My manager is forcing me to make incorrect journal entries
Managers often pressure accountants to book inaccurate entries, from capitalizing disposable items like sheet protectors to double-accruing invoices just to make flawed reports work. This forces subordinates into covering up their superiors' financial mistakes, leaving them terrified they are being set up to take the fall. The constant pressure to violate standard procedures causes deep discomfort and often drives employees to quit before they face retaliation.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Documenting everything meticulously outside of company systems
- 2Emailing a mockup entry to force the boss to provide explicit written approval
- 3Refusing to book the entry and making the boss do it themselves
- 4Reporting the issue to HR, the audit committee, or an anonymous tip line
- 5Starting to look for a new job to exit the situation
- 6Ignoring the manager's request and letting the accounting system auto-correct it
- 7Quitting the job to avoid liability or discomfort with cash procedures
- 8Documenting that the request is not GAAP and passing the liability onto the auditors
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Next meeting CFO tells me to make an entry with my current findings which I tell her isn't correct she says "I would never hold you to these entries".”source ↗
“I just put the pieces together that shes trying to cover up a mistake she made in February. I think shes trying to set me up to take the fall.”source ↗
“I was forced to capitalize, grouped together, that invoice and it had SHEET PROTECTORS on it. I capitalized sheet protectors against my will.”source ↗
“I have a supervisor who insists I accrue invoices that we have already captured and recorded in the appropriate month because their report won’t register that we captured it.”source ↗
“had a manager once who'd rather adjust reality to fit their spreadsheet than update the damn spreadsheet logic”source ↗
“You’ll be fired soon. They will come up with the PIP bullshit. That’s what happened to me”source ↗
“I have been in positions where I felt uncomfortable with cash procedures. I quit that position within 6 months.”source ↗
“Company's policy was to capitalize everything until the store opened. I asked them several times why the heck I was capitalizing medical gloves that would be used once and then thrown out”source ↗
“This one makes me feel im rotting my brain when I let it through each month as i am instructed”source ↗
“My salary was below the line for 5 years as a “non recurring expense” a a senior accountant working on the GL 🤣”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2Feeling incompetent when skipping formal accounting rules for small clients
- 5How to fix journal entries moving income to expense accounts
- 3How do you set up a manual journal layout for budgeting and net worth?
- 3Why do accountants keep messing up my bookkeeping software?
- 30Why do debits and credits make no sense?
- 2Why do companies show profits while ignoring expenses?