Here's a fun read from Business Insider: I'm happy I got laid off from Deloitte. The physical and mental toll wasn't worth the paycheck.
25-year-old former analyst Cierra Desmaratti, who spent a year at Deloitte before she was laid off, says:
I was onboarded at Deloitte's Chicago headquarters in September 2021 alongside 80 to 90 fresh hires. I remember looking around at my peers dressed in pressed suit jackets and designer pieces and feeling immediately out of place. The T.J. Maxx clothes I wore had been a splurge, but I no longer felt like they were adequate.
I tried making small talk with those around me and quickly realized appearances weren't the only way I stuck out. Everyone seemed to be bonding over their big-name colleges and Big 4 internships, exchanging anecdotes I simply couldn't relate to.
...
At one of my first happy hours, I was sitting at a table with colleagues when a senior consultant remarked that intelligent people wouldn't bother engaging in silly things like crystals and astrology. Taken aback but eager to engage in some playful discourse, I mentioned I considered myself intelligent but also quite intuitive and spiritual. The table fell silent until the senior consultant awkwardly acknowledged my comment and changed the subject.
That moment, though small, reinforced the idea that my success in the workplace was contingent upon my ability to acquiesce to the social norms. I honestly didn't feel like there was a way to thrive in a more masculine environment without entirely abandoning my femininity, so I tucked away my spiritual, bubbly side.
While I suspect not many readers can relate to the woo anecdote, surely most can relate to this part:
As the busy season ramped up in January, work became all-consuming. I started working 11-hour shifts and immediately felt myself barrelling into burnout.
I didn't feel safe confiding in anyone about my workload concerns because everyone around me seemed to wear their burnout as a badge of honor. I'd see my boss work long hours and hear colleagues laugh off the stress, saying, "That's just Deloitte."
Related to the above tale, Kimberly Tara, Founder & CEO of The Tara CPA Firm LLC in New Orleans, talks to the Cincinnati Business Courier about her early days in public accounting:
After an abrupt switch to accounting from chemical engineering far too late into my college career, I knew I had finally found my calling. What I didn't realize was how male-dominated the public accounting world still was; but I soon realized why.
In my third busy tax season, I watched a pregnant manager in the tax department FaceTime her child to sleep for the fifth night in a row. That was the moment that I realized public accounting -- more specifically making partner in a public accounting firm -- was no longer my goal.
Finance teams have just five years to transform or risk becoming irrelevant, according to a new report by ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and Chartered Accountants ANZ in association with PwC:
Drawing on insights from over 150 finance professionals and 2,300 survey responses, the report shows that businesses now demand a broader skill set from their finance teams, as retrospective reporting and traditional approaches to planning and forecasting alone no longer meet key decision-makers' needs. Being pre-emptive is the order of the day.
The report highlights some ongoing concerns raised by survey respondents:
CFO wrote up the results of the Jefferson Wells' 2024 Internal Audit Priorities survey:
More than two-thirds (66%) of internal audit teams say their capabilities do not fully align with their organization's priorities.
With a large portion of CFOs already outsourcing many of their accounting functions, it's no surprise that internal auditors have seen a stark rise in organizations using external support to supplement areas where their labor or technology can't get the job done alone.
Nearly three-quarters (74%) of internal audit leaders say they're now using external support to meet demands. That's up 54% from 2023. It's worth noting that the trend before 2023 was declining slightly year-over-year, down approximately 2% in 2022 and 6% in 2023.
BDO Global has walked away from messy Indian education technology company Byju after the client failed to provide the right paperwork (that sounds way less messy than it actually is, btw), reports Reuters:
Byju's is fighting several battles including the insolvency proceedings and a $1 billion claim from U.S.-based Glas Trust.
BDO was appointed auditor earlier this year after Byju's' former auditor, Deloitte, left the company, citing several issues with the company's financial reporting.
The auditor said in a letter to the company dated Tuesday that despite "inordinate" delays in filing its financials for the year ended March 2023, management had provided inadequate support to complete the audit.
Byju hit back and said that BDO made the mistake of trying to get the documents from the company's board, which has been suspended.
The letter should have been addressed to the insolvency professional in control of the firm at the time, the edtech firm said.
Byju CEO Byju Raveendran claimed the auditors requested a big no-no:
Byju's audit firm BDO had suggested backdating of reports, which the company refused, and their resignation is more of optics, a top official of the edtech firm alleged on Saturday.
"They have asked us to do multiple backdating of reports. All that happened recently. We did not agree. We have nothing to hide," he said.
ICYMI: EY UK might appoint a woman to lead the firm and of course the media is making a BFD out of this.
In 2023, EY named Janet Truncale as its next chief executive officer. The move was a landmark appointment at the top table of the professional services industry - with none of the Big Four auditing and advisory firms having previously been headed by a woman beyond an interim capacity.
They must mean a Big 4 firm has never had a woman CEO on a global capacity because, uh, Deloitte's Cathy Englebert exists and she became the first woman to lead a US professional services firm almost ten years ago. Is she still commissioner of the WNBA? remind me to look that up later.
One year on, EY could be about to see the same thing in its UK practice. EY's UK business is the second-largest firm in its international network, behind the US - and to date, it has never had a woman in its top role. But a shortlist on which two-thirds of the candidates are women suggests this could be about to change.
Consulting.uk gives a nod to PwC's leadership contest (see also: People Are Accusing Middle East Partners of Sexism in the Senior Partner Vote at PwC UK from us) and suggests Middle Eastern partners won't be blocking any women this time.
Earlier in 2024, meanwhile, PwC also looked poised to appoint a woman to its top role with two women on another three-person shortlist. However, the firm eventually plumped for Marco Amitrano as its new UK and Middle East chief instead.
Despite the conservative stylings of its rivals, however, the EY selection process differs from PwC's, so it would be wrong to assume a similar outcome this time on that basis just yet. While PwC allows all of its partners to vote in leadership elections, the succession process at EY sees an elected partner forum and the firm's international bosses given final say.
Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI) (NYSE: PM) today warns about the high levels of contraband and counterfeit cigarettes in the European Union (EU) year over year, with 35.2 billion illicit cigarettes consumed in the region in 2023, accounting for 8.3% of total consumption in the EU, an increase of 0.1 percentage point compared to 2022.
PMI praises European law enforcement agencies for their continued crackdown on criminal networks that profit from the illicit tobacco trade, and calls on regulators to advance a sensible, data-driven policy approach that puts consumers -- and public health -- front and center and that effectively addresses the challenges posed by the millions of adult smokers who are turning to the black market rather than quitting or, for those who do not quit, switching to smoke-free products.
The results of the 2023 KPMG annual study on illicit cigarette consumption, commissioned by Philip Morris Products SA, revealed that the illicit market in the EU continues to be a major threat for public health, public security, and states' economies.
Illicit cigarette consumption in Europe [PDF]
BF Borgers is in trouble again but honestly, who cares? I'm half hoping this guy has the balls to show up somewhere and start trying to practice somewhere again.
Canadian Accountant:
One year after reaching a $1.2M settlement with American accounting firm Marcum LLP over unlicensed work, CPA Ontario has prosecuted an American firm, BF Borgers CPA PC, and its principal, Ben Borgers, of Lakewood, Colorado, for offences under the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario Act, 2017, and the Public Accounting Act, 2004.
Borgers and the Firm pleaded guilty to engaging in public accounting work in Ontario, including performing the audit of a reporting issuer, without registering with the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario or holding a Public Accounting License in Ontario.
In May: The SEC Just Charged Trump Media's Spelling-Challenged Auditor with "Massive Fraud"
OK that's it. Seeing a lot of discussion about PwC UK's return-to-office happening in non-accounting corners around the internet, we'll be talking about that shortly. If you see something interesting, have a topic we should cover that we aren't, have a tip to share, or just want to complain, feel free to reach out via email or text any time.
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