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« #34 Saying the Opposite
#36 Please consider the environment before printing this email. »

#35 After Busy Season

Apr 5th, 2009 by pfi

blue_skyAh, April. Typically considered the end of busy season since most companies are on a calendar basis. Accountants in tax are a different story, but all tax does is file for extensions anyways.

Accountants work hard, and accountants certainly drink hard.

Accountants’ lives are defined by busy season. You may think it’s always busy season for accountants, but busy season is the difference between working past midnight and working past dinner. Put another way, it’s the difference between working every weekend and just working till 9pm on Friday.

The after busy season party is the best way for accountants to celebrate the end of yet another crazy year. That is until it’s time for the Q to go out. Accountants are notorious alcoholics (subject for a future post). The after busy season party is where they can get a drink on the company’s tab without having to go back to the office from the bar.

If you have an accountant friend, you can plan on being able to see them once busy season is over. This is pretty remarkable since the most you heard about them was through facebook and instant messaging.

After busy season, accountants typically go to training and scheme for ways to charge clients while being idle.

Tags: #35, After Busy Season, Afterparty

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2 Responses to “#35 After Busy Season”

  1. on 05 Apr 2009 at 11:24 pm1Anon

    Ugh, so true – can’t wait till those extensions are filed!

    #36 Alcohol!

  2. on 06 Apr 2009 at 5:12 am2Anon Acct

    I’ll cheers to that 🙂

  3. on 06 Apr 2009 at 6:12 am3PT

    How dare you demean tax by saying all we do is file extensions! I have been an avid reader of this blog, and I have pointed many of my accountant friends here as well, even though all the posts are directed toward auditors. But that is a terrible insinuation that we do not work during busy season, and I’m extremely irritated. I will not be returning to read any more of your posts.

  4. on 06 Apr 2009 at 7:01 am4sir david tweedie

    dear person above me,

    how can you be offended? all tax does is pretty much file extensions. i post this because i know you will be back here to read it (while filing your extensions..because you have nothing else to do). tax accountants obviously do work during busy season, but look at the numbers…audit fees and consulting fees are where it’s at. you’re just the deformed stepchild…

    boom.

  5. on 06 Apr 2009 at 7:03 am5Mr. SALT

    Some of us do file real returns and not just extensions.

    To be perfectly honest, that is a pretty stupid comment to make

  6. on 06 Apr 2009 at 7:17 am6ach

    ^^ Ya’ll are completely missing the point; pfi is clearly expressing another thing accountants like, which is talking sh*t about other types of accountants.

    Don’t get so pissy, PT. Go start your own blog and you can make it biased towards tax, mkay?

  7. on 06 Apr 2009 at 8:52 am7This Job Sucks.

    Yeah, I really thought that post busy season would be great…but it’s not. Now I work 60 hours instead of 80, and I can take work home with me instead of coming to the office every weekend. Super.

  8. on 06 Apr 2009 at 9:36 am8Auditor!

    End of busy season happy hour in a poor economy means drink as much as you can as fast as you can until the budget is met. We didn’t have budgets in the past… well at least not ones that were met within an hour. And I’m at a big 4 firm! Luckily I drink like a fish 🙂

  9. on 06 Apr 2009 at 12:31 pm9Thirsty and Irritated

    With the current economic conditions, we are 10 days away from April 15 with no word of our after busy season party. Budget cuts and squeezes have apparently eliminated our drink on the company’s dime.

    To add salt to the wound, we were also limited to beer and cheap wine at X-Mas.

    The downhill slide continues.

  10. on 06 Apr 2009 at 12:50 pm10Idontdotaxes

    I don’t know what y’all are talking about, I am not working that many hours, business is slow, and there are not that many clients left. Where I work, people are fighting over over. If you guys have that much work, then be thankful that you do, it means job security..!!

  11. on 06 Apr 2009 at 1:04 pm11Idontdotaxes

    Correction- I meant to say, fighting over work.

  12. on 06 Apr 2009 at 1:27 pm12B

    PT, you should chill out. I’m in tax and I wasn’t offended!

    That being said, my personal opinion of why tax > audit?
    Auditors’ clients hate them.
    We, on the other hand, are the ones who help our clients give as little money as possible to the IRS.

    Happy Almost-End-of-Busy-Season, everyone!!

  13. on 07 Apr 2009 at 7:06 am13Lazybummm

    How in the hell do I find a firm with no busy season? The end of the busy season is an accounting urban legend. 12/31 clients, quarterly reports, tax season, 6/30 clients, interim testing, rinse, repeat.

    There are times of the year when I can get homebefore the sun sets (an example would be when the sun sets after 8PM in the summer) …but an 8 to 5 work day is a pipe-dream I often fantasize about.

  14. on 07 Apr 2009 at 12:00 pm14DougFresh

    I will be plastered drunk by about 7 pm on April 15th. Righ after I finish up all my EXTENSIONS!

  15. on 08 Apr 2009 at 9:10 am15Big4Tax

    Other people get New Year’s Eve and St. Patrick’s Day to get sloshed. Tax accountants get April 15th. But only after we file all of our extensions. (Though this year we’re going to be buying our own drinks and e-filing state extensions from whatever bar has free wifi.)

  16. on 08 Apr 2009 at 4:48 pm16Big4Audit

    “After Busy Season party”?!? More like “After Busy Season layoffs”…Tax is lookin’ pretty good right about now!

  17. on 09 Apr 2009 at 9:28 am17Top5Tax

    I WISH we were filing more extensions!!! In this time, it is job security!

    Either way, I will be drunk on April 15, even if the firm isn’t sponsoring the party this year. And then April 16th, I head to Vegas for the weekend to unwind!! Then it will be back to the grind to pass the CPA exam! One down, 3 to go!

  18. on 09 Apr 2009 at 2:26 pm18PJ

    I work for a Big Four firm in tax. Our utilization is as high or higher than the average audit in our office. That’s because this time of year we’re coming in to bail out all the audit teams that can’t figure out taxes (>95% of the teams) and filing extensions, and state returns, and amended returns, and… Well yah, it’s a lot.
    Anyways, at the end of the day, that’s immaterial because this site rocks, even if pfi is an audit snob. :-p

  19. on 12 Apr 2009 at 12:27 pm19Taxesareyourproblem

    PJ, why should the audit team care about taxes, they’re your problem. If regular auditors started worrying about the work that their tax teams did, they would be tearing their hair out at the state of the average tax team’s audit work.

  20. on 13 Apr 2009 at 10:07 am20zbow5

    First of all, who gets offended by a joke web-site…you’re a tax accountant (as am i)… get used to it..there is noone in this world except rich people and other accountants that find our job cool…

    Secondly, to respond to the person’s ridiculous quote in number 4 (i will post for everyone’s reference)…

    “tax accountants obviously do work during busy season, but look at the numbers…audit fees and consulting fees are where it’s at. you’re just the deformed stepchild…

    boom.”

    What a laughable comment. No doubt that audit fees and consulting fees bring in large amounts of ADDITIONAL $$$ for firms, but whom are the first to go when the economy tanks? Answer: auditors and consultants. Consultants are no longer used because the spending is optional. Secondly, they fire half the auditors and still expect the same amt of work to get done with half the people…

    So I guess I’ll just enjoy my tax returns and job security…

    BOOM!!!

  21. on 15 Apr 2009 at 8:40 am21D$

    I love how defensive the tax accountants all got. You guys give us a bad rep.

  22. on 16 Apr 2009 at 8:58 am22gonowheresystems

    I think there are vague plans for some kind of official after busy season party, but no announcement yet, and I can guarantee it will be very low-key compared to those of the past. It’s funny how many things mentioned on this site have disappeared or been greatly reduced over the last six months or so. Maybe they can change the name of it to “Things Accountants Like, but No Longer Have.” It’ll be an interested historical document of how accounting firms were prior to Depression 2.0. “Grandpa Accountant, tell us about those national trainings you used to go to….”

    Guess tax people might be less busy in smaller offices. but we had a ton of people staying till 3 AM, etc. Still, people who have been around awhile say it was much easier than busy seasons past.

    Not offended, though…I’m proud to be a tax accountant, the “slacker” of public accounting.

  23. on 19 Apr 2009 at 9:56 am23boowie

    This blog is getting really sucky.

  24. on 20 Apr 2009 at 10:28 am24Auditor!

    boowie – quit reading it then!

  25. on 20 Apr 2009 at 4:11 pm25boowie

    Why does this blog suck so bad? Some of the posts had some wit and potential. However, lately they’ve become so lame.

  26. on 07 May 2009 at 1:09 pm26gonowheresystems

    BTW, busy season has been over for about a month now, and still no party.

  27. on 22 Jul 2009 at 1:32 pm27PINK SLIP

    You gotta love PwC’s bate & switch change to the ranking system. It’s like changing the rules to the game at half-time. That firm has got to be the most sinister, untrustworthy P.O.S. out there. PwC’s end of busy-season consisted of handing out phony performance related PIPs and laying peeps off.

  28. on 31 Aug 2009 at 9:19 am28Tax Guy Jase

    Oh, come on – we all know what Tax and Audit does. Tax files extensions, then panics to get everything by September or October. Audit just sits on their ass and waits for the client to produce a form that shows the number they want to fulfill some “test” that makes all of the financials warm and fuzzy. Let’s not give EITHER side more credit than they deserve.

    But everyone does drink though…

  29. on 21 Apr 2010 at 10:02 pm29random big4

    I’ve never seen a BS like this – and yes 95% of audit teams don’t know
    $|-|it about taxes – that’s why tax guys have a job!! (Thank god for my tax team(s))
    I’ve been drinking since the large accelerated filer deadline, but I’m still doing 70’s.
    Quality work fur sur. Hopefully the investing public understands they are relying on information reviewed by drunk recent college grads that haven’t slept in 4 weeks, who are managed by narrowly sober managers who, when alert and not dozing in the chair, are relatively effective.

  30. on 08 Jan 2012 at 4:13 am30Jason

    Hi all , well i have been reading those comments and i have to say its really good that i finally found some articles and comments that really expresses how i feel about my job which is ofcourse an accountant , keep it flowing guys its really healthy to talk about what you like & dislike about your job but in the end you just have to admit that we accountants like to do it between spread sheets 😀

  31. on 18 Feb 2014 at 5:17 am31Richard

    I’m not an accountant or CPA but just ran upon this blog by accident and read enough to know it very much like most other blogs. Not very eduacational for the most part unless you weed out all the BS. But there’s always somthing we can learn from the big picture of a blog and they are entertaining. Just dont form an opinion on the comments of a few. Except for mine if course.

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