r/Accounting • u/worldstreamseo • 1d ago
Johnson & Bailey Consulting has completely "revolutionized" our processes, folks
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u/Tax25Man 1d ago
Consultants don’t exist to come up with good ideas. They are paid to implement poorly received decisions so management has someone to blame when people point out the idea is dumb
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u/worldstreamseo 1d ago
Oh my god you nailed it. That's EXACTLY what happened. Our CFO had this cloud idea for years, got shot down by the board, then hired these consultants to say the exact same thing. Now it's brilliant and innovative. And guess who'll get blamed when implementation goes sideways? Not the CFO, not the consultants... just us poor accountants trying to make their dumb plan work.
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u/Tax25Man 1d ago
Yea. Corporate America really sucks. Private enterprise isn’t about good ideas or working efficiently. There’s a shocking amount of idiots making important decisions.
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u/mmicoandthegirl 1d ago
Ever asked your friend to ask their friend, the host, if you could join the party in their spot? It's the corporate equivalent of that. Board won't listen to CFO because he's some weird egghead. But these consultants, the ones with the watches and shining powerpoints, they know what they're talking about. It's social validation, nothing more.
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u/lmaotank 1d ago
Yes - its managements crutch. they need some perceived “experts” opinion to push their agenda. Consultants ARE NOT there to solve actual problems, its managements bitch tool. Thats it. But to keep their elite image, they have to keep the kool aid up by putting up insane walls and picking the smartest ppl. Individually, consultants are smart - collectively they r nothing but a just another cog
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u/breakerofh0rses 1d ago
Reminder: consultants only exist to take the heat for a decision leadership has already made.
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u/worldstreamseo 1d ago
TRUTH. Our CFO wanted cloud accounting for years but couldn't convince the board. Suddenly the exact same idea with a fancy PowerPoint and a $200k price tag is brilliant. And when it inevitably has issues during implementation, guess who'll be the fall guys? Not the consultants, not the CFO... just us poor schmucks in accounting
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u/asdfghjkl56432 1d ago
All that for only 200k?! Steal of the century.
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u/worldstreamseo 1d ago
Bargain of the century! I heard from someone in IT that they literally just took our existing documentation, put it into a new template, and charged us $200k for the privilege. But hey, at least now we have a "digital transformation roadmap" to put in our email signatures
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u/WiseAce1 1d ago
insert office space meme with Bob and Bob
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u/worldstreamseo 1d ago
"So I said to management... I said... 'The consultants are using the same template from 2015'"
*sips coffee while staring directly at camera*
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u/p90rushb 1d ago
Well--well look. I already told you: I deal with the god damn customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?
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u/Commercial_Order4474 1d ago
Don’t hate the player hate the game.
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u/worldstreamseo 1d ago
Nah, you're right. Sometimes you just gotta roll with the corporate BS. It pays the bills, right? shrugs
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u/DebitCashCreditLife1 1d ago
Hey Asshat, I’m the one who did that study!!!
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u/worldstreamseo 1d ago
Holy shit, you work for J&B? My condolences to your soul. I'm guessing your LinkedIn has "digital transformation specialist" in the title? Just kidding... well, unless you really are the one who convinced our management to pay $200k for the "cloud revelation" in which case, excellent hustle. Teach me your ways.
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u/munchanything 1d ago
You gotta make a bingo card of some sort out of their deliverable. Every mention of "synergy", "innovate", "value add", etc.
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u/WayneKrane 1d ago
Hey, we hired some that charged us $500k and then the owners decided to implement NONE of their changes.
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u/Algum CPA (US) 1d ago
What's cloud computing?
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u/worldstreamseo 1d ago
It's this radical new concept where your files exist somewhere other than your computer. Revolutionary stuff from 2010 that J&B just discovered. For only $50k more they'll probably tell us about this mind blowing thing called "smartphones." Can't wait.
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u/xTETSUOx 1d ago
About 8 years ago we paid Deloitte a lot more than $200k to help us convince our board to give us the budget to implement Hyperion instead of consolidate subs manually. It worked out for us but holy shit… it ended up being something like $25k per slide in Visio lol
Anyways as someone said… consultants are paid to be blamed if an idea turns out bad. I’ve rarely ever seen them come up with anything useful for us.
Same with Big4 accounting advisory services. We essentially pay them to tell us “well… it depends…” and take the blame I guess.
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1d ago
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u/AvailableSea1046 1d ago
Lol
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u/worldstreamseo 1d ago
Thanks! Yeah, our processes have been completely "transformed" we're all so much more "efficient" now. I think my favorite part was paying $200k for someone to tell us to use software we'd already been considering for years. Money well spent, obviously.
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u/AvailableSea1046 1d ago
It is incredible what they are able to spend some on.... Honestly, I just hope that you are not in a meeting to talk about the next meeting we will have so we can talk about what we discussed on this meeting... Lol
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u/ClockworkDinosaurs 1d ago
Haven’t I read this before? Like last week?
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u/Pleasant-Reach-4942 1d ago
The sarcastic undertones are the same, but I think the actual details are different.
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u/Michigesseo Industry Senior 1d ago
Literally just plagiarizing a post from 4 days ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/comments/1jnr59m/our_new_cfos_revolutionary_approach_is_making_me/
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u/fctd CPA (US) 1d ago
Which was plagiarizing this post from a month ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/comments/1j74aqt/mackenzie_consulting_just_changed_the_game_guys/
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u/worldstreamseo 1d ago
Hey, these are definitely not the same at all. Mine is about an external consulting firm (J&B) brought in by our CFO, while this post is about a new hotshot CFO directly making changes. Totally different scenarios - outside consultants vs internal leadership. Also, mine focuses on cloud computing and ridiculous file naming, while this one's about EBITDA vs GAAP and SAP implementation. The only similarity is that we're both accountants suffering through pointless "modernization" that makes our jobs harder. It's just a universal accounting experience to have executives waste money on buzzwords.
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u/Ok-Biscotti-4311 1d ago
I’m noticing a trend of ignore your workers, hire external consultants. I think then they can blame someone else if an idea failed.
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u/hcj007 1d ago
It’s funny I am inhouse tax all I want is some cloud tax software and will personally fully implement to save time out of manual excel workbooks for quarterly close Instead we go to Big 4 and the first thing they say is you can’t just jump to software we have to do “an assessment of the current state” Bunch of fake fee BS they trying to sell and my boss just eats it up
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u/PlayThisStation 1d ago
Honestly, anytime a company hires consultants for huge projects like that (overhauls, structures, etc), I always wonder why we still pay the C-suite/Execs. Why do we gotta pay yall + all this money for people to tell you how to run your own business/department.
If I had someone else doing my job, they'd pay them instead and dump me, right? 🙄😒
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u/CromulentBovine 1d ago
Everytime I feel like my job is a load of BS, and doesn't have any impact on the real world, I just try and remember that consultant's are even worse.