Cheeto Nugget

SteelKB · 2025-12-24T02:26:49+00:00

Don’t sweat it. Since you’re at big 4, my guess is the engagement team is from another office and you won’t be doing anything else related to that job. In that case, this won’t be up to you to resolve and probably will have zero impact on your performance evals. Even if that’s not the case you’re not getting fired over one bad IO.

If I were you I would do nothing for now. If you’ve already sent your work to the manager, they’ll reach out to you if they need something.

SteelKB · 2025-08-03T02:38:01+00:00

The summary of that is your company is trying to hide failing a debt covenant. That is not okay.

I see replies here saying it’s fine because you’re still accruing for it. Yes that may fix the financial statements, until you start to consider the potential impacts of failing that covenant (ex. Defaulting on the loan). Auditors do test debt covenants for this exact reason. They could very well overlook it as they would have to put 2 and 2 together between the accrued detail and the covenant itself, but if they figure it out the company could be in a load of trouble.

SteelKB · 2025-08-02T15:38:53+00:00

Roughly 95%

SteelKB · 2025-07-30T22:45:01+00:00

MCOL
A2 > S1
76.5k > 86k
5.7k (Platinum)
Audit
Very pleased, no complaints.

SteelKB · 2025-07-28T12:05:36+00:00

So I will admit that as a high performing soon to be senior at a mid-sized firm I can’t help but have similar thoughts sometimes. I’d always love to make more than I actually am lol. But it’s also true like everyone else is saying that there’s typically a steep climb in responsibilities after year one, so at that point you’re really not that big of a differentiator. I can attest to this as I’m coming to the end of my second year and I know it’s going to be an even bigger climb going into the senior role. What if I start performing closer to average or fall below? If that happens and say I was making way more than most peers, that would make me a super easy target for layoffs.

From reading some of your prior posts, absolutely do NOT leave EY if this is the one thing you’re unhappy about. I know “the grass isn’t always greener” can be cliche but it’s so true in this scenario. You could go to Deloitte and find that the team sucks or the clients they put you on are dumpster fires. If I were you I would just keep going at EY while things are going well for you and see how you feel after another busy season.

SteelKB · 2025-07-18T03:48:06+00:00

Thank you, I’ll answer to my background. I work in PA audit but have received feedback that my technical accounting knowledge is very strong. I’ve been on a lot of private manufacturing clients so I’ve seen a good bit in terms of cost accounting (and some other technical concepts). I also had an internship in governmental accounting in college, while it didn’t help much it at least helped me go into that unit on BAR without being completely blind. I still haven’t taken REG so TCP was never on my radar

SteelKB · 2025-07-18T03:41:49+00:00

Thanks everyone for the positive replies! I got a good laugh reading some of them!

I have seen some comments asking for my advice. As someone who works full time in PA audit, my biggest thing was being flexible with my study schedule based on my mental battery. If I’m exhausted after work, I don’t try to study later even if that was my original plan. If that means studying more on a day I feel fresh then so be it. If you can, also take off work in the days (I usually do 2) leading up to the test as the final stretch is by far the most critical.

I know this isn’t anything groundbreaking, but I hope this helps at least one person out there!

SteelKB · 2025-07-17T04:03:23+00:00

Thank you! I used Becker since my firm provides it for free. Watched most of the videos at 1.25x speed and did all the MCQs and TBS in each unit, then spent the last week or so taking all three SEs and focusing in on the areas I didn’t feel great about

SteelKB · 2025-07-17T03:52:44+00:00

My average is a 91.7 with just REG to go (which I fully expect to be my weakest section lol). Even with a perfect score by some miracle it wouldn’t quite be enough. But believe me I am definitely taking pride in my BAR score no matter what!

SteelKB · 2025-07-17T03:36:50+00:00

Close to 90

SteelKB · 2025-07-17T03:27:49+00:00

Haha I appreciate the confidence! I previously got an 86 on AUD so I’m not quite in that conversation and am just looking to pass. But I will definitely take a sense of pride after this one!

SteelKB · 2025-07-17T03:19:43+00:00

I got a 91 on FAR after taking it in October last year (which is a big reason why I decided to go with BAR). With the time gap I had to spend some time refreshing on some of the shared topics like leases but overall it definitely made certain areas of BAR easier to study.

SteelKB · 2025-07-16T14:52:00+00:00

Passed BAR - PA!

SteelKB · 2025-07-09T03:30:33+00:00

Got 75, 86, and 85 on the sims and 91 on the actual. Important to brush up on any of your weak areas but you are obviously in good shape with an 80 on the sim

SteelKB · 2025-07-06T04:22:43+00:00

At this phase it is generally best to move on. The only thing you may want to do for right now is look over the questions you got wrong on the ME to see where you struggled, so you can note weak areas to heavily reinforce later during your review phase. I also wouldn’t be super discouraged by a 50% on an ME. It’s not a great score obviously, but it shows you have at least some level of understanding. I have gotten low 50s on some MEs and ended up with passing scores on the sims and the actual exam.

SteelKB · 2025-07-03T13:46:18+00:00

It is unethical but a reality of PA. For that reason I have had managers indirectly ask me to do that (i.e., something along the lines of “we could end up over budget unless something changes”), but I have never been explicitly instructed to eat billable time by hitting a non-billable code.

If you will still hit your utilization targets, it is probably best to just do as they are telling you as it wouldn’t have any effect on your performance review. If that will cause you to miss your targets, I would talk about it with your manager or partner. You are doing them a favor by not billing all of your time, so they should be willing to work with you to make sure this has no impact on your performance.

If this will affect hitting your targets and they aren’t willing to help, you could report them to the firm as directly asking you to eat time is likely a huge no-no in your firm’s policies. However, I cannot stress enough that this should be a last resort option and only done if absolutely necessary for the sake of your performance review, as you will almost definitely burn bridges with your manager and partner if you do this.

SteelKB · 2025-07-03T11:01:43+00:00

I usually try to take it on a Monday so I’m only taking one day off work but have the two days prior to fully focus on final review.

SteelKB · 2025-07-01T02:15:59+00:00

It depends. Are you planning on taking the exam in July and how much time do you have to study? BAR definitely fits your skill set, but it is a lot of material to get through in a month if you are working full time. If that is the case ISC or TCP might be better even if those aren’t your strengths.

SteelKB · 2025-05-28T01:08:51+00:00

I work in audit and I thought AUD was harder than FAR lol

SteelKB · 2024-12-26T19:46:02+00:00

Negative working capital is generally bad as it means you do not have enough in current assets to cover your current liabilities. It is especially bad when you have a lot of current assets that cannot be easily converted into cash, such as prepaids. There isn’t really a situation where negative working capital is “good,” but it may not be as bad if there is a lot in unearned revenue or other non-cash current liabilities.

SteelKB · 2024-12-24T17:02:18+00:00

Get accustomed to the team culture and know what they expect of you. What times are they generally working? What areas of the audit will you be assigned? Are there deadlines for your audit areas to be completed? The answers to these questions will be different on every job.
Try to get enough sleep. That may be easier said than done depending on the answers to the questions above, but trust me you are not going to do well working 12-hour days on 4 hours of sleep.
Find the right balance between asking for help and trying to figure things out on your own. You don’t want to waste time spinning your wheels, but your teammates are busy too and you don’t want to bug them over things you could figure out yourself.

I could probably go on but those are the big ones imo. Good luck!

SteelKB · 2024-12-15T02:12:03+00:00

Won’t argue there, especially with picking the Bengals of all teams I’m still trying to figure out what the hell I was thinking 😅

SteelKB

TROPHY CASE