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Grant Thornton

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Will Briggs

6.00 AM

Wake up to my alarm going off a bit earlier than usual because I’m going for a run before work. Have a quick breakfast but nothing too heavy before I run.  Get my running gear on and get in the car to head in to the city. Normally I run around my neighbourhood however I am currently part of ‘Corporate Cup’ and as part of the challenge with my work mates, we are running a designated track.  Over a series of rounds, we aim to improve on our times each week which adds a bit of fun and competitiveness to it all. By the time I get into the city, finish my run and cool off, it’s normally about 7:30am.

will 1

8.00 AM

By the time I get home, it’s nearly 8am. Have a quick shower, get my work clothes on and get out the door in a bit of a rush. I walk up to the bus stop which conveniently (but also dangerously) is close to the best banana bread & coffee going around. While I wait for the bus and with not much self-control, I grab a quick coffee and some banana bread to top up after my run and lighter breakfast.

will 2

My bus drops me on the street right next to work, so it’s a short walk from the stop to the front doors of the office, then up the lift to the top floor, which has a pretty good view of both the city on one side and the Adelaide Hills on the other.

will 3

8.50 AM

We have a hot-desking system in our office, which means that you don’t have a fixed desk that you sit in each day. Every day you can choose where you want to sit.  It’s a good system for being able to sit near the people that you plan to be working with for the day so that you can collaborate easier but also a great way to meet others that you don’t normally work with. There’s not many people in my team in the office yet and a few are working from home – so I’ve got first pick of where to go.

will 4

9.15 AM

After I’ve set up in the morning, I like to check my emails and organize my inbox to make sure I start from a clean slate each day. I do a bit of organizing and look at the jobs I’ve got in my list and check to see if any new emails have changed the priority of anything that I am working on.  There’s nothing so I start to work through my list.  Firs thing is setting up a new tax return reconciliation spreadsheet for a client’s EOFY company return.

10.30 AM

After working through setting up the new income tax return for a few hours, we have an office event on featuring some live music and morning tea.  This is part of a new city initiative to encourage people to get back out into the city and engaging with small local businesses which have been affected by COVID-19. It’s also a good chance to catch up with people in the office, as people are often working from home now and it’s not as often that there is an opportunity for the office to all casually catch up and have a coffee and chat.

will 5

11.00 AM

After the quick concert detour, it’s back to work on progressing with the tax return that I set up earlier. The next stage involves importing the client’s transactional and account data into the work paper, analyzing it for tax issues or items that may impact the tax return and slowly building out the work paper to give a picture of what the final values for the tax return should look like.

will 6

1.00 PM

After already treating myself to a breakfast out and morning tea during the office event, I decide I’ll stick with the leftovers that I packed for lunch. When I’m not going out for lunch, I like to sit in the kitchen area and eat, as there’s always people coming in and out around lunch time who you can have a chat with while you eat.

2.00 PM

Looking into the work I was doing earlier on the tax return, I found an interesting problem about the treatment of a particular expense item for income tax purposes and want to check if the research I have completed earlier is applicable.  I shoot my manager a quick Skype message to see if he’s free (probably could have walked over, the old fashioned way!) and ask if he’s got some spare time to run through the issue.

2.30 PM

Shortly after running through the income tax issue with my manager, I get an email from a partner who’s working from home, asking if I’ve got some time to give the Australian Tax Office (ATO) a call for a client. I give the partner a quick call on Skype to confirm the details of the issue, which is a problem with a tax refund not being processed in the ATO’s system and then jump on the tax agent line to the ATO.

3.00 PM

After a fair bit of on hold music, I get my answer from the ATO and they tell me that the issue should be escalated for resolution. I pull together an email summarizing the process and outcome for the client and send out to them, to keep them in the loop of where the issue is at and what they should expect.

A group skype message confirms that people are keen on a late-arvo coffee so I meet the team in the kitchen.

will 7

3.15 PM

With a coffee to keep me going for the rest of the afternoon, I get back to work on the tax return work paper that I had started earlier. The client I’m working on isn’t too complex so my aim is to get the bulk of the work paper finished by the end of the day, so that I can start on drafting the tax return tomorrow.

5.15 PM

After zoning in on the tax return work paper for a couple hours, I’m now in a good position to start on the return.  I pack up my desk and put most of my work stuff in my bag, since I need to do a bit of study when I get home.

5.30 PM

I head down the road to my bus stop, it normally takes a bit longer to get home in the evening because of traffic so I spend the time waiting at the bus stop working out which podcast or album I’m going to listen to on the way home.

will 8

6.15 PM

I’ve got a bit of study for my Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA) course to tackle.  I try to spread out my study so that I just do a bit where I can, instead of having to do a whole heap at once – otherwise it gets a bit too easy to keep telling yourself you’ll just do it next Sunday.

will 9

7.30 PM

After having a bit of dinner, I get started on my study. I’m planning to just make some notes on one of the learning modules and do one of the weekly quizzes, so probably about an hour all up.

8.30 PM

I’ve finished study and shut my computer down, so now it’s time to just put on a Netflix show, and catch up with what’s happening on social media. Sometimes I’ll get lunch ready for tomorrow if there’s no leftovers but I’m catching up with a friend for lunch tomorrow so no need tonight.

10.30 PM

Normally I aim to be in bed by around 10:30. If I’ve got a good book going, I’ll read for a bit before I sleep. Make sure my alarm isn’t set for 6:00 am since I’m not running and don’t need to get up early – and then it’s off to sleep for the night!