When I first started working in Finance, I was introduced to specific codes of conduct and principles that were meant to guide my actions in an ethical manner. GAAP principles, consistency, and documentation were all introduced as instructions for behavior. After being at my last job for a few months, I was given a client who was in financial distress. Their incoming cash flow was incredibly low, payroll would leave their bank account in the negative by thousands of dollars, and the CFO had no finance background to reference. Working with the client was difficult because of their inconsistencies, but issues truly arose when it was time for them to submit their financials to the bank in order to be approved for a loan.

The CFO, who until this point had been relatively hands off on all reporting, came to my team with several revenue bookings and expected profits that he would like incorporated into our files. After doing some research, I found that the company was creating invoices to "show revenue" but these invoices were never sent to clients for payment. Also, most of the clients did not even have existing contracts, solid contacts, or any knowledge that they were being billed for undelivered services. The only purpose was to fluff the numbers enough to reach the required threshold for the bank loan. My ethical dilemma came into play in regards to whether or not I should alert my bosses to this behavior, and if this should be accepted. I knew I didn't have the authority or the knowledge to be able to handle this on my own.

I ended up discussing it with my bosses and we told the client that it was against standard protocol to follow the CFOs request. A meeting was held where my boss was able to explain to him what work arounds were allowed, and how we could solve the issue while still being transparent. A large influence on an individual's ethical reasoning is the existing professional codes of conduct within that field, and I can see that is what helped me decide in the end (Gilbert, 28). Since I was used to operating by a set of guidelines, deviating from them in any way felt wrong. In my telling my manager, I was practicing the idea of virtue ethics, which is acting in a certain way because it is believed that a virtuous person would do so in that circumstance (Gilbert, 31). I personally did not feel what was being done was right, so out of my own idea of "virtue" I decided to speak up. In the end, I feel that I would still make the same choice again.

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