Highlights:
A day in the life
Employee Profile - Chris Hanna
Chris Hanna
Accountant, Business Advisory, Adelaide
What is your typical day?
People often consider an accountant to just be a bean counter, but since being at William Buck I am yet to count a single bean! Being an Accountant within William Buck's Business Advisory division means the tasks I perform on a day to day basis can often vary. These tasks include but are not limited to: Compliance work (Accounts and Tax Returns), Management Accounting (monthly and quarterly), Activity Statements and a variety of other tasks for clients.
This variety ensures that no two days at William Buck are the same and keeps the role interesting and fulfilling.
Explain your team & teams work ethic
At William Buck Adelaide, our Business Advisory division is based on a team structure. Our teams consist of between 4-8 members depending on requirements. Each team has a mix of experience levels and qualifications allowing for each member to gain knowledge from one another.
The firm is really flexible with work and study commitments and I often have lunch with team mates and attend social functions outside of the office environment.
What has been your career progression?
So far, so good! Since beginning at William Buck in January of 2005, I have progressed from Graduate to Accountant. In this time I have finished the Applied Taxation course with Merit offered by the Taxation Institute of Australia. I am now studying the CA Program through the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and enjoy the challenges that are being presented.
Any hobbies?
Outside of work and studying, I enjoy playing a variety of sports including football and golf. I also enjoy having dinner and a drink with family and friends for any occasion and often need no occasion at all..
Employee Profile - Tony Underhill
What is your typical day?
I don't think there is a typical day. Although you can get periods that you are working on a large assignment when two or three days may be devoted to solving one problem, for much of the time my days will be a patchwork of different problems for different clients. This can include working through tax calculations, perhaps to consolidate a group of companies, or researching legislation and the ATO's directives and rulings to clarify a client's tax position.
Sometimes I have to draft reports or position papers and in other instances information is explained to a client in a presentation at a workshop meeting, or through email or the telephone.
The variety, both in terms of the areas of tax that I deal with, the breadth of clients that we advise and the type and style of advice we provide makes the job really interesting and challenging.
Explain your team & teams work ethic
Being part of a small specialist team is very satisfying as everyone's contribution and input is important to get the job done.
What has been your career progression?
It's difficult for someone who has been around tax for as long as I have to talk about career progression. Leaving the UK and coming to Australia has been a way to reinvigorate my working life and I have relished the challenge of fitting into William Buck and getting to grips with Australian tax law, which is not written in the sort of "plain English" I am used to!
Any hobbies?
Like many migrants I came to Australia for the lifestyle and therefore make sure I fit as much as I can around my work. I play cricket, enjoy a round of golf, swim and snorkel regularly. I am also doing my best to familiarise myself with all the great local wineries.
Employee Profile - Ron Arnold
What is your typical day?
I work as an intermediate accountant for one of our Business Advisory teams. Most people ask what does my role involve. To me my role is dynamic, exciting and challenging. Our core objective is compliance, this means we prepare financial accounts, tax returns and activity statements for our clients. Through completing this work we get to know the client and then we add value to their business by assisting them with any commercial or business areas they need help with such as management accounts, processing payrolls or preparing cash flows and budgets or buying and selling decisions.Explain your team & teams work ethic
My team is called "Team Golf" there is 5 other team members and myself in our team Including our director, none of who can actually play golf. Never the less we are a close group who can have a good laugh with each other, while we can also call upon each other to assist us whenever it is needed.
What has been your career progression?
From school I didn't really know what I wanted to do, my 2 uncles are both CA's so I thought I would give accounting a go. So 2 years at TAFE, then 2 Years at uni and I have spent the last 2.5 years at WB. I'm down to my second last CA course and I enjoying coming to work each and every day.
Any hobbies?
I'm unsure whether it's a hobby or an obsession, however I catch a train each morning at 5.45am (From Cronulla where I live) and head to the city to get a gym session in before work. I also play Rugby League in the Cronulla A grade competition for De La Salle who I have played 15 years for.
I also love catching up with friends over the weekend for dinner and drinks.