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July 14, 2009The Big 4 environment has its unique set of lingo, and for an outsider listening in, you may be stuck wondering as to what the hell the people are talking about. I have tried to compile a comprehensive list of most commonly used terms and phrases used in a Big 4 and what those phrases really mean. So here it is:
10 Key: A 10 key input device used with laptops that replicates the numeric pad on a full keyboard. Also, a good way to determine how nerdy a person is.
10,000 Foot Analysis: High level analysis. The term is usually used by senior managers and partners when a staff person is bothering them with pesky details.
Busy Season: Typically, the three-month period following the client’s year-end, where a Big 4 staff member can expect to work 12+ hour days. However, some offices are known for their perpetual busy seasons, where the staff works long hours throughout the year.
Campus/College Hire: Staff personnel hired straight out of college, usually in their early 20s. They can be identified by their brand new cars that scream junior executive and their uncanny ability to talk-up their positions and roles working at the Big 4.
Capacity: The amount of work you can currently handle. You always want to have the appearance of being at full capacity, otherwise you should expect the senior associate to dump a bunch of busy work on your desk.
Charge Code: Codes used in the time reporting system to charge time for different projects for billing purposes.
Circle Back: Let’s talk about this again later. Also, used when a superior does not want to discuss the issue at hand due to the lack of his/her understanding of the issue.
Clearing Comments: The process of resolving issues raised by partners and managers while reviewing your work. This process can cause quite the headache if you have a nitpicking reviewer and a grumpy client because you will be caught in the middle of the cross-fire.
Crossfoot: Verifying the row totals of the PBCs.
CYA: Cover your ass. The term is used for documents used in the course of the audit but not included in the workpapers. These documents are typically preserved due to the litigious nature of accounting services.
Document Retention: The proper term for CYA. However, it’s only used when describing the contents of the CYA boxes to be filed.
Eating Hours: The relatively common (and unethical) practice of not charging hours for the work done in order to give the appearance of meeting the budget. Usually there is severe indirect pressure from the top that leads the staff to eat their hours.
Efficiency: Working at your maximum level of productivity. Also, a veiled suggestion to eat your hours as the engagement is over budget.
Experienced Hire: It usually refers to members hired at a manager level or higher. However, it can also be used to refer to the mid-30s to mid-40s accounting manager who decided to come work as a staff at a Big 4, and can have major attitude problems towards taking directions from someone in their mid-20s.
Foot: Verifying the column totals of the PBCs.
Main Client: The biggest client where you will spend most of your time in the year, usually a large public corporation.
On your plate: Capacity. You always want to have your plate full or have a lot on it. If you don’t, you will be viewed as being inefficient and be assigned more work with unrealistic deadlines.
Period End: The end of the fiscal period for which the accountant renders his/her services.
Recruiting Lunch/Dinner: A meal ticket to a fancy restaurant.
Sign-Off: The ultimate deadline for an engagement, where the CPA firm signs-off on the documents it was engaged to review or prepare for the client. Staff should expect to work longer than the usual long hours around this time.
Sign-Off Party: Typically a grand affair involving expensive trips and dinners, usually billed to the client.
Touch Base: Let’s discuss something at a later date. Also used when a superior is not quite certain that the subordinate knows what he/she is doing.
Workpapers: Any and all procedures performed by accounting professionals should be documented. These documents are called workpapers.
Can you think of any that we may have missed? Email us and let us know!
There are 5 comment(s) so far.
P/F/I. Pass for Further Investigation. Staff has found an exception but due to lack of budget, he needs to go to the next workpaper.
TYSMFAYHW,IRAI: Thank You So Much For All Your Hard Work, I Really Appreciate It. Told by manager/partner to any staff that had stayed until 2AM and gave up his weekend while he (Partner/Manager) enjoyed golfing.
[...] We take for granted all the terminology (comments, workpapers, etc.) at SAL. For those who don’t have an accounting background, it can be difficult to follow along, so here’s a mini-glossary. [...]
PBC = Prepared By Client
EBP = Employee Benefit Plan – a common audit performed opposite busy season as a way to generate revenue when there is no work.
W/O/E = Without Error, but make no mistake, the necessity to always abbreviate this tickmark shows that the accountant didn’t really check anything but simply assumes there is no error.
The initial part of the audit where key decisions are made as to where and how our time is going to be spent. Analytics are used to determine significant accounts. This is usually done about 2-3 week in the field at which point it serves no purpose, but to possibly negate last years strategy that you already starting putting in place due to having no direction.
SALY: Same as last year- the budget is so small you can even think about changing strategies….better hope they had a good one last year.
Rollforward of evidence/memo: The same useless document that gets reused every engagement. No one ever reads it to see if it still applies.
Sorry!! first is TPE-Team Planning Event