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Anyone who has studied economics knows about economic cycles. Right now things are clearly rather absolutely horrible - it seems like everyone, including fellow blogger Joe is reporting layoffs . Francine touches on the subject while going into huge depth on how a CFO should handle their Big 4 service provider. It's easy to be stuck in the death spiral of pessimism at times like this. Even though, as an Economics Major, you know that things will at some point things always improve. But when? When prices fall low enough, perhaps. For now, less driving, more walking. As everyone cuts back to save money, that's causing everyone else to cut back even more. It's bizarre, but at some point it should stop. Some people out there who saved up money will swoop in and start buying things when their prices have fallen low enough. How low? Who knows. That's the giant question mark billions would love to have answered. Looking at how things are progressing, yes, people who didn't...
Seriously - check this site out - many more examples there. The above is from that site. It's the lolcatz meme applied to the financial meltdown. Nice. It reminds me of the lolcactus I saw on vacation a year ago in Europe. I knew I would upload it one day. The cactus doesn't make the market tragedy hilarious, of course, but I might as well share it now rather than later.
One of the rites of passage for CA students is filling out their professional experience declaration. Every province in Canada has its own twist, but in Ontario you fill out the CA Student Experience Certification Report.
One of the trickiest questions you'll be challenged with - aside from pulling the math from your timesheet reports for the 30 months you spent getting your 2500 hours - will be a simple bit of trivia.
What's my firm's ICAO #?
Sure, you could call them to ask. And if you're lazy you will. Or maybe you know someone in your company who recently figured it out the hard way.
But since you're already here, read on to learn the quick and easy way.
I have, not surprisingly given my little writing-break, an extensive backlog of topics to write about. I'm going to do two things right now: shine the spotlight on an aspiring CA , and answer someone's question. Judging a book by its cover, " Second Rate CA " has an excellent dark sense of humour, and the wicked good funny writing there supports that view . The writer is going through the difficult process of getting that all-important start on the road to having a CA. I wish lots of luck towards anyone in that challenging position, and especially those who are writing and sharing their thoughts. It's a valuable service. I myself did some extensive travelling and worked at a place best described as "anything but an approved CA training office", until I accomplished all I could there, and at the same time successfully landed my current job. Travel is always an option; it can be surprisingly affordable too. The question to answer, on the other hand, is from...
The following will make little or absolutely no sense unless you read this first. Or unless you enjoy far-fetched pirate stories How to Enjoy the End of a Summer Long Weekend - Prelude Agree with your girlfriend that you need to get out of the city. Even with all its parks, Toronto lacks certain things you can only find in the countryside. Like fields full of fresh produce. Set out for a promising venue, gorge yourself on the last raspberries of the harvest and the best french fries you’ve ever had in Durham region , and, realizing it's still very early, decide what to do with the rest of the day. You mean people actually commute to work in Uxbridge? Looking at the map, note that you’re not far from the home of your friend’s oddly located company. Send you friend a text message asking for details about your next destination. Look for the town’s famous bakery. Note that it’s closed for the holiday. “No Empire Cookies for us”, the travellers cry. Pay a visit to the ice cream shop instead...
Much ink has been spilled, and electrons zapped, discussing the merits of working at a Big Four firm versus smaller firms. To get started, check out a post by the esteemed Steve McIntyre-Smith who writes about the upsides of working in a smaller firm . To brutally paraphrase his argument, if you want to be an accountant who helps small and mid-sized businesses with their numbers, it's the way to go to get experience doing the nitty gritty technical experience that they'll find indispensable. His post is aimed not at students, though, but rather at CAs who are looking to sell themselves to smart students looking for work. As a result, he of course doesn't spend much time on the Big Four side's arguments, because to those with experience they're well known. For the sake of my many readers who are still in school or about to start their first big time jobs, in a nutshell the upside to the Big Four side boils down to the fact that you deal with Big Audits, and the associated...
When talking about the "school" side of accounting, I mostly write about the CA exam process, because that's what I'm familiar with. It's fun to talk to students who are working hard on becoming Chartered Accountants. But in the US things are very different, as I've learned from paying attention to learned people like Francine . If you're an American reader looking for hints on becoming a Certified Public Accountant - a designation I'm not 100% familiar with by far, then you don't have to look far - The Journey to Success site - itself a home to some useful hints - recently put out a call for more CPA exam blogs and one gentleman happily obliged. His site's only been up a month, but it already has a pretty handy primer on the CPA exam process for those who know very little about how to get started. Hopefully you'll find that helpful. It took me a while to find facts for the next point - while doing research for my 'bonus' fact I came...
If you're not familiar with CA firms, you may be a little surprised to know that there's such a thing as "recruiting season." Employers will come around university and college campuses during set times of the year - both in Canada and the US - to interview potential employees en masse . The phenomenon of ‘campus visits’ is especially pronounced in the US where there’s a plethora of colleges to visit - smaller campuses often miss out on visits from the Big Four and students who want to get noticed with an in-person interview end up having to travel to a campus visit taking place at another larger school. A reader asks what to do if you had the misfortune to miss out on recruiting season - or were simply unsuccessful in the hunt for a position . Above: Non-big-four recruiting poster in Buffalo's airport. Photo credit: Krupo (as usual) I'm grouping both scenarios together because the methods of dealing with either scenario are ultimately the same. Figure out what...
Way back in university I developed an intense dislike for psycho activists. You know the kind. You say something innocuous. Say, for example, that they should buy the green bike instead the blue one, and they start screaming "HATE CRIME!!!!!!" in your face. Above: Alternate Strike Vehicle #1 The news from Steve Munro's blog is worth reading, especially the comment by an operator - click here - who explains that it looks like another conspiracy by the psycho activists . As a T.T.C. Operator, let me give you my take on this situation. I was shocked when I found out from Bob’s phone call that the members voted against the contract. 3/3/3 increases, upgrades to benefits, and most importantly, no concessions. However, this wasn’t good enough for the maintenance department. They want guaranteed lifetime jobs. The commission is buying new vehicles and like all new vehicles they have warranties. The maintenance people don’t like this as they think they will be laid off because the...
This is what I think of when you say consulting . The link pops up straight to a chart outlining a ten point scale showing how close someone is to quitting. Despite what you're about to read below, this is one scenario where you can actually replace many of the instances of the word "consultant" with "auditor" in the above linked article. Some will argue it's a matter of semantics between to distinguish between "advisory" and "consulting" work, as the Big 4 - aside from Deloitte - have largely shed their consulting practices. Yes, "just legalistic semantics." Until you identify the mindset present somewhat satirically presented by Getting Drunk in First Class . Above: And they also often stay in posh downtown hotels. Aside from being a way of doing business where you're actually setting up and running things versus just testing and suggesting, consulting has also acquired a kind of a bad rep from what I've seen . Just pick...
Two links to share today. First, some more of my writing at a place other than www.krupo.ca - I was invited by Nancy Zimmerman to write a guest post on taxes and was happy to share some tips. Go here to check it out . Another interesting article is this essay from the CEO of Stardock on piracy . One of his most clever points is a stark admonishment of the pirates running amok in China and other countries where intellectual property laws are a complete failure. A quote: We also don't make games targeting the Chinese market When you make a game for a target market, you have to look at how many people will actually buy your game combined with how much it will cost to make a game for that target market. What good is a large number of users if they're not going to buy your game? And what good is a market where the minimal commitment to make a game for it is $10 million if the target audience isn't likely to pay for the game? If the target demographic for your game is full of pirates...
The table's starting to fill up. Excellent. I've been slowly updating my little link list lately, adding in more sites. After noting earlier with Neil that it's awfully quiet out there, anonymous accountant is suddenly back and Life of an auditor is brimming with lively conversations and topics. Which is perfect. Couple that with more experienced people like Bill , Dennis and Francine - who is enjoying a huge traffic spike of her own - and this is a pretty healthy community. There's several other sites brimming with useful information, of course, but it's late - you can find them on my link list or on the other sites' link lists. More than enough to keep you busy.
Wander over to Growth in Value if you'd like to read some of my comments about the new TFSA - tax-free savings accounts - which Canadians get to play with starting next January. I have something much more urgent to share with you. A story from my childhood. As a young boy, I found that some of my snooty friends in elementary school called Garfield juvenile and not as funny as the Far Side and other more 'sophisticated' cartoons. And, as much as I hated to admit it, they were right. The older you get, the less amusing the orange fat cat got. This all changed when Penny Arcade shared "Garfield without Garfield" . "Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing...
At some point in time Dennis' site led me to stumble upon tastytax.com, which is run by a tax lawyer out to provide some useful advice . The page I linked to is cool in itself because it shares a thirteen-point list of suggestions on how to manage your small business' records if your business is really small (so you can't afford a full-on part-time bookkeeper), and organizing your records isn't your strong suit. The advice is both straightforward and clever. Like remembering to open a separate business account to keep your personal and business funds from getting mixed up in case the tax man comes around and audits you. Four of the thirteen points are actually just steps to point out how simple it is to keep track of how much money you earned in sales. I found the writing to be simultaneously clever, interesting, and hilarious: Get those carbon pad receipt books from Staples or wherever. Write “2008″ on the outside of them. Try if you can to put the dates on the receipts...
Easy answer. This one. My first response to his associated related "Recruit Genie" site was "BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA" coupled with, "was this designed by a 12 year old with too much time on his hands?" "Strange as it may seem, employees don't have many free speech rights, especially when it comes to making negative, public comments about their current employer. That's just fine with us..." No. No. Stop. Which former Soviet Republic did you grow up in? How many cold winters did you experience in Siberia? Yes, badmouthing your boss is not something that's a Good Idea, but coming out like the all-knowing Oracle with your own commentary is worse than amateur. It looks like the sit is really a Borat DVD easter egg or something similar. It gets funnier, though. This is worse than the sales pitches I attempted for my college newspaper back in the day: Job posts are always free, but you can enhance your presence and your recruitment brand with an inexpensive...
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