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Public Accounting Hours Per Week - Average Hours CPAs Work in Public Accounting (Very Detailed) - YouTube
Channel: Money and Life TV
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if you've come to check out this video
you're probably thinking about going
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into public accounting or just want to
learn more about the type of hours
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public accountants work there are
several factors that I can share with
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you in my six years of experience that
are going to determine how many hours a
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week you'll actually have to work on
average throughout the course of the
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year by the end of this video I think
you guys are gonna have a much better
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understanding of the type of hours
you'll have to put in if you work as an
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accountant I highly recommend watching
this whole video because at the end of
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it I'm going to show you a spreadsheet
that breaks down the average hours per
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week for each month of the year that you
can expect to work in public accounting
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what's up guys it's Mike also known as
MK the CPA welcome to money and live TV
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the channel that you come to every
single week to improve your financial
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position your career and your life if
you guys have not already seen my video
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on how much money do CPAs make make sure
to check it out I'll link it up right
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above and also I'll put links to that
video in the description down below in
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that video I asked hey if you want to
see more videos like this and want to
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learn more about public accounting I
said just hit that like button and you
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guys did you guys really voted that you
wanted to see more videos like this and
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so that's one of the reasons I'm
producing this video I remember starting
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off in public accounting or when I was
first thinking about becoming an
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accountant first thing I thought about
was hey what kind of money they make but
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the second thing I thought about was
what kind of hours do they work and
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that's what this video is gonna cover
now I can only share from my personal
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experience when I did some research
online just to see what other kind of
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information is out there you get answers
that are kind of all over the place so I
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really think it comes down to a few key
factors which we're gonna talk about
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right now that are gonna really be the
determining factors of how many hours
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you can expect to put in every week
throughout the year as the public
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accountant in all my years of experience
I think the most important thing that's
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gonna determine how many hours a week
you can expect to put in is actually
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where you work I know that was a very
common factor and determine your salary
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but this is also true in determining the
number of hours you work
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so the size of the firm is really gonna
matter depending on what firm you're
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looking at joining I've seen both ends
of the spectrum there's the very very
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small firm where there's 10 or less
people and you have the role of doing
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everything you're answering the phones
you're preparing tax returns you're
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doing audits that can be an environment
where it can be very very busy because
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there's very few people to do the work
then I've seen the other end of the
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spectrum where we look at big four big
four firms like KPMG PwC over the years
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of working in accounting I've met
several people who've worked out
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four firms and to this day I still have
yet to meet a person who has come from a
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big four environment who said they have
not worked a lot of hours what I've
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heard is common is 50 hours a week 60
hours a week even up to 80 hours a week
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at a big firm I find that the sweet spot
is if you join a firm within around
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fifty to a hundred people firms that
seem to have fifty two hundred people
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there's different people taking care of
different functions of the firm so you
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can be a little bit more specialized but
not have to do every part of the
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accounting process for example you might
not have to do auditing and taxes maybe
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you can just focus on taxes and that's
what I focus at in my firm I just focus
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on taxes we have other teams other
departments who focus on audits we have
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a separate department that does all the
bookkeeping to firms like that kind of
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have a team approach but what I found
and that's what has allowed for some
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flexibility at my job I'm not gonna talk
a lot about work-life balance because I
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want to save that for another video I
think the number of hours and work-life
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balance it's related but they're really
two different things and I'll explain
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why in a future video all right so the
culture of the firm obviously the size
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of the firm I think those are the most
important things initially I think the
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second most important factor that's
gonna determine what kind of hours you
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work is the type of work that you do
obviously if you work tax you're gonna
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work a lot of hours during tax season if
you work audit you might have different
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busy times other things consider is if
you're an expert in this particular
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niche let's say like a states and trusts
or nonprofit
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you know usually those are very niche
oriented and there's very few people who
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do the work in those areas so if you get
involved in niches you might find
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yourself working more hours than some of
the other team members for example let's
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say you do estates and trusts you'll
have estates and trusts tax returns to
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do right you'll have gift tax returns
you're gonna have maybe some seven oh
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six is to prepare and some other stuff
you might have to do that work on top of
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doing the individual returns the
business returns etc so you
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your schedule might be a little busier
because you're in a niche so those are
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some things to consider in regards to
the type of work that you do you're
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probably gonna be busy at different
times throughout the year you're
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probably wondering hey what's the
busiest week or what's the most hours
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you've ever put in in a single week and
I can I'm happy to answer that the most
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hours I've ever put in in a single week
was 72 hours now I know people like I
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said in the big four firms they're
putting an ad I know somebody who's put
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in 90 hours a week or more so there's
people that do that I do not recommend
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it but generally I do not work 72 hours
a week that's only happened in the 6
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years I've been doing public accounting
I've only worked that many hours in a
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week like once or twice in 6 years
I try to maintain my schedule pretty
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well so I don't have to put in that
number of hours because that's pretty
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intense now because public accounting
and accounting in general is so company
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specific the best advice I can give you
is if you're thinking about working
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somewhere so let's say there's a firm in
town where you know you're thinking of
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working but you're not gonna know you're
obviously not gonna know those hours
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until you're in this environment so what
I could recommend you do is if you know
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somebody at that company take them to
lunch get to know them and just ask them
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some questions know if you can jobs out
of them see if they'll let you do that
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all right you know if you can just see
what their job is like you know chances
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are they're gonna be pretty open and
honest with you because like I said this
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type of work is very company specific
and based on the company you work at and
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the type of worker you are the two main
factors that are gonna determine the
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hours you work per week if you know you
want a flexible schedule I would really
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negotiate that going in find out if the
company even has a flexible work hours
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many of them don't I've worked at three
public accounting firms and only one of
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them have had flexible work hours so
don't assume that even though we have
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technology that allows us to work from
home and all these other things don't
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assume that
every firm is gonna be flexible on the
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hours but like I said I would take
somebody off the lunch and get to know
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them ask them about the company or I
would negotiate upfront that flexible
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schedule if you can if that's really
important to you and I would ask as many
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questions as you can about the company
before you actually start
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okay guys I am back with you and here's
the spreadsheet I love to give you I
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love well first of all I love
spreadsheets cuz I'm a freaking
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accountant but here it is guys I wanted
to give you a visual representation an
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organized rep visual representation of
the expected at hours you might work
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when you join a public accounting firm I
especially wanted to make this because I
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remember you know way back when I
started public accounting you know these
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are the type of questions that are
difficult to ask and it's kind of like
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kind of like bad boot that um get like
that bad vibes right or bad voodoo if
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you ask questions like this right like
if you ask about hey how much do you
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make or hey what kind of hours you work
it's like not professional to ask such
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questions but here on YouTube I can
cover that I can talk about things like
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that now obviously this is just from my
own research all of this information and
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from my own experience each accountant
you've talked to is probably gonna have
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some overlap with what the experience
I've had but they also might have a
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whole different set of hours they work
especially if they work big for are at a
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smaller firm so it really depends on who
you ask but I just want to share my
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experience with you guys so the way I
broke this out is I've broken this
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information out by month so throughout
the year you can kind of see when
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there's busy times and when there's not
so busy times and like I said that
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really comes back to what you do with
them at the firm but and then I've
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covered like what's busy season it is
and then over here I think these are the
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industry averages based on my knowledge
of the industry and the research I've
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done and then I've kind of broken out my
averages over here now I'll let you guys
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pause the video if you really want to
look at this spreadsheet closely but let
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me just point out a few things so you'll
notice that tax season depending on the
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type of clients you have now that's the
one thing I forgot to mention the type
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of clients you have will also determine
how busy you are because some clients
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are more involved than others that's
part of the hours mix if you ask me but
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in January that's when tax season starts
right so usually it's the third week of
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January is when tax season really begins
the pickups or the third week of January
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or the end of January is when things
really start to ramp up and you go from
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forty hours a week 250 hours a week or
more that's when that when I found that
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stars from my experience like I said
though it just depends on your workload
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your client Nick's
now I am I have clients who who have a
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November you're in and so come January
I'm already working on their tax return
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so I'm already busy super busy the day
after New Year's I am full fledge into
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this thing and I'm working my butt off
by the time I finished them that client
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group then I'm already into the rest of
the stuff and I'm busy all the way
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through April 15 I think industry
averages depending on the hours you
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negotiate upfront and what you can
expect is gonna be anywhere from 40 to
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70 hours a week
I honestly think for most people you're
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only gonna be working maybe 40 to 50 in
January but towards the end of January
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you're probably working about 55 to 60
hours a week same is true for February
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you're probably looking at 55 to up the
70 hours a week with like 55 being the
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average just consider 55 to be the
average work week 50 to 55 hours or
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maybe even 50 to 60 hours a week I would
expect for most firms now big four
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you're probably I'm guessing going the
average would be more like 60 to 80
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hours a week and a big four firm but I
don't know I've never worked at a big
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four firm now obviously so in March you
have the business tax return deadline so
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it can be super super freaking busy
around March 15 one of my year is where
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I work 70 hours was around the business
deadline around March 15 I've only done
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that one year or once there twice in my
life but near a major deadline that's
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when the hours really really ramped up
then in April same thing it can be
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really crazy busy possibly the most
busiest the first or second week of
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April when you're trying to get
everybody's individual return done so
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the obviously you can guys can look at
the hour ranges here and kind of
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determine for yourself so my average is
so in January I Pro you know starting
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off in January I'm probably working like
40 to 50 hours a week you know usually
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about 45 the first week or two it just
depends really if when the information
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comes in but I'm I would expect about 45
to 50 hours a week in January and then
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towards the end of January you know I'm
back to 50 to 55 now most of most
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the tax season I've worked I I work
around 55 hours a week most of the time
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between then I range between 55 to 60
hours I do not usually go much over 60
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if at all
I usually be stay between 55 and 60 and
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that's all the way through tax season
guys you know some weeks I'll work 61 62
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but usually that's the highest I get
except for those two times in my life
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where I work seven over 70 hours in May
so now let's step take let's take a step
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outside of tax season most people aren't
that busy first leaving taxes in there
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might be a lot of extension work left to
do there might be audits starting up or
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ramping up it just depends but there is
for me since I do taxes there's actually
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a non-profit or an exempt organization
deadline in May on May 15th so I still
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stay pretty busy not like tax season
busy but you know even outside of tax
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season my hours go back down to around
40 so I probably arrange between 40 to
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43 hours the rest of the year are
between 40 to 45 as you can see in June
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you know I think the average is for most
companies outside of tax season in
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public accounting are probably 40 to 50
or as mine range between usually forty
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to forty three hours a week that's what
I typically put in and that seems to
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work for me and I'm still able to get my
work done timely and turn it around
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quickly like I said guys I don't tube or
you can just look at these charts and
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graphs I will let you guys know that um
as you can see I put a range right
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because every company is gonna be a
little bit different so it can vary but
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I'm most the time on though I'm on the
lower end of the range I'm usually not
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on the high end of these ranges so if
you're looking at my averages look more
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towards the lower end to the middle so
just bigger most of the year
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outside of tax season I'm working 40 to
45 hours a week now in September that's
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of course the business tax return
extension deadline it gets a little busy
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around there you might work some
overtime in that area to finish all
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those business returns same thing is
true for October and October on October
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15th is the deadline for people's
personal returns that were extended but
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around that time obviously you can
really ramp up again
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you know I might find myself working
close to 50 hours a week or the first
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couple weeks of October but like I said
guys most of the year
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outside of tax season I'm working forty
to forty three hours a week and that's
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what I'm happy with
that's my balance I if I work much more
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than that that really cuts into my
personal life my health you know doing
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being able to do this YouTube channel so
I work I worked really hard to manage my
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hours the best I can so I can do other
things outside of work and stuff like
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this because I really love doing sharing
information like this with you guys and
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being a part of that so guys feel free
to Stu spawns the video check out the
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spreadsheet and just remember the
factors I mentioned I will list the
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factors that we talked about earlier in
the video in the comment section down
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below and also includes some time stamps
so you can jump right to those points if
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you want to revisit it make sure to
check out my video on accounting
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salaries or how much money CPAs make if
you want to see more videos like this
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guys just make sure to let me know in
the comment section down below and like
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I said just hit that like button because
when you hit that like button it's like
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Mike yes more content like this please
I'm really interested in this kind of
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stuff and I want to learn more about it
alright guys if you liked the video make
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sure you smash that like button if you
liked it share this information with a
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friend especially friends who are going
into a public accounting if you guys
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have not already subscribed highly
consider subscribing because I make new
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videos typically every single week that
are gonna help you learn personal
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finances investing taxes and things that
are gonna help you not only in your
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career but every day life alright guys
thank you for being such a wonderful
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audience I would love to hear from you
in the comments section below what's the
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most hours you've ever worked at a
county firm or in a single week it
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doesn't have to be even being in
accounting what's the most hours you've
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ever worked in a single week leave it in
the comments section down below and like
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I said guys thank you so much for your
love and support you guys are a great
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audience and thank you for taking the
time to watch this video good luck to
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you in your search to become a public
I hope you found this information
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helpful if for some reason I did not
answer your question just feel free to
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drop me a question I'm very happy to
respond to any questions you may have
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and I will see you guys in next week's
video bye guys hey
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