Friday Funnies
Content below from this site. You can find much more there.
Enjoy!
The following are actual review notes written by real people, who shall remain anonymous, at CPA firms across the country. Each excerpt below contains 1) The actual review note written, and 2) The smartass remark we wish we could have written in response. If you have a dumbass review note or similar piece of classic accounting literature you’ve received and would like to share, e-mail me and I’ll add it to the collection. To protect the guilty, no names, accounting firms, or office locations will ever be disclosed on this site.
Why are we doing this schedule different than last year?
Because last year’s schedule was wrong and caused the client to pay a lot more tax than they should have.
Please change the description to match the prior year. You should always follow what was done in the prior year.
I am the Prior Year, your God, who gave you workpapers to follow. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Remember the Prior Year and keep it holy. Honor thy Prior Year workpapers. Thou shalt not think. Thou shalt not be creative. Thou shalt not commit deviations from the Prior Year in any way. Thou shalt not covet a more efficient way of doing things.
Change “office expense” to “office overhead expense”.
I’m glad the client is paying you $350 per hour to catch these things.
**I am the Prior Year, your God, who gave you workpapers to follow. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Remember the Prior Year and keep it holy. Honor thy Prior Year workpapers. Thou shalt not think. Thou shalt not be creative. Thou shalt not commit deviations from the Prior Year in any way. Thou shalt not covet a more efficient way of doing things. **
I see things haven’t changed much in the last twenty years. Good workpaper design often drives efficiency at the staff level. It seems to me that many accountants aren’t very good at it. Perhaps that’s because it requires visual skills that many CPAs don’t have.
Once you are in a role where you are providing financial information to non-accountants the skill becomes even more critical.