Feeling incompetent when skipping formal accounting rules for small clients
Accountants moving to independent bookkeeping often worry that dropping strict GAAP accrual methods and formalities makes them look unprofessional. This anxiety about missing technical standards like long-term liability tracking stops them from feeling confident in their day-to-day work.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Preparing books on a tax or cash basis instead of strict GAAP
- 2Referring clients who demand strict compliance to other firms or recommending they hire an in-house controller
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“When there is an accrual based client, I feel …super incompetent sometimes. Also, I don’t really follow all formalities.”source ↗
“Does it make me look really bad if I don’t do these things?”source ↗
“I’m in a similar situation as you and was thinking about the current/ long term liability thing too. I’ll be interested to see what people say to see what actually gets done.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 8Why do debits and credits make no sense?
- 20Why is accounting software like QuickBooks so bad?
- 5Why do I keep failing the scenario questions on accounting exams?
- 2Why do companies show profits while ignoring expenses?
- 20Feeling lost and overwhelmed starting a new accounting job
- 7Leaving Big Four accounting before one year