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Buchanan Barry LLP

I really enjoyed my experience at Buchanan Barry. My main job is doing bookkeeping and compilation engagements over the last 5 years and finally got my audit hours to become a CPA. 

During my experience here, I mainly do bookkeeping recording bank statement transactions into quickbooks and charging clients for my time. I learned how to sign off on every page of a PDF and put page 1 out of XX on each page as well. This has endowed me with the success to pass the CFE on my 4th attempt. 

During the year, I work over 60 hours a week non stop and just grind until I pass out. This has earned me the respect of management and they awarded me by making me the leader of the personal tax department where I continue to grind. 

Working here has taught me attention to detail and learn to obey the whims of those above me as that has been the ticket to success at this organization. The work I do is not complicated so the salary is not competitive but they make up for it with overtime after donating 100 hours for free. 

The leadership team really emphases money money money and im glad I can help by how many compilations I do. Currently, I am a gold star in their books. 2025 will be my 7th year anniversary working here doing the same compilations and personal taxes I did since the start of 2019. 

Next are the managers who are all very detail oriented and works the same hours as the staff. This is a team player in action. 

Though out my time, I seen articling students come and watched them go however, I always say to myself that this public accounting is not for everyone so I continue to wear that badge of honor and do more compilations every day until my turn comes. Currently, the leadership said once a partner retires, I will be the next in line. 

Best place to work ever due to the wonder people who are always working 60 hours a week next to you, the managers who eye every engagement and tells you how to improve, the fact that you get paid over time after donating 100 hours and all the compilations and personal tax engagements in the world.

This place is the worst firm possible to get your accounting designation or to work for in general for the following reasons:

1) Poor opportunities post designation because you are mainly doing bookkeeping and small business tax returns while you are articling. They ration audit/review work like food in Africa so you just get enough to get your designation but not enough to be a competent CPA. 

2) Pathetic life timer managers who are on a powertrip and like to berate new students out of university with no experience to make up for their own sad miserable existence. New flash losers - once people get their designations, they move on to better jobs that pay as much as your positions and work less and BTW they will remember how you treat them so enjoy working at this miserable place for the rest of your sad existence. 

3) Poor covid policy. In 2020, due to Covid, they fired a bunch of staff due to poor short term decision making and alot of client work could not be done on time because the survivors were too overworked. Lost alot of clients because of this. 

4) Owners of this company are out of touch and only listens to their pet managers. These pets will fight to protect their own shaky positions so the staff will be thrown under the bus for any small mistake. 

5) They pretend to be a mid-size firm but their clients are what you find at your neighborhood  sole practitioners. 

The firm has a good mix of clients.  Some larger audits, but it seems that most assurance engagements are reviews.   

There are some audits that require reporting under IFRS.  Review engagements are all ASPE and/or ASNFPO, as are some of the audits.

Most clients are medium sized private companies that benefit from  our ability to provide accounting, audit and tax services suitable for their size and needs.  Our tax specialists are very knowledgeable.

The firm is a CPA training office, and management at the firm is extensively trained in current CPA accounting and assurance requirements.

If you are a recent graduate and looking to earn your CPA designation, this is a great firm to work for. The firm is a CPA training office, and management at the firm is extensively trained in current CPA accounting and assurance requirements.

If you are looking for a career in a mid-sized firm, this is an excellent place to get experience.  The partners are very client focused and proficient in providing tax and management advice.

I really enjoy my work here, I enjoy my fellow employees, and I feel that my work is valued by the partners.



This place is probably one of the worst firms to work for in the city. There are no opportunities for promotions because a bunch of career managers who won’t leave take up spots for anyone else to advance. Good luck advancing past senior accountant at this place.

The same people in management that’s been here for decades also have a superiority complex and us truly sad. People who leave the firm work 1/2 as much hours as these lifers and make just as much. It must feel awesome to boss around people who just left college and probably won’t have to deal with you after 3 years and laugh behind your back.

This is not much of a cpa training firm either because most of their alumni’s are working at other small firms in the city doing the same work. Smart staff sees this place as a training firm for bigger training firms so they leave and complete their articling somewhere else while the rest get their cpa designations doing not for profit audits and complication engagements for small owner managed companies. 

Wow what can I say except this is the worst place to work. They don’t even have enough audit hours for their own staff and it’s rationed. No wonder so many people who article at this firm can’t get good work post designation or leave in 1-2 years to join a bigger firm. 

Management making you do procedures that add no value and than blames you for going over budget.

The “Leadership group” dominated by people with geriatric ideas and out of touch with modern cpa firm culture. 

Useless HR that tries to gaslight people.

Senior managers are all brainwashed thinking they will make partners and they still arnt after 20 years of servitude. They are only good at making partners rich. Most of them are toxic towards staff and if clients see their toxic attitude and how they communicate, they will take their business elsewhere. 

The management at this place are just horrible people. 

The common denominator to all these widgets have in common are their poor social skills, people skills and leadership skills but they are good at filling the checkboxes designed by the firm. Their actual minds are atrophied to the point where they cannot learn anything new and behave like egotistic bigots towards new university students. But don’t make much but their ego is through the roof. Rigor mortis has definitely set in on their careers!

If you want to see people work calling themselves managers, senior managers or partners work 70 hour weeks and make peanuts telling u this is the career of a CPA, this is the firm for you. 

I applied as a second year coop student and this experience made me not want to work at a small CPA firm after I graduate. You have all the horrors of working at big 4 but you won’t get the brand name, experience or opportunities so why even work here? 

The managers and owners are all vile people and they are power tripping over compilation engagements. 

You can tell once on your first start date, they prefer certain types of people (think of the servers at Cactus Club or any trendy restaurant that serve beer and wing specials). 

Bad jobs post designation. 

A lot of managers tried to leave, failed at their next job and came back to this place defeated and accepted their fates.

This firm isn’t the best place to work or complete your cpa designation. Very hard to get promoted after senior accountant because there are too many managers and senior managers not moving up to partner. You basically have to play their games and work 25/7 to get promoted. 

The experience I received here when I was getting my designation was not marketable to employers in industry or other bigger firms so I’m just stuck here. 

There are definitely cliques at the senior manager level as they are all institutionalized long term staff that have been here for way too long and are completely complacent in their own little world when everyone else moves on. 

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