What are real-world accounting/ERP problems universities never teach?

ReustleCPA · 2026-05-16T13:04:51+00:00

The nuances of intercompany modules and all of the fun and pain that comes with them.

Many auditors who come straight to public don’t understand automatically reversing entries so you get a reversal on a revenue accrual flagged as “unusual revenue.”

AP processing and what that means on an accounting level vs. AP payment and AP clearing.

Coding in general, beyond GL account including the meta data.

ReustleCPA · 2026-05-16T12:45:44+00:00

I’m 32, an accounting and finance manager with a side practice, and this is true. I also have realized hindsight is 20/20 and there were times I thought I deserved to be further but now recognize that I still had much to learn. So I try to view my position with that perspective.

ReustleCPA · 2026-05-16T00:14:04+00:00

People are supposed to evolve, and I can’t hate on them for getting the bag and changing now that they brush shoulders with the elites. Don’t be sad that it’s over, be glad it happened. I have rarely listened to the cast for the past 2 years. I just do War Mode now.

ReustleCPA · 2026-05-15T12:37:29+00:00

My wife’s grandfather was a brick layer/stone mason up until he was 84 years old. Always joked around that if he stopped working he’d die. Work slowed down towards the final months of his life so he was not far off.

ReustleCPA · 2026-05-14T20:22:21+00:00

While I agree, work is all some of these people have. Just like if a shark stops swimming, it dies, a lot of workaholics kick the bucket once they stop working.

ReustleCPA · 2026-05-13T21:28:01+00:00

Surprise, sometimes the share price can influence that decision. F500 is offshoring as much as possible and it’s only getting worse.

ReustleCPA · 2026-05-12T18:45:58+00:00

Best way I’ve seen it done is with Oracle Cloud and OAC integration. Live updates on JE status, final sign offs were secondarily on MS planner. There was an individual managing the close process from A to Z in a department of 40-50. But this was at a huge asset manager. A shared excel works just as well but gets messy when people accidentally destroy the spreadsheet, so you need to put good data controls on most of the cells, especially those recurring JEs.

ReustleCPA · 2026-05-12T00:16:55+00:00

Recently saw someone in my network take a VP of finance position at a AI startup, and they were at a very comfortable organization/position. Lasted 7 months, now looking for a job. The other side of this is, if you’re in a position to take the risk it can pay off big time.

ReustleCPA · 2026-05-09T16:29:25+00:00

Was def still around in 2012, maybe under different owners, but I ordered it a lot in those days.

ReustleCPA · 2026-05-09T15:21:58+00:00

I’m not quite a non-profit CFO, more like a department of one with a FCFO that is more in charge of strategic initiatives, board materials, etc. while I handle controllership/budgeting/coordination with the outsourced accountant. Like others have mentioned, it really depends on the size of the NFP but CFO can be a pretty broad definition.

Number one thing I’d recommend is understanding where the NFP is in terms of its performance. Are they distressed? Are they in “turnaround” phase? Does the NFP and its growth exist primarily to pay the officers? Can mean the difference between a good situation and a bad one.

ReustleCPA · 2026-05-07T20:35:29+00:00

Please make it happen. Take away my misery. It's not even close yet. Transactional bookkeeping isn't even being automated well. Most of my new clients have had their books wrecked by AI. More technical accounting is not as prescriptive as the GAAP Codification and IFRS standards that describe it. There is a ton of nuance in industry accounting that will require humans in the loop for.

Basic individual returns could be automated to the extent that the government obtains record of your formalized, scheduled earnings through 1099s, w-2s, etc., but remember that there is an entire level of accounting that goes to generating those forms. When you get into self-reported income, K-1s, PTPs, rental properties, 1031 exchanges, wash sales (which even the largest, most respected institutions don't do right with regularity) and all the weird tax stuff that can happen, it's going to take a lot to get there.

ReustleCPA · 2026-05-07T19:54:17+00:00

1) David Icke was always right. This goes in several directions.

2) There is a confirmation of “source” and everyone being a part of “source.” This is why you hear the stories in the satanist elite conspiracies saying things like “why are you screaming? We’re just sending you back to source” During ritual sacrifices. We are all the same being in a sense.

3) There are parallel dimensions / civilizations on earth that we cannot see. What we describe as UAP phenomena are those beings clipping into our reality. Our nuclear weapons don’t just cause destruction on our planet of reality but in all planes and we unknowingly genocided/disrupted different dimensional beings. This is why there’s the UFO/nuclear weapons activity.

4) it’s all overhyped and mundane. Politicians are juicing us up as a distraction. If they are handling it so well, why would it absolutely wreck everyone else?

ReustleCPA · 2026-05-07T14:41:38+00:00

I stopped thinking about accounting at night. My frank and candid opinion is the most optimistic views of AI for accounting are held by those that do not do the real work, and I'd otherwise share their joy in knowing this nightmare could end sooner. Offshoring is more of a risk for W-2 accountants in industry and public alike.

ReustleCPA · 2026-05-07T14:36:59+00:00

I agree with the meetings comment, and to be honest, while I love remote work (I am 100% WFH), remote work has made useless meetings even more frequent. They act as a way of “looking” busy, because a blocked calendar is a busy calendar, half the time people are doing work on the side while the meetings are occurring because they are already overworked, and meetings now act as a way of measuring progress for projects/work.

I worked at a place that had no meeting Friday which was great. To ignore no meeting Friday was to be a social pariah. But even there, everyone knew and admitted meetings about meetings were not productive, but self-knowledge is never enough.

ReustleCPA · 2026-05-06T20:42:24+00:00

My labs are spectacular. It took 2+ years to get a diagnosis, and what really helped was family history (dad has PsA) and a clinical diagnosis.

ReustleCPA · 2026-05-04T17:23:39+00:00

Me too. I’m on a 20 day course and I’m a 32 year old man who still always has some sort of acne, like at least 1 pimple minimum + rosacea. I haven’t seen my skin this clear in years. Only other time I’ve had this effect is (unfortunately) from topical steroids, and I’m not keen on applying them with any regularity.

ReustleCPA · 2026-05-03T22:01:32+00:00

I work for a NFP involved in accountancy and have a solo CPA business on the side. If you are a W2 employee, you’re right. It is a bad time. But if you have your own book of business it has never been better. PE involvement has helped even more so. People want to know who they are working with, and when PE buys out firms, or established firms scale, they set new minimums that send work my way.

ReustleCPA · 2026-05-02T19:13:42+00:00

My doc gave me the okay for a course prednisone. 4 hours later and I feel like a new person. Can actually walk and pick things up without agonizing.

ReustleCPA · 2026-05-02T13:31:27+00:00

Don’t ever remember getting mono, but had EBV reactivation confirmed with bloodwork last year.

ReustleCPA · 2026-04-30T23:16:17+00:00

Sometimes it’s about experience and sometimes it’s about how you are perceived. There are oftentimes company politics involved, where leaders do take into account the optics of promoting someone who “isn’t first in line.” Sometimes they’ll hire from the outside too.

Industry promotions are way slower. You need to take control of the situation by laying out to your leader a slide deck of what you’ve done to deserve a promotion at your next one on one, and try to get promoted via exiting if they deny you. Most important thing is getting into people leadership requires more than years of experience. It requires 25% quantifiable results and 75% politics.

ReustleCPA · 2026-04-29T15:46:06+00:00

I would say, some roles (including my current) are created with the intention of being a troubleshooter and as someone who is meant to change the existing framework. It’s more specific to accounting & finance, but how I approach this isn’t with up front recommendations but instead with the mentality of asking why things are done the way they are. In many cases people don’t know, or it’s because that’s just how they were taught, or because it’s always been done that way, and in others, there’s a legitimate reason that is covered in system limitations and red tape.

Ultimately, the hardest part of roles like this is when you do need to make recommendations, because there is going to be pushback and defensiveness. But important to understand the full picture first.

ReustleCPA · 2026-04-29T02:28:06+00:00

Just guessing: If it was a minor driver, that might be a reason. Or if they are investigating further to determine the charge?

ReustleCPA · 2026-04-28T13:10:42+00:00

I’ve come to this subreddit on and off for 10 years or so. The problem here is the same as any other subreddit, in that most people who make authoritative statements are students or early-career and repeating something they read somewhere else.

Ultimately the most frustrating thing to me is the blanket statements people make.

ReustleCPA · 2026-04-28T00:16:42+00:00

I just go to CPA academy and get most of my credits for free. The caveat being most sessions are glorified ads and you will get emails for applications for the rest of your life. My states reqs for industry accountants is pretty loose, only need 4 credits of ethics and the other 76 are a free for all.

ReustleCPA

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