WCG CPAs & Advisors Careers

Posted Saturday, February 10, 2024

WCG is always looking for business-oriented public accounting professionals to add to our amazing team. We have been fortunate with rocket growth which is certainly a good problem to have… but a bad one since we need to find capable people who are like-minded. Is that you?

Here are current employment opportunities as of Saturday, February 10, 2024.

Client Support / Operations

Client Support / Front Desk [more] Closed
Client Support Manager Closed
Executive Assistant [more] Closed
Operations Manager Closed

Accounting Services

Accounting Services (bookkeeper) [more] Closed
Accounting Services Supervisor [more] Closed
Accounting Services Manager [more] Closed
Payroll Specialist [more] Open

Tax Preparation

Senior Tax Manager [more] Closed
Tax Manager [more] Open
Tax Supervisor [more] Open
Tax Accountant [more] Closed
Tax Support (seasonal) [more] Closed
Tax Support Supervisor [more] Closed
Internship (Spring 2024) [more] Closed

All our positions are available at all locations (North Colorado Springs and Mitchell, South Dakota). We entertain 100% remote positions for new team members who have been remote in the past with success. Quality training and absorbing our DNA is strained when limited to Teams, phone calls and emails (but we make it work!).

Our Open positions above are only because we are continuously looking for great people to join our team. WCG is in a good spot with a solid team. We are not filling a position or operating in crisis mode, but we always entertain adding value and contribution to our team.

Why is WCG Unique

Here is a quick list of why we think we are unique to the accounting industry-

No billable hours. We use value-based billing.

No A/R. We get paid upfront for our services, except tax preparation (but we collect our fee before we file).

As a firm, we check email on Mondays and Thursdays only, with auto-responders on Tuesdays and Wednesdays that read “Hey, I will respond in 3 days. If you are on fire, please call us!” Email, especially boomerang emails, can suck you in and ruin your whole day.

We are hybrid, but do the same days as a firm each week. During the summer, we are remote on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays (with the tax team off on Fridays). Outside of summer, we are remote on Mondays and Fridays. This ensures when we are together in the office, we are all together. Good for potlucks and after work drinks.

We are closed from April’s filing day to the first work day in May. We are closed for the week following October’s filing deadline. Thanksgiving week is light duty on Monday and Tuesday, with rest of the week off. We have several late starts (after Superbowl and July 4), and we have several days off just because.

We disengage from bad engagements frequently. We pay little attention to the billings, but we are sensitive to the fiscally irresponsible client, the tax scammer and the mean person. We want collaborative relationships, otherwise you can add CPA to your shopping list. We don’t look for trouble, because you’ll find that too, but we don’t tolerate nonsense.

We have a Mother’s Day List (the MDL) where throughout tax season, everyone adds the good, the bad and the ugly. Then in May, we all get together as a team and go through what we did right, and what things we should forget (and never do again). It is a great exercise in being a better firm. Same thing for Thanksgiving (the TDL)… this is combined with our “slash week” where we review the TDL / do some annual training / tax kickoff / have our Christmas dinner. Yes, we call it Christmas but we are also not Chick-fil-a. Yes, we have slash week t-shirts. You would look lovely in one.

We have a wonderful team of remote tax and accounting professionals. We have always been an online tax accountant firm with clients all over the world. Since our client base is mobile or at least outside of Colorado, our team can be anywhere! As a result, we have a great nucleus of protons and neutrons in Colorado Springs to provide the backbone of a solid in-person team environment, and then we have a bunch of orbiting electrons. Did we take that too far? All remote team members are flown in twice a year including their spouses. Yes, we have meetings and whatnot, but we also have drinks and dinners.

Training, Starting Dates

We are very aware of the team member experience, and one of those pillars is a strong training foundation. Everyone starts with a series of home study modules including quizzes (oh, don’t groan… we could bore you to tears with slide decks if you rather). You are paid for home study.

Start dates for 2024 are May 14, July 16, and December 3. Yes, we leave room for exceptions such as pre-scheduled vacations, funerals (kidding) and other obligations.

Training is a wonderful distraction, but still a distraction just the same. As such, we limit entry into the WCG team to three times a year. This serves two purposes- we can focus on giving you quality training without taking too much away from our normal duties of serving the client. Remember how we said we are very aware of the team member experience? Limiting entry into WCG keeps our team sanity at functioning levels.

Your first 8-10 days are mapped out according to your position. Click here for a Sample Training Schedule. Our training delivery is a mixture of home study, videos, test clients and simulations, and third party programs. After the first two weeks, training is still scheduled but is more sporadic, and team role-dependent (including season… tax, tax planning, Q4, etc.).

We have a full-time trainer plus two others to round out our on-going Training Team. For our remote staff, also known as rWCGers, we fly you into Denver on Monday, and you fly home on Friday for the first week of training. Yes, we get you a rental car and a hotel, usually at the Drury because they have free happy hour and we all pile into your room (kidding).

We also have an annual Tax Kickoff at the beginning of the year, and mixed throughout the year are weekly Tax Prep meetings and monthly All-Hands (firmwide) meetings. We also have 2-day Business Consultation training annually. WCG has a 18-24 month calendar that shows all training sessions, office closures and other important activities to help you plan your life in advance.

Who We Are as Accountants

WCG is a progressive firm in Colorado Springs who only engages with small business owners (S Corps, Partnerships, PCs) and complex individual tax preparation. We take a consultative approach to our client engagements by offering routine consultation and a strong focus on planning and business advisory services. Tax return quality and efficiency naturally occurs from periodic client interaction throughout the year.

Charge hours? Not us. Tracking time to the 6-minute increment? No way. While WCG has hourly rates for open-ended projects and other craziness, we operate with a value pricing approach offering fixed fee ranges (some call this impact pricing). We only take on the work we know we can do, and as such we don’t need billable hours. Additionally, we assess each team member on their output, not their input. And! Not all output is the same… so many people add value to an operation who don’t have a specific deliverable.

Don’t get us wrong, however- We have metrics. We have goals. We still must perform and as such we need to monitor operations to ensure success and a great client experience. We must all cross the finish line together.

WCG also embraces technology as much as we can- client portals, client management systems including phone apps, electronic workflow, 100% cloud-based computing, custom online digital forms, etc. Working smarter rather than harder is a part of our fabric. Over 80% of our clients are outside of Colorado. WCG has been a technology leader in so many ways (portals since 2008, home-grown web-based client management system, text messaging clients with stage checks and progress updates since 2014, and many more examples). We are a pioneer in the online accounting space.

We currently have several CPAs and EAs, and we require all accountants to either be on the CPA track or obtain the EA credential within 6-9 months depending on the calendar. With our steady growth of about $800,000 to $900,000 in revenue annually, we are in need of 3-4 additional experienced business-minded tax and accounting professionals to adopt current clients as their own and help run a team.

Culture, Life and Success at WCG

We recently recorded five podcasts hosted by Jason Watson, Senior Partner alongside Jason Schneider and Megan Oeltjenbruns who are also Partners. The one on the left is titled Life and Leadership. Here are the other podcasts in video format (all our podcasts are also video-recorded)-

Life and Leadership at WCG https://vimeo.com/575578346
How to be Successful at WCG https://vimeo.com/575578640
Challenges at WCG https://vimeo.com/575578864
Culture at WCG https://vimeo.com/575580335
Our Ideal Client Relationships https://vimeo.com/575583241

Work Life Balance

Ah, the most watered down phrase of 2022, 2023 and probably 2024. A lot of people look for new opportunities, and one of the primary reasons is “work life balance.” At WCG (and stated here and there) we want to work hard, yet play harder. Yes, we are playful and funny, and generally have a good time. At the same time, we have a job to do. Our Tax and Accounting Services teams will easily work 60 hours a week during busy times, but then we drop down to 30 hours a week during slow times (like lovely summers in Colorado). Client Support and Payroll teams tend to work 40 hours a week.

For some people, there is a pleasure in a “decision-less” period of working hard where all you do is eat, sleep and taxes, and then slide into summer with all sorts of free time to draw up ways to break up the week.

We also take a lot of time off as a firm after filing deadlines and around holidays. This is what we call “macro” work life balance. For example, July 4 in 2024 lands on a Thursday. We are treating this like Thanksgiving where we are closed on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with Monday and Tuesday being “lite” duty. WCG provides over 22 days of firmwide closures. Sure, this includes 7 holidays, but another 15+ days just because.

Then there is “micro” work life balance. WCG is compensating you for the work that you produce on an annual basis, and not in the manner in which you do it. If your circadian rhythm is more of a night owl, then you might work Noon to 9PM. Others like to break things up… get up early, get some work done, go to the gym for a couple of hours, get more work done, run some errands, cook dinner, and then get a little more work done. The micro work like balance is up to you. As Jason Watson says, “grades are a deodorant for bad behavior in school. Production is a deodorant for bad behavior at work.” WCG takes care of the macro portion.

Our team has a can-do persona and is basically No BS. If your fuel is to work hard when it’s needed and screw around when it’s not, you’ll fit right in. If not, that is OK, but WCG and our team might not be the best fit.

Having said all this, we are very aware of the team member experience- the 3-way balance of excellent client service, spending quality time with friends and family, and everyone’s individual satisfaction from a job well done.

Our Ideal Candidate

Our ideal candidate… a successful WCG team member… is-

  • One who has an exceptional work ethic (we need do-ers… if you want to only talk about taxes and accounting, and not do taxes and accounting, we’re not for you)
  • One who has a high capacity for learning and the relentless pursuit in improving their craft,
  • One who embraces technology and thrives in a paperless environment,
  • One who can throw, and catch, a Frisbee one-handed (for obvious reasons),
  • One who has the desire to advance the team’s goals ahead of their own,
  • One who is always… truly always… willing to go above and beyond the normal call of duty for others,
  • One who loves a long winding drive along the mountains for a beer in Telluride,
  • One who is not timid or afraid to take on and complete challenging and perhaps undesirable projects (having said this, we don’t let a bunch of garbage enter our fortress), and
  • One who expresses their ideas, displeasures, points and counterpoints openly and honestly.

Everyone at WCG has these traits, or at least fakes them. We are bit nutty, Yes, but we unfortunately expect everyone who joins our team to be similar in most ways. See Human Resources below for more descriptors.

Benefits

The following benefits are offered by WCG CPAs & Advisors for full-time, permanent employees:

  • Group health insurance (WCG pays for the employee’s first tier premiums; family and dependents are pre-tax deducted). There are three different plans / levels, and one has an HSA option (click here for plan summaries).
  • Group life insurance ($50,000), short- and long-term disability insurance.
  • 401k plan with matching (up to 3.5%, vested 20% per year).
  • Employee Stock Ownership, including possible Partner buy-In. Our 6th and 7th Partners were on the team for less than 4 years (but they also kicked butt, so they basically compressed time and created their own path).
  • Company provided cell phone (since we use RingCentral as our phone system).
  • Small enough where you can make a difference yet large enough to have career opportunity (see our team).

Work Life Balance

Oh boy, there’s that phrase again. Here we go-

  • Flexible hours (core hours are 8:30AM to 4:30PM). Are you a midnight owl or an early bird? During tax season, local team members must be in the office 6 hours during core hours. So, you could work 7-3 or 10-6, or whatever suits you as long as you get your 6 in. Off-season, the 6 becomes a 5.
  • Remote team members have way more flexibility. We create an annual work plan, break it down by season, and further break that down into bite-size goals. Achieve your goals and we don’t necessarily care in the manner in which you get it done, why should we, right? Butts in seats is such an old fashioned and silly way of valuing team contribution.
  • Unlimited paid time off for salaried positions (hourly positions earn up to 16 days annually based on 2,080 hours).
  • Hybrid work schedule for our local team where we all remote or in-office together, as a team.
  • Reduced staffing on Fridays May thru August, October and November depending on the team (tax is off, accounting and payroll is modified, client support rotates).

All salaried positions must work 2,000 hours annually / 12-month trailing period. See Projected Hour Table by Week as an example. This is not a billable hours threshold, but rather hours working on WCG related activities. Holidays and other office closures count towards the 2,000 hours (e.g., Thanksgiving would contribute 8 hours towards the 2,000-hour requirement). PTO and other employee-requested leaves do not count towards the 2,000-hour requirement. As mentioned earlier, we have over 200 hours of firmwide closures that count towards the 2,000.

Another example- we are closed from the April filing day through the first day in May. This time counts towards your 2,000 hour requirement.

Human Resources

We continue to look for like-minded employees to be solid contributors to our team. We can teach you anything… but we cannot infuse certain traits into cemented personalities. So… in addition to the accountant job descriptions above we are looking for-

Client-Centric Attitude

We do not believe the customer is always right. They can be difficult, they can be jerks and they can be wrong. On the other hand, we need to make every client feel like they are the only client. You must be helpful. You must be able to shift your approach when explaining something the client doesn’t understand.

Organized

Must have excellent organizational skills and have an attention to detail. No kidding.

Playful

We are not dull or stuffy. We throwback beers and cocktails at 4:05PM on Fridays during tax season since drinking before 4:00PM is considered irresponsible by Tina. Check out our Social Hour page.

We take the work that we do seriously, but we don’t take ourselves seriously.

Hustle

Given the size of our staff and the demands of our wonderful clients, our pace is blazing. If you approach everything with the same level of energy, this isn’t the firm for you. Yes, we mess around and have a laugh. No, we are not all business all the time. But… when there is a pile of crud on your desk (or more appropriately your workflow dashboard), you need to find that extra gear and get a move on while maintaining accuracy, customer service and work attitude. Therefore, you must be able to hustle when you can and slow it down when required. Throw in your air pods and hunker down.

Approachable

You must be able to take the bad with the good. Accounting is inherently a negative business since all we do is look for things that are wrong (the client seems to take the same approach, don’t they?). If you are looking for only kudos, hugs and rainbows, then this will be a tough environment. If you are a professional accountant looking to improve your craft, then you’ll fit right in. We want to do a better job tomorrow than we did today.

And Yes, we provide all kinds of feedback through our RAVEs (Recognizing A Valued Employee), Wall of Fame (client kudos) and positive Google, Yelp and SurveyMonkey responses. You are going to stumble because… well… you are human. We’ll pick you up, give you some pointers on avoiding the pitfall and move along.

Procedure Oriented

We’ve created training manuals, procedures and checklists. While we leave room for anomalies and outliers, we need you to embrace the concept of standard operating procedures.

Mentor Skills

You must be able to mentor others on your team and critique their work product. If you don’t like having difficult conversations and prefer to hope things change naturally, working alongside our team will be tough. Heroes run towards the danger and professionals, including accountants, run towards the problem. Perhaps accountants only walk briskly towards the problem, but you get the idea.

Hopefully this didn’t blow you up too badly.

How to Apply

Here is the step by step process-

Click on the button below to complete a quick questionnaire and upload your resume.

If we like your detailed and thoughtful responses, we will swipe right and send an email to schedule a 40-minute call to get some additional housekeeping out of the way for you and for us. We are quick to respond (within 12-24 hours); please check junk or spam folders.

If things go well, we schedule a 40-minute Teams chat with Jason Watson. This is purely to get a feel for each other. We can teach you anything… short of being nice, being professional, being energetic, being someone we can work with. Taxes? Easy. Accounting? Got you. Ability to hold a meaningful conversation? Well…

After that initial meeting, and if we believe there is a basis to work together, we introduce you to our recruitment team of Megan, Terra and Ameen. After you chat with each of them, we get together and talk behind your back.

Next, Jason checks in to see if you have any additional questions, and to start formulating role with the team, compensation, start dates, etc. Then an offer letter is presented. Yay!

Colorado Springs Location

We are located at the entrance of the Flying Horse community on the southwest corner of Highway 83 and Flying Horse Club Drive. We about 35 minutes from south Denver and about 25 minutes from downtown Colorado Springs.

WCG Inc.
2393 Flying Horse Club Drive
Colorado Springs, CO 80921

Tour Video

Do you want a tour of our office space? Sure, why not! We are super proud of our space especially the social lounge, so please forgive us if we brag it up a bit.

Thank you in advance for your interest in WCG. We truly wish you the best in your search and in your career!