Hi,
Again, apologies for the delay in entries. I seem to have had a very busy period now that I'm taking the time to reflect. I completed my training of the Associates and found the second week was even more enjoyable than the first. In the second week there was a definite shift in the dynamic of the Associate group as people adapted to their new environment and became more familiar with their new colleagues. The social night at the end of the course was Casino themed, it was a great night but alas I was better at losing chips than winning them!
After the training course, I returned to work on a client that I had done some interim work on earlier in the year. I was assigned to this job for five weeks. I was given responsibility for multiple sections of the file including Research, deferred income, journals testing and review of the financial statements to name but a few. I gained some great experience on this job including assisting the Senior Manager with the preparation of the board reports and I gained some experience with US GAAP financial accounting treatments. This was my fourth year to work on this client and I really felt that as a more senior member of the team, I had great insight into the client's operations. It was a large team so there were plenty of opportunities to coach and be coached. Toward the end of the job there were some late nights so we would be able to sign the accounts on time but thankfully I was able to put some of the overtime toward my three weeks off at Christmas!
I came back after Christmas feeling totally refreshed and eagerly anticipating the busy season ahead. For my first week, I was located in the office which gave me a nice chance to catch up on my emails and voicemails. I also used the opportunity to document some planning work for a job I will be working on later in the year.
I am now working on the largest client that I work on during the year. It is a PLC client and this is my second year to work on the job. There is a team of 7 people continuously on site and the managers and partner regularly join us on site to perform their reviews and engage in meetings with the client as necessary. The audit is very much at its early stages and I am gathering information so that I am fully conversant with the client's Revenue operations as I am auditing this section. I have been setting up meetings with various client staff so I can begin documenting my testing. I will keep you posted on how the rest of the job goes.
Bye for now,
Maura
