Graduate Blog

Kirstin - Assurance

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I’ve spent the past week doing some follow-up work on a job I was on in July. The partner was reviewing the file in September, and now there are a few outstanding files and documents to round up. Some of the bank confirmations hadn’t come back so I had to ring the banks and ask them to send them urgently as the signing date is soon. Some of the other remaining work I was doing was tot checks, which essentially is just adding up totals to see if they are correct, as this has repercussions for the financial statements if they are incorrect and material.

I’m also setting my objectives as part of my career development programme that we have here in PwC. Every autumn we sit down with our counsellor (usually a manager or senior manager) and discuss our objectives for the year. The hope is that by appraisal time next April, we will have reached our goals.

Ana - Assurance

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From the US to the UK, this week I’m working on another audit assignment but this time the work I have to carry out is somewhat different to the standard audit work which I would usually be engaged in. The client is an Irish subsidiary of a global company operating in the communications and entertainment industry.

The standard audit fieldwork, what we auditors refer to as the ticking and bashing part of the exercise, which I would typically be carrying out, has already been completed by PwC UK. This is because the finance department for the Irish entity is carried out at the UK head office. For this client it makes more sense for PwC UK to carry out the fieldwork on the Irish entity at the same time as they are carrying out the fieldwork for the UK entity.

However, regulations prevent a UK audit firm from expressing an opinion on the financial statements of an Irish entity. Therefore, the job at hand is to review the work of the UK office and also carry out additional procedures so that we, PwC Ireland, can be satisfied that we have sufficient evidence documented on our files to support our opinion on the financial statements.

This was my first time to work on such an assignment and gave me an interesting insight into and valuable experience in the practicalities of reviewing someone else’s work.

That was not the only first this week; I finally made the long trip up one flight of stairs to the PwC Gym. I joined when it opened but with holidays and all the other excellent excuses I came up with I’ve not been for quite a while – as my records show! But I’m slowly coming around to the benefits of the odd morning visit to the gym – and with it open 24/7 there really is no excuse!

Peter - Advisory

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I had a busy week this week, to start I got an 8:00am train on Monday morning to Limerick as I was conducting an IT security review for a client we have based in Limerick city. I arrived to the client office at around 10:30 and had a kick off meeting with the IT Manager. Kick off meetings entail walking through what I plan to review over the course of the two or three days that I will be on site. We also request any information we may need for the review such as IT security documentation and identifying who the key staff we need to hold meetings with are.

Following the kick off meeting I met with the Network Administrator to discuss internal network security and external perimeter network security. I also spend the afternoon discussing these areas with the network administrator.

All day Tuesday and for the first part of Wednesday morning I spent meeting with a number of different IT administrators to discuss security around the various operating systems and databases which support the finance applications I was specifically interested in. I then met with the application administrators to discuss how user access to the finance systems is managed.

I was leaving Limerick and travelling back to Dublin at lunch time on Wednesday so the last thing I needed to do was have a close out meeting with the IT Manager to update him on what findings to expect in the report. We always do this as it gives the IT Manager a chance to clarify any findings we may have identified incorrectly and ensures the client gets no surprises when they receive the report.

Each evening when I left the client offices I went back to the Hotel. It had a gym and swimming pool which I didn’t use but it was nice to have the option! Instead I opted for dinner and the television.

So, I travelled back to Dublin on the train and started working on the report while I travelled. I returned to the office on Thursday and spent the last few days writing up the report.

I find out on today that I am going to be working in Toronto, Canada for a few weeks before Christmas. I leave in the middle of November. I’m looking forward to seeing Canada…..

Denise - Assurance

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I was sent out to a fund administrator this week to start a September year end audit. As the audit has not officially started I am the only person assigned to the job. I have to do the preliminary analytics. I was on this job last year so I know my way around the administrators systems. Basically I have to get the monthly NAV’s and graph them. NAV – without it where would we be? I had never heard of a NAV before I started work with PwC. The Net Asset Value of a fund is basically how much the fund is worth and all our audit work is based around this amount. The graphs will tell us if the fund is performing well and if it is following its benchmark. The funds industry has taken a hit due to the economic downturn but there is still plenty left for us to audit!! In fact we are even busier as we have to ensure that out funds are not in trouble.

On a lighter note, in keeping with the firms recycling policy, we all got our own mugs this week. It’s the little things that count! The new associates have also come in to the office and it is great to see new faces about the place. Most new associates got assigned a buddy in my level but I was away in Cyprus on holidays when they first came in so I have not been paired up with anyone. I am sure I will get to know them through jobs and our social events. Funds department is having a fancy dress next week so that will be great opportunity to meet some new faces.

Tracey - Tax

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The golf weekend was so much fun!! It was a great opportunity to meet people from other areas of the practice, such as assurance and transaction services, as it is a firm wide event. This year we went to Whites of Wexford. The golfers golfed in Rosslare and Seafield golf clubs on the Saturday and Sunday. Thankfully, given the awful weather we had, I wasn’t a golfer, so myself and some of the girls went to the hotel spa on the Saturday. Definitely the better option!!!

The new graduates started working on the office floors on Monday. It’s great having the new people in the department. Our unit got 4 new assistants, one girl and three guys. They’re really friendly and eager to learn which is brilliant.

Each new assistant is teamed up with a minder and an appraiser for their first year, people who can help them out if they have any questions or problems. I’m an appraiser for one of the new assistants in our unit. This is a new role for me and I’m looking forward to it. On Monday all of the new assistants and either their minder or appraiser went out for lunch. Everyone enjoyed it as it was a good way for us all to get to know each other better.

This week was mostly an admin week for me in the office, doing all the printing and filing which I haven’t gotten to over the last week or two. I also had an opportunity to go through all of my client procedure files to ensure that they are up to date and that where anything was missing that this was done and included on the files. For each of our clients we are required to have a client procedures file in place.

Peter - Advisory

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I’m just back from my holidays, so on Monday morning I was playing catch up and going through my emails from while I was away. Monday afternoon I met with the Manager I’m currently working with on the high level ISO 27001 information security review. We finalised the outstanding actions and organised a meeting for next Thursday morning to discuss the outstanding actions with the client. That afternoon I also issued the client with a list of the remaining actions we required them to complete prior to our meeting.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I spent the two days preparing two presentations, firstly Information and Records Management and secondly Information Security and Environmental Issues concerning data storage and destruction. This is an area which I would complete engagements in with clients. We generally complete reviews and provide the client with recommendations on how they can better manage there organisations information and records. We also help the client document system requirements and specifications for records management systems, and guide them through the process of selecting a vendor to provide the system.

On Thursday, my Manager and I spent the morning with our client who we are completing the ISO27001 review for. We walked through the remaining actions and initial findings to date and agreed to close off the outstanding actions buy the close of business Friday, which means I was pretty busy on Thursday afternoon reviewing the remaining information they sent me on Thursday and Friday. I was also updating the draft report on Thursday and Friday and sent it to my Manager for review just before heading off for another weekend.

Also this week, I was told I might be going to Toronto, Canada for a couple of weeks to work on an engagement with PwC Canada. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the engagement goes ahead as I really like to see Canada…

Sean - Tax

Hi, my name is Seán and I joined PwC in October 2006 after graduating from Accounting and Finance in DCU. In my final year of college I took part in the “milk round” process and applied to the majority of the big accounting firms. My decision to choose PwC was based on a myriad of factors notably the firm’s reputation for graduate training and development but primarily as a result of the impression formed from speaking to PwC people at events organised in college and during the interview process.

Upon joining PwC, I was very impressed with the enormous amount of time and effort afforded by everyone into helping you settle in and learn the ropes, not to mention the numerous opportunities for socialising with your fellow graduates. The training programs at the start really help you get to grips with what is required on a day to day basis and provide invaluable guidance when it comes to professional exams. This was particularly useful for me when sitting my accountancy exams and working in the tax department.

In PwC I work in Human Resource Services (HRS) group, which is the income tax department of the firm, however, HRS deals with everything involving helping companies better manage their people and incorporates a number of disparate groups dealing with issues ranging from visa and immigration issues to executive resourcing. I decided to apply to work in the tax department as I felt it would be more interesting work and I would get a greater exposure to a wider range of both corporate and personal clients and this has proved to be the case.

The majority of my work revolves around dealing with companies and advising their employees coming to or leaving Ireland of the Irish tax and social security implications of their assignments. Inevitably, as a result of these tax briefings you meet a colorful array of characters from all walks of life and it keeps the work interesting.

Outside of work I enjoy playing music and travelling. In the last year I managed to make it to South America and Thailand. I recently returned from on a badly needed holiday to Croatia after sitting the FAE exams in September, just in time for our traditional busy season in October and November.

Denise - Assurance

I am auditing a new fund. As it is the first set of Financial Statements there is a little bit more work to be done. We have to make sure that everything has been disclosed correctly and complies with accounting standards-yes they do exist in the real world, not just in the text books! We have had to make some reclassifications and adjustments to the Financials but now I am ready to start my testing.

This job is working with a team of about 20. There are many funds to be audited for this particular administrator so we are all kept busy. A lot of the funds we are auditing are fund of funds, which involves getting pricing and custody confirms from all the underlying administrators.

I have volunteered for the Junior Achievement programme which is something PwC has been involved in for a number of years now. The programme is a chance to give back to the community. It involves going out to a school and teaching for approximately 40 minutes a week. I have been given second class in a school very close to where I live. This will be something different and interesting and hopefully the kids won’t give me too hard a time. I’ll keep you all posted.

Tracey - Tax

This week has been a busy week for me. I was signing off to our audit colleagues on one of our clients. This is major part of the job in TLS corporation tax. This involves reviewing a client’s tax computation and supporting documentation to ensure that the tax charge included in the financial statements is materially correct and reasonable. It also requires a significant amount of contact with the client between correspondence and calls.

The client is a large multinational company which operates in US dollars and also prepares its accounts under US GAAP. Therefore, it was interesting to complete this sign off as it required adjustments from US GAAP to Irish GAAP and also a significant amount of Foreign exchange adjustments.

I’m heading down to Wexford for the week-end on the PwC Gold week-end. This is an annual event which the PwC golf society runs for both golfers and non-golfers. It is open to everybody in the firm, not just the golf society members. It is known for being one of the best week-ends away with the firm. I went last year and it was brilliant craic….fingers crossed this weekend will be as much fun if not more!!! I’ll let you know next week!!!!!!!

Ana - Assurance

Another week, another assignment.  This week my focus is on planning and preparing for busy season.  As I mentioned last week, our busiest time is post Christmas from January to April.  By utilising our time wisely in the months leading up to Christmas we can greatly reduce the volume of work to be completed during busy season.  As you can imagine organisation is a key skill to have and one which I continue to utilise and improve on a daily basis.  This week the task at hand is to set up files for clients with 31 December 2008 year ends.

For each client this consists of setting up the electronic database, known as the myClient file (this is where the audit work will be documented), rolling forward schedules of prior year figures in the file, requesting the roll forward of the prior year financial statements from our word processing department and preparing confirmation letters.

For this assignment, I worked with a student on work experience, the students complete the same work that a new graduate would complete in their first year.  I remember seeing the summer student program advertised when I was in college but thought it’s too early to be thinking about the big bad world of work.  However, after seeing the vast experience gained by summer students and work experience students each year and I’m sure they will agree, I was greatly mistaken!