When you're doing a client's BAS or year-end, do you cross-check Xero against the actual bank statement? Or do you trust the feed as-is?
Not sure I can trust Xero's feeds
curious how different firms handle it.
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Hi everyone, I recently finished my bachelor's degree in India and I'm considering pursuing CPA Australia. I wanted to get some real opinions before committing.
A few things I'd love input on:
Is CPA Australia recognized/valued by employers in India, or is it more useful only if I plan to work abroad (Australia/APAC)?
How does it compare to doing CA or ACCA instead, in terms of career opportunities and salary in India?
Is it useful for landing a first job, or is it more of something to pursue after you're already working?
What's the realistic cost and timeline for someone starting fresh with just a bachelor's?
Any regrets or things you wish you knew before starting?
Would appreciate insights from anyone who's done CPA Australia, especially from India, or who considered it and went with something else instead. Thanks!
Hi, I’m looking for some career advice.
I have been working in industry for the past 8 years, While there are plenty of opportunities in industry, I have found the internal politics, administrative work, and constant pressure of the corporate environment to be exhausting. It increasingly feels like a rat race, and I am no longer sure it is where I want to build my long-term career.
I am currently working towards my CTA qualification and have been considering a move into public practice.
However, I am still unsure whether it is the right decision, especially as I am now in my early 30s and want to make a well-considered career move.
What I am hoping to avoid is being limited to basic compliance work. I would like to understand what other areas within public practice are available beyond tax return preparation and routine compliance.
Are there specialist fields where I could develop deeper expertise and build a long-term career?
I would also appreciate your perspective on whether moving from industry to public practice is worthwhile.
For international students and other who are not eligible for medicare benefits. Is it necessary to apply for MES or can we claim directly?
Don't like tax, ledgers etc. Too late to change majors. What other doors does the degree open? I'm thinking payroll but maybe other stuff I didn't even think to consider. Would love to hear some suggestions.
I’ve seen a few (many) post on both FB CA group and reddit that heaps of people that did ICAP term 2 can enrol in term 3 and heaps of people that can’t.
Apparently this happens a lot with ICAP that some people who are able to enrol next term before results are out can still pass. Vice versa.
So I’m thinking don’t freak out yet, let’s wait til Thursday next week. And good luck everybody!!
Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of negativity around accounting as a career, and it’s starting to make me question whether I’ve made the right choice.
I was browsing Seek and noticed so many accounting jobs paying what seems like the bare minimum while requiring a degree, experience, and often CA/CPA (or being close to completing it).
I’m in my early 30s but still in the early stages of my accounting career. I actually enjoy accounting, but I haven’t started CA/CPA yet, and the thought of another 3+ years of study, combined with all the talk about AI replacing accounting jobs, has me wondering if I’m investing in the wrong career.
It becomes extra hard when you got friends who are teachers, dentists, doctors… are already finished their qualifications and get decent pay.
I guess I’m just looking for a bit of perspective—and hopefully some positive stories from people who are glad they stuck with it.
Hi all,
I’m from self employed background (15 years) & have recently gone back to school to persue Masters in (accounting).
Young family, brutal hours plus I am really bored in my current business and wanted a change into business advisory or tax though I’m not completely sure yet.
Any advice for me from similar experiences? I have an internship lined up at mid tier firm which will get some experience. I’m considering trying to get a job 2-3 days in accounting and go part time at university next year.
For a potential full time role post degree am I better of working part time in accounting while studying or knock out the degree by end of 2027.
All advice appreciated
Edit: the time difference in completing degree part time vs full time would be 2 more years vs 1 year.
Hi, I am Sydney-based, CA-qualified and have been in the accounting profession for around 9 years in total, where I started out in Big 4 Audit, before leaving for an industry role as a Senior Financial Accountant (SFA). My total experience as SFA is now around 4 years, split across two large corporates in two different industries, where I am doing your typical month-end tasks/recs/financial reporting/group reporting sort of role.
Tbh I have never liked accounting in the first place, and I simply did accounting at uni and applied for Big 4 audit because I did not know what else to do, and it felt like a very safe and stable choice (which it is).
I am feeling kinda stuck at the moment because having done 4 years of Senior Financial Accountant role, I feel like I naturally should go for a Finance Manager role, but that role naturally requires more aptitude and in-depth knowledge of the accounting standards, which frankly I really do not care about, and the less I have to deal with accounting standards, the better. I feel like this lack of interest in the technical aspect of accounting kinda subconciously leads me to not putting an extra effort in what I do at work. At the moment, I am just sticking it out only to earn the money which admittedly is not too shabby.
At the same time, whenever I applied for a more "commercial" or "forward-looking" sort of roles like commercial finance or FP&A analyst roles, the feedback has always been that the other candidate had more relevant experience, or I may have settle with a bit of a pay cut.
Also it's probably unhelpful, but I don't know what I want to do either, i.e. Even if I go into the FP&A side, there is no guarantee that I would enjoy the job, but I just thought that I won't have to deal with accounting standards and financial reporting much.
I am now wondering for those who manage to get out of the "traditional" corporate accounting or pivot away from it, what did you do? Or how did you end up figuring out what you "actually want to do" - did you just have a go at it and see what works?
I do sometimes think that I probably should have left way way earlier in my career, at least after I got my CA around the 3rd year of my career.
I took Audit in Term 2, and if I pass, I’ll only have Tax and ICAP left to complete. The results come out next Thursday, but I can’t enrol in ICAP yet because I still haven’t passed Tax.
Some of my friends have already been able to enrol in ICAP, which is making me even more nervous. My Audit subject still isn’t showing up in the previous sessions section of the system.
Is there any way to check or test whether I’ve passed before the official results are released? If my Audit result still doesn’t appear by next Tuesday, does that usually mean I’ve failed?
I’m probably overthinking it, but the anxiety is killing me right now😰
I’ve read the advice from the ATO about this and just wondering about how it’s applied.
I work in VPS and I paid an RTO a sum of money to do a diploma by RPL. Had I not qualified for RPL it would have been about $4000. It came in under $2000.
Initially I did it as had seem some jobs at other agencies who required it and wanted to have it but then I decided to do it for fun. I also perhaps ambitiously thought I could use it at my current job in salary negotiations when I commenced higher duties.
Can I claim this or would that be asking to be audited? My deductions consist of WFH, charitable donations and union fees.
I just started a new job at an accounting firm, only two days in, and already found myself in a debate with a coworker about AI's role in accounting. My take was that AI, if built well enough, could realistically handle the vast majority of what we do day-to-day. Their pushback was that AI simply won't be trusted with much of the actual work, since it's seen as unreliable and can't be given access to sensitive client data like tax filings or revenue figures. Curious to hear how others in the field see this playing out.
Im quite interested in starting accounting but before I make any decisions I want to know what the average day looks like is it more sitting at desk type stuff or more communication stuff also is it a job that will be around in the future or will the new tech take over because that's what I've been hearing
For a service company doing FIFO shutdown and mining work in WA northwest.
From what I see, Xero is more intuitive and user-friendly but can turn into a maze of labels for complex jobs (multiple tasks on multiple jobs, on multiple sites) and seems to cap payroll to the point where I might be paying for way more payroll fot a whole month if I have one busy week.
I would prefer Xero but MYOB AR seems to be the better fit.
- Need in depth job costing that varies per clients, site, scope, task etc. so a logical structured job costing function is required
- Shutdowns and mining work so payroll could fluctuate from 2 people this week to 50 people next week
- Database is cloud based so API integration with n8n is preferable
If there is anything else that may help an assessment let me know and I can drop more info in.
Shoukd Div 7a loam accounts on a balance be separated by each individual?
Example Husband and Wife withdraw $20,000 from a trading company which turns into a Div7a loan. One is a sole director and one is the sole shareholder.
Assume funds were transferred to a joint bank account
Know I should probably go to more industry events and actually talk to people but it feels fake. That said I've heard some people got their best opportunities through contacts they made casually. How real is this networking thing actually?
Just before i go to submit my own tax return through the ATO
I get a warning message that I could be audited? Is it best to make sure I don’t receive that warning? It says my deductions are higher than people in my profession
I’m a high school teacher and i work another job as well where i use my car a lot. So i have plenty of deductions - but I still don’t want the hassle of an audit if that message only means getting back an extra 500-1000
They’ve now been charged by the federal police. I’ve never seen two guys fuck their careers so rapidly.
Excerpts below:
“Two Ernst and Young graduate employees who were on secondment at Commonwealth Bank of Australia have been sacked and are facing criminal charges after they allegedly used the bank’s systems to access the personal banking details of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and at least one senior EY partner.
The prime minister’s office is aware of the incident but declined to comment.
On May 6, the Australian Federal Police charged two men with accessing restricted personal banking data belonging to a federal parliamentarian.
A 21-year-old man faces a criminal charge of unauthorised access to, or modification of restricted data, and also “using a carriage service to make available, publish or otherwise distribute information that is personal data, of one or more individuals, and engaged in that conduct in a way that reasonable persons would regard, in all the circumstances, as menacing or harassing towards those individuals,” an AFP spokeswoman said.
A 25-year-old man was also charged with one count of unauthorised access to restricted data. Both men will appear in the Newtown Local Court on Tuesday. The AFP said that as the matter was before the court, it would make no further comment.”
Every performance review or job listing talks up competitive pay, but when you factor in the sheer volume of work, the unpaid overtime, and how thin teams are being stretched, the math just does not add up. It feels like we are expected to do the work of a person and a half just to get a standard inflation adjustment, let alone a real bump in value. Is anyone actually finding firms or companies where the pay genuinely reflects the stress and hours, or is moving around the only way to not get squeezed?