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What is the likelihood of working full-time from home as a tax accountant? Should I pursue managerial accounting instead?

I am trying to decide my specialization in accounting to determine the best route to be able to work from home and spend time with my family#accounting #accountant #family life

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Jess’s Answer

I think that in either field you can find an employer who offers flexibility. It would be rare to find an employer offering full-time work from home abilities, however not impossible, so you should search for this online. If this is not easy to search for, I would say that many companies likely do offer flexibility to do this some of the time and to talk to recruiters before applying.
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William’s Answer

I can't speak for managerial accounting, but flexibility is becoming increasingly common in public accounting. While it may be difficult to find a starting position allowing you to fully work from home, it will be easier to find one that allows you to work some days at home or choose your own hours. During the Spring and Fall busy seasons, it may benefit you to be in the physical office, so that you can work with your teams and be more efficient. However, your day-to-day schedule can usually be split between the office and home to fit your schedule and lifestyle.
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Nicholas’s Answer

There are a lot of opportunities to work remote in the industry of accounting, especially public accounting. I'm not too sure about full time at home, but I know a lot of the processes can be done from home! I would look into portfolio and wealth management as well. Those careers support working from home a lot
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Christopher’s Answer

Though technology has made it significantly easier to perform your job functions from the comfort of your own home, finding an employer who is willing to allow you to do this very difficult. On the other hand, if your end goal is to become a CPA and open up your own tax firm with your own set of clients, etc. That is a possibility so long as you get the experience and/or the client base to support a living based on this. In my experience working for a tax firm, there is a lot of work between mid-January through mid-April, but that is about it. If you can make enough money to survive the entire year during this time frame. You have got yourself something good going. You can spend the rest of the year either enjoying yourself or doing some consultant work for other small-mid size companies. Especially if you specialize in certain areas of accounting (ie: appraisals, financial projections, etc).

Being a managerial accountant is not a specialized position and may be more difficult to be able to work from home. But, so long as you work for a good company and your work gets done timely, you will be allowed some flexibility with your hours.
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Kevin’s Answer

Michael,

This is becoming more and more normal and I think if working from home was your #1 goal, then you should be able to find a number of firms who would support you in that role. That said, I will tell you that depending on what type of accountant you want to be, it could be to your benefit to venture out from home more often. If you work in industry, you will likely have many options to work from home, but your ability to get promoted is often times linked to your ability to be seen. If the company you work at has a culture of working from home regularly, this shouldn't be a problem. If you are the only one working from home, you may be overlooked from time to time.

If you decide to pursue a career in public accounting, I think you will definitely have options to work from home, but I would also advice that public accounting is very much a relationship business. Clients like to meet people face to face and some projects work better when people are in the same room.

Based on that I think you can definitely find a career path that allows you to work from home, but I would recommend that you spend time with clients/colleagues in person as often as you can to help develop those relationships and further your career.
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