Best Accounting Videos
February 15, 2013 11:07 AM
Debit Credit Theory
Colin Dodds’ “Debit Credit Theory (Accounting Rap Song)” is so popular it’s not only racked up the YouTube views and become available for download on iTunes, but inspired lip-dub renditions from numerous classrooms, including those inside Tyrone and O’Neill high schools. Think of it like a “Macarena” you can do in a conference room. In fact, precluding high school hallways, that’s the only place you really should.
Sh*t Accountants Say
Capitalizing on 2012’s hugely viral “Sh*t Girls Say” video meme that launched a thousand demographic-specific spin-offs, Ernst & Young senior auditor James Huang humorously captures the typical CPA busy season gripes , ranging from technical difficulties to the perils of orchestrating the entire team’s delivery orders. Who hasn’t been tasked with a list including “half diet half regular Coke with extra ice”?
CAQ: The Financial Statement Audit
Lookin’ for an egg man to spill on what happens to your dough in the audit process? The Center for Audit Quality’s hardboiled external auditor Ledger Lines is on the case in this sequel to CAQ’s “The Audit Committee,” along with audit committee chair Indy Pendent, CFO Lotta Charts, internal auditor Ida Figures and regulator Johnny Law, to explain the journey of a financial statement audit, complete with film noir narration and comic book graphics. Then it’s all duck soup.
I'm Accounting
With the sheer number of euphemisms that rap songs have for money alone, it’s a fitting genre for the lyrically minded accountant to spit some flow about the debits to their right and credits to their left. Even more so if you’re student Nathan Mills (a.k.a. NizzyNate Millyunz), whose clever rhyming about his entries, balances and liquidity must have earned him high marks in his recording and production institute’s accounting principles class: “Enron was cooking the books but let ‘em burn/And there’s usually a discount if you’re buying them on terms.” A+
Accounting Rap - LiFo FiFo
We would pay good money to see a rap battle between NizzyNate and Dakota Slaughter, based on the boasts about their respective assets alone. Of course, as he raps in “LiFo FiFo,” Slaughter already has “a whole bunch of commas in his income statements,” but still probably wouldn’t sneer at a little extra cheddar. Scratch. Paper.
The CPA Players Present: The Empire Strikes Back
CPA cinephiles should browse all the videos staged by the CPA Players on the Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs’ YouTube channel , but we are most fond of their Star Wars tribute , for the classic revelation: “Luke, I am your auditor.” Other homages include Casablanca and The Silence of the Lambs.
Hey There Bob Pozen - The Singing CPA Steven Zelin and Edith Orenstein
Pop band Plain White T’s’ break-out hit “Hey There Delilah” was catchy enough, but with lyrics about convergence and IFRS? Instant platinum. The Singing CPA Steve Zelin and Edith Orenstein, who writes the Financial Executives International blog, are responsible for making the tune even more radio-friendly in their video celebrating the third anniversary of an SEC Advisory Committee Report on Improvements to Financial Reporting titled “Hey There Bob Pozen.”
Waiting for BlackBerry 10 - Day 1
CPA comedian Greg Kyte’s series of short videos documenting his tongue-in-cheek, man-in-tent, cultish countdown to the release of the BlackBerry 10 outside the Verizon store is a “Blair Witch Project”-level ode to the smartphone he claims will be a “game-changer, man!” So similar to that faux doc, in fact, that BlackBerry die-hards (who exist) have taken his satire seriously, adopting his #BlackBerryNation hashtag…instead of any Apple products.
Kyle's CPA Video Blog: Tax Time Blues
Kyle’s most popular video , from his Kyle’s CPA Video Blog series, opens with a disclaimer about accountant humor. He lives up to the warning, offering dry observations on the fiscal cliff before breaking into some “tax-time blues” with ukulele in tow. His firm, Brown Smith Wallace, keeps the senior auditor’s humor a highlight of its YouTube channel and marketing efforts.
Withum Accounting Flash Mob: Party Rock
WithumSmith+Brown have established themselves as one of the most viral CPA firms in their annual, elaborate State of the Firm videos, with each year’s YouTube upload topping the last. They also benefit from camera-charismatic CEO Bill Hagaman, whose choreographed dance moves, along with those of 150 blue-outfitted WS+B employees, are showcased in 2011’s LMFAO-soundtracked flash mob offering . The firm’s collective energy and personality has propelled that video to nearly 50,000 views since the accountants were unleashed on the streets of New York City.
