Busy Season Madness!

It's that time of year - March Madness!! Unfortunately for accountants, it's still busy season.  Look on the bright side, if you're still working from home you don't have to "Alt+Tab" back to your Excel Spreadsheet when you're trying to stream the games.

In honor of accountants everywhere, RuBook Creative is hosting the first annual "Busy Season Madness" bracket challenge where will have famous (and some lesser known) accounting and finance characters from movies and shows square off against one another.

Much like March Madness, Busy Season Madness has four divisions: 1) Audit, 2) Tax, 3) Cash Flows, 4) Ethics & Compliance.  Polls will open this Thursday so you can vote for your favorite accounting characters in each round, and follow me on Twitter for regular updates on who advances.

Let's meet our first group of competitors from the "Audit" Division:

#1 Seed: Christian Wolff – “The Accountant”

As a forensic accountant myself, I had to make Christian Wolff my number one overall seed.  Wolff is a CPA who uncooks the books for criminal enterprises with internal embezzlement concerns.  I guess I missed that job posting… 

#2 Seed: Kevin Malone – “The Office”

.  A member of the Dunder Mifflin Scranton Branch’s accounting team.  When his boss Michael Scott is picking teams for a pickup game against the warehouse team, he passes over Kevin.  Big mistake because Kevin’s got game.

#3 Seed: Allen Gamble – “The Other Guys”

Allen Gamble (f/k/a “Gator”) turns in his pimp card to become a Forensic Accountant with the NYPD.

#4 Seed: Calvin Joyner – “Central Intelligence”

Joyner is a forensic accountant who is unhappy with his job until he helps solve a matter of national security for the CIA while unraveling a financial paper trail of illicit transactions.

#5 Seed: Peter Burke – “White Collar”

Burke is a special agent with the FBI in charge of the white collar crime division.  He busts fraudsters with the help of criminal-turned-CI Neal Caffrey.

#6 Seed: Leopold Blood – “The Producers”

Leopold Bloom is an accountant who realizes that theatrical flops can be more profitable than hits. He partners up with a hapless producer to make “Springtime for Hitler”, which somehow becomes a hit.

#7 Seed: Count von Count – “Sesame Street”

The unofficial accountant on Sesame Street is a 7 seed.  “Now stomp seven times…one, two, three…four, five, six…seven! AH AH AH”

#8 Seed: Norm Peterson – “Cheers”

NORM!! Norm wore many hats during his time on Cheers, one of which was “accountant”.  What other professional would lead him to drink at a bar daily?

#9 Seed: Tyrion Lannister – “Game of Thrones” 

When Tyrion’s father appoints him as “Master of Coin”, Tyrion quickly learns that the Iron Throne is heavily in debt to the Iron Bank of Braavos.  Good thing a Lannister always pays his debts…

#10 Seed: Ebenezer Scrooge

Are you surprised that Scrooge is an accountant?  He’s all pissy during the Christmas holidays because he knows busy season is right around the corner.

#11 Seed: Guillermo Pallomari – “Narcos”

Pallomari is the chief accountant for the Cali cartel who ratted…I mean blew the whistle on his former bosses.

#12 Seed: Jack Ryan – “Jack Ryan”

A PhD CIA Analyst who is also a CPA.  Is there anything that Jack Ryan can’t do?

#13 Seed: Dana Cummings – “The Accountant”

A staff accountant for Living Robotics, Cummings was the one who first noticed the anomaly that eventually led to the hiring of Christian Wolff (and a lot of dead bodies).

#14 Seed: Bill Lumbergh – “Office Space”

He’s not an accountant but is sure to remind you of your manager when he comes strolling by your cube at 4:30pm on a Friday to ask you to work the weekend.  “That would be greaaaat…mmmmKAAAY!”

#15 Seed: Henry Sherman – “The Royal Tenenbaums”

Henry Sherman is an accountant who goes from sharing the spreadsheets to sharing his bedsheets after falling in love with his newly separated client.

#16 Seed: Nina, Corporate Accounts Payable – “Office Space”

“Corporate accounts payable Nina speaking, JUSSSST a moment.”  It seems that Nina never pays a bill, but just keeps putting Initech’s vendors on hold.

Stay tuned for our next post on the Tax Division, and remember to follow me on Twitter for regular Busy Season Madness updates!