Day in the life at Mazars - James England

7:00am

“Hey Google, turn the alarm off…”, “Hey Google! Turn the alarm off…!” HEY GOOGLE!!!” There’s no doubt that I’m awake now. Today, my team is working from the office so it’s time for the morning routine; have a shower, prepare for the day, pack my bag and head out the door to the station.

7:15am

While on the train, I listen to my favourite artists, have a read of the latest news and have a scroll through LinkedIn to see what my friends and colleagues have been up to. I also scroll to see if there are any tax updates, whether it be new legislation, cases or just general knowledge. You’ll quickly learn that LinkedIn becomes your new favourite “Social Media” platform.

7:45am

My morning exercise consists of walking to the office through the Botanic Gardens. What a great way to refresh and be ready for the day!

8:30am

I step into the lift, it’s now time to start the day. I login and check all my emails and updates, these range from enquiries and information from clients, meetings with other staff and tax updates. As everyone starts walking in, we head straight to the kitchen or café downstairs and start off with our morning coffee (or hot chocolate in my case).

9:00am

Time to get stuck into it, I’m working on a job that I started yesterday for a large family owned chain restaurant. I’m doing their yearly compliance which involves creating their Financial Statements and Income Tax Returns for each of their entities, being a trust, a few companies and all the individuals within the family (not a small feat).

10:00am

I’m a bit stuck, we are missing some documents from the client. I ask my manager for some help. Everyone is so welcoming and open here, so I have no hesitation in walking up to her desk and asking the questions I need. We don’t have the required documents, I need to draft an email that will be sent to the client asking for all the additional information we need.

11:00am

I’ve just received an email from one of the partners, I need to call the ATO and make some enquiries for one of our clients. This forms the best part of Business Services, one minute you’ll be working on a client’s tax return, the next ringing the ATO, and next doing some tax research. We’re always doing something different, not just from one day to the next but from hour to hour.

12:00pm

Yum, its lunch time! Shall we play table tennis or go for a walk through the Gardens? A few of us want to go for a walk today but we’d better stop at one of the great cafes or the amazing food court to ensure we’re fuelled up for the afternoon, it’s going to be a busy one!

1:00pm

Time to meet up in the boardroom, we have one of our monthly tax seminars where we learn about any new tax updates (which you’ll learn that there are tax updates every day!) and then to deep dive into a special topic.

3:00pm

*Ding* A new email has arrived; the client from this morning has sent through the required documents. Time to finalise our calculations and populate the Financial Statements and Income Tax Return.

4:00pm

My manager rings and a client has forgotten to lodge their BAS (essentially a GST Tax Return), lucky we’re such an agile and flexible team and we jump from one job to the next at a moment’s notice. I organise all the required documents and calculations to ensure that it can be lodged as soon as possible.

5:00pm

Wow, it’s already 5.00pm! Time to get ready to log off. As I’m working from home tomorrow, I organise everything that I need from the office and ensure that I put in my calendar all the jobs that I have on for tomorrow. Tomorrow, I will be continuing with today’s compliance as well as starting Fringe Benefit Tax returns and collating documents for a client’s loan application (plus anything else that is thrown my way). Not only do these tasks sound interesting but it ensures that I grow my knowledge base, I can’t wait!

6:15pm

Just arrived home, depending on the day I will either study CA (lucky Mazars is fully supportive and encourage us to study a CA), go to my weekly training in my volunteer role at the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard or relax and watch some Netflix.

9:30pm

Today I studied for CA and I’m just finishing my last few practice questions and readings. It’s now time to get ready for bed and reflect on all the different aspects of accounting and tax that I learnt today, time to get some rest and start again tomorrow.