Why do other departments ignore accounting policies?
Other departments view accounting as the "fun police" rather than necessary guardrails and constantly battle over how to handle transactions. This persistent pushback and lack of respect from operations and higher-ups wears accountants down quickly.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1asking management for inputDid this help you?
- 2looking for a new jobDid this help you?
- 3padding accruals for things like rebatesDid this help you?
- 4making concessions for each otherDid this help you?
- 5using mechanical journal entries at fiscal year end to tie systems togetherDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Feeling additionally irked by them lately. They all seem to think we can do anything they dream up with zero guard rails, promise it to the customer, then walk away untouched by the chaos they unleash.”source ↗
“My main thorn on my side is the constant battling of other depts with policies / how to handle certain transactions on the accounting side.”source ↗
“overall it’s getting tired because no one seems to respect my opinion outside of my dept.”source ↗
“I need experienced non profit controllers and Finance Directors to help me on this?”source ↗
“It wears you down fast when ops treats accounting like the fun police instead of necessary guardrails.”source ↗
“Shipping parts early to hit numbers knowing they’d be returned. Then intercepting the return at the dock to delay the CM. Grabbing needed parts for orders at the dock before they could be properly funneled through the system and properly issued and costed. Shit never ended.”source ↗
“Like clockwork, every January...'hey Klef3069, we need to pay customer XYZ an additional 5% on item 12345. We forgot to tell you.'”source ↗
“VP of Ops will abduct my staff and have them working on some bullshit for him for like half a day before I'm finally like where the fuck is (she)”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 3How to switch from audit to advisory at another firm
- 5Why do administrators reward misbehaving students?
- 12How to escape high-stress corporate accounting and public tax roles
- 2Can you pivot from fund accounting to corporate staff accounting?
- 21Why do big companies require so many rigid formalities?
- 6How do I enforce a company policy I disagree with?