#44 Using the Right Pen Color
Jul 22nd, 2009 by pfi
Accountants have a need to follow the rules. It creates order, and life is just simpler when everything goes the way it should.
While work never goes the way it should, accountants can at least rely on the established pen color hierarchy. The pen color hierarchy varies company to company, even office to office.
When followed at the office, it is important that this color code is never, ever broken. Having the pen color rule broken is akin to ghost ticking (tickmarking without having done the work).
Accountants will adopt a number of pen colors such as red, green, blue, black, etc. to represent different levels of seniority. At a company, an accountant could start out with a green pen. They would never be allowed by their peers to use any pen whose ink is not green until they get promoted in title. By following this rule consistently, it makes the seniority clear for who worked on a given task.
The pen color, not what is written, defines the accountant. Accountants (as sad as this sounds, it’s true) long for the day when they are allowed to use the next pen color.
New accountants who use the wrong color are harshly scolded and then learn the color hierarchy fast. On the other hand, interns who use the wrong pen color are considered amusing since interns are held to a different standard.
If you ever get an accountant a gift (and for some reason think a pen is an acceptable gift to give), you need to be aware of what color is the right pen color. Failure to pick the right color results in an awkward gift that an accountant may not be able to use for years. Even worse, the pen color may be considered beneath them.
I have been out of public accounting for 5 years now and still use red pens religiously as that is what I used as an Associate at KPMG…
Green pens for review!
that’s weird.
With the jobs I’ve had it’s highlighters and color-coding things like bank recs. Woe be unto us if we run out of any of the colors, especially the ones that only come one in an assortment package, like green.
OMG I thought I was the only one with these lingering issues. Still haven’t gotten over the eraser requirements and Pentel lead sizes .5 versus .7 and blue lead for review and the pen issues. Haven’t been practicing in a CPA firm for more than 10 years but can’t shake this stuff.
Love this post and your content! So glad I found you via Twitter.
The Big Four office I worked in went as follows:
Red Pencil for interns/associates
Blue Pencil for seniors
Green Pencil for managers/senior managers
Black Pen for partners; only they use pen because whatever a partner writes is always correct. Hence, no need for an eraser.
What are those Pen things?
If we’re still working on manual workpapers, we use pencils, cause we know someone is going to ask us to change things.
But, yeah, we’ve got the red -> dark blue -> green -> brown -> light blue hierarchy, that gets totally thrown out the window when we start working on electronic workpapers…
I switch ‘em up. I’m such a rebel.
The contributor of this blog definitely works at KPMG, because most other firms don’t do paper audits anymore that required colored pens. No wonder I was able to relate to every single of of these entries.
@KPMGer My thoughts exactly.
Ah yes the red ticking pencil. I feel so low on the hierarchy.
Gotta use the Prismacolor pencils.
Red – initial work/referencing
Green – review
Dark blue – top review
Light blue – smarmy comments that don’t copy when you scan the workpapers….
We don’t use the pen heirarchy system (or maybe we do and THAT’S why I sometimes get awkward glares in the hall).
Can’t stand the blue pencil for review. How the heck am I supposed to read that? And now that I’m reviewing – yay for moving up the food chain – I felt guilty for using red pen, like I’m going to give the preparer some grade school complex. Then one of our managers started using red pen and I don’t feel so bad anymore.
Outlying data point…I use a Ticonderoga 1.0 mm pencil; no wonder I never made it as an auditor!
I was lookig for the answer to a question, that columnar paper why is it the color green?
As an auditor since 1989 thought this was humorous. We were trained to never use a pen, only pencil. The theory was that pen was for bookkeepers who are convinced they are never wrong and pencil was for auditors who knew better. Now of course it is all paperless so the hierarchy is set in the client properties for all to see.
I actually wasn’t aware of this. Not an accountant but the company I work for sells pens, and some are given to accountants – maybe we are helping some of our clients offend “you lot”!
I am an accounting major and yall are scaring the shit out of me. Is it really this bad? Not the pen thing.. thats ok. The drinking thing is acceptable too but if you don’t work for a gigantic corporation is there any hope for happiness and general enjoyment from this occupation?
I was taught the bookkeeper always works in pen, and the auditor in pencil, so that the auditor has a proper record of the bookkeeper’s process and not that the bookkeeper was smug; I’m sure they’d prefer to work in pencil too but they are only to amend, never erase, an entry.
Hope for happiness and general enjoyment outside a major corporation is quite high assuming you chose the field for more than its earning and job security potential.
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When I first started out it wasn’t so much a pen colour hierarchy but there were certainly difference reasons for using different colours:
Red: Referencing
Blue: Concluding
Green: Tickmarks
Black: Notes and intro to a work paper
Not realising this was the strict colour palette of my workplace, I started using my awesome fine tip faber castell coloured pens to make my work papers colourful and boy did I get a roasting from my manager!