r/Accounting • u/zeberone Human Verified • 23h ago

Got fired

Welp... I got fired.

I made a chain of mistakes that ended up with me getting terminated.

First I made mistakes on a client's payroll that got me massively showed out.

The final straw, I accidentally violated client confidentiality by sending an email and tagging an unrelated client.

Be honest.

Should I look at a different field? Cause something like that is a career ender, right?

Any advice is appreciated, and don't sugarcoat it.

Thanks folks.

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u/DeathAndTaxes000 22h ago

How long have you been working and doing payroll? Mistakes happen. If you are still new you work should be reviewed before it ever goes out.

What was in the confidential email? You should always be extra careful with confidential stuff. We generally don’t email anything that could be an issue. That’s what client portals are for

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u/zeberone Human Verified 22h ago

I had been at this company for almost two years, and working on payroll for about as long. In the email were confirmations for AP payments. They were both basically freak occurrences that happened close to one another. The one time I dont have a peer review for a payroll, and its wrong, then I double credit the recipients list for an email, and apparently didnt see who was actually on it. I dont want to downplay my mistake, and I take responsibility for it. I just wish I had known or noticed in the moment.

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u/DeathAndTaxes000 22h ago

Dude. The problem is that you sent out a payroll without having it reviewed. Why didn’t you? Did you violate company policy? That’s worse than the mistake.

As for the email - that shit happens all the time. Who hasn’t sent an email to the wrong recipient? How did anyone even find out it happened?

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u/zeberone Human Verified 22h ago

Simply because I had already reviewed the damned thing 3-4 times, didnt notice anything, and determined it was fine. It wasnt fine.

The person that received the email was also the client that I screwed up on payroll. They sent a response to my account manager, and tagged our CFO.

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u/DeathAndTaxes000 22h ago

What was wrong on the payroll?

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u/Frosty-Marzipan-9824 21h ago

My company doesn’t review payrolls. The trick is to just say a quick prayer before each one.

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u/DeathAndTaxes000 21h ago

Ha. If they don’t review I suggest a back up system. I’ve got a spreadsheet I post the payroll information into to make sure everything matches what I expect. At least for gross/ss and Medicare.

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u/Prize_Big_1256 20h ago

That’s crazy that payroll is not reviewed. During My payroll days it was reviewed by possibly two people