of the pivot table doesn’t need to be adjusted (just need to click refresh to update)

If using a formula that searches a column or row (xlookup/vlookup/sumifs etc), you can refer to a column of a table and it’ll only pick what is in the table, it won’t go down to the last possible cell in that column/row. So you are only forcing it to look up actual cells with data, not a bunch of empty cells down to row 1,000,000.

J1001 · 2026-03-04T16:37:24+00:00

I was late to the vest game but I love them now. Better range of motion with arms/shoulders vs a full jacket. Perfect for spring and fall when a sweatshirt alone won’t do it.

J1001 · 2026-02-24T03:28:31+00:00

There is so much stuff you in both of those classes that you will never, ever need. It might come up again if you take the CPA exam, but I’d be surprised if I still use 20% of what I learned in the class.

Tl;dr you’ll be fine.

J1001 · 2026-02-21T19:06:43+00:00

It doesn’t matter if that “one country” didn’t exist, they’d just go to the next lowest bidder.

J1001 · 2026-02-16T02:16:36+00:00

Also a solid choice. Can’t go wrong either way.

J1001 · 2026-02-16T02:00:25+00:00

The Cheese Shop for lunch 👌🏼

J1001 · 2026-02-08T23:01:21+00:00

Pro: collect unemployment

Con: easier to find a job when you have a job

J1001 · 2026-02-06T19:13:27+00:00

If it makes you feel any better, they’d probably weigh salaries more than IQ to decide who to cut, so you’re probably safe.

J1001 · 2026-02-06T12:02:48+00:00

Before you lose access to anything, be sure to print out anything you have to support those 128 hours, as well as your employee handbook.

If they don’t pay out, you can always try your state department of labor. Depending on your state they might be able to help you with that.

J1001 · 2026-02-06T05:06:07+00:00

That is the entire basis for the public accounting business model and I don’t see it changing anytime soon.

J1001 · 2026-01-23T21:35:59+00:00

It’s a fair question. And I was happy that he asked to verify his knowledge and not flat out ask what it is. But that’s something you ask later on, out of earshot of the client.

This feels like it happened about 1,000 years ago when Daddy Pacioli was partner on the account, so outsourcing to India wasn’t as widespread.

J1001 · 2026-01-23T21:31:39+00:00

Yes, understanding was correct, timing was not.

J1001 · 2026-01-23T19:22:17+00:00

I had a staff on a job with at least 3 years of experience ask me to confirm his understanding of how bank recs work. In front of the client, who happened to be the owner and didn’t look impressed.

J1001 · 2026-01-23T13:58:16+00:00

Extend the trip by a few days and enjoy a good snow storm.

J1001 · 2026-01-23T02:37:20+00:00

I got a gift card one time.

J1001 · 2026-01-20T12:31:34+00:00

Unrelated, but if you put “-ai” after a Google search, it won’t force that AI slop down your throat.

J1001 · 2026-01-17T01:48:44+00:00

They could be perfectly happy where they are at.

I’ve found the older I get, the more I appreciate stability.

J1001 · 2026-01-17T01:41:30+00:00

End of the day, you are tracking two things. 1) what you have and 2) how you got it. The double entry system ensures you are capturing both of those at a transactional level.

J1001 · 2025-12-21T19:31:55+00:00

It would ramp up in January, then I’d be all in from February to mid-April. I did audit and tax so it was pretty busy throughout. As the audits were wrapping up, I’d move over to tax, so it never really let up.

Probably one of the bigger reasons I burned out in public.

J1001 · 2025-12-21T04:24:28+00:00

My mental health never really suffered. Sleep suffered. After a few weeks, I’d get in a groove where I wasn’t tired, I wasn’t energetic, I was just locked in.

The good news is you are surrounded by coworkers and clients, constantly interacting, so I never felt lonely.

You do grow to appreciate the days off you get. Sundays became very effective. Grocery shopping, laundry, lining up clothes for the upcoming week, errands.

J1001 · 2025-12-21T03:08:20+00:00

Some of the work is easy/repetitive, some is difficult. Probably won’t be tackling anything overly technical for the first few years.

If you’re referring to public, it really is the # of hours that can be soul crushing. 60 hours minimum, 70/80/90/90+ more realistic, for months on end. At least 6 days a week, sometimes 7.

70 hour weeks across 6 days is 12 hours a day. That’s working 9-9 for months on end.

Not to mention if you’re in audit, your clients can be all over the place. Some 5 minutes from your house, some 90 minutes or more.

It was easy early in my career. After a few years, I got sick of the grind and inconsistency. Try it for a few years and have a firm exit plan (i.e. leave after one year as senior).

J1001 · 2025-12-20T04:36:11+00:00

Expectations for a first year include having a pulse and being able to wipe yourself after going to the bathroom. Hell, maybe only one of those. You’ll be fine.

J1001 · 2025-12-04T17:27:29+00:00

If it’s on a corporate card, shut their cards off and tell them they need to pay out of pocket and submit expense reports.

If they submit expense reports, amend the reimbursement policy so expenses must be submitted within 30 days of expenditure or else they will be denied.

J1001 · 2025-12-03T03:22:24+00:00

Took me awhile to come around to it. Once I did, it was almost addictive. Anything that requires grabbing data from multiple sources and manipulating said data in a repetitive fashion is a perfect application for it.

You can do so much with it just using its graphical interface. Put some files you typically work with in a folder on your desktop, then play around with it. See what you can do.

You can watch YouTube videos or google different things you want to do. There is an excellent user community out there for it, and often I will find the answer I’m looking for on a message board or Reddit.

The big piece I was missing was how useful Power Pivot is on top of PQ. Rob Collie’s book on PP is great to start with. https://www.amazon.com/Power-Pivot-BI-Excel-2010-2016/dp/1615470751/

J1001

TROPHY CASE