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I am working as data engineer at Accenture with 2 YOE with ctc of 11LPA. After clearing all the technical rounds at Impetus technologies, tomorrow I have my HR discussion. She told she can't give more than 16 LPA. What should i do? How much should i ask? I am expecting somewhere around 19-20 LPA. Can anyone pls help. Accenture Impetus technologies inc
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At 4YOE you can make senior at Deloitte Advisory and earn around 115k...happy to help refer!
Rising Star
1. Audit isn’t billed by hour people need to get this out of their minds. They are Fixed fee and the partner MAY be able to squeeze some more out of the company for overages or unexpected events like auditing an acquired company during the FY. I have been on audits that lost money if you went by fee minus cost rate of people on the job and their hours incurred.
2. All those services they give you like HR, CPA materials training, offshore teams.
3. Partner profits, it’s their client if you can go get your own clients and perform their audit then go ahead
Not saying they couldn’t pay you more but for example an average big 4 partner makes around 1 million. If every audit staff at the firm was profiting them 150+ an hour after expenses I can tell you that number would be significant higher
Most of my jobs are billed at standard rates in audit. I have 1 fixed fee review. We do eat the expenses on most jobs but it only brings realization down by max 5% usually. I get fixed fee is the norm but definitely not the only way to bill audits.
Rising Star
Well, start with the first part of how many hours you charge a year. Then how many of those hours are actually billed to the client. Then all the costs for training and firm materials. Then of course the actual profit to the partners.
Not saying 80k isn’t some thing you deserve. Just saying there is more overhead than you realize and you should stop trying to use a bill rate as justification for your pay.
Rising Star
Was mostly a joke.
This is like asking how can Subway charge $8 for a footlong sub when the ingredients only cost them $1.50
You firm also pays half your income taxes, pays for health insurance, retirements, pays for many administrative staff that aren't client billable, pays for equipment, buildings, softwares, etc etc. Obviously they need to make a profit from you. There is going be a fair discrepancy between your paid rate vs billable rate.
Sorry - I lumped payroll taxes with income taxes. But employers pay half of your SS taxes.
As an employee, you are paid based on the cost of labor in your local market. If you want to be paid based on the revenue your work generates you have to make partner. You probably couldn’t open up shop and bill yourself at your current bill rate or anything close to it, so you have to ask yourself if the experience and future opportunity is worth waiting for higher pay. Or go somewhere else. The fact that they balked at giving you $4k more means they either have very strict HR policies or they think they can find someone else to do your job pretty easily.
I do think focusing on experience is the right approach. If you stay in public accounting long enough, the money will come. But I would recommend discussing your experience expectations before just jumping ship. Your current firm may not be able to meet them, but you won’t know if you don’t ask and then hold them accountable to what they tell you. If you feel like you have good relationships with the decision makers, that’s not always easy to replace.
Rising Star
$36/hr seems super low imo. I was at a smaller firm than CLA making about that much money while being billed at $98/hr. And they paid me overtime.
Typically you get paid about 30-40% of your billable rate from what I've seen. You're getting 22, and they're pocketing 100% of your billable revenue over 40 hours. CLA seems cheap
A lot of public accounting firms have bloated overhead on top of partners who take unjustifiably high profits given the low bill rates and margins of their projects. If you want to get a fair cut before partner you need to look into the advisory shops or consulting firms.
For example, $195 is a really low bill rate. But even at that rate and 110% utilization you would be making at least $97K at a place like A&M where you’re paid a percentage. There’s a few other firms that have similar models
Lots of overhead at these firms (buildings, tech, internal functions, etc). My rate is $880/ hr and I don’t make anywhere near 1.8M a year
I billed $235 an hour and was effectively earning 25 an hour.
Me too!
You’re at CLA, what did you expect? Move up to a bigger firm
Or do what I did. Move to a small firm and make more money for fewer hours.
The delta includes the perks, technology, and other things you receive
Pro
How many yrs of experience do you have? Moving firms will you a decent raise. I can refer
I’m a 1st year billed out at $190/hr with a $75k base - you could definitely be doing much better with the experience you have
Pro
I wouldn’t fight over 3K pre-tax lol, just change firms
Chief
How many YOE?
Congrats on the new kid! I have three myself - switched to industry and couldn’t be happier. Was in PA for 3 years, switched after a busy season as senior. Pay bump was considerable and hours are SO much lower. Even when I’m working, the work isn’t nearly as stressful. Not everything is URGENT lol people respect your free time and PTO. My coworkers and managers don’t even have my cell phone number.
Are you specialized in anything?
Pro
Come apply to BDO FDD.
Rising Star
Come work for a firm based out of HCOL and live pretty much anywhere in US. I’m doing that out of Nevada and we hired two more from CLA Nevada. You should be at $90k+ for an S1, that’s how much I got in January 2021 so it could be higher. Also I’m a dad of two young girls and my WLB is really good for PA standards, and o just went on a reduced schedule so it’s even better now!
Rising Star
Yep, that’s the market. I know someone working for NY making $110k as a senior 1 but they have to pay NY taxes and a portion gets credited to their state, but still better than $75k!
I was billing close to 450k a year when working in NY on combination assurance/tax/client service work (250/hr)... my pay? 66k a year. It's not about what you earn in fees until you make partner... then it's your book. Until then, you're riding the coattails of the person who brought the engagement (usually the partner). If you bring in engagements, track their billings and you can ask for more pay (this would include selling seamless). Now my bill rate is less, charge hours are less (NY firm was not CLA) and I make more than twice that... just further proof your billings don't determine your pay.
Rising Star
How do people graduate from college and not understand how these things work?
Go to a bigger firm? You can ask for 110k+ easily…