CPA: Making a Living With CPA Business

In fact, it's not even close. Climbing the corporate finance ladder is so much more than having the "ability. True in some cases, but generally absolutely not. Making it to the "Manager" or equivalent level in the New York area should put you above that number in fact, starting Tax Manager salary should be very similar to that number. I wouldn't "expect" to get to those levels.

You'll have to have the right education background, experience, and skills. Not to mention usually people will need to like you. I can't tell if some of you are just young or have not worked in public accounting. IMO, you are focusing on the wrong things.

It might be easy to boil down a profession into a dollar amount, time spent, and "hard work," but you need to consider what you will be doing on a daily basis. After all you will be employed there for many years. You will be labeled as an accountant which can be hard to shake off if you decide you don't like it. You will know accounting likely auditing. The knowledge you gain is not as transferable. The part that is transferable is showing you can slave it out for many hours for low pay relative to what your peers in other financial services positions are making.

In absolute terms, the money is great but when do you ever measure your salary in absolute terms. If you plan to stay in the field great. If not, there were probably better ways to spend your time in other fields. You can try to switch out of accounting but it is rare. Even top performers at these firms at least in audit only move to middle office positions at F Let me add that the work itself is easy but the difficult part is dealing with people who do not want to talk to you and have managers in your face all the time.

For everyone person that reaches the VP level, there are tens of people with Big 4 background that is stuck in the K entry level managerial role. Pay increases in F are generally not too much higher than the inflation rate. It for sure does provide you with a nice upper-middle class lifestyle, especially if your wife works too. However, it's just unsatisfying for many of the Type-A overachievers. Another problem is that this means way different things from person to person. Thats why sometimes you'll hear "CPAs can live an upper-middle class lifestyle" and others say that they're just barely cracking middle class, driving their Honda Civics till they die which is a smart thing regardless of income , etc.

Thank you for the info, in your opinion if I start at big 4 do you think staying for the long term is worth it? He clears k and works prob hours a week.

Average CPA Salary - What Can I Expect to Make?

His compensation will prob top off around ish unless he keeps working his way up the corporate ladder, but thats not a bad deal either to be at k working 50 hours a week. I would be pretty happy with the type of role your manager has. But who knows I could change my mind when I start working after college. I am not the type of person who like surprises, I like having work that is mostly textbook where there is a set answer for what you have to do.

That is probably why I will never become a trader or hedge fund manager because I am not a fan of uncertainty.

Interesting, that sounds great. Could you tell me what location of the country these offers were mainly in? Northeast, or cheaper location like Midwest? You might have just changed my mindset on Big As others have stated, starting your own CPA firm wouldn't put you in competition for the same clients as the BIG4, so no worries there. This is a good post My only comment as someone who's worked BIG4 in New York for a few years is the salaries listed for Managers and Directors should be somewhat higher.

I expect to be working near the NY area because I live in the suburbs of NJ, would you also say the associate salaries are higher as well? I gotta be honest, I didn't see this thread going anywhere, but I think it turned into a pretty good discussion. Lets keep it going. Haha, it usually ends with "Accounting sucks, you're going to be poor", so its nice to see a little change of pace, even though we've had a lot of variation in the answers. I am very surprised to hear people saying how bad accounting is on this forum.

I thought about studying finance but coming from a non target it seems like it would just be a waste of time. One of my friends graduated with a degree in Finance from a local school and he has been a FA for the past 6 years at MS. I am sure he makes good money but idt a sales role is a role for me.

I kind of thought it would be very possible because as an accountant that is pretty much all you are doing is looking at financial statements no? I prob would not go in with the mindset that you are doing audit to transition to ER I am assuming that more people are attracted to finance because they find accounting work boring.

If this is the case wouldnt salaries in Accounting be higher than finance becasue the market isnt as saturated with people trying to break in? The main difference between finance and accounting, is that accounting is much more human capital intensive, meaning it requires a lot of people to do the work.

This makes the supply of accounting jobs greater and therefore pays less. On the other hand, investment finance is much more scalable and therefore less human intensive. This makes the amount of jobs more selective and higher paying.

How Much Money Can You Make As the Owner of a CPA Firm?

Why is everyone here so rigid on a CPA being a slave to someone else? Or getting the CPA and becoming a specialist forensics to be able to give court testimony? What are people's thoughts on this?? Slightly off topic, but yes I am strongly considering this, but I don't know how well Big 4 audit would prepare someone for this type of thing.

I know of one person who did Big 4 audit and has a pretty successful practice if I had to guess he must make in the k ish range and works maybe 40 hours a week, and typically will take off almost all of december. I just figured working for a small firm out of college would help with preparedness much more than Big 4 audit, and that isn't something I'm interested in because I'm not sure what I want yet and Big 4 gives me better exit opps.

And it hurts me inside. But I figure if you open up a CPA firm, the bread and butter of your practice is going to be tax, I think it's very difficult to start up a firm which does audits. And yes, I think a smaller firm would be better than to learn more aspects of the business such as billing and marketing. Absolutely agree and thats my concern with it. Idk, maybe its just because he tainted from the movie, but I didn't like him. He seems too gangster to me. How difficult is it to get clients now? It seems like with any business, not just tax, there are so many bigger corporations that offer you a cheaper price for the product you are trying to provide that the market it so saturated and no room for the little guy.

Idk I am starting to rethink studying accounting, however, would it even be worth studying Finance from a non target Rutgers? I can personally tell you that the Big 4 place a HUGE brand premium on their professional services and the little guy can definitely beat them on price. And you wouldn't be doing work for big companies that can afford it. You'd be doing it for small business, and maybe some high wealth individuals.

Average CPA Salary - What Can I Expect to Make?

That middle ground of small businesses is who you'd be helping, trying to get every dollar back fro them that you can, decreasing costs, cleaning up their books, helping small businesses grow. Maybe its just cause my dad was a small business owner but to me it sounds really rewarding to not only be your own boss but also help small businesses. It really sounds rewarding to me as well and sometimes I wonder what I'm doing trying so hard to get into finance knowing that in the end I might want to run my own business and be my own boss. Out of curiosity, what are the chances of making partner at a non-Big4 firm versus a Big4 firm?

I assume it would still be difficult, but maybe slightly less competitive? Assume the firm is one like Grant Thornton, McGladrey, etc. Larger, but not as big as Deloitte or PWC, etc. I'd say its easier for mid size firms only because the type of people who gun for partner roles tend to be at Big 4's. Again huge generalization that probably ins't true in many cases. And for small firms, I'm not sure if it would be easier.

Sigh, dude, you're worrying way too much about this stuff. The point is, if you're good at your job, you will find a way to make money. Don't you think they can afford to charge a lot to their clients and make bank? It all comes down to you and if you're good at your work and work hard, you will make your k quota or more. If you run a great practice, you could potentially clear more than a B4 partner or if you crash and burn, you'll make less than a McDonalds worker.

It just depends and there isn't a hard and fast rule for these things.

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Mar 26, - 2: Mar 26, - 5: Mar 26, - 8: I have worked in tax for 1 year, audit for 3 years, and now work in Corporate F There are three common paths that ambitious CPAs typically try to take: Mar 26, - Geoff Hill began his writing career in as a contributor to his college newspaper, "The Maroon Tiger. Hill is a Certified Public Accountant with a focus on companies in technology, entertainment and media. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in business administration from Morehouse College.

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Video of the Day. Brought to you by Techwalla. How Much to Charge? About the Author Geoff Hill began his writing career in as a contributor to his college newspaper, "The Maroon Tiger. Depending on which text editor you're pasting into, you might have to add the italics to the site name. More companies are using accountants because of recent scandals and stricter laws in reporting financial information. This may increase jobs for CPA firm owners. A continued emphasis on global trade, mergers and acquisitions may also increase demand for independent CPA professionals. Skip to main content.

Salary and Qualifications CPA firm owners, as other entrepreneurs, often pay themselves salaries from their profits. Contributing Factors A CPA firm owner can earn more by establishing a larger client base, which usually occurs the longer he's been in business.

Job Outlook The BLS projects a 16 percent increase in jobs for accountants and auditors through , which is about average compared to the 14 percent growth rate for all occupations. Bureau of Labor Statistics: How to Become an Accountant or Auditor U.