Hello everyone,
I wanted to get your opinion/experience on job budget and going overbudget. I have been working at a CPA firm for a year now as an associate. It's my first public accounting job. I don't have a lot of experience under my belt, only 5 years working in various small business settings before this job.
My department provides small business bookkeeping/accounting/compilation services. I feel that I always go over budget. Some weird thing that the clients do that needs more analysis than expected. When complication happens, I always spend time trying to figure things out before asking for help. It's not that easy asking questions in my department. There are monthly jobs that I'm improving on now. However, I feel that I'm still going way over budget on new jobs, even when I have gained 1 year of experience! There are no other people in my team that I can come to for suggestions/coaching so I don't know how to get out of this situation. I get really depressed when it comes to billing and the partners ask me to explain the overbudget.
How was your experience when you started out in public accounting? If you went over budget, how long did it take you to be on budget? What did you do that helped?
Thanks for sharing!