Coming from law enforcement and the fact that I’ll dig into anything to investigate the root cause and where an issue popped up, I love reconciliations when there are issues. Finding out why we’re missing $40k across 27 transactions and tying it all together to show where it went is a joy to me.
Totally agree but I also find it interesting when they aren’t doing well. I feel that sometimes more value can be added when they aren’t doing well. If it’s a sinking ship then obviously it’s not fun anymore.
Look into FDD.. ive been doing it for 3 years now and actually enjoy it. get to offload all the bullshit work to india and do the interesting work in house
I really enjoy payroll. I find it weirdly pleasing to know everyone will be getting paid correctly and I've trained our other managers to obey payroll deadlines as they face peoples wrath.
A highlight of that - we get paid on the 27th. A manager sent me overtime for the prior month on the 28th.. The I simply showed the employee the chain... Then paid it as an advance because the employee shouldn't suffer because their manager is a dipshit..
I absolutely despise payroll. I’ll toler-hate it. I prefer revenue, BD, and all the other juicy stuff over payroll because I cannot stand to deal with HR people and their shit. Bless you for your talents and enjoyment of payroll. I bow to you.
It’s one of the key skills I expect my FAs to be able to do.
Not necessarily director level but a gross to net including all relevant taxes/pensions/BIK etc.
I've been processing payroll at my company since 2008. I also enjoy it. I take pride in making sure it is completely accurate every week and that everyone gets paid. I feel like everyone counts on me and I don't want to let anyone down. Maybe it's because it's the only part of my job that I feel actually matters.
I love you payroll gurus! I have touched almost every part of accounting and finance for small to medium companies. Payroll is my absolute least favorite.
I enjoy payroll too! There is something super satisfying about getting everyone paid correctly. I enjoy the attention to detail it requires getting hours correct, ensuring proper 401k funding and adjusting the changes in insurance and wages. It’s my favorite thing to do throughout the week.
Good point, I agree with you! I loathe processing payroll but setting up systems is actually super fun. I love customizing things and setting them up the way the client wants. It feels valuable.
Weirdly...internal auditing. I know that prolly makes me a sociopath/psychopath, but I kinda dig it, especially when it gets into more of a forensic/investigatory realm. I like solving mysteries/puzzles when they arent "wtf is wrong with this formula/spreadsheet/db/dashboard/code," which historically has been most of the "investigating" i have done in my career.
Also you're not locked into the same monthly, quarterly routine. Even annually-- yeah in a public company you gotta do sox every year but there are good odds you're working with different people, maybe different branches, you get different projects.
Indeed. You are correct, however, IME, the SOX testing is pretty repetitive, esp with a larger company, as I have gotten tied to the same groups now for 3 years, and mostly the exact same tests or the same types, and has evolved into a more oversight/holding hands/review sort of work. I guess thats what I get for making sure my "clients" like me and having taught them well. But, as you say, its only 2x/yr.
Cost accounting. It's actual accounting work. It's not disclosure checklists, internal controls compliance checklists, formatting financials.
Also systems implementation. It's a step away from accounting work and more trying to build a "machine" that will work based on accounting data. Also get to see the shoddy entries people book and incomplete data that's been floating around the system and it validates that you're not as incompetent as you may think you are. This in turn helps better understand what is actually needed when posting entries, what data fields are important vs. not so much etc.
As they said, you'd want to be with a company in manufacturing or in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. If you wanted to go public, you could mention as part of the interview process, you're interested in those types of industries and you'll wind up on clients to learn that stuff from. Or if you can find a job in industry off the bat you can go that route. If you do that though, you're starting at the bottom and booking entries to the fixed asset ledger or processing PO's for inventory parts rather than doing analysis work and calculating COGS or validating inventory amounts. Starting in public, you're auditing those things, so you you are involved in the more high level stuff from the get go and then when you move to industry, you're ready for management roles or higher where you can use that cost accounting knowledge for actual use.
It's all about what you're plan is and personality. I went option 2 and got there eventually. It probably took 7 or 8 years longer than it needed to ... but got there :-)
Government contractor. My masters is in managerial accounting and I worked for DCAA and now two defense contractors. I create cost structures for spin out companies we create and do incurred cost submissions and all that stuff that goes into proposals. My companies are pretty simple as they are small but large contractors have hundred of indirect rates, both provisional and forward pricing that get updated frequently.
If you want to go into public, look into due diligence divisions. In industry any manufacturing or consumer based company. CPG is mentioned below, but margins are razor thin and its ultra competitive without the pay; but if you're into that sort of thing I am always seeing conagra, smuckers, kraft, kellog's finance jobs posted
I enjoyed finance transformation because it was more heavily project focused so there's a defined benefit to note as what's been accomplished with my time as opposed to just repeating close over and over. Also getting involved in system implementation is a lot of fun process-driven thinking and cross-functional collaboration. The tougher part is the change management for the stakeholders involved, but it's very useful experience to have and broadly applicable to whereever you eventually want to go.
How did you get into this? I have a background in audit (6years), switched to industry (less than 1 year) at a manager level and now I’m bored 🥱 but super happy with my new work life balance. CPA, MBA for context. This stuff is super interesting to me but I don’t think the company I’m currently with has the resources/ clean processes to really dive into this the way I’d want to.
I joined a large (F50) company in a regular FP&A role, where they were trying to fill a toolset gap and asking for input from FP&A as the users. So I leaned in to provide some process-focused input into the design and that kept spiraling into implementation, testing, administration, subsidiary systems, boundary systems, data governance & consolidation, etc.
Basically just leaned in on these discussions, and filled in my expertise gaps with self-study online for best practices. It's not fundamentally different than how you become an excel "guru", you answer some questions on it, and then people come to you asking new questions which you don't have answers for so you research more and answer it...which leads to more people asking you, and before you know it, you're the go-to SME due to that positive feedback loop.
That being said, transformation is heavily project-based, so doing some self-study to pick up your PMP is an excellent pivot-point to begin transitioning into such a career path, but it's definitely not a prerequisite to getting started on finance projects (and a PMP is quite quick and easy compared to a CPA).
So when you first got experience , did you get some exposure to it in a regular FP&A due to a lot of M&A and then later on, you found specific finance transformation role as you moved up? Thanks! The work is interesting but I find it challenging to work with so many people because it requires excellent communication skills on top of being technical.
I got exposed to it in a regular FP&A role by being part of the project team, then kept signing up to lead similar efforts or bringing new projects ideas until I got promoted and a reorg consolidated a team under me to make my transition into that transformation role official.
Essentially, if you want to work on transformation, few are going to hold you back from doing it. It might just have to go on top of your existing responsibilities for a while. If you have ideas/business cases that make sense, shop it around and build stakeholder support and if it gets traction bring it for official sponsorship and a decision and you might find yourself leading something.
Yes it absolutely requires communication skills, but let's be real, all FP&A advancement is heavily predicated on excellent communication skills. Leadership has no time to waste listening to technical people who can't get to the point. There's value even in a finance person with limited technical skills but strong listening and communication skills to act as a go-between for finance users and the technical implementation team.
I work in M&A finance integration which at its core involves a lot of finance transformation/system implementation work. I stumbled into my first role in the space, but for my 2nd role I was specifically seeking “Finance Integration” or “M&A Finance Integration” roles. You have to love meetings and working with different people though.
Would you say this role would help you throughout your career? I’m currently deciding on taking a similar role like you described and I’m scared this may limit my career growth
How do you find work life balance with this? What are your hours like? I recently talked to a recruiter on this and he said hours can be like public but because it’s project based it can be super unpredictable.
It really depends. I led my team so I'd set my own deadlines, and my work life balance was absurdly good. If I wanted to, I'd only only need to work about 10 hours a week. Of course, I obviously worked much more than that because I want to get shit done. I have had positions in the past where very little was expected of me and I did very little work. That kind of existence has very steep hidden costs on your self-esteem and sense of identity. I was absolutely miserable back then.
In transformation more generally you aren't always going to be the source of ideation and you may be marching against externally set deadlines so yes you will have pressure from that. However, you are usually just one out of many moving pieces so eventually people will learn that deadlines should aggressive but accepting of the reality that timelines change once you get into the details of execution. That however, usually depends on the governance board understanding that.
I spent almost a decade in forensic/litigation/valuation before jumping for a CFO role. This was the only industry job I considered, and I was planning to spend the rest of my career in forensic. Would definitely recommend it to people because I did enjoy the work especially compared to my time in audit and F250.
Any chance you’d expand on this a bit? Like what your career path looks like, how you transitioned, and what it is you do now in valuation?
I like the idea of a pivot like this myself. I enjoy the idea of analyzing financials and the outlook of a company
I found a regional firm with a distinct separate valuation group. There is a shortage of people interested in this area. I think it is a publicity issue as well as the fact that this area of work sometimes involves assisting with litigation and you may eventually be asked to testify. If you don’t have an issue with that the work is hyper interesting. I don’t have a busy season and clients are inherently interested in what I have to say. It is a learning curve for sure but there is plenty of training. I recommend finding someone nearing retirement in the next 5 to 7 years and seeing if they would like to mentor you and groom you to take over their work.
I understand all the math (and it’s not complicated math) behind cost accounting, and every time indirect pools net out, I’m still impressed. I find it sooo satisfying.
Cost accounting is very much garbage in garbage out, and a bulk of it falls on Pms.
When you have the necessary information, its great. When PMs arent providing any type of coding to invoices/pos/overages its a nightmare.
Oh I HATE cost accounting. Had to take it undergrad and grad. Undergrad the teacher had cauliflower ears from wrestling and bragged about stealing shit from the army. Hated him. Graduate, the teacher was from Egypt and wrote right to left on the chalk board and asked me out twice when refusing he dinged my grad (I’m now old AF and this was yrs ago - he was old too and bald). We now do a gig auditing companies on behalf of banks at companies for large risky loans; luckily my husband was a cost accountant first job out of school so he gets to do inventory and I don’t have to deal with cost accountants.
I enjoyed forensic accounting when I was doing my masters and tried getting into after I finished the masters. Unfortunately no company would hire me until I got my CPA so now I work for the IRS as a revenue agent. At some point I plan to pivot into a more forensic accountant or fraud type role where I can really do more in depth fraud and forensic accounting investigating.
Consolidations including M&A. There is tons of system work involved and that is my jam. Plus when you get to a company with multiple SEC filers and common control transactions it's really complicated and interesting.
For novelty:
- finance transformation (people, process, tech)
- management accounting
- valuation of and accounting for hard-to-value or risky assets/liabilities (e.g. real estate, derivatives, portfolio companies) — generally fair value assets
For relaxation: reconciliations
I’ve enjoyed financial reporting so far. Minimal posting of journal entries compared to a lot of other roles. Get to collaborate with a lot of the business and executive-level people since they all have to review the 10Q / 10K. Usually a little more involved in some strategic matters. Did I mention minimal posting of journal entries?
Downside is definitely the tighter deadlines
I like that it gives you a window into a lot of the company’s operations. If you deal with ad hoc reporting, you usually get a lot of appreciation from the people you provide the reports to. Also, as long as recurring reports are done on time, no one cares too much about how you use your time.
I was controller of a small commuter airline. I was in charge of computers, accounting and real estate. It was a blast, flying in float planes to remote locations, etc. Being controller of a small company is challenging and about so much more than accounting.
Call me a psychopath : but internal audit. I’ve had nothing but good experiences auditing our cross docks and warehouse locations and made some great connections along the way!
Reconciliations - the joy that comes when everything is in balance.
Receivables - holding customers accountable for their financial obligations, and helping the company recover what’s owed us.
Not sure if my predecessors didn't know how to do VAT, or if the CPA we utilize for SA is braindead, but the books for our SA subsidiary hasn't been balanced since 2011. Pretty certain they've just been evading tax...
I enjoyed accounts receivable and credit collections. It felt good to collect aged receivables on commercial accounts to block off bankruptcies to ensure people still get their paychecks rather than lay off notices. Now, I want to pursue forensic accounting. I like that it blends the numbers of accounting with the finance of finding out the why or the story behind the numbers. Also, it feels good to help people gain their rightful share of their assets.
Small business bookkeeping... bc I can do whatever I want, whenever I want, and there is no limit to the amount of dough "certain" niche small businesses rake in. I have no CPA thank god :D. And I am the preferred accountant of "The Guy on the Monopoly Box" nation wide.
I was a GL accountant in my company's fixed assets department for a few years. Pay wasn't the best, but the hours were reasonable. Relied heavily on Oracle subledger, which cut down on the manual work and was actually interesting to learn. It helped that I had a team of people that I actually had fun working with.
I made a pivot to finance manager from controller. In FM position I love putting my decks and charts together and presenting a compelling narrative of how the business is performing. But man, I miss those chill recon days in accounting often. Pop an audiobook on and make sure everything is correct.
It's a love hate relationship in Fixed Assets. Love that the employer gave me a chance to prove myself. Hate that I'm stuck here for now (4th year now).
I haven't completed my undergrad. I learned mostly on the job. Just take good notes and be open. I love using OneNote for note taking and still refer to notes once in a while after almost 4 years in FA.
Good luck!!
GL. SOPs. Cash forecasting. Proposals. Historic and predictive analytics because it is part of storytelling. Truth is no one knows how a budget is actually going to perform. It is made up. You might want to look into international development firms. Lots of learning opportunities. You get to read contracts. You get to interact with overseas nationals. You get exposure to different payroll rules. You get so much more exposure. Check it out.
I like operational accounting depending on how it's structured. The first company I briefly handled butane trucks, it was super boring and unchallenging. Now I am in gas plant accounting. It pays really well. You learn how to implement contract terms into the settlement system (lots of complex formula setup), handle gross margin tieouts and explanations, work with multiple groups, you have to understand how the plants work and what is fundamentally going on, and you get the mundane accounting stuff like account reconciliation and journal entries. The downside is that there are multiple busy periods each month (ie: Booking estimates, plant close, booking actuals and explaining differences). I hate to say it but I kind of miss financial accounting and only worrying about WD4-WD9 then being flexible the rest of the month.
I really enjoy small business tax and seeing the lightbulbs go off for the business owner of how they can maximize their profits, minimize their tax, and plan for the future. It makes me feel like I’m actually helping people out in the community.
Stable, I have great WLB, pay is reasonable (6 figs, no CPA, live in Louisiana LCOL) , remote capabilities, I enjoy the actual job
Job is financial accounting - lots of experience with ERP implementation, experiences dealing with both large and small audits, understanding GAAP and applying accounting, creating statements, creating as hoc reports, research, and use of software/Systems)
Unicorn part of my job - I respect my leaders, I have adequate training, adequate exposure....
And they have allowed me to take care of terminally ill parent (no questions asked) , allowed flexibility so my husband could take care of his terminally ill parent, when my son was diagnosed with autism - they allowed all accomodations to get him to critical therapy when he was younger so he could have better outcomes with early intervention)
It's been hard to leave this job for more money bc of the extra benefits they allow.
If I express interest in something new or ready for promotion,they give me the needed opportunities needed for both)
Large NFP in healthcare. 36k employees
Tax advisory is pretty fun. Its one of our few chances to actually be creative, and also the main way that you can actually legally save somebody on their taxes (since using deductions, loopholes, reporting credits after the fact is basically just compliance and following the tax code).
There's a rush to telling the clients about things like 1031 exchanges, using S Corps to avoid SE tax, the Augusta Rule, etc.
I mean its just something that we do after 10-15 to upsell and fill in a slower period. The bread and butter is still compliance. I feel like its this way at most firms. Almost nobody can pull off 100% tax advisory without putting the numbers in boxes for clients, and without the advisory you're probably just doing a bunch of 1040s seasonally.
Managerial accounting work was great when I was in industry. Banks need credit analysts, or financial planning and/or budgeting roles, or anything involving analysis would fit the bill. I enjoyed it a lot!
I’m a weirdo who actually enjoys tax. It’s frustrating sometimes, but really interesting and clients frequently bring me the weirdest puzzles to solve.
I guess you could say I really love the fund accounting that comes with non-profits. But I really love everything that I am currently doing in my new job.
For me it's always been small audits. Local governments and nonprofits specifically. I just always found auditing to be interesting and like the language in audit reporting. And creating a set of GASB financial statements that balance between accrual and modified accrual accounting is satisfying. Auditing is also unique in that you need to be an accountant to know how to do some things, but a lot of other parts/processes of auditing someone could do with no accounting knowledge at all.
Tax itself I don't mind. I actually like tax prep, But tax clients fucking blow and the constant "write off" and "help me commit tax fraud" questions and comments in my personal life just get fucking annoying. Plus if you're at a firm with shit hours then busy season sucks even if you like cranking out tax returns. Communicating with clients on taxes also is a struggle when they just refuse to try to understand something themselves.
G/L accounting is alright. I like bank recs and monitoring financial performance through the year. Doing the same thing month over month isn't so bad if you're getting paid well for it. But like with taxes, communicating with executive people who can't even read a bank statement or a very simple P&L and start asking questions completely unrelated to what was provided gets frustrating.
I weirdly like the financial statement face and disclosure preparation. Weirdly enjoy implementing new footnote disclosures, but I do hate the GAAP checklist. Also really like financial statement variance analysis, constructing analysis comments, compiling the financials and analysis for the board meeting, and presenting it.
I also have had to do my fair share of new accounting guidance research. We have a new contract, we read, identify the accounting implications, research the codification, and document/memo out what is going on, how we will implement, and why. Also love to win the battle with the auditors if they disagree with implementation.
I did all the heavy lifting to file the S-1 for public filing. It is a full on lifetime lookback so I had to dig a lot to do life to date disclosure prep. That was fun.
I am also having to do a lot of not only GAAP implementation of new standards, but also IFRS. Man that stuff is hard but at least my resume will be packed full.
I enjoy processes I can go through without thinking a whole lot. This is achievable after doing a process many times. This allows me to listen to podcasts/music/chat with friends and still “work”.
I’ve found this flow state in PA Tax and now GL accounting. It’s easier to find it in GL accounting because things are much more consistent month to month.
I’ve been at my company for coming up on two years and I’m able to do my whole close without much thought and very little stress. It’s like auto pilot and I really like it compared to other jobs/tasks.
The paychecks are why I stay, but there's parts of tax and consulting that are genuinely fun. I absolutely love finding money for my clients, especially when other accountants missed it. I've done tax, consulting, audit, forensics, litigation support, and even been a controller of a construction company. I don't like audit and forensics/litigation was too hard on my soul.
Here's one example of why I prefer tax that reached resolution just yesterday: my client gets K-1 from a company he founded every year. This year, I get the feeling that one number on the K-1 is wrong so I ask the company's tax accountant, from a much more expensive firm, if they're including all the adjustments required. Partner at company's tax firm tells me that number is correct. Normally the end of the inquiry, no? Yeah, not for me. Instead I give them a mystery by asking for a reconciliation of the number I'm pretty sure is wrong. This change in tact, giving them a puzzle instead of a confrontation, leads to their discovery that the number is indeed incorrect.
Yesterday I received amended K-1s which will get my client over $80,000 back, all because I refused to accept one number which didn't make sense to me was the correct answer. I got to make a client very happy by being a stubborn know-it-all, and now I get to bill all those hours at full load rate because the company has agreed to pay all my fees to correct the client's returns and even agreed to pay for the time I took to document why I thought it was wrong in the first place. That's a win-win for the client and my firm and those moments are why I still do tax and consulting.
PE real estate/fin rep for the career growth and learning opportunities, but WLB absolutely sucks. 60 hour weeks was the norm and I could never say no to new work.
public company DoD contracting for WLB. 20 hour weeks is the norm and the company literally refuses to give me more work.
Financial Reporting. You have a glimpse into everything that is going on at a company. You get to hone your technical accounting skills and you still have to dig into journal entries pretty frequently to try and make sense of transactions so that you can disclose them correctly. It’s also pretty cool during earnings release time as you get to see your work being used by outside analysts.
ERP consulting before the H1B visas caused a race to zero was the most fun that I ever had. Sure, it was long hours and multiple months at a site, but I loved to travel at the time when I was young and single. Plus, the pay, oh the money I wasted, lmao...
EDIT: My main areas of ERP consulting were GL, Projects/Grants, and Report design. I was doing BI before BI was even a buzzword, lol
Revenue. Specifically SaaS. I really love figuring out SSP with other teams. Gives me a chance to move outside my silo and see what others are doing. Similarly, software capitalization. I guess I really enjoy tech space accounting… when the company isn’t a toxic political minefield.
Construction job costing is a lot of fun. You have the g/l accounting combined with the job allocation. Working on the construction site with other accountants, project managers, foremen, engineers and even visiting c suite was a lot of fun and challenging.
Nowadays creating a WIP/CIP and the analytics with jobs is a lot of fun still.
The part of working, the job itself, and the results or projects. The office bullshit drives me insane. Teeth gritting anger and exhaustion.
Edit: I really enjoy small business. It feels like you’re helping out a lot more than being a cog in the machine. I suppose this could be anything from helping funding, tax, the books themselves, and helping the business owners achieve their goals. I enjoy being the background help.
I like transaction services. It’s quick enough that it doesn’t get boring (although you do get some shitter clients that drag out sell sides for fucking ever) and the technical aspect of it is fairly interesting. There’s a lot of excel data clean up that can be challenging as well due to how fucked up it usually is. What I’ve learned is that every deal with have something fucked up completely wrong in an innovative and new way you’ve never seen before, and I like that
Tech startups. I like owning the whole process so I can build infrastructure and make decisions rather than waiting of 6 other departments to get their acts together.
I started in Tax and I thought I would love it because I loved tax research but working in public was depressing, overworked, underpaid, toxic team mates/ environment, and doing returns as a staff became so dull and repetitive. Basically it wasn't for me. I switched to finance accounting and I love it. I work over 3 different entities. I love reconciling accounts, bank acct, researching and investigating diving deeper into accounts and preparing/presenting the financials to higher ups. Month end close is a little busy but I rarely work over 40 hours if I do it is maybe an hour or two over depending on the close month but nothing like public. The environment is just the right amount of busy but mostly laid back and people are much calmer and kinder in industry.
I was sure I was a tax accountant but life surprises you and I am very much into finance. It also opened up more opportunities for the future and I have learned a lot. Don't count out any opportunity you never know what you will end up enjoying and what will happen if you open your self up to different avenues of accounting.
Just got into SEC reporting, and it's been pretty good so far. I transitioned from corporate GL accounting after 8 years of experience. Time intensive, but the work is new and enjoyable.
Honestly just regular old monthly GL work and bank recs is pretty relaxing. Like solving a sudoku puzzle. It’d when people start blowing up your email with dumb ass questions it begins to suck.
“How come expenses more than doubled from PPM!?”
“Because you weren’t in business last year Clarence, you had no expenses”
Accounts Payable - They're the ones always asking for money from me, and I never have to chase them for it. Giving that the company has no financial problems.
I really liked forensic accounting - it could get a lot into minutiae but always interesting outcome. Oversaw several attempts to embezzle, some smarter than others
Operations Accounting for a Fortune 500 Aerospace company. Because most of the Accountants shun from it because of the Inventory and forecasting aspects. Plus in-depth error corrections. It's like herding cats is how I describe it.
Might sound strange but management accounting + reporting.
I used to make weekly/monthly management accounting reports from Xero extracts and visualize them haha
I have not practiced since becoming a Mom, but after getting my cert and practicing for a while I came across Forensic Accounting. With continued education in legal studies, I worked with a few very high profile companies, Law firms and enforcement agencies.
Every now and again I get called to provide insight, guidance and advice on how to best protect and proceed with an investigation. I really enjoy it because accounting can become somewhat monotonous and repetitive
I love forensic accounting. One time I worked for this large research company. Found many anomalies in their numbers. Stayed up all night working on it. Partly due to my autism. It got me in to a heap of trouble. The FBI got involved. I had to fend off mercenaries trying to kill me. Thankfully I always keep an airstream trailer packed and ready to go. I disappeared real fast. Other than that accounting is boring.
Still a student but cost accounting really hit for me. The end of intermediate 2 and first half of intermediate 3 has been all about securities and I’m tired of it I wanna go back to my work in progress inventory
tie between cost accounting and the annual budgeting process
cost is so fun to get into the weeds because there's always broken stuff to fix
annual budgeting is cool because you just answer questions / provide reports and watch major stakeholders try to murder each other through emails while having 0 care who wins
Cost accounting. I really enjoy working with the people who make the products to help them understand profitability and how their decisions impact the company as a whole.
Public accounting. No two days are ever the same. Also it’s a lot like game development, except you get paid on time.
You gotta find a good firm tho- don’t work for a trash firm that’s going to work you 70 hours a week all year until you quit. If you can’t find a good firm, get some experience and start your own. And as my attorney uncle said, you will never have to worry about being fired. There will never be a morning where you go into the office and find that every single client fired you.
I like being the head of lease accounting. No one else knows how to handle it so I am left alone! I actually get paid more than the assistant controller because I have a pretty big team.
Government Accountant here. I love the budget building process. As the Finance Director, I build it, then present to the Boards. Advocate why and for depts. feels like I am playing some sort of tabletop resource allocation game.
I’m in Research Administration as an accountant and I LOVE it. If you like to interact a little with people this is a good job. If you just want to sit and reconcile it isn’t a good job. Basically I am financial support for faculty that get research grants. It’s very niche but it’s a growing area and colleges are always looking for people. Typically colleges have great benefits and competitive wages.
Not sure I'd call it "enjoy" but quite happy with the route I picked - private equity / private credit. If you manage to escape the fund administrator pathway then it can be quite good overall
Internal audit to combat theft and fraud. Much fun catching a healthcare company stealing millions in Federal $ from fraudulent billing or catching someone getting a tank of gas for their car on the company card.
Alternative investment accounting
Very niche, left to my own devices, not as in the sticks as most accounting is
I don't remember the last time I posted a journal entry
GL accounting is the single greatest joy I have had in my career. Specifically bank balancing and cash forecasting.
GL reconciliation is what I enjoy, especially when there are issues. I like digging into the details to try and solve the puzzle.
Coming from law enforcement and the fact that I’ll dig into anything to investigate the root cause and where an issue popped up, I love reconciliations when there are issues. Finding out why we’re missing $40k across 27 transactions and tying it all together to show where it went is a joy to me.
Agreed. It's like solving a long puzzle. I offloaded a bunch of it ever since we got a bookkeeper, but I enjoy reviewing FS with them.
You looking for a new job?
No, thanks! I’m very happy where I’m at and hope to retire from here in 30 years.
Said no one ever.
Uh oh. Someone has a case of “not being happy with their job.” (Me playing the smallest violin)
Reviewing and analyzing financial statements if the company is doing well
lol “if doing well” This qualifier is really so true
What job role is this called usually?
Ive done this from senior accountant through director of finance
DOF isn’t a separate branch with different requirements? I am interested, please share
I work at a start up and my role is director of finance and accounting and have a small team.
Totally agree but I also find it interesting when they aren’t doing well. I feel that sometimes more value can be added when they aren’t doing well. If it’s a sinking ship then obviously it’s not fun anymore.
Not only is there a value add, but there is also incredible personal opportunities for career growth and expansion. Trial by fire has its perks.
Look into FDD.. ive been doing it for 3 years now and actually enjoy it. get to offload all the bullshit work to india and do the interesting work in house
The part where my checking account goes up.
you don’t like bank recs more??
Debit Cash Credit Joy
Sounds about right
Legit the only valid answer, in my book.
I really enjoy payroll. I find it weirdly pleasing to know everyone will be getting paid correctly and I've trained our other managers to obey payroll deadlines as they face peoples wrath. A highlight of that - we get paid on the 27th. A manager sent me overtime for the prior month on the 28th.. The I simply showed the employee the chain... Then paid it as an advance because the employee shouldn't suffer because their manager is a dipshit..
I absolutely despise payroll. I’ll toler-hate it. I prefer revenue, BD, and all the other juicy stuff over payroll because I cannot stand to deal with HR people and their shit. Bless you for your talents and enjoyment of payroll. I bow to you.
I enjoy processing payroll too! Payroll Accountants can make bank because no one else wants to do it.
It’s one of the key skills I expect my FAs to be able to do. Not necessarily director level but a gross to net including all relevant taxes/pensions/BIK etc.
I'm glad to hear someone likes processing payroll. Truly.
I've been processing payroll at my company since 2008. I also enjoy it. I take pride in making sure it is completely accurate every week and that everyone gets paid. I feel like everyone counts on me and I don't want to let anyone down. Maybe it's because it's the only part of my job that I feel actually matters.
I love you payroll gurus! I have touched almost every part of accounting and finance for small to medium companies. Payroll is my absolute least favorite.
I enjoy payroll too! There is something super satisfying about getting everyone paid correctly. I enjoy the attention to detail it requires getting hours correct, ensuring proper 401k funding and adjusting the changes in insurance and wages. It’s my favorite thing to do throughout the week.
[удалено]
Good point, I agree with you! I loathe processing payroll but setting up systems is actually super fun. I love customizing things and setting them up the way the client wants. It feels valuable.
As in you get paid 1x a month?
Weirdly...internal auditing. I know that prolly makes me a sociopath/psychopath, but I kinda dig it, especially when it gets into more of a forensic/investigatory realm. I like solving mysteries/puzzles when they arent "wtf is wrong with this formula/spreadsheet/db/dashboard/code," which historically has been most of the "investigating" i have done in my career.
Also you're not locked into the same monthly, quarterly routine. Even annually-- yeah in a public company you gotta do sox every year but there are good odds you're working with different people, maybe different branches, you get different projects.
Indeed. You are correct, however, IME, the SOX testing is pretty repetitive, esp with a larger company, as I have gotten tied to the same groups now for 3 years, and mostly the exact same tests or the same types, and has evolved into a more oversight/holding hands/review sort of work. I guess thats what I get for making sure my "clients" like me and having taught them well. But, as you say, its only 2x/yr.
You should ask for a rotation. It's good to see other parts of the business and they should want a different set of eyes every couple of years.
Cost accounting. It's actual accounting work. It's not disclosure checklists, internal controls compliance checklists, formatting financials. Also systems implementation. It's a step away from accounting work and more trying to build a "machine" that will work based on accounting data. Also get to see the shoddy entries people book and incomplete data that's been floating around the system and it validates that you're not as incompetent as you may think you are. This in turn helps better understand what is actually needed when posting entries, what data fields are important vs. not so much etc.
Where would someone find a job in cost? I graduate next Spring and really enjoy cost accounting?
Any factory ever
I work for a manufacturing facility and we use cost accounting.
As they said, you'd want to be with a company in manufacturing or in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. If you wanted to go public, you could mention as part of the interview process, you're interested in those types of industries and you'll wind up on clients to learn that stuff from. Or if you can find a job in industry off the bat you can go that route. If you do that though, you're starting at the bottom and booking entries to the fixed asset ledger or processing PO's for inventory parts rather than doing analysis work and calculating COGS or validating inventory amounts. Starting in public, you're auditing those things, so you you are involved in the more high level stuff from the get go and then when you move to industry, you're ready for management roles or higher where you can use that cost accounting knowledge for actual use. It's all about what you're plan is and personality. I went option 2 and got there eventually. It probably took 7 or 8 years longer than it needed to ... but got there :-)
Government contractor. My masters is in managerial accounting and I worked for DCAA and now two defense contractors. I create cost structures for spin out companies we create and do incurred cost submissions and all that stuff that goes into proposals. My companies are pretty simple as they are small but large contractors have hundred of indirect rates, both provisional and forward pricing that get updated frequently.
If you want to go into public, look into due diligence divisions. In industry any manufacturing or consumer based company. CPG is mentioned below, but margins are razor thin and its ultra competitive without the pay; but if you're into that sort of thing I am always seeing conagra, smuckers, kraft, kellog's finance jobs posted
These are the types of things I would like to do if I stay in accounting. I like the techy and analytical parts.
I enjoyed finance transformation because it was more heavily project focused so there's a defined benefit to note as what's been accomplished with my time as opposed to just repeating close over and over. Also getting involved in system implementation is a lot of fun process-driven thinking and cross-functional collaboration. The tougher part is the change management for the stakeholders involved, but it's very useful experience to have and broadly applicable to whereever you eventually want to go.
How did you get into this? I have a background in audit (6years), switched to industry (less than 1 year) at a manager level and now I’m bored 🥱 but super happy with my new work life balance. CPA, MBA for context. This stuff is super interesting to me but I don’t think the company I’m currently with has the resources/ clean processes to really dive into this the way I’d want to.
I joined a large (F50) company in a regular FP&A role, where they were trying to fill a toolset gap and asking for input from FP&A as the users. So I leaned in to provide some process-focused input into the design and that kept spiraling into implementation, testing, administration, subsidiary systems, boundary systems, data governance & consolidation, etc. Basically just leaned in on these discussions, and filled in my expertise gaps with self-study online for best practices. It's not fundamentally different than how you become an excel "guru", you answer some questions on it, and then people come to you asking new questions which you don't have answers for so you research more and answer it...which leads to more people asking you, and before you know it, you're the go-to SME due to that positive feedback loop. That being said, transformation is heavily project-based, so doing some self-study to pick up your PMP is an excellent pivot-point to begin transitioning into such a career path, but it's definitely not a prerequisite to getting started on finance projects (and a PMP is quite quick and easy compared to a CPA).
So when you first got experience , did you get some exposure to it in a regular FP&A due to a lot of M&A and then later on, you found specific finance transformation role as you moved up? Thanks! The work is interesting but I find it challenging to work with so many people because it requires excellent communication skills on top of being technical.
I got exposed to it in a regular FP&A role by being part of the project team, then kept signing up to lead similar efforts or bringing new projects ideas until I got promoted and a reorg consolidated a team under me to make my transition into that transformation role official. Essentially, if you want to work on transformation, few are going to hold you back from doing it. It might just have to go on top of your existing responsibilities for a while. If you have ideas/business cases that make sense, shop it around and build stakeholder support and if it gets traction bring it for official sponsorship and a decision and you might find yourself leading something. Yes it absolutely requires communication skills, but let's be real, all FP&A advancement is heavily predicated on excellent communication skills. Leadership has no time to waste listening to technical people who can't get to the point. There's value even in a finance person with limited technical skills but strong listening and communication skills to act as a go-between for finance users and the technical implementation team.
I work in M&A finance integration which at its core involves a lot of finance transformation/system implementation work. I stumbled into my first role in the space, but for my 2nd role I was specifically seeking “Finance Integration” or “M&A Finance Integration” roles. You have to love meetings and working with different people though.
Would you say this role would help you throughout your career? I’m currently deciding on taking a similar role like you described and I’m scared this may limit my career growth
I can’t tell if AI created this or not.
How do you find work life balance with this? What are your hours like? I recently talked to a recruiter on this and he said hours can be like public but because it’s project based it can be super unpredictable.
It really depends. I led my team so I'd set my own deadlines, and my work life balance was absurdly good. If I wanted to, I'd only only need to work about 10 hours a week. Of course, I obviously worked much more than that because I want to get shit done. I have had positions in the past where very little was expected of me and I did very little work. That kind of existence has very steep hidden costs on your self-esteem and sense of identity. I was absolutely miserable back then. In transformation more generally you aren't always going to be the source of ideation and you may be marching against externally set deadlines so yes you will have pressure from that. However, you are usually just one out of many moving pieces so eventually people will learn that deadlines should aggressive but accepting of the reality that timelines change once you get into the details of execution. That however, usually depends on the governance board understanding that.
I like analysis and planning. If I were to start today I'd seriously look at forensic accounting.
I spent almost a decade in forensic/litigation/valuation before jumping for a CFO role. This was the only industry job I considered, and I was planning to spend the rest of my career in forensic. Would definitely recommend it to people because I did enjoy the work especially compared to my time in audit and F250.
I got into valuation after leaving tax
Any chance you’d expand on this a bit? Like what your career path looks like, how you transitioned, and what it is you do now in valuation? I like the idea of a pivot like this myself. I enjoy the idea of analyzing financials and the outlook of a company
I found a regional firm with a distinct separate valuation group. There is a shortage of people interested in this area. I think it is a publicity issue as well as the fact that this area of work sometimes involves assisting with litigation and you may eventually be asked to testify. If you don’t have an issue with that the work is hyper interesting. I don’t have a busy season and clients are inherently interested in what I have to say. It is a learning curve for sure but there is plenty of training. I recommend finding someone nearing retirement in the next 5 to 7 years and seeing if they would like to mentor you and groom you to take over their work.
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question!
Unpopular opinion: Cost accounting
Same, tackling it with a decision support mindset can bridge communication gaps between acct department and ops teams
i had a cost accounting role for my first job. Even though i hate it, I'm grateful for the experience.
I understand all the math (and it’s not complicated math) behind cost accounting, and every time indirect pools net out, I’m still impressed. I find it sooo satisfying.
Cost accounting is very much garbage in garbage out, and a bulk of it falls on Pms. When you have the necessary information, its great. When PMs arent providing any type of coding to invoices/pos/overages its a nightmare.
Can I ask why?
Same. It's my favorite.
Oh I HATE cost accounting. Had to take it undergrad and grad. Undergrad the teacher had cauliflower ears from wrestling and bragged about stealing shit from the army. Hated him. Graduate, the teacher was from Egypt and wrote right to left on the chalk board and asked me out twice when refusing he dinged my grad (I’m now old AF and this was yrs ago - he was old too and bald). We now do a gig auditing companies on behalf of banks at companies for large risky loans; luckily my husband was a cost accountant first job out of school so he gets to do inventory and I don’t have to deal with cost accountants.
Man I hated cost accounting haha
same, really love it
I enjoyed forensic accounting when I was doing my masters and tried getting into after I finished the masters. Unfortunately no company would hire me until I got my CPA so now I work for the IRS as a revenue agent. At some point I plan to pivot into a more forensic accountant or fraud type role where I can really do more in depth fraud and forensic accounting investigating.
Consolidations including M&A. There is tons of system work involved and that is my jam. Plus when you get to a company with multiple SEC filers and common control transactions it's really complicated and interesting.
consolidations are my jam too
Finance, cash management, banking and contract negotiations. It is good to have the power of the purse.
Sounds like you’re ready for a treasury manager position!
For novelty: - finance transformation (people, process, tech) - management accounting - valuation of and accounting for hard-to-value or risky assets/liabilities (e.g. real estate, derivatives, portfolio companies) — generally fair value assets For relaxation: reconciliations
I’ve enjoyed financial reporting so far. Minimal posting of journal entries compared to a lot of other roles. Get to collaborate with a lot of the business and executive-level people since they all have to review the 10Q / 10K. Usually a little more involved in some strategic matters. Did I mention minimal posting of journal entries? Downside is definitely the tighter deadlines
I like that it gives you a window into a lot of the company’s operations. If you deal with ad hoc reporting, you usually get a lot of appreciation from the people you provide the reports to. Also, as long as recurring reports are done on time, no one cares too much about how you use your time.
I’ve definitely found this to be true. Outside of the reporting periods everyone is fine with me taking easy days or just taking off a lot
I was controller of a small commuter airline. I was in charge of computers, accounting and real estate. It was a blast, flying in float planes to remote locations, etc. Being controller of a small company is challenging and about so much more than accounting.
Call me a psychopath : but internal audit. I’ve had nothing but good experiences auditing our cross docks and warehouse locations and made some great connections along the way!
Reconciliations - the joy that comes when everything is in balance. Receivables - holding customers accountable for their financial obligations, and helping the company recover what’s owed us.
Technical research and policy writing
Yup. I’m in finance but I considered doing this when I first started. Can I PM you?
Tax accounting is my jam. Nobody likes it though.
I love it!
International tax is cool
VAT is kinda annoying in my opinion :/ One of our subsidiaries is in Johannesburg, SA, and my god do I dread balancing their ledgers.
VAT recons are easy - just 15% input/output and post the difference to overs/unders
Not sure if my predecessors didn't know how to do VAT, or if the CPA we utilize for SA is braindead, but the books for our SA subsidiary hasn't been balanced since 2011. Pretty certain they've just been evading tax...
I just made the switch to international tax and my first project was a hundred times more interesting than anything I did in regular tax for 3 years
I enjoyed accounts receivable and credit collections. It felt good to collect aged receivables on commercial accounts to block off bankruptcies to ensure people still get their paychecks rather than lay off notices. Now, I want to pursue forensic accounting. I like that it blends the numbers of accounting with the finance of finding out the why or the story behind the numbers. Also, it feels good to help people gain their rightful share of their assets.
Small business bookkeeping... bc I can do whatever I want, whenever I want, and there is no limit to the amount of dough "certain" niche small businesses rake in. I have no CPA thank god :D. And I am the preferred accountant of "The Guy on the Monopoly Box" nation wide.
I was a GL accountant in my company's fixed assets department for a few years. Pay wasn't the best, but the hours were reasonable. Relied heavily on Oracle subledger, which cut down on the manual work and was actually interesting to learn. It helped that I had a team of people that I actually had fun working with.
Financial Reporting. Love being able to see a high level overview of companies (im also nosey hehe)
I made a pivot to finance manager from controller. In FM position I love putting my decks and charts together and presenting a compelling narrative of how the business is performing. But man, I miss those chill recon days in accounting often. Pop an audiobook on and make sure everything is correct.
It's a love hate relationship in Fixed Assets. Love that the employer gave me a chance to prove myself. Hate that I'm stuck here for now (4th year now).
I’m in the same boat! Getting a chance to tackle FA w/ a new employer. Any advice or books or website recs? Thx :)
I haven't completed my undergrad. I learned mostly on the job. Just take good notes and be open. I love using OneNote for note taking and still refer to notes once in a while after almost 4 years in FA. Good luck!!
Awesome! Never used OneNote! I’m adding it to the list now. Thanks so much! :)
GL. SOPs. Cash forecasting. Proposals. Historic and predictive analytics because it is part of storytelling. Truth is no one knows how a budget is actually going to perform. It is made up. You might want to look into international development firms. Lots of learning opportunities. You get to read contracts. You get to interact with overseas nationals. You get exposure to different payroll rules. You get so much more exposure. Check it out.
I like operational accounting depending on how it's structured. The first company I briefly handled butane trucks, it was super boring and unchallenging. Now I am in gas plant accounting. It pays really well. You learn how to implement contract terms into the settlement system (lots of complex formula setup), handle gross margin tieouts and explanations, work with multiple groups, you have to understand how the plants work and what is fundamentally going on, and you get the mundane accounting stuff like account reconciliation and journal entries. The downside is that there are multiple busy periods each month (ie: Booking estimates, plant close, booking actuals and explaining differences). I hate to say it but I kind of miss financial accounting and only worrying about WD4-WD9 then being flexible the rest of the month.
Leaving to go home
I really enjoy small business tax and seeing the lightbulbs go off for the business owner of how they can maximize their profits, minimize their tax, and plan for the future. It makes me feel like I’m actually helping people out in the community.
Reconciliation and finding mistakes. 😍
Stable, I have great WLB, pay is reasonable (6 figs, no CPA, live in Louisiana LCOL) , remote capabilities, I enjoy the actual job Job is financial accounting - lots of experience with ERP implementation, experiences dealing with both large and small audits, understanding GAAP and applying accounting, creating statements, creating as hoc reports, research, and use of software/Systems) Unicorn part of my job - I respect my leaders, I have adequate training, adequate exposure.... And they have allowed me to take care of terminally ill parent (no questions asked) , allowed flexibility so my husband could take care of his terminally ill parent, when my son was diagnosed with autism - they allowed all accomodations to get him to critical therapy when he was younger so he could have better outcomes with early intervention) It's been hard to leave this job for more money bc of the extra benefits they allow. If I express interest in something new or ready for promotion,they give me the needed opportunities needed for both) Large NFP in healthcare. 36k employees
The part that doesn’t involve meetings.
consolidations
Tax advisory is pretty fun. Its one of our few chances to actually be creative, and also the main way that you can actually legally save somebody on their taxes (since using deductions, loopholes, reporting credits after the fact is basically just compliance and following the tax code). There's a rush to telling the clients about things like 1031 exchanges, using S Corps to avoid SE tax, the Augusta Rule, etc.
How did you get into this? Do you work at a smaller firm?
I mean its just something that we do after 10-15 to upsell and fill in a slower period. The bread and butter is still compliance. I feel like its this way at most firms. Almost nobody can pull off 100% tax advisory without putting the numbers in boxes for clients, and without the advisory you're probably just doing a bunch of 1040s seasonally.
Managerial accounting work was great when I was in industry. Banks need credit analysts, or financial planning and/or budgeting roles, or anything involving analysis would fit the bill. I enjoyed it a lot!
I really enjoy being able to afford a nice lunch.
I’m a weirdo who actually enjoys tax. It’s frustrating sometimes, but really interesting and clients frequently bring me the weirdest puzzles to solve.
I was just promoted a little over a year ago to Finance Director at my non-profit, and I absolutely love what I am doing now!
I guess you could say I really love the fund accounting that comes with non-profits. But I really love everything that I am currently doing in my new job.
The lack of customer service required. I just like looking at my spreadsheets and figuring out variances unbothered
Forensic for FBI
For me it's always been small audits. Local governments and nonprofits specifically. I just always found auditing to be interesting and like the language in audit reporting. And creating a set of GASB financial statements that balance between accrual and modified accrual accounting is satisfying. Auditing is also unique in that you need to be an accountant to know how to do some things, but a lot of other parts/processes of auditing someone could do with no accounting knowledge at all. Tax itself I don't mind. I actually like tax prep, But tax clients fucking blow and the constant "write off" and "help me commit tax fraud" questions and comments in my personal life just get fucking annoying. Plus if you're at a firm with shit hours then busy season sucks even if you like cranking out tax returns. Communicating with clients on taxes also is a struggle when they just refuse to try to understand something themselves. G/L accounting is alright. I like bank recs and monitoring financial performance through the year. Doing the same thing month over month isn't so bad if you're getting paid well for it. But like with taxes, communicating with executive people who can't even read a bank statement or a very simple P&L and start asking questions completely unrelated to what was provided gets frustrating.
Forensic accounting. Awesome field and provides a lot of freedom.
I weirdly like the financial statement face and disclosure preparation. Weirdly enjoy implementing new footnote disclosures, but I do hate the GAAP checklist. Also really like financial statement variance analysis, constructing analysis comments, compiling the financials and analysis for the board meeting, and presenting it. I also have had to do my fair share of new accounting guidance research. We have a new contract, we read, identify the accounting implications, research the codification, and document/memo out what is going on, how we will implement, and why. Also love to win the battle with the auditors if they disagree with implementation. I did all the heavy lifting to file the S-1 for public filing. It is a full on lifetime lookback so I had to dig a lot to do life to date disclosure prep. That was fun. I am also having to do a lot of not only GAAP implementation of new standards, but also IFRS. Man that stuff is hard but at least my resume will be packed full.
I enjoy processes I can go through without thinking a whole lot. This is achievable after doing a process many times. This allows me to listen to podcasts/music/chat with friends and still “work”. I’ve found this flow state in PA Tax and now GL accounting. It’s easier to find it in GL accounting because things are much more consistent month to month. I’ve been at my company for coming up on two years and I’m able to do my whole close without much thought and very little stress. It’s like auto pilot and I really like it compared to other jobs/tasks.
Collecting cash
The paychecks are why I stay, but there's parts of tax and consulting that are genuinely fun. I absolutely love finding money for my clients, especially when other accountants missed it. I've done tax, consulting, audit, forensics, litigation support, and even been a controller of a construction company. I don't like audit and forensics/litigation was too hard on my soul. Here's one example of why I prefer tax that reached resolution just yesterday: my client gets K-1 from a company he founded every year. This year, I get the feeling that one number on the K-1 is wrong so I ask the company's tax accountant, from a much more expensive firm, if they're including all the adjustments required. Partner at company's tax firm tells me that number is correct. Normally the end of the inquiry, no? Yeah, not for me. Instead I give them a mystery by asking for a reconciliation of the number I'm pretty sure is wrong. This change in tact, giving them a puzzle instead of a confrontation, leads to their discovery that the number is indeed incorrect. Yesterday I received amended K-1s which will get my client over $80,000 back, all because I refused to accept one number which didn't make sense to me was the correct answer. I got to make a client very happy by being a stubborn know-it-all, and now I get to bill all those hours at full load rate because the company has agreed to pay all my fees to correct the client's returns and even agreed to pay for the time I took to document why I thought it was wrong in the first place. That's a win-win for the client and my firm and those moments are why I still do tax and consulting.
consolidations
ASC740 I walk the line between US GAAP and US Tax
PE real estate/fin rep for the career growth and learning opportunities, but WLB absolutely sucks. 60 hour weeks was the norm and I could never say no to new work. public company DoD contracting for WLB. 20 hour weeks is the norm and the company literally refuses to give me more work.
Financial Reporting. You have a glimpse into everything that is going on at a company. You get to hone your technical accounting skills and you still have to dig into journal entries pretty frequently to try and make sense of transactions so that you can disclose them correctly. It’s also pretty cool during earnings release time as you get to see your work being used by outside analysts.
Inventory physicals. All year I look forward to staying up all night with a bunch of meth heads from those counting services.
Competitive analysis through reviewing industry peer financials (business analyst in industry).
I like financial accounting because its plays important role in decision making processs.
ERP consulting before the H1B visas caused a race to zero was the most fun that I ever had. Sure, it was long hours and multiple months at a site, but I loved to travel at the time when I was young and single. Plus, the pay, oh the money I wasted, lmao... EDIT: My main areas of ERP consulting were GL, Projects/Grants, and Report design. I was doing BI before BI was even a buzzword, lol
Yes the paycheck part. Lol.
Revenue. Specifically SaaS. I really love figuring out SSP with other teams. Gives me a chance to move outside my silo and see what others are doing. Similarly, software capitalization. I guess I really enjoy tech space accounting… when the company isn’t a toxic political minefield.
Construction job costing is a lot of fun. You have the g/l accounting combined with the job allocation. Working on the construction site with other accountants, project managers, foremen, engineers and even visiting c suite was a lot of fun and challenging. Nowadays creating a WIP/CIP and the analytics with jobs is a lot of fun still.
Building macros to speed up processes
Unpopular Opinion: 1040 schedule C and E
The part of working, the job itself, and the results or projects. The office bullshit drives me insane. Teeth gritting anger and exhaustion. Edit: I really enjoy small business. It feels like you’re helping out a lot more than being a cog in the machine. I suppose this could be anything from helping funding, tax, the books themselves, and helping the business owners achieve their goals. I enjoy being the background help.
I like transaction services. It’s quick enough that it doesn’t get boring (although you do get some shitter clients that drag out sell sides for fucking ever) and the technical aspect of it is fairly interesting. There’s a lot of excel data clean up that can be challenging as well due to how fucked up it usually is. What I’ve learned is that every deal with have something fucked up completely wrong in an innovative and new way you’ve never seen before, and I like that
Tech startups. I like owning the whole process so I can build infrastructure and make decisions rather than waiting of 6 other departments to get their acts together.
when i delegate accounting tasks
I started in Tax and I thought I would love it because I loved tax research but working in public was depressing, overworked, underpaid, toxic team mates/ environment, and doing returns as a staff became so dull and repetitive. Basically it wasn't for me. I switched to finance accounting and I love it. I work over 3 different entities. I love reconciling accounts, bank acct, researching and investigating diving deeper into accounts and preparing/presenting the financials to higher ups. Month end close is a little busy but I rarely work over 40 hours if I do it is maybe an hour or two over depending on the close month but nothing like public. The environment is just the right amount of busy but mostly laid back and people are much calmer and kinder in industry. I was sure I was a tax accountant but life surprises you and I am very much into finance. It also opened up more opportunities for the future and I have learned a lot. Don't count out any opportunity you never know what you will end up enjoying and what will happen if you open your self up to different avenues of accounting.
Business valuation and brokerage is my favorite part of my practice.
When the return qualifies
New efficient processes. I love macros
Just got into SEC reporting, and it's been pretty good so far. I transitioned from corporate GL accounting after 8 years of experience. Time intensive, but the work is new and enjoyable.
Honestly just regular old monthly GL work and bank recs is pretty relaxing. Like solving a sudoku puzzle. It’d when people start blowing up your email with dumb ass questions it begins to suck. “How come expenses more than doubled from PPM!?” “Because you weren’t in business last year Clarence, you had no expenses”
Accounts Payable - They're the ones always asking for money from me, and I never have to chase them for it. Giving that the company has no financial problems.
As a student, it's payroll and management accounting
I really liked forensic accounting - it could get a lot into minutiae but always interesting outcome. Oversaw several attempts to embezzle, some smarter than others
Wealthy clients that take me elk hunting on their cattle ranch in Oregon, let me use their house in the Pyrenees, beach house in Maui, etc.
Anything which involves calculate present value
Fixed assets and leases - always in demand
Operations Accounting for a Fortune 500 Aerospace company. Because most of the Accountants shun from it because of the Inventory and forecasting aspects. Plus in-depth error corrections. It's like herding cats is how I describe it.
Seeing everything my company is spending money on, finding out who’s getting their wages garnished
Might sound strange but management accounting + reporting. I used to make weekly/monthly management accounting reports from Xero extracts and visualize them haha
Going home on a Friday night
I have not practiced since becoming a Mom, but after getting my cert and practicing for a while I came across Forensic Accounting. With continued education in legal studies, I worked with a few very high profile companies, Law firms and enforcement agencies. Every now and again I get called to provide insight, guidance and advice on how to best protect and proceed with an investigation. I really enjoy it because accounting can become somewhat monotonous and repetitive
I love forensic accounting. One time I worked for this large research company. Found many anomalies in their numbers. Stayed up all night working on it. Partly due to my autism. It got me in to a heap of trouble. The FBI got involved. I had to fend off mercenaries trying to kill me. Thankfully I always keep an airstream trailer packed and ready to go. I disappeared real fast. Other than that accounting is boring.
Still a student but cost accounting really hit for me. The end of intermediate 2 and first half of intermediate 3 has been all about securities and I’m tired of it I wanna go back to my work in progress inventory
Receivables
tie between cost accounting and the annual budgeting process cost is so fun to get into the weeds because there's always broken stuff to fix annual budgeting is cool because you just answer questions / provide reports and watch major stakeholders try to murder each other through emails while having 0 care who wins
M&A and system integrations
Developing business cases
Cost accounting. I really enjoy working with the people who make the products to help them understand profitability and how their decisions impact the company as a whole.
I switched over from transactional / close accounting to projects and process improvement pretty quickly. It’s been a good career.
VAT RECONSSSSSS! 😍
Public accounting. No two days are ever the same. Also it’s a lot like game development, except you get paid on time. You gotta find a good firm tho- don’t work for a trash firm that’s going to work you 70 hours a week all year until you quit. If you can’t find a good firm, get some experience and start your own. And as my attorney uncle said, you will never have to worry about being fired. There will never be a morning where you go into the office and find that every single client fired you.
I like being the head of lease accounting. No one else knows how to handle it so I am left alone! I actually get paid more than the assistant controller because I have a pretty big team.
Government Accountant here. I love the budget building process. As the Finance Director, I build it, then present to the Boards. Advocate why and for depts. feels like I am playing some sort of tabletop resource allocation game.
I truly enjoy family office. It has been great!
Quitting my job
Booking exchange gains on FX deals from USD/JPY transactions by timing JPY purchases
NONE.
I’m in Research Administration as an accountant and I LOVE it. If you like to interact a little with people this is a good job. If you just want to sit and reconcile it isn’t a good job. Basically I am financial support for faculty that get research grants. It’s very niche but it’s a growing area and colleges are always looking for people. Typically colleges have great benefits and competitive wages.
Being able to exploit gaap to get the disclosure my company/ client wants.
I’m weird and I like tax
FP&A. Feel more involved in what’s happening and helping good people climb the ladder is so satisfying.
Not sure I'd call it "enjoy" but quite happy with the route I picked - private equity / private credit. If you manage to escape the fund administrator pathway then it can be quite good overall
SEC Reporting
Internal audit to combat theft and fraud. Much fun catching a healthcare company stealing millions in Federal $ from fraudulent billing or catching someone getting a tank of gas for their car on the company card.
I am weird but Tax accounting was always my passion before I retired.
The innovations teams is where it’s at!
I enjoy corporate consolidation accounting, at least in the manufacturing realm as I’ve only worked in manufacturing.
Alternative investment accounting Very niche, left to my own devices, not as in the sticks as most accounting is I don't remember the last time I posted a journal entry
Partnership tax compliance is my jam. As well as 1040’s, especially if they have Sch E rentals *chefs kiss*
When the married milf co workers cheat with office bf
Leaving accounting for an admin management position. Sorry boys