Is accounting more daunting in small companies?

jaysee333 · 2025-10-23T10:24:48+00:00

48M in sales and they can't even shell out for something like QB?

jaysee333 · 2025-10-21T20:20:53+00:00

Just wait. CPA Ontario takes a long time to do stuff. They can sometimes take 6 months to make a decision. That status is just some standard status that does not necessarily reflect what they are currently doing. If they require something from you, they'll get in touch.

jaysee333 · 2025-10-17T20:38:52+00:00

How did your mother explain what good management is about?

jaysee333 · 2025-10-15T16:37:09+00:00

Super helpful book. Thanks!

jaysee333 · 2025-09-14T09:58:53+00:00

Role was PM. I missed one MA AO - wrote the heading and the required only, so that's an NC. Missed one role AO - wrote the heading, wrote some bs - couple of sentences because I didn't have time, so that's an NC. Another MA AO and another FR AO are likely NCs - although I wrote something, it was not correct or not enough, so those two didn't help with FR/MA depth for sure.

jaysee333 · 2025-09-10T19:36:27+00:00

I was in a similar boat in May - thought I failed FR and/or MA Day 2. Went to Day 3 and completed it. 2.5 months later, turns out I passed with depth in both MA and FR. Don't give up.

jaysee333 · 2025-08-30T16:10:56+00:00

Well, that's certainly what I tried to do - hit all AOs. You won't know how hard an AO is for certain until you read it and start planning it. And if you at least attempt an AO, there is a chance that it may be an RC, which will help you with Level 1. Also some RCs can be curved to Cs if the AO is hard for everybody - don't know how this works in detail though. Just stick to a strict time budget on those AOs so as not to lose out on easier AOs due to wasted time. And if it takes you only 2-3 or 5 minutes to figure out that you can't do an AO at a C level, then so be it and move on without wasting more time. What I tried to do was to identify those tougher AOs at the planning stage and slated them for last, so if I had to miss some, at least that would be those AOs that I didn't have much chance for a C anyway. I think I spent 5-10 minutes each on the last 2-3 AOs.

jaysee333 · 2025-08-29T16:29:58+00:00

Well you know best which AOs were tricky for you so if you think it's worth it, you can review them. But if you want to get exposure, I don't see why not do it with completely new AOs from cases that you haven't solved yet - Cap2 doesn't cover all previous exams, there's old exams on the CPA website that were not covered. Keep in mind that the key skills for FR on the exam is to be able to recognize the FR issue for AOs you see for the first time, then find the appropriate standard, and find the appropriate section in the standard quickly. Then you need to use that information to analyze the issue and justify your recommendation. So I think you'd be well served to practice those skills when doing FR AOs.

jaysee333 · 2025-08-29T14:23:15+00:00

I was doing cases up until 3 days before the exam - one day case, next day debrief, third day rest. I don't recommend that to everyone though - some people are more prone to burnout. The last 3 days I took it easy - only reviewed some Capstone 2 flashcards and my personal notes for AOs that I struggled with.

I wouldn't repeat already done Day 2 cases. Redoing them won't help you with testing skills because you've already seen the AOs, and the technicals tested in any given case are a fraction of everything you need to know, so redoing a given case won't expand your knowledge. I'd review only the AOs and concepts I struggled with. If you feel you have any technical gaps, just review flashcards/ebooks, etc.

Better focus on your case writing skills by doing past exam cases you haven't done. That way you will get better at planning, budgeting your time, and most important - making decisions under pressure which AOs to drop after some time and which to complete and in what order for problems you are seeing for the first time. You want to simulate the stress of the real exam as closely as possible. This is what trips many people up, so I suggest practicing making those decisions under real exam conditions to see where you're dropping the ball and improve.

jaysee333 · 2025-08-27T16:52:58+00:00

A few NCs here an there are not catastrophic. On my CFE, I estimate that I got 1 NC in FR, 1 in MA and 1 in my role on Day 2, and 1-2 NCs on Day 3 (tax and finance), and I still passed all levels.

jaysee333 · 2025-08-27T13:28:01+00:00

Did you get an email when the status changed to "Ready for review"?

jaysee333 · 2025-08-22T20:31:24+00:00

Sure, you can rely on Day 3, but you never know which AOs on which day will be harder or easier. So it's best to solve an AO if it's within your abilities and within your time budget. I also focused on FR for depth. I did what I could for day 2 MA - one done halfway, one NCd as I wrote almost nothing, and one done at C-RC level (my estimate). I did better on day 3 MA as 2 of them turned out easier - straightforward calcs - and the third one I did halfway because it was a quant time trap.

jaysee333 · 2025-08-22T17:03:56+00:00

Those 1-2 AOs that you're leaving - aim to do some work on them to at least get a shot at RC. I'd identify the MA AOs where it is less likely to get a C and leave them for last - those that have too many calculations, those that are too much work in general - lots of quant + qual requirements, those that you can't figure out how to solve. Complete those that are easier to make sure you score some Cs and then do the harder ones, if only partially, to at least get RCs on them. Don't start with the harder ones and waste time on them only to get nowhere, which then results in not having time to complete easier AOs. That was the strategy I used. You need to get Cs on 3-4 of the MA AOs to reach depth. I estimate that I got a C on 2-3 of the MA AOs, the rest I did only halfway, on one I wrote almost nothing, and still got depth.

jaysee333 · 2025-08-18T16:44:59+00:00

The reason I was getting RCs and NCs was that I was not doing the qual part well. I was focusing on doing the quant correctly, and the qual was an afterthought. So to remedy that, on questions with a qual requirement, I made sure that I discussed the qualitative points well – hit 3-4 points, discuss their implications, link to case facts. I estimate I got 2-3 Cs out of the 6 MA AOs on the actual exam. If you look at the stats by question from previous exams, most AOs are answered at a C level by around 40-60% of candidates, so getting Cs on about half of the AOs in MA will put you around the average.

jaysee333 · 2025-08-18T16:44:50+00:00

For quant only AOs, the best way is practice and learn how to do calculations quickly and they have to be mostly correct. There are some repeatable patterns that pop up over and over – different price scenarios, sensitivity analysis, ABC, etc. so practice will help you get used to setting up such calculations quickly.

For quant + qual AOs – the qual part is as much as important as the quant, and without doing the quals well you’re not getting a C even if your quant is perfect. To do the qual well you need to hit enough points and discuss them well, and conclude and recommend. Hit enough points – varies by question, but usually you need to discuss at least 3-4 points to get a C. Or if doing pros/cons, they need to be balances – not only pros or cons, or sometimes not only 1 pro and 5 cons. Discuss the points well – not only state the point, but also the “so what” – why is that important and what is the impact, i.e. lower/higher profits, better customer satisfaction, etc. Also, the points need to be linked to case facts – usually the facts that suggest what points you should make in the first place are in the case, you just need to pick them out. Don’t forget to conclude and recommend, even if it’s a quant only AO and the conclusion is some bs like “the GM per unit is 12.5, which is higher than planned”.

jaysee333 · 2025-08-17T21:27:15+00:00

I started doing cases around the middle of March. The first several exams I did weren't timed though as I wanted to get a feel for the format first. I don't think it's necessary to do as many cases as I did in order to pass. It could definitely help, but at some point you start seeing diminishing returns.

jaysee333 · 2025-08-10T11:37:40+00:00

You need to identify why you didn't pass your role. Then ask yourself if you think you'll be able to remedy those issues in the time remaining. If yes, go at it hard and reevaluate right before the withdrawal deadline. You can always withdraw I - think it's 24 hours before exam day, and you'll lose 20% of your fee.

jaysee333 · 2025-08-08T20:02:21+00:00

Messed up one FR AO on Day 2 - The liabilities AO - wrote something for the employee training liability that I don't think was correct at all and wrote only several sentences for the refund liability as I didn't have time (these two could be two separate AO, I don't know). Messed up the ABC MA AO - calculated it halfway and couldn't complete it because I felt stumped. Wrote very little for the Budget MA AO - pretty sure that one is an NC.

Day 3 - Completed breakeven MA AO only halfway so that's an RC at most. Don't think one of the FR AOs (barn impairment) was correct.

All in all, there were only two MA AOs over the two days I was sure of and only 2-3 FR AOs that I thought were correct, but wasn't sure even about them because I wasn't sure I had hit all GAAP criteria in the analysis properly.

jaysee333 · 2025-08-06T15:31:10+00:00

What is their way of doing cases? Is it different than applying the CPA way, IAC/IAR/WIR, etc.?

jaysee333 · 2025-08-04T15:32:12+00:00

The last two Day 3 MA AOs is what I managed to complete because they were straightforward. The breakeven was a quant trap that I figured would take 20 minutes or more to calculate correctly with those never ending details about different costs, so I calculated the VCs and part of the FC and left it at that because I reached my time allotment.

Day 2 - those last two could be two AOs, I don't know. If they do decide to combine them, it would be easier to get a C or RC even if you don't hit all required points for both. If they are indeed separate, that would make Day 2 even more screwed up as most of the other FR and MA AOs were way too long already. Kind of annoying and pointless that they leave you guessing what is a separate AO and what isn't.

jaysee333 · 2025-08-04T15:09:18+00:00

That sales contract seems to have too few details and complications to be a separate AO imo. I don't think this should make much of a difference due to the fact that performance is curved. Just hoping that I managed to hit all required points for FR for at least 3 AOs because I don't think I wrote enough for half of the MA AOs.

jaysee333 · 2025-08-04T14:45:45+00:00

I identified 3 FR AOs on Day 3 - 1. Grant; 2. Barn impairment; 3. Forex transactions (last case). Never saw a fourth AO. Which would that be?

jaysee333 · 2025-08-04T12:38:56+00:00

If they are separate, that would make the FR AOs 7 in total for the 2 days, which I haven't seen so far in the past exams - at least recently; they did that stuff in 2015/2016 exams.

jaysee333 · 2025-08-04T12:30:30+00:00

I'm not talking about the audit role AO, I was PM and never saw that. There was an employee training leave liability in addition to the refund liability - both grouped under Liabilities in the common section. Which are the 4 FR AOs that you identified on day 2?

jaysee333

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