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Do You Choose Your Favorite Calculator or Does it Choose You…Like a Lightsaber?
I asked a bunch of accountants about their favorite financial calculator and this is what they said*: [Read more…]
10 Excel Formulas Every Consultant Should Know
Excel is one of those things you can spend a lifetime trying to master everything it can possibly do. Luckily you don’t need to know everything Excel can do to get a lot out of it.
I work with a partner now who is known to make the claim that Excel is the world’s largest Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.
Also, I can tell you when I started in business school at Kellogg, we used two fancy macro workbooks to run sophisticated statistical analysis until they shifted to having everyone use STATA.
STATA was/is infinitely better than Excel, but you’d be amazed at what you can do in Excel, with a little bit of coding know-how.
This post is about the Excel formulas, though – the little statements you type into a cell to make magical things happen.
Read on to dive into the ten Excel formulas you need to know and love to…excel as a consultant. [Read more…]
Masters in Accounting Not The Sweet Treat Some Students Think
Getting a Masters in Accounting (MSA) is a waste of money, but aspiring accountants everywhere continue to struggle with whether or not to pursue this advanced degree. [Read more…]
One Thing You Should Never Do On LinkedIn
A few days ago I got an email notification that a person invited me to connect on LinkedIn (If you’re not active there, you should be. Read why here.). It had the default message, so I decided to hit reply and ask how the person found me and what prompted the interest in connecting with me on LinkedIn. This was the message I got back.
Hello Eric,
I am current pursuing my CPA and live in Chicago. I have completed BEC already and planning to give the other three in next three months. I was randomly searching for CPAs in Chicago to connect ith them in order to learn more about the opportunities available for professionals in the accounting field. Also in case you know about any job openings or opportunities for me please do let me know as I am looking for a job. For any further questions feel free to contact me at any time.
You notice anything wrong with it? The email was nicely written but falls short on a couple of things. [Read more…]
True Stories Of Transitioning To Management Consulting – Zach Steeb
You ever thought about transitioning to management consulting but not quite sure what the path is? Well I’ve said it before and will say it again – there’s not just one path.
But instead of my telling you again about how I made the transition into consulting, I thought you might benefit from hearing a few other people’s stories. Up first is the story of Zach Steeb.
Enjoy and let me know if you can think of other questions you’d want to ask. [Read more…]
3 Reasons Average Students Should Have Confidence They Can Become Good Accountants
Do you believe an average student can become a good accountant?
That was all the message I received this morning said. No context, no nothing. I ignored it at first and then considered writing an equally short response of “it depends,” but thought there are probably other people questioning if they can go from “average” student to rockstar accountant. [Read more…]
How to Pass the CPA Exam Without Breaking the Bank
I am a frugal person by nature, so when I set out to pursue the CPA designation back in the Fall of 2011, I intended to devise an exam preparation strategy that would allow me to pass each section of the CPA Exam on the first attempt and do so at the lowest cost possible. At the time, I was two years removed from obtaining my college degree and like many of you reading this, I had no idea where to start. [Read more…]
How to Transition from Accountant to Advisor (Friendzone to Endzone)
A new intern recently reached out to me to ask some questions about my career path. One of the organizations we work with (LEAD Program) was hoping to have testimonials from people in the accounting field. Specifically, they wanted to increase exposure to the youth about how attractive the profession can be.
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you know that LEAD was the reason I pursued accounting in the first place (I talked about that briefly here).
The email I got asked a couple questions and was looking for just a short blurb, but one thing inspired me to expand on my initial thoughts. He asked how I transitioned from accountant to advisor. While I didn’t see the two as different things before, the question made me reconsider my position. You can read what I concluded here:
Intuit Releases New Quickbooks Self-Employment Option…But What Does It Do?
I was considering doing a post on whether or not you should switch to Quickbooks online this week, but I got an email that changed my direction. I recently wrote about how entrepreneurs need to learn accounting, and as if they read my mind, Intuit sends an email for a new version of Quickbooks. It’s called Quickbooks Self-Employment and to be completely honest, I wasn’t sure what it did. Given Quickbook’s position in the bookkeeping software market, it seemed like a good idea to know what they were up to, so I decided to give it a spin. [Read more…]