[MUSIC PLAYING]
Hi, I'm Ecta.
This is A Day in the Life of an Accountant.
The role of a tax accountant is really two things.
One is for tax preparation, and two is for tax planning.
An overall picture of my role is that I prepare tax returns.
I also advise my clients from a tax perspective
whether they're undertaking some kind of business transaction
or sales of stocks.
Typically from January to April 15, as you know,
is the famous tax deadline.
During that time, I probably work closer to 60 hours a week.
I work at a small firm.
It's actually our family practice.
It's really nice.
It's like a very homey feel.
I think there's a lot more job satisfaction for me personally
working with small businesses and individuals.
The advice I give has a real impact
on their day-to-day life.
I have the same morning routine every day.
I start by checking my emails, making a to-do-list,
making myself a fresh cup of coffee, and then get started.
The first thing I do is open up Outlook, check my emails,
and then I'll also open up Canopy, which
is our client CRM software.
I work in Canopy almost every day.
It's a great way for me to connect to my clients,
see what they've uploaded, what to-dos I have,
and what to-dos they have.
I can, kind of, keep track of everything that way.
You've caught me on and out of tax season day
where things are much slower.
I don't have as much pressure to get things
out to clients as quickly.
There are a few important skills to be
successful in this line of work.
I definitely think being organized is the top one.
You're dealing with a lot of their sensitive data,
their personal data, and you want
them to feel comfortable sharing with you,
so you can help them in the best way possible.
The first thing I want to knock off my to do list today
is calling our tax software support line.
One of my clients did a like-kind exchange,
where he exchanged one property for eight different properties.
I've done one for ones, so I know
how to do that in the software.
This is a little bit different.
So just going to call them, and hopefully they can help me out.
Tax support, how can I help out?
I have a 1040 client that did a like-kind exchange,
but they exchanged one property for eight different properties.
I wasn't sure exactly how to enter that.
We can do the like-kind exchange one for one.
After we did that, we can select the new asset in there.
Go to Edit, Divide, and then we can divide it by the eight.
When I click into it, though, it's all grayed out.
I can actually adjust the cost basis.
Let me look into this some more.
Let me see what we can do for you, Ecta.
So hopefully, I can get back to you tomorrow if not
later today.
OK, no problem.
Thank you so much.
So it's not actually uncommon for them to not
be able to solve my issue on the first go.
I mean, I do use the software pretty often.
So I am pretty familiar with the ins and outs.
So I do only call them if it's really
something I can't figure out.
The softwares that I tend to work with the most for tax
preparation, we use UltraTax.
And then for bookkeeping, we use QuickBooks.
We also use that to process payroll for our clients.
Again, like I mentioned earlier, we
use canopy for our CRM software.
So those would be probably the top three softwares
that we're working in a lot.
Sometimes I just like to step out during lunch,
get some fresh air, especially in the summer
when it's nice out because I'm literally
in front of a computer all day.
I'll just grab a bite from like the sub shop across the street
and then head to a park and just hang out
there for like an hour or so.
I didn't always want to be an accountant.
Actually my dad's an accountant.
He started our firm 30 years ago.
So I, kind of, grew up in the business.
And if anyone asked me when I was younger
what I wanted to be, I would say I'm not sure but definitely not
an accountant.
And then I found I, kind of, really liked my classes.
And I was actually pretty good at it.
So I decided to pursue it further
and ended up in tax specifically in accounting.
My undergrad studies gave me a baseline knowledge
of what I needed.
I think my master's degree, everything
I learned I could directly apply to what
I do on a day-to-day basis.
So I'm finding that very valuable.
Next I'm going to call Taylor, who is an event planner.
She reached out because she needed some tax help,
so let's see what I can help her with.
Hello?
Hi, is this Taylor?
Yes.
Hi, Taylor.
This is Ecta.
I'm calling from [INAUDIBLE] Tax.
I understand you're in the wedding event planning
business.
Yeah, so I started my company a little while ago.
And it was, kind of, slow starting out,
but it's, kind of, picked up now.
So before the next tax season, I just
want to get everything in order.
That's why I wanted to speak with you today.
That's great.
I'm really glad to hear that.
The best thing you can do is, kind of,
set yourself up for success.
Let me just ask you a couple of questions
to get some background.
Do you have an entity setup of any kind?
Yes, I have an LLC set up.
OK, an LLC in New Jersey?
Yes, in New Jersey.
All right, got it.
Do you file a separate business tax return,
or do you file everything under your personal return?
I file everything under my personal return.
OK, so I think you have a Schedule C.
But when you get a chance if you could send me your last year's
returns, I can take a look.
That'd be great.
I will definitely send that to you.
And then in terms of your bookkeeping,
how do you, kind of, manage like your income and your expenses
and all of that?
So recently, I've just been doing everything through Excel.
OK, have you made any estimated tax payments this year?
No, but I definitely want to get ahead of that.
I can help you calculate what a good payment is, one, based off
your last year's return and, two, based
on what your income and expenses you're expecting for this year.
OK, yeah, I can send everything to you in an email.
All right, I think I have a pretty good idea of, kind of,
where you at.
So let me put together a proposal for you,
and I'll send it over.
And then hopefully we can go from there.
OK, awesome.
Thank you so much and have a great day.
You too.
So she was actually pretty advanced
compared to a lot of the new business
clients that I talked to, especially those
that are just starting out.
I'm hopeful we can get her really
set up for the next few years, hopefully, in her business.
So accounting is a pretty broad field.
I would say I'm a generalist.
So I do individual taxes.
I do business taxes.
I do payroll taxes.
What I do actually translates to dollars and cents
in their lives.
If we can help them save in taxes,
it could really make a difference in their lives.
Another thing on my to-do list today
was to review the financial statements of one
of my clients, who we will hopefully
soon file their tax return.
This particular client we do the bookkeeping for.
So my employee would have already entered all the data,
and now it's time for me to review it.
The financial statements printed here and a comparative basis,
and then just see if there's anything that, kind of, jumps
out at me, anything I should maybe discuss with the client.
Something challenging that I think most accountant face
is honestly burnout.
It is a very demanding job.
As I said, it's seasonally extremely busy
with the strict deadlines that are
set by the Federal government and state governments.
I think the beauty of it, though,
is that we're recognizing that, and it's
becoming more flexible.
My long-term goal in accounting is to hopefully grow this firm.
I would like a firm where people feel
like they have the flexibility to be a successful accountant
or successful CPA and have job satisfaction
but also not have to give up too much of their work life
balance, which is extremely important.
So the last thing I like to do before I leave
the office for the day is just to get an hour or two
of studying in.
I have to do 40 credits a year to maintain my license or 120
credits every three years.
But honestly, it's so helpful because there's so
many law changes.
It's really necessary to do all of that learning.
So I think I'm about all set for the day.
I'm just going to wrap this up, make
sure there's nothing I need to attend to email wise.
I can pretty much call it after that.
This is my husband Drew.
He's a financial advisor.
So when we come home, we can kind of debrief on our day
and take a step back and see how it went for both of us.
If someone's interested in my line of work
and maybe they're right out of college,
I would recommend getting a lot of different internships
and private accounting, public accounting
and seeing what really is the best fit for you.
Because there's lots of different ways
you can do accounting, and it's all very different.
So you might love one type of accounting but hate another.
Thanks for watching.
Be sure to give us a like and subscribe to Indeed's channel.
We'll see you next time.
I usually do this.
You don't want that.
Is that too much?