By George Philipson
My name is George Philipson and I am a final year Accounting and Financial Management student. I completed my year in industry with Top 10 accounting firm RSM as an Audit Assistant, in 2016. This was a typical day for me out on placement…
8AM
Monday: Quick walk to work with a coffee in hand catching up with this morning’s financial and business news stories. I get into work for around 8:30AM, set up my laptop and other equipment and quickly catch up with the other employees in the office. I check my diary to find I am auditing a large dairy producer for the week ahead, liaise with my Manager and Supervisor and prepare them for our meeting with some pre-fieldwork files I assembled on Friday afternoon.
9:30AM
The Partner, Manager, Supervisor, and I set up for a client planning meeting which is around 30 minutes long. It allows the Partner and Manager to highlight any key risk areas involved with this client, along with a brief introduction into the audit history of the company. I take minutes for the meeting, making sure it is evidenced that the audit team have outlined all potential areas of the audit file. In addition, duties and responsibilities are delegated and I am made aware of my role in this job.
12PM
I grab a quick bite to eat with the other graduates before I head out to the client site. We quickly compare weekends and clients for the week ahead, whilst also discussing our plans for the audit party on Friday.
I have spent the rest of the morning preparing some areas of work which do not require client interaction, as this helps to save the Supervisor time at the end of the fieldwork after I have left. I also set up some files on the network and some documents, so that I can be more time efficient whilst carrying out the fieldwork of the audit.
1PM
My Supervisor, Jen, and I arrive at the client site just outside of the city centre. We meet with the Financial Director (FD) and Financial Controller (FC) who discuss their time commitments for the week, whilst we also update them on our schedule for the week ahead. We are greeted with fresh coffee, and a great office view, before setting up our work stations.
5PM
Gosh, the first day of an audit always goes quickly! I spent the remainder of the day collecting evidence such as bank statements and reports from Sage (an accounting software) whilst also completing some shorter pieces of work. These involved: Other Audit Areas which look at non-financial aspects of the audit, along with Updated Minutes Review and updating the Audit Findings Report. I also finish my emails for the day and update the client of any remaining information I require.
I head back to the office as I have a 5-a-side fixture together with some colleagues from the auditing department. This is a welcomed break to release some energy and practice for our upcoming national RSM football tournament, I am told a place to represent the UK in Warsaw is up for grabs!
If you would like any further advice you can get in touch with all of the Placement Ambassadors at mgt.pl.ambassadors@sheffield.ac.uk