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.