Some Things I Don’t Want to Hear During the Busy Season

Okay, let me get this straight. There are really a lot of things I like about the busy season (I must be a martyr or something). In fact, in general, I can honestly say I’m a person who can tolerate a lot of things. But then again, there are a lot of things I don’t like about the busy season and there are really some things that I don’t want to hear and to tolerate, especially during the busy season. Let me just tell you what are these things are:

From the client: “We’re moving the Board of Director’s meeting to an earlier date.” Meaning? They’re also moving the deadline for the audited financial statements. Subsequently, all your well-made plans and schedules get shot down and you have to scramble to re-schedule everything just to meet the new deadline. Thinking of protesting? Save your breath. The adage “customer is always right” works in the auditing firms as well, especially when it comes to deadlines.

From the client: “I haven’t finished the schedules that you asked. I’ll give them to you next week.” Meaning? It’s already the end of March and you need to submit everything to your manager and partner for review, otherwise, your head will roll (figuratively, of course). But here’s your client telling you that you still have to wait for another week for the much-needed schedules. What do you do? Call your manager or partner and tell them the FS will not be released on time and you will have to go on ‘tentative’ mode? Good luck, especially if your client is expecting you to still finish on time despite the fact that they’re the ones who are causing the delay.

From the client: “I’m right, you’re wrong.” You’re having the mother of all arguments with the client and to just get what they want, they’ll end the argument with this sentence???? Does this make sense? Or is the client starting to sound like a spoiled brat?

From the client: “You’re here again! Is it the time of the year already?” Uh, yes and yes. Why is it that some clients could not get into their thick heads that they need to be audited every year? It’s like we’re a bug or something that comes out from January to April of every year. Or we’re just somebody who they have to tolerate because we’re the ‘necessary evil’ for them.

From the client: “I don’t like your junior, send another one.” This I heard when I was already a manager. As if all the tight deadlines, overtime and overnights are not enough, I had to contend with the fact that my client did not like my new junior! Since it was already the busy season, replacing her was near to impossible, so I had to tell my senior not to let the junior get near that particular client. If I didn’t have a senior – I’m dead.

From the previous manager: “You need to help me out in finishing this job.” You’ve already done your schedule with this manager. You’ve submitted all your work and cleared all his notes. But then again, your ex-manager suddenly approaches you and told you that he needs your help to finish the job. And you’re already in the middle of auditing your next client! What to do? What to do? This happened to me once, and I knew I couldn’t say no. Good thing my new manager said yes. Don’t know what would have happened to me if she said no.

From the partner / manager: “I need this ASAP!” Right. As if all the rest of what you are doing are not urgent as well.

And lastly, “you cannot charge 100% of your overtime hours!” You work your butt off all those late nights (and week-ends, too!) just to be told that you can’t charge all of your overtime hours because the job is in danger of exceeding the budgeted hours. Need I say more?