{"id":56907,"date":"2018-12-31t13:00:04","date_gmt":"2018-12-31t18:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/48e130086c.nxcli.net\/?p=56907"},"modified":"2019-01-08t09:13:12","modified_gmt":"2019-01-08t14:13:12","slug":"the-vanishing-writeup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2018\/12\/31\/the-vanishing-writeup\/","title":{"rendered":"when writeups went extinct"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>why it was so valuable and how to gain that knowledge now.<\/strong><\/p>\n by ed mendlowitz<\/i> writeups are extinct. when i started in 1963, most small cpa firms primarily did writeups. after i started my practice in 1969, it became an embarrassment to say i did writeups. it connoted something beneath my \u201cprofessional\u201d status.<\/p>\n more:<\/b> the \u2018wrong\u2019 cpe<\/a> | bored by cpe? you\u2019re missing out!<\/a> | clients buy solutions, not hours<\/a> | roger is my only client<\/a> | top 10 issues for real estate investors<\/a> | working hard? or hardly working?<\/a> | it\u2019s not always about the money<\/a> | the value in value consulting<\/a> | a cpa looks back across the generations<\/a> i think a problem today is that writeups no longer exist for younger staff. where the client was a little larger and had a bookkeeper, the cpa did the posting to the general ledger. making the adjusting entries and preparing the financial statement was the accountant\u2019s function. with today\u2019s software, the writeup is done as a byproduct of entering the original transactions.<\/p>\n one of the things learned from writeups was how a business operated financially: how money came in, how it went out, how sales were recorded, customers\u2019 buying patterns and how they paid their bills, what our client purchased and received, and how they paid their suppliers. sometimes a client\u2019s receivables were factored, or the client needed financing of overseas purchases, and then you really learned how money flowed.<\/p>\n when you are young and start out, you do not necessarily appreciate what you are asked to do because you think you are working on the lower level of less important things. however, what i eventually learned is that everything has a place and purpose, and beginners need to start at the beginning. writeups were for beginners.<\/p>\n i think an effective training program for young staff today would be a hands-on overview of how transactions flow through an organization, something similar to the writeups i did when i began my career. maybe that is a project i will get to one of these days.<\/p>\n mendlowitz:<\/strong> i received a very nice phone call from a reader thanking me for writing about writeups. the caller said that he learned from doing write-ups where things came from, where they went and everything in between. he also learned how to find errors and got an overview of the entire business. he also said that it is a shame that many of today\u2019s young accountants don\u2019t have this kind of experience \u2013 and perhaps it should be taught in the colleges.<\/em><\/p>\n uppal:<\/strong> how true. it was\u00a0a great\u00a0foundation and\u00a0a lot\u00a0of practical experience very relevant at that time. today accountants and expectation from the profession are quite different. but old memories are nostalgic.<\/em><\/p>\n following is an email<\/strong> someone sent to me with his thoughts on <\/em>write-ups that i fully agree with. he prefers that i do not mention his name.<\/em><\/p>\n ed,<\/em><\/p>\n great article in accounting today on <\/em>write-ups and i couldn\u2019t agree with you more!<\/em><\/p>\n when i graduated from college in 1993, i took a job at a small cpa firm in my hometown of cincinnati, ohio. even with a good gpa and some actual experience having worked for a very small local firm in college, it was a tough job market so i \u201csettled\u201d for this job with a small firm. it wasn\u2019t the glamorous \u201cbig 8\u201d (at that time) job that some of my classmates obtained but looking back it was the best thing that ever happened to me. i, too, started off my career doing \u201c<\/em>write-up\u201d work. at first i thought it was pretty mundane work until i realized that i knew more about my clients\u2019 businesses than they did for the most part, which allowed me to become a great consultant and made me a valuable resource for them \u2026 not to mention, i was learning a heck of a lot about how business works \u2026 to your point in your article.<\/em><\/p>\n a few years later i had the opportunity to connect with some of my classmates who went the big 8 route and some were either no longer employed there or had been pigeonholed into doing very specific, repetitive tasks \u2026 at that point, i felt like i had leaped them by a mile in true \u201cbusiness\u201d knowledge! when i told them what i was doing, they were amazed and to be quite honest, some didn\u2019t even know what i was talking about!<\/em><\/p>\n in short, when i look back on my career, i credit this<\/em> write-up \u201ctraining ground\u201d so to speak for many of the successes that i have had as a cpa and what i have achieved thus far in my career. i also agree with you 110 percent on how this could be an effective training program for young staff. here at our firm, i practice this approach by \u201chighly encouraging\u201d our staff to do a \u201ctour\u201d in outsourcing (our really cool term for write-ups these days!) as i believe it gives them a chance to see how things work (full spectrum) and provides a solid accounting foundation for them no matter if they choose to specialize in audit or tax.<\/em><\/p>\n ed, great piece and i just wanted to let you know this article definitely hit close to home for me! thanks!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\nwriteups were literally writing up a client\u2019s cash disbursements and receipts journals, entering sales and purchases, reconciling the bank accounts, taking off a trial balance and accounts receivable schedule, making some adjusting and recurring journal entries and preparing a financial statement. it also included writing out and mailing customers\u2019 statements, and where purchase journals were used, preparing an accounts payable schedule. we did the client\u2019s bookkeeping.<\/p>\naddenda: reader comments<\/h3>\n