At the end of the first Internship, each first-year BAcc student is asked to write a report detailing what they learned about the business world, and in particular what they learned about the role accounting plays. Preparation for this report begins with the journal that all students keep, recording the work they did as interns, how they felt about that that work, and what changed during the 6 months.

Below are some brief extracts taken from various student reports, indicating the sort of first-hand insights BAcc students get into accounting as a career as a result of undertaking professional work training:

I found the experience very informative in an informal way and learnt a lot about accounting, its fundamental role in business and how valued it was, considering almost all of those people I spoke to had done an Accounting degree or major and spoke highly of the experience, knowledge and skills it provided as a basis for good business reasoning.

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I found that accounting can play many roles within business, not just the measuring and reporting roles that I have learnt about so far in uni.  I was able to see how accounting fits in with Operations Management.  The role of the Decision Support Analyst involves a combination of financial and management accounting.  The analyst provides financial and commercial information to senior managers or project manager to allow them to make the best, most effective decisions.  The most important function of an analyst however is the value-add work done through analyzing the data and providing their own recommendations.  Analysts monitor financial decisions, conduct analyses, identify risks and opportunities and provide general financial assistance.  Thus accountants can play a crucial role in driving the direction of the business, and can help to really drive higher profit margins.

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The foremost thing I learnt is that all departments, although not so much with HR, use accounting very regularly, whether it is marketing using budgets to decide on what they can or can’t spend on advertising or whether it be the customer development team or the brand finance team.  Accounting is essential in the everyday tasks within the company and as a result it is essential in the effective and efficient functioning of the business.  All the departments rely heavily on the budgets and reports that come out either monthly or half-yearly and without accounting these procedures cannot be completed.

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Another aspect of the accounting function which I was not aware of was the significance of working with other people in the organisation.  Prior to my Internship I was under the impression that all my tasks would primarily be independent even though the finance group was split up into smaller departments or teams (e.g. Management Accounting, Treasury, Financial Accounting, Revenue, etc.)  Quickly I learned that I was not only frequently working closely with other members of the Financial Accounting team, but I had to deal with other members from Corporate Finance and different Business Units.  This is why I think it is important for interns to develop their ‘people skills’ so they are not overwhelmed / intimidated having to communicate with others in the organisation.  The first time I had to contact somebody in regards to incorrect entries they had made or reconciliations they hadn’t submitted I was intimidated.  However, after several months performing the same tasks I learnt that others in the organisation see you as a professional and as long as you act with confidence but still polite – you are likely to get a good response from people.  The same applies to my experience with the auditors – a balance between confidence and respect will get the best out of the people you are dealing with.

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The Internship experience as a whole allowed me to appreciate how limitless a foundation in accounting truly is.  I was able to witness and fully appreciate first hand just how versatile Accounting degrees can be, as I saw accountants spread through numerous divisions (Marketing, Finance, Promotions) working in a number of different and interesting roles.

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I also learnt about the role of accountants within banks and the varying tasks and responsibilities of the accountants looking after different aspects of the banking industry - mainly the division between product accountants, equity accountants and financial & regulatory reporting accountants.  Even within these departments, the role of accounting and the tasks that accountants carry out are vastly different.  For instance, product control accountants look after products and services such as:

Loan facilities
Mergers & Acquisitions
Reverse mortgages
Infrastructure Capital
Asset Securitisation
Loan Syndication
Debt Capital Markets
Foreign Exchange
Futures
Money Markets
Commodities

Accountants that work in the Financial and Regulatory section are involved in reporting accounting figures to management and to regulatory bodies and authorities.  With management reporting, accountants use figures to prepare reports, such as profit and loss statements, which are then submitted to management which use these to make strategic and operational decisions for the company.  Other accountants use figures to prepare statutory reports for APRA, the ATO and other regulators.  They use accounting knowledge to understand different figures and to complete complex calculations such as GST, transfer pricing, Basel II Accord and offshore reporting to the head office.

Accountants are also involved in other aspects of the business world, fulfilling roles such as external audit and internal audit, both of which are heavily involved in the banking industry.  Compliance with regulations and legislation are extremely important in business, and as such accountants must ensure that operations and the way they are recorded adhere to things such as International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

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Also accounting is definitely not about crunching numbers.  The area that I worked in was management accounting, which basically involved consolidating the data, then try to make sense of it and eventually generate reports that are needed by the managers.  A lot of work that accountants do involves constantly questioning and understanding the work they are doing.  As my manager would say, accountants are not data formatters, we are data analysers.  Accounting is very much about team work.  The matrix structure at my workplace has encouraged the formation of extensive teams.  During my time in the Corporate Planning and Reporting team, I had a colleague who was looking after the food and beverages divisions, and also working within the corporate team.  Therefore she had to work with three different teams of people.  This situation is very common here and in many other organisations.  I think as an accountant, I do not only need to have great technical skills, your interpersonal skills are also essential.  Accountants must be co-operative and flexible enough to work in different team environments.

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Furthermore, I also saw how the work I was doing fitted into the big picture.  I was putting together results and preparing reports that were being seen by the upper management, and they would then comment on how the results reflected how the company was performing, this meant that my work was being valued and seen, something really important to me.

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By the end of my six months Internship I had only just become comfortable with consolidations at that level, and this is only one very small part of the accounting processes of business.  In this way I now recognise the need for accountants to have such a broad range of skills as their demands can vary so significantly between roles.  Furthermore I never imagined accountancy to be such a team orientated job.  Much of the work that I participated in and what I witnessed around the office required significant collaboration between numerous members of the same workgroup.  This also ties into the difficult nature of some accountancy tasks, as it is often required to gain assistance or in some part reassurance from other members of the team.  It also demonstrates the need for good interpersonal skills, as you have to approach different people in different fashions.  This was a really positive development as the work environment was far livelier as a result of the constant interaction, drastically different from the isolated cubicles I had imagined.

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The importance of pricing in this highly competitive industry was of great interest to me. Previously, if I’d picked up a brochure or catalogue I would not have thought about the margin the company makes on each price and the complex decision-making involved in that. But being exposed to the ‘real thing’ taught me an incredible amount about how the company makes its money, and the role of management accounting in doing so.  Now every time I look at one of our brochures I will know about the decisions that went into the pricing of the products, the reasons for the discounts and special promotions, and roughly the kinds of margins the company would be making from me if I decided to buy one of their products.

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