Isaac Law

7.00 AM

My first alarm goes off… I hit snooze.

7.30 AM

I wake myself up with a cold shower, make myself a hot cup of coffee and make sure my hair is looking nice and neat. Today, I'll be heading into the office, so I'll make sure that I have my shirt ironed and everything packed so I have time to quickly grab some breakfast so that I feel energised and ready for the day. I then say good morning to my neighbours Frenchie while making my way to the bus stop.

8.30 AM

I arrive in the office, fill up my water bottle, organise my desk, and check my emails. We have flexible seating arrangements in my team, so each Friday I jump onto our desk booking system to book my desk for next week. I’ve got a window seat next week – score!

While checking my workflow, I receive an email from my manager Chris querying if I have capacity to assist with a Tax Planning job for a family group. Tax Planning usually occurs before the end of the financial year as we prepare the distribution/dividend minutes for our client's companies and trusts. I look at my workflow and I have capacity, so I accept the job and schedule a meeting the following day to receive a brief about the job.

9.30 AM

The caffeine from my morning coffee is wearing off so it's time for a coffee run. I gather the troops to the Hub (Pitcher's internal café) and order my FREE oat latte (coffees are subsidised by the amazing partners, lucky us). We have time for some quick banter for a couple of minutes before we head back to work.

10.00 AM

At this point of the day, I start working through my jobs. My responsibilities as a Graduate usually involve setting up the client files, preparing tax reconciliations workpapers and drafting tax returns. I find the work really engaging and I am exposed to a variety of different business structures, which is one of the benefits of PBFA.

While working through my jobs, I will list all my queries and raise it with my senior or manager of the job. I always find it's best to communicate with my team whenever I encounter a problem because they are able to explain it much quicker than spending too much time trying to solve it yourself.

12.00 PM

By noon I'm starving (especially if you have had a busy morning with meetings and client work). Every Thursday the Pitcher café prepares some cheap lunch specials, today it’s lasagne. We find ourselves a booth, enjoy our lunch and the couple of bags of Shapes that we picked up at morning tea.

2.00 PM

After lunch, I call the ATO to request for a few interest remissions. This involves calling the ATO and requesting a reduction of interest charged on overdue client debt amounts. It usually takes forever to get in contact with the ATO especially when it's approaching the End of Financial Year, but at least they put on some good tunes while joining the queue!

3.00 PM

I start working through a few client business activity statements (BAS). Since the bookkeeping of this job is prepared on Xero, I request for user access and download some reports before starting the BAS. Once the BAS has been drafted, I notify my senior that it is ready for review. Since there were no review points (happy days) I draft an email to the client for my manager, who passes on the good news that they will be receiving a refund. 

5.15 PM

It's the end of the day, I begin to finalise my timesheets and update my job list. Our team has organised a bowling night to celebrate all our efforts throughout the year. We make our way to the Strike, have a couple of drinks, and have an amazing Friday night!

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