tax manager

senior implementation consultant

senior tax associate

senior payroll coordinator

it analyst

Baker Tilly

While the day to day flow and atmosphere is oft times enjoyable with a relaxed corporate culture and unquestioned flexibility, that doesn't mean it isn't anything more than a budget driven, soulless, corporate charge hour carnival that never ceases to complain about the lack of effort from staff or appreciate your efforts while working 65++ hours during busy season (obligatory semi-annual leadership speeches aside). Also, it doesn't help that there is no end to busy season. I seem to find myself staffed with 50-60 charge hours even during the summer, when it's "slow." If you can manage to not stay busy, you'll be one of the few that doesn't roll forward and/or lose weeks (plural) of PTO year to year.

This may sound like a typical complaint you may find on any public accounting website forum or review - but for a firm that recently made a large acquisition to leap into the top 12 of public accounting while pretending as if that's the new big 4, they could certainly afford to pay their personnel more or at least hire a few more bodies to help manage the work load.

Co-workers are the only thing that kept me at this place for as long as I have stayed and that's only to speak of some managers and below. There's a lot of quality seniors and some managers on the upswing that will spend the time to answer your questions and help you learn and develop a skill set. Some heavy managers, seniors and partners forget that you may or may not have any practical application in any job function that they assume you should be a master of by year 2 but will neither hesitate to bad mouth you at your annual review nor give you any more work of that type so that you may advance your skill set. And the rest of them nod along, even though they may have no experience working with you or even know your name.

But hey, there's free coffee in the break room and sometimes you get lucky enough to score an extra bag of powder crusted chips from the vending machine. If you can't manage to choke those down, there's plenty of charge hours to eat...

Public accounting is not for the faint of heart and this firm is no exception. Management did an awful job at allocating work this busy season and they play favorites. Firm has such low budgets it's almost impossible to stay within them without eating hours. Management is incredibly cheap and cannot make the office look presentable, as there are outdated unusable monitors and a bunch of office junk on some of the desks. Some people don't seem to care for you or your success. People are very judgmental here and will use everything you do in the office against you. Don't believe their lies. You have to pretend to be busy if you are at the office which is dumb. If I don't have enough work then why is it my fault that I can't do anything else other than just sit there, ask for work, and then pretend to work. The firm didn't even treat us out for busy season happy hours. They want to do it after. High expectation to get your CPA here or get shipped out. Just be aware.  Some staff who have been here 2+ years may be passed on another promotion again in favor of those here less because of favoritism. Favoritism is just how much you have in common with management and if you can talk with them about their stuff. If you can't then they automatically won't like you by default. Be aware. It has almost nothing to do with quality of work. But if they don't like you, they'll be harsher on your work.

Some people are actually really nice here though so that is a plus but that's expected in a workplace. Free dinner only during busy season, and sometimes lunch but only if you are in the office. You can't get food paid for by the firm if you are working at home.

It's not better than big 4 here. Just go there instead, at least you get the name on the resume and can bill every minute of your time to the client.

Every morning there would be new tax returns sitting on the shelf. I would log out one tax return at a time. Then I would complete preparation of the tax return; tasks to prepare tax return includes inserting forms for the client to sign, making copies of the tax return (either digitally and/or physically), hand over the tax return to the manager, and put the tax return on the shelf to wait for the client's approval. Once one tax return was completed, I would log out another and go through all the tasks again. If there was a special circumstance that I did not know how to approach or deal with, there was always someone I could ask or there were also manuals I could refer to.

In this job, I learned that organization is key. If one is not organized, in the worst case scenario, a tax return could be lost; however, the tax return was for sure on the premises of the office somewhere. Although there was assurance that the tax return was somewhere in the vicinity, tracking down a tax return would be a hassle and an embarrassment.

The management was very structured. The workplace culture was supportive. Every contracted tax preparer had a mentor that he could consult with. The hardest part of the job was the hours. When there was a huge tax return or the extension tax season was coming to an end, I would work anywhere from 12 hours to 16 or 17 hours. The most enjoyable part of the job was preparing tax returns with no errors. If there were no errors, I would either receive a "good job" from my supervisor or no comments at all (which meant that the tax return was properly prepared).

Working at the biggest auditing firm in Liberia  was awesome because of the enormous benefits the firm provided for staff.  From top management downwards, partners ensure that all of our deliverables were met. Clients deadlines never caught up with us because of the caliber of staffs the firm hired.

At baker Tilly Liberia, there are two partners and one audit manager with several supervisors. The both partners are Certified Public accountants(CPA's) and the audit manager, a Chartered Accountant(CA).

Auditing for me mold the mind and helps an individual think critically. Auditing standards was part of our everyday life. The firm tried to really equip it's staffs with the necessary materials to serve her clients.

working with young and elderly people proves to be rewarding in that everyone ensures that their targets were met. More besides, the firm depended on audit fees from clients to pay workers. By this way, we have to ensure that our reports were on time.

The hardest part of the job was meeting clients deadline. Some clients are very demanding because of their huge audit fees paid to the firm.

Leisure time in auditing firm was when there is no pending job. we use this time to share fun as consultants and discuss way forward on how to beat our competitors in the market. This was really fun and I really missed those times.

Baker Tilly acquired the firm where I used to work. I stayed on board with my old department for almost 2 years before transitioning into a different department. The new department was core to BT and not an acquisition. I will say that the experience was night and day. My old department struggled to blend in with BT because they struggled with changes and updates (ie: remote work, casual dress, supporting staff when work-life balance was challenged, etc.). I was tempted to look elsewhere but wanted to look internally first. I am very glad that I did. The issues I had with my prior department were only because that team's management struggled to adapt to a more progressive business model. Once I integrated into a core BT department, I felt like I belonged and that I was supported. It was like I went from working in the 1960s to working in the 21st century. Major improvement and I'm so glad I gave it another chance. My only negative in the transition is that, while my pay went up when I moved departments, I went from salary to hourly and lost my unlimited PTO benefit. However, the PTO accrual has been relatively standard compared to other companies, so it's not bad - just a change. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Learning from fellow tax experts and they learning from me about assisting customers.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Some customers may be impatient and want an answer right away. Also if they're not getting a deduction or credit they're looking for, they may take it out on you. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Very friendly and interactive. Fellow experts, supervisors and managers share their questions and day to day experiences. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Log on.
Sign in and make myself available for TurboTax customer calls and chats. 
If I can't answer a question right away I research on either the IRS website the TurboTax website or Google.
If still I don't get an answer I asked a lead supervisor and while waiting on their answer do further research.
Give the answer to the customer or walk the customer through.
During our near the end of the call or chat take notes down.
Ask the customer if there is anything else he or she needs help with.
At the end of the call sank the customer for calling and tell them about filling out the survey about their experience with me.
Between calls check email to order researcher training.
Near the end of the day to follow up call or chats if any.

Our former firm merged into Baker Tilly two years ago. I think at one time BT had more of a smaller firm feel while offering some perks of a larger firm, internal training, mktg presence, etc. but their goal is really to be a 5 billion $ firm and with that and all the incoming mergers, the focus is primarily on utilization. It's not a horrible place to work, but I personally struggle with the lack of mission and purpose at the national level, there really is not a defined culture. There are good people in the Seattle office but being on the west coast you are not in the mainstream with other employees in the mid-west and east coast where the number of employees is more highly concentrated. I think they also struggle with understanding salaries in more high cost of living areas. The Seattle office prior to merger had an atmosphere of high transparency, which is not the case with Baker Tilly. Expectations are not always clear at the national level vs. the local level, low autonomy compared to what we used to enjoy. Wouldn't not recommend, but may not be a long term option for some. Public accounting in general can be tough, with a continued focus on utilization things may go down a path that won't work for some. 

Pros: flexibility to work remote/hybrid, schedule personal appt's if needed during the day. I view the open PTO policy as a con, I'd rather have a vacation allotment, I take less vacation here than I did at my prior firm because of it. I sense push back on taking time whereas when I had a bucket it was expected people would use it. The benefits are decent and I at least have a team that cares and who are good at what they do. Not all teams and leaders are created equal. I am surprised for a firm their size how low tech they are. They operate lean in a lot of areas that you would expect a firm of their size would have more established processes and structure for. With the new private equity buy-in there does seem to be a waning sense of job security. While some offices or teams perhaps have an established culture, the firm overall has a weak culture and not a clearly defined vision. Whether you loved Alan Whitman or hated him, he at least had a defining vision for the firm that is lacking now. It's not a horrible place to work, but could make improvements that would make it that much better. 

Baker Tilly Consulting strives off of a small team model, meaning consultants are not functionally separated and are expected to be true valued business advisors who can tackle any and all client issues.  

This presents a wonderful opportunity for young, hardworking consultants looking to move quickly through the company.  No day is the same and employees are never bored.

Optimization projects are extremely enjoyable and allow true problem-solving skills to be used which create an exciting workplace.  System implementations are much more challenging and tend to drag on longer than expected and require mostly change management and project management practices as opposed to true business process improvement.  No project is the same.

The downside is the work-life balance where travel expectations exceed 80% and the typical work week ranges from 60-70 hrs.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The good things are gone. This used to be a company dedicated to their employees. Now it's just like every other major corporation. No more work from home, terrible benefits, and low pay.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Every day is a brand new problem. You will gain many responsibilities, but you will not be compensated in any way for it. The work you eill be doing, you'll be paid less than half for and you will never get a title advancement. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Toxic. It's extremely cut-throat, with management more worried about how they look rather than how employees are treated.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
You will come in looking to do work that was piled onto your plate the day before, followed by a new massive amount of work piled on top. Everything is important, which means nothing is.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Tax manager 261 salaries reported	$131,307 per year
Senior implementation consultant 277 salaries reported	$124,400 per year
Senior tax associate 230 salaries reported	$100,425 per year
Senior payroll coordinator 166 salaries reported	$34.67 per hour
It analyst 169 salaries reported	$209,782 per year

Working at Baker Tilly Canada: Company Overview and Reviews

Baker Tilly Canada

Baker Tilly Canada Ratings

Popular jobs at Baker Tilly Canada

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected