u/A_D_T_R

I come from a background of big firms. I spent almost a decade at EY then was a non equity partner for a couple years at a $200M firm before now being a partner at a 30 person firm.

The other partners are all young like me (less than 40), but either grew up at this firm, came from another small firm, or only spent 1-2 years at a larger firm.

I feel like I’m hitting a cultural difference.

I learned from day 1 when proposing for a new client to map it out. I had excels that I would enter the time I thought to do everything including silly things like how much time going back and forth in year 1 trying to understand the business/return with the client. Then it would calculate the fee based on various levels hourly rates. I would then present a range to the client in the engagement letter. For example say I came up with $10k. My engagement letter would say I estimate to do these services to cost $9,000 -$11,000.

Once the work was done if the WIP was $9,000 I still would bill $10k. If it was $10,000 to $11,000 I would bill the actual. This matched expectations.

My fellow partners have a much different approach. First they pull a fee right out of their ass on the spot. No thought behind it. Next let’s say they quote $10k (never a range either). If the WIP is $9k they bill $9k because “it’s wrong to charge more than the work took”. If it’s $11k sometimes still $10k because “that’s what they agreed to”.

This blows my mind. We leave so much money on the table doing this. It’s not even a one year problem. If you bill them $9k and next year things go sideways and WIP is $10k now, suddenly you have to explain a 10% fee increase. Where in my example I would bill $10,200 and they would be like dang, fees only went up 2% for inflation? Nice!

Obviously this scales worse on bigger numbers. I’ve seen 10k+ left on the table per engagement. Then factor that in times hundreds of clients.

Whenever I bring this up, I’m looked at like I’m a scumbag. That I’m a greedy man that is literally robbing these little clients and they aren’t the big companies or HNW individuals I’m use to. I wish I was lying, that’s the looks and attitude I get.

Now I’ve begun to question myself and what I’ve done for 15 years. Am I horrible person? These people agreed to a fee range and I’m in that range. If I make 150% realization, that’s a win. And it helps me cover the clients where I can only get 70% realization. I’ve had clients where I think the WIP will be $20k or whatever but they refuse to extend so I quote them $25k because I know I don’t have time during busy season so I hope they find someone else. If they don’t, it’s the price for making me work until 10pm on a Friday in March. When the other partners find out I do this, it’s like I told them I’m shaking down an old lady in a nursing home. What do you mean you’re charging them $25k for $20k of work!

Just shows you this sub is not a good source for experience or knowledge of the future.

You should take everything you read on here with a grain of salt. The loudest voices are usually the most wrong.

Inb4 someone mentions how their backwoods firm is still 5 days remote.

On Wednesday I had tooth #13 extracted and an implant and bone graft done. After the implant was placed, the assistant did an xray. She said it was too long and got the dentist back. He agreed and said it’s too long and he needed to fix it so my normal dentist could “work with it” to put the crown on. So they took it out and put a shorter thicker one in.

Starting last night I noticed my left nostril only started to burn and drain into the back of my throat. It’s now Saturday afternoon and the feeling is still there.

I can’t help but think they poked or something my sinus floor with the too long implant and that’s why they replaced it.

What should I do? Should I call Monday and ask/demand anything?

This is all new to me. I had to have the tooth removed due to internal resorption.

A bum old man takes weird please in being cruel to JLR who isn’t all there. That has to be one of the lowest rungs of a societal ladder.

Not to mention he constantly bashes JLR to talk and yet when anyone tries to talk to him he acts like he has a giant broom up his ass.

The man needs to go back to pushing buttons and not speaking.

Imagine only having a job because of a coworker keeping the lights on and you constantly belittle him for his IQ.

I remember way back when I messed around with them, they were all about keyloggers. Still true?

Also they would reset the sever all the time. Brb max? Brb spent $100 real money? Oh well we are wiping everything.

Is that still happening?

I spent 7 years at EY, then became a non equity partner at a $200M revenue firm. A close friend from the early days at EY went to his mom’s firm and ended up convincing me to join him 2 years ago.

I’m a 25% owner of a $5M revenue firm. I actually net the same amount of money that I did as a non equity partner at the large firm. It will go up a bit when I pay off the loan to the mom for my equity in 2 years. But right now cash in my pocket is a wash.

My daily struggle is I feel like Water White pre drug kingpin. How he was an overqualified chemistry teacher that left behind a major company.

I went from managing clients that averaged $50-100M in revenue (my largest 2 were $3B in revenue) to some random electrician company that might make $2M in a great year.

I learned all sorts of foreign reporting, all my clients were in 25+ states, dealt with PE and family offices, constant sales to PE, etc…

Since 2020 I spent a ton of time doing tax DD for buyers and structure and tax planning/calculations for sellers. I’d estimate I did close to 75 deals. My average sale was $250-$500M but I had 3 in the billions. Now? My largest has been 12M. Before me the firms largest was $3M.

I just feel so defeated. Not a single one of my clients has a CEO or CFO. They barely have a bookkeeper who even knows debts and credits. It’s such a different world. I went from answering what happens if I buy a $300M plane for the family office to how do I record a state refund in quickbooks? Or what does the accrual or cash toggle do, it changes my numbers!

Even the transaction work is soul sucking. Because these transactions are so small, the law firms/accounting firms are a joke at best. I’ve saved my clients so much money just schooling the lawyers to update the purchase agreement from the firm template. You would think that’s a good feeling right? Well I never feel that way. I’ve saved clients hundreds of thousands in tax and they never appreciate it because they don’t understand or think I’m bullying the lawyers. Or even worse they just assume I’m supposed to save them all this money. Not realizing any other accountant at my fee would never find this stuff or think of it. Then I get exhausted talking to lawyers or the buyers accountants who have no idea what I’m talking about. It’s like I’m talking to an intern, but it’s a 50 year old who has been doing this for decades.

I use to be able to bill anything and everything as my clients had deep pockets. Now? It’s always a fine line. I feel like I have to devalue my knowledge. I’m over here doing 5471 GILTI calculations for $1,500 when I would have charged 10-20x that before and no one would blink. Now if I charge $1,501 I’m having a discussion about it from someone who barely understands what a trial balance is let alone foreign reporting.

Not a day goes by where I don’t feel like I’m giving away my knowledge at dollar store prices. I never feel appreciated. Clients of this size just care about the bill. Where before it was constantly this guy knows his shit, blank check. I’ve literally had clients argue with me about doing full in depth R&D credit calculations with interviews and everything for $7k as I’m getting them a $100k credit. Instead of seeing the value, they just see a $7k bill they never had before and start foaming at the mouth. What do you mean 1 additional two page form with 10 numbers on it is going to cost me $7k?!

Honestly it’s not even just external. I can run circles around my buddy. Yes we spent 4 years together at EY but my next 7 years developed me much more than his next 7 with his mom. His mom is bright but she is 65 so she isnt around forever. Beyond that, the staff are many tiers down from what I’m used to. We are recruiting the C- students from the schools, not the A/B students. So even if I wanted to start bringing in a higher standard of client, I don’t have the internal people to do that work. 90% of the returns here have 1 state MAYBE. Their head would explode if I said we need to file in 20 states and figure out if we can do composites or PTET. Im not even sure they know what apportionment even is. All the complicated returns are prepared by the partners right now. Provisions? Partners. Audits? 90% of the workpapers are signed off by a partner as the preparer, reviewed by another partner.

Am I alone? How do I adjust.

I’ve been sitting on 2 month supply of the pills waiting for the right time to start.

The last thing I want is to start it and find myself shitting my pants or puking at work.

Am I overthinking this?

I have to imagine the west is buying way more of these watches, so why is every brand a name that is almost impossible to pronounce with an equally bad logo?

Seems like that would be step 1 in trying to make a profitable business.

Signed up on Day 1 and I’m curious what everyone else’s experience has been.

If I just look at 2026 so far with a highest risk tolerance and growth I’m at a ROI of 6.6%. VOO is 8.3%.

And Robinhoods own fund is up 235% in 2026.

Seems like VOO is and forget it still wins.

I’ve never been at a firm that did besides my time at B4 but we had a whole department for that and the national office.

When I was a partner at a $200M firm, we outsourced all the questions to a firm that only did sales tax. They would handle the questions and VDAs. But to be honest it was rare to even have a sales tax question from a client. I think I had maybe 3 in 8 years. Clients I guess just figured it all out internally or worked with sales tax companies.

Now I’m a partner at a small firm and the client expects us to know everything about all taxes.

Our firm is in PA. I know nothing about filing sales tax in California and what’s exempt and not. The client seems incredibly frustrated that I’m not well versed in this.

What do you guys do? I told them to work with one of the major sales tax companies. I answered their basic questions, but beyond that I didn’t want to get involved.

All I hear is the possible benefits for autoimmune diseases. I’m not sure I’ve seen anything specific for Crohn’s, but that would just be an added benefit for me if there was.

More importantly, has anyone experienced any downsides?

I only go the bathroom once a day and I’m in visual remission, but I do have microscopic inflammation (no symptoms).

My GI gave me the approval for shots or the new pills, but I’m still super nervous.