Vanessa Ziino

What's your job about?

William Buck is a leading mid-tier Australian accounting firm with over 90 Directors and 700 employees across Australia and New Zealand.  

We have 8 client facing service lines, including:

• Business Advisory
• Audit & Assurance
• Tax Services
• R&D
• Wealth Advisory
• Superannuation
• Restructuring and Insolvency
• Corporate Advisory

As well as Human Resources, Marketing, IT and Finance teams.

I think it’s quite common to think of an Accountant as someone who enters journals (queue the debits and credits rant) and prepares tax returns all day but the job is way more exciting than that.

As a Graduate Accountant at William Buck, some of the tasks I engage in are:

• The preparation of Income Tax Returns and Financial Statements for individuals, companies and trusts from start to finish. This also includes deciphering what information is required for the job, determining what items need to be analysed further and presenting those ideas to the reviewer;
• Bookkeeping functions such as reconciling transactions, payroll functions and entering journals on the applicable accounting software e.g Xero, MYOB
• The preparation of Activity Statements monthly, quarterly and annually;
• Participating in monthly training to remain updated on changes impacting the accounting industry;
• Analysing the benefits provided by an organisation to their employees to prepare a Fringe Benefits Tax Return; and
• Communicating with clients to provide them with important documents, respond to queries they may have and assist them with meeting their obligations to the Australian Tax Office.

What's your background?

As a bit of background, I was born and raised in Sydney and started my journey into the accounting profession at Macquarie University with a Bachelor of Professional Accounting. I chose this degree because I was concerned by how frustrated my Dad was as a small business owner whenever he talked about his “finances” and wondered if many more businesses shared this frustration.

Without realising at the time, I had developed a passion for helping small businesses organise their tax and accounting affairs.

In the final year of my degree, I managed to secure an accounting internship advertised through my university which opened me up to the world of accounting. I found this role exciting and loved how different every day was. It really cemented the fact that I wanted to be in a similar role once I graduated.

A week before my final semester ended, I came into communication with an employee of William Buck about an opportunity for a Graduate position which led me to two interviews with the company. I loved the interactions I had with the employees I met in my interview and the way they described the firm, the people and the culture. It only felt natural for me to accept the offer of employment and I am so glad I did.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

From my perspective, no. This is because an accountant’s role is highly technical and requires a good understanding of a broad range of concepts that are learned through a bachelor’s degree and further study through either the Chartered Accountants Program or CPA Australia. I have also come to realise that majority of the knowledge you accumulate tends to be “on the job,” creating even more need for practical experience.

I think being a good accountant relies on the ability to communicate well, empathise, and have good attention to detail but also a desire to find meaning to help a client achieve their objective(s).

What's the coolest thing about your job?

I love learning and having the opportunity to be thrown in the deep end with a team that supports my development. In terms of my day-to-day work, I love learning how to spot the trends, risks or concerns within a set of financial statements and being able to present that to a reviewer and/or the client. This is because it gives me the opportunity to really add value to the client.

I also have an awesome team who is supportive of my development, wants to see me grow and genuinely cares about where I want to be. If I am ever feeling down, I instantly feel better when I see an email or comment from a team member celebrating a task I have completed.

What are the limitations of your job?

I think a limitation of my role is that there is a constant need for training and education. A lot of graduates enter the industry and forget that their role might require them to engage in another three years of study to be considered “fully qualified” or access higher promotions. Before becoming an accountant, it’s important to consider how important growing and learning is to you. If it’s not high up on your “list” or you loathe studying, you might not enjoy the role as much as you think.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

1. Don’t rush your degree. You have plenty of time to enter the workforce as a professional and it’s important to take in every part of the experience – even the not so good parts.

2. Actively take opportunities to be a part of the university community. Whether it’s joining the sports team, volunteering for events or working part-time within the university… get involved and give it your best! It’s a great way to make friends, have fun and build your resume.

3. Seek opportunities to improve your knowledge and skills to put yourself in the best position when you graduate. This could be as simple as participating in tutorials and choosing electives that expand on your interests within the industry. It could also be as complex as doing an internship while studying.