Days before Macy's is set to take center stage for its annual Thanksgiving Day Parade, the department store chain this week revealed a years-long accounting debacle unlikely to inspire gratitude among shoppers and shareholders.

Macy’s announced Monday that a single employee was responsible for so many accounting irregularities that the company was forced to delay its quarterly earnings report, which the retailer had planned to release Tuesday.

The employee "intentionally made erroneous accounting accrual entries" to hide millions of dollars, Macy's said. The error forced the company to delay reporting its third-quarter results.