Bentley Bratcher & Associates Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Bentley Bratcher & Associates full-time

Pros – I grew thicker skin after working here, and my critical-thinking skills were enhanced because I was forced to learn things on my own. I also had to learn to not take things personally when management corrected my work. I learned to put my feelings aside when feedback was given. My pay was fair based on my experience level.

Cons – Even though I learned to not take things personally at work because of this job, the manner in which feedback is given could use improvement. Management used derisive language to correct employees. I have heard partners scream curse words when things go awry. As a matter of fact, I recall the partner screaming so loudly in the phone that his voice cracked. The work environment is very not as professional as what I would expect for a CPA firm.

I am a generally optimistic person who chooses to not focus on only bad things. I am very loyal and don't change jobs often. I actually like public accounting because it affords the chance to work with clients one-on-one while utilizing technical accounting knowledge. However, not long after working here, I found myself dreading waking up every work day because of the volatile work environment.

Former Employee – worked at Bentley Bratcher & Associates full-time

Pros – If no other firm will hire you, work here for a short time, build your credentials and experience and move on to somewhere better.

Cons – This firms primary goal is to maximize its actualization rate. This means the most money a business can extract from a client while spending as little time as possible working on the client’s project. As a result, employees at all levels are pressured into working as fast as possible to get tax returns out the door. The high stress environment has created turnover rates among the highest of any accounting firm in the area. Most of the people that worked at the firm in Jan 2012 no longer work there as of Jan 2013.

The unsustainably high turnover rate is probably why this firm makes virtually no investment in its human capital. The training provided by the firm is laughable. The firm periodically hijacks the staffs entire lunch hour and subjects them to mandatory, poorly prepared training courses produced by the firm’s own uninformed staff or an outside payroll processing company.

Despite the minimal training, inexperienced staff are expected to look at the prior year workpapers and the current years PBC info and quickly prepare an accurate tax return. Hopefully the PY workpapers you are using to prepare the CY are accurate and well documented because the individual that prepared them last year is most likely no longer with the firm. Yes, you guessed it, the turnover rates have been sky high for many years. Furthermore, the workpapers are not in any standardized format, seldom accurate, and often conflicting.

An adherence to the actualization rate is one of the many factors that leads to an overall environment of overt hostility. When staff approaches management for assistance on an issue they are frequently met with apprehension, derision, or apathy. One staff member overheard management calling his workpapers an arts and crafts project, another overheard management calling him stupid. One staff member overheard a member of management making fun of the way the older members of the firm used to do accounting business and their inability to use technology. Ironically, this particular manager does not allow anyone within the firm to send him emails. One staff member was reduced to tears when she was berated for moving a chair before being given permission to do so. One staff member was called a dumb a by a manager while attempting to help him file a report.

The aforementioned examples show that most managers lack any observable soft skills. As a result, mentoring and coaching is virtually nonexistent and the minimal instruction given is usually done in a condescending manner. The HR department which would normally intervene in such situations consists of a guy who is there twice a week when he is in the country.

Communication between different levels within the firm is poor. Consequently, staff at all levels lack direction and are later berated when they fail to meet expectations. Staff is often chastised for taking too long on a project when they were not given clear expectations on budget. The meetings between management and staff consist of two topics. The first topic is "you are working too slowly." The second topic is "you are making too many mistakes." Sometimes, management will require staff to come in on weekends when none of the staff have actual work to do.

Wages for staff level accountants are approximately 10-20% below what the market pays.

The work schedule during tax season is draconian.
Monday - Thursday 8A-9P
Friday 8A-6P
Saturday Expect to work 8 hours
Sunday You may actually have this day off, but unlikely

Furthermore, if you happen to call in sick during the firm’s core hours (Monday-Friday 8A-5P) and work the remaining busy season schedule giving you 50 hours or more for the week, you will be required to use paid time off. Yes, that's correct; you worked 50 hours in one week and somehow used 8.0 hours of your paid time off. If you are a new employee at this firm, this is especially cumbersome as you do not accumulate any paid time off during your first three months of employment with the firm or receive medical insurance or any other benefits until after your first 90 days is up. Any arrival after 8A is considered paid time off and is charged accordingly.

Management has historically been non-responsive to obvious signs that the vast majority of their employees are completely dissatisfied with the toxic environment. Despite being warned about the eminent exodus of their entire staff, management was caught off guard when virtually the entire staff moved on to different companies at the end of 2012. Instead of handling this situation professionally, management did so vindictively. One staff member had a gift that he gave a manager returned to him, another staff member was called an unflattering name, one staff member was called a liar.

This is the worst place I have ever worked at. If you work at this firm I advise you to construct your exit strategy immediately. If you do not work here, for your own mental health find another firm to work at.

Advice to Senior Management – I would not waste my time giving any advice to management as it will be ignored.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Bentley Bratcher & Associates full-time for more than a year

Pros – The firm is located in the Greenspoint area of Houston. This provides an abundance of affordable living facilities you can rent nearby if you want to avoid a long commute. There is even a trailer park caddy corner from the office space in the building the firm leases. The firm has a generous 401k match that does not have a vesting waiting period.

Cons – This company attempts to follow a seemingly simple business plan of buying out smaller CPA firms and merging its clients to the firms own client base. The plan itself is brilliant in its simplicity and can be accomplished. Unfortunately, the firms management lacks the necessary skill set to accomplish this goal. This business is an excellent representation of what happens when accountants with mainly technical skill try to run a firm. Management of this firm lacks the managerial and entrepreneurial skills necessary to run a small business. Management focuses on situations that have negligible impact on firm profitability and the long run health of the business and ignore urgent obvious problems.

Advice to Senior Management – Take some classes on management and entrepreneurship and actually attempt to implement them into firm policy, then follow up on these implementations.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Bentley Bratcher & Associates full-time

Pros – There were some fun people to work with (all of which have probably already left the place). Free snacks and soda in the kitchen!

If you are able to connect with the personalities of the upper management (which some people were fortunate to be able to do), then you might be able to look past the problems and enjoy the informal environment.

Cons – Partners are at a complete disconnect with the staff and even the managers. There is no cohesion between what partners/upper management expect and what lower-level managers and staff feel like they should be doing -- hence managers/staff are always perceived to be wrong. Lack of communication from management regarding expectations make staff oblivious to what is expected of them. Flexibility does not exist because partners are not very comfortable with the idea of their employees working from home -- which stems from a lack of trust and the inability to recognize that their employees are capable of being honest, responsible, and accountable for their own work and time. Employees are expected to show up from 8 to 5 everyday and on weekends even if their tasks are very much possible to be done from home. Forget needing time with your family -- the partners frown upon employees who leave early due to personal reasons (and in some cases, terminated them).

Do not be fooled during the interview. They have the ability to draw a curtain over all the faults of the place and sweep all their problems under a rug and pretend that everything's upsy daisy. Nothing is in order around here. If you want to work with people who run around with their head cut off during busy season deadlines because they are very disorganized, then this is the place for you!

Advice to Senior Management – Treat your employees like professionals, not hormonally-challenged teenagers who can't get anything right -- because they CAN get things right. You just have to give them the opportunity to be really good. There are better firms out there (TONS of them), so you should be thankful that people even CONSIDER working for you. Treasure your employees (or what's left of them).

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Bentley Bratcher & Associates full-time

Pros – The firm provides the standard niceties like free snacks and sodas, dinner once a week during busy season and lunch on Saturdays. The Christmas party is nice and each employee receives a fairly extravagant Christmas gift.

Cons – This is the most hostile work environment I, or anyone I know, has ever experienced. The owners have no issue with screaming, cursing and telling employees they are "worthless". Owners also talk about managers and staff in a negative way to other employees. Adequate training and mentoring is not provided, and less experienced employees are left to figure things out themselves. Most employees are terrified to speak to the managing partner. Out of 6 managers that were hired in 2011, only 2 remained at October 2012. Of the 3 seniors that were employed at the firm in January 2012, only 1 remained at November 2012. Of the 9 associates that were employed in January 2012, only 3 remained at December 2012. There has also been significant turnover in the administrative staff. As of December 2012, there has only been one new hire to replace this turnover (a manager). Employees are not treated with respect or professional courtesy. Lunches over an hour and any time absent between 8-5 must be pre-approved and require use of vacation time as opposed to coming in early or staying late to make up the time. Work-life balance is non-existent because the firm cannot stay adequately staffed due to the treatment of its employees. There are numerous administrative meetings that never result in any action or innovation. The managers are ineffective at enacting any true change because the owners hinder any change. In addition to the issues with the work environment and treatment of employees, the quality control review of the work product is sub-par. Projects are finalized and provided to clients with errors on a regular basis. The combination of lack of proper training and lack of top level review is a recipe for disaster in the accounting industry. The firm lost countless clients in 2012 due to poor client service and work product. The issues start at the top and will not change because the top level people are not willing to change.

Advice to Senior Management – Learn to treat people with decency and respect. Lead by example and inspiration instead of fear and bullying.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Bentley Bratcher & Associates full-time for less than a year

Pros – If you want to be treated like a child who needs to show up to work at exactly a certain time and work an exact prescribed amount of hours, and not have the flexibility to do stuff outside of work (just because the owners are so miserable and lonely that they want to drag everybody down with their misery), get paid practically nothing for the amount of work you do, not be trained and feel useless, be treated by the partners, managers, and seniors like you are worthless and stupid because they think they are the best people in the world (trust me, they're not) -- then this is the place for you. If you've given up on life, then work here.

Cons – I don't even know where to begin. This place is a cr@phole. They treat the associates like a dumb sack of rocks and yet they don't train them. Their so called training program involves letting the staff teach themselves and give senseless presentations on stupid topics, then get called out by the seniors in front of everybody and make them feel dumb because they think they know everything.

The managers are a bunch of spineless people who have absolutely no voice because the partners are too good to change their ways. All the managers and seniors do is to come up with some great ideas to change the place and proceed to have their ideas shot down by the partners and the HR guy who spend most of their time screaming and yelling at each other because they are drowning in unhappiness and misery.

Turnover rates? Through the roof. They must've lost more than half of their employees in one year. For such a small firm of 30 or so people, their turnover rates are much worse than a big firm.

They do not value their people. They do not appreciate their workers and they only notice their staff when they find a glaring mistake that the staff do -- and yet they do not go directly to the staff and coach them to make them better employees.

A bunch of monkeys wearing sombreros can probably run this place better. I cannot stress this enough: avoid this place at ALL COSTS. It is not worth the mental and psychological torture to go through. STAY AWAY.

Advice to Senior Management – Just give up and sell the place. You all have no idea how to run an accounting firm if it hit you in the head.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company