What Big 4 accountancy partners do outside of the office....

A newly qualified accountant in one of the larger firms was having a celebratory drink with some of the partners in his firm.

They were encouraging him to take an interest in professional affairs - as they all did.

''What do you do,'' he asked. One said he was on the local branch committee, another chaired a tax discussion group, a third was a practice support member.

The oldest partner was unusually coy and then announced that his involvement in professional affairs was limited to making regular appearances in disciplinary hearings after clients complained about his work.

One of his fellow partners was quite new to the firm and was astonished to hear this. Later the new parter asked if what he'd heard was really true, that the older partner made regular appearances in disciplinary hearings after clients complained about his work.

''Oh no'', came the reply, ''The senior partner's a member of the Financial Reporting Council; he's just too embarrassed to admit it!"

Synonyms for accountants

Some of the newer synonyms I've heard for accountants include:

• The books bandit
• A double entry deviant
• The financial first lady
• A financial wizard
• The finance fairy
• A journal juggler
• A month end maniac 
• The prince of payments 

Any more?

The Public Accounting Anthem music video

This well crafted rap video of his 'Public Accounting Anthem' explains the career history and professional life of CPA qualified accountant Petty Ca$h.

5 acronyms of interest to Accountants

I'm a bit of an acronymaniac. Here are some that might be useful for accountants.

AFLO 
We've all had them. Challenges or things that don't go as we hoped. We might smack our forehead in frustration. Maybe January was an AFLO for you this year. Another Flipping Learning Opportunity!

TIOLI 
Maybe this is your approach when talking with clients about your service offerings: Take It Or Leave It

DARE
An approach to following up after attending networking events: Deliberate Acts of Relationship Enhancement.

HIPPO
Another way of explaining why the senior partner gets the last word. It's because it's the Highest Paid Person's Opinion.

GLIBO
What you might think of these acronyms. They offer a GLIBO: Glimse of the Bleeding Obvious