Day 1

On my first morning I was welcomed by Katie, one of the owners, who explained on Monday mornings all of the team get together for breakfast and training. I was very kindly provided with a Bacon Roll for breakfast and got the chance to meet with the other members of the team before diving into a really interesting training session with R&D Tax expert Derek Granger, who is a specialist in his field.

R&D Tax credits are not something I had heard of before, but Derek explained it all really well and it seems like a really complicated but interesting area.

After the training I was set up on all of the IT Systems by Nicole who then spend time with me explaining the basics of bookkeeping on the software system Xero.

I was then given the chance to do some bookkeeping tasks, putting what I’d learned into practice, using everything Nicole had shown me and it really enhanced my understanding.

Once I was finished the bookkeeping task Ross took me out to the local café and bought me lunch.

After lunch I worked on a VAT return, it was really good to see the progression and to understand why good bookkeeping is so important as it determines that you pay the correct amount of tax.

I really felt as though I learned a lot on my first day and it was so much better that I expected it to be. Everyone was so helpful and friendly.

Day 2

I started the day working with Katie who explained to me how payroll works and showed me the different software systems that are used for payroll and pensions.

She took me step by step through a large, complicated payroll and explained things like Minimum Wage, Tax and National Insurance, Benefits in Kind and Salary Sacrifice.

I hadn’t really understood payroll before so it was really interesting to see how much information goes into it all.

I had lunch with Ross and Marcus at the local café again.

After lunch I was paired with Nida and we worked on lots of different areas including management accounts, client onboarding and Personal Tax.

It was another really good day, and I felt as though I learned a lot.

Day 3

In the morning Donald the Director gave me research task to complete for part of a big piece of work he was doing. I really enjoyed this task; it was really good fun and I was fully immersed in it all morning.

I hadn’t really excepted to be given a written or research task, I had assumed accounting was all about numbers but Donald explained that there is a lot of areas of accounting that require written pieces of work and research which I was pleasantly surprised about.

I had to look at lots of different resources like the Financial and business articles and journals along with public limited company annual reports. whilst making sure I was looking at credible sources of information.

The task was centred around e-commerce and it was really interesting to understand how accountancy really touches everything -I hadn’t really realised that before.

I then went or lunch with Marcus. We went to another café which was amazing and definitely added to my list of places to go back to.

In the afternoon I continued with the research task and typed up my findings to give to Donald.

Day 4

I still had a small amount of work to complete on my research task this morning, so I finished that off quickly.

I was then working with Katie on something called Aged Payables. Katie explained to me that she manages all supplier payments for a large client and provides them with weekly updates on what has to be paid that week and then a forecast for next week, next month and so on, so the client knows how much money they have to pay out and that all suppliers are paid correctly, on time.

She took me through how to upload the invoices that are received into the accounts inbox and then how she provides the reports to the client of what she will be paying when -she uses a colour coded system that is really easy to understand. 

I really enjoyed learning how the different systems work and seeing how it works from the accountant side and what the client sees and why that information is important to them.

I then went for another really nice lunch with Ross.

After lunch I was paired with Ross and he took me through a full sent of year end accounts.

I found this quite a tricky task, it was really complicated with lots of different things to know and understand, but I very much up for the challenge and feel that I learned a lot about things I had never heard of before like Directors Loan Accounts, Construction Industry Scheme and Corporation Tax.

Day 5

This morning I completed my Level 6 Workplace booklet with everything I had learned and observed over the week -the completion of this booklet and attending the work experience gains me an additional SQA qualification.

In the second part of the morning, I spent some more time on the research task for Donald.

I had another great lunch with Ross and Marcus and in the afternoon I tidied up some odds and ends to make sure I had finished everything before my work experience ended.

We were finishing early today for afternoon tea as the team were throwing Nicole a work Hen Party. It was really good fun, and I really enjoyed being part of it all.

Overall, my experience at Clarity Accounting was more than amazing, I couldn’t have dreamed of a more welcoming group of people who were so helpful and knowledge able in their profession -they really give the utmost care and effort to every task.