UK Starting as a trainee in a small to medium-sized practice

[NorthernNinja]

Hi, I graduated this summer in Accounting and Finance and didn't do great; I achieved a 2:2. I do have excellent A-Level grades with four grade As in difficult subjects and straight A*s/As at GCSE. However my degree result doesn't meet the requirements for large and many medium-sized firms.

I am therefore setting my sights on working as a trainee in a smaller firm. I currently work in a very low-skilled job but I have never had any accountancy work experience and my question relates to this. I am quite scared that when I start working, because much of what I learnt doesn't relate that much to working in a small practice that I might look stupid having to have basic tasks explained to me.

For example, all the different types of accounts I have learnt during my course, has started with the trial balance being given to us. Getting to that point though, we have never had to do. It has all been preparing accounts from the trial balance and lots of theory.

I know that before this comes entering data from the source documents into the books of prime entry i.e. the Journal. From the journal, ledger accounts are produced such as the cash book, purchases ledger etc and the only format for these I know are T-accounts. Then from the T-accounts you produce the trial balance and then the necessary accounts. So what I would like to know is how does this process occur in a real-life small practice? Is the journal kept on computer software? Are t-accounts used? Is anything done by hand or all on the computer? Are all these processes done in a small practice? Any guidance would be much appreciated and if anyone knows any resources for practising the processes before getting to the trial balance, that would be great.

Many Thanks

 

[ColinCPA]

NorthernNinja,

It sounds like you have a good strategy to overcome the GPA issue. Nothing beats work experience. A good resume will get you in the door, but then it's up to you to demonstate the right business personality and aptitude to stand out in the interview room.

Don't worry too much about not being able to apply your accounting knowledge from school to the job right away. Most of what you need to know is learned on the job, while the concepts and learning ability are developed in college. It sounds like you have a handle on the basics of the accounting cycle, which is obviously important.

If you start out at a small public accounting firm, you will spend most of your first couple of years as a staff accountant entering client data into tax return software and/or financial statements. If you work in auditing, you will be assigned low level testing work on accounts like cash, AP, etc. The trial balance could be maintained in a variety of ways, such as Quickbooks or other software, or just Excel. You will be responsible for posting simple adjusting journal entries to the client's records such as depreciation. This information is transferred to tax return software, which could be ProSystem Tax, Lacerte, or some other software. Over time, the complexity will develop. You may get involved in tax research in the offseason, tax planning projects, and eventually interaction with clients.

Are you going for or have you passed the CPA? Passing the exam would help to mitigate the low GPA, and demonstrate your resistence to deterrence, which is what employers are looking for. If you are interested in tax, you should also consider an MST. Small firms won't care about your masters GPA in most cases.

Good luck.