So this is part two of my piece on stakeholders that you’ll interact with if you do a placement in R&R. This time I’ll write about debtors and the government.

In order to ensure the maximum return to your client’s creditors, you will need to recover as much of the outstanding money that they’re due as possible. Debtors are usually customers of the business, but they can be trading partners or companies to which your client has issued loans, depending on the nature of their business.

Recovering your client’s debts is often more complex than you might think. In a lot of cases, debtors will withhold payment, for a variety of reasons. It is then up to you to prove that they have a legal responsibility to pay. This can be done by looking at contracts and your client’s ledger. Once you have established that your client is due the money, you may become involved in instructing debt collection agents or lawyers to help recover the funds. Once the funds come in, you will have to account for them using IPS, the accounting package that is designed for insolvency practitioners.

The government plays a large role in insolvency proceedings. On your placement, you will be responsible for filing documents with companies house on behalf of your client and submitting tax returns. You may need to liaise with HMRC regarding your client’s tax liability too.

The Insolvency Service is the government’s main vehicle for liaising with insolvency practitioners. When you’re six months into a case, they require a report on the conduct of the directors prior to insolvency and their subsequent cooperation. You will also need to work closely with The Insolvency Service’s Redundancy Payments Office as they step in to tide employees over while you recover your client’s assets.

An insolvent business has broadly similar stakeholders to a trading one, but the relationships are different. It is managing these relationships that is key to making insolvency proceedings run smoothly. In most other areas of accountancy, your client is your work provider, ie. the main party that you need to satisfy. In R&R insolvency work, your clients are insolvent businesses, the work providers can be directors, lenders and their legal advisors, and you have a range of statutory responsibilities to perform. This makes it a more attractive line of work for a lot of people. If you think you might be one of these people, then apply now!

Until next time
Harry

Here at PwC we’re in the middle of ‘busy season’, so everything’s been a bit hectic so far this quarter. I’m writing this from Milton Keynes where I’m staying for two weeks on an audit with another office. Away jobs can be hard because they’re so far away from home, but they can also be a good opportunity to work with different teams, not to mention being a chance to chill out without worrying about cooking and cleaning. After this job I have two weeks in London, which I’m really looking forward to. It’s a new kind of client for me, which will be interesting, plus I’ll get to do some shopping and see a show – we work hard, but need to unwind in the evenings.

We had the Young Accountants Dinner a couple of weeks ago, which was loads of fun. It was a black-tie event held by the ICAEW, which was a great opportunity for everyone to let their hair down in the middle of such a busy period. Everyone looked amazing in their tuxes and gowns. The food was extremely posh, and we all had a laugh at some of the weird courses on offer. Chicken liver anyone? There were also some clients there, as we obviously work closely with the finance departments of local companies, so we got the chance to chat to some of them in a more social environment and they could see that auditors are normal people too!

In the next few weeks I’ll have an appraisal with my manager, and will potentially receive my graduate job offer. If I’ve met the standards required of me, and have had good feedback from my colleagues, I’ll get an offer in March. If I decide that I want to do the next set of exams, I’ll accept the offer straight away, and will proceed with the graduates, then come back as a second year after I graduate. If I decide not to do the exams and to get more work experience, I’ll have another appraisal in August and hopefully then receive an offer before I leave. It’s quite a difficult decision to make because there are advantages to both options, but ultimately the firm are supportive whichever route you decide to take, so there’s no pressure.

Last time I gave you an overview of the type of work you will be doing in R&R. This blog is part one of a two-part piece onsome of the different stakeholders you’re going encounter in R&R. Part one is on creditors and part two will be on debtors and the government.
Most companies are financed at least partially by debt. This can be anything from bank loans to which their assets are collateral to employee expense claims. When a business becomes the subject of insolvency proceedings, this debt gets ranked in accordance with government legislation.

At the top of the pile you will find secured lenders. These are usually banks or syndicates of banks that have made asset backed loans to your client. In November 2009, I met executive directors of three leading banks to discuss a company that they had lent money to. Needless to say, I didn’t lead the discussions, but I challenge you to find another placement scheme that will enable you become involved with a similar crowd.

Next down we have preferential debt. This refers specifically to the claims of employees for elements of unpaid wages and untaken holiday. Employees can be the trickiest to deal with. Calculating and explaining their claims can take some practise, and they are often struggling to meet payments of their own. Preferential debt is unsecured, however ‘unsecured debt’ is often used to refer to all debt that is neither preferential or secured. Unsecured debt, therefore, is everything else. By that I mean supplier payments, shareholder loans, other employee expenses… the list goes on. On a mid-corporate case, there might be thousands of unsecured creditors. You will definitely be involved in dealing with these claims.

If you can talk about this sort of thing in your manager or partner interview then you will be in with a very good chance!

Until next time
Harry

Everybody has gone to college. Well, not everybody but quite a number of the trainees are out at the moment studying for their ACA. After the first couple of months finding my way around the department, I have taken on a similar level of responsibility to the graduate trainees. This means that when they go to college, I often become responsible for their cases. This is quite good because it means I get a couple of weeks working on companies that I wouldn’t have come in to contact with otherwise.

I thought I should tell you a little about what you’re likely to get up to on a placement in R&R. You will almost certainly be working in corporate insolvency. This comes in a variety of flavours, all of which are available for you to experience. Most of my work has been in mid-corporate insolvency. This means working on a liquidation or administration of a ‘medium’ size company. For example, one of the cases that I’m working on is the administration of an AIM listed telecoms company that went under in August 2009.

You will be asked to perform a very wide variety of tasks. On the date that we are appointed (the partners are all insolvency practitioners) over a company, you might have the task of addressing the company’s workforce, or taking control of the company’s vehicles. Months later, you might find yourself reporting on the directors’ conduct or accounting for the sale of assets.

Some of the work I have been doing would be better described as large-complex insolvency. These are huge, sprawling cases that have a lot of people working on them! I have been working on the liquidation of an investment company based in Saudi Arabia, managed in Switzerland, registered in Virgin Islands, trading in London, with assets all over the world.

Harry

Excel Training

In both of our day to day roles we use excel all the time. Tom, our placement manager, thought it would be helpful if we all had a bit of excel training to help us be more efficient and use some of the shortcuts in excel to make tasks quicker. All the placements went on the training and we all found it really useful. All the skills we learnt from this we feel will help us now in our day to day roles and in the future at other jobs and when we go back to Uni.

Tone of Voice Training

In December we went on a tone of voice training session. It was interesting to learn how a company’s ‘tone of voice’ can be really recognisable and a good tool to differentiate us from competitors. A good example of tone of voice is the instantly recognisable tone of Marks & Spencer’s ‘it’s not any chocolate pudding it’s…’ The session also covered communication skills, such as, e-mails and being on the phone. It was really useful to see how making a few changes to text can really make it stand out. This will be useful in our day to day roles when talking to external customers. It will also help when we go back to Uni when communicating on e-mail with tutors and Marketing projects. As well as knowing how far to go with formality in e-mails.

Commercial Christmas Party

On the afternoon of the Christmas Party all the departments in the Commercial Division went out for a Christmas Lunch. It was really good fun with lots of food and Christmas Carol’s. As well as Secret Santa fancy dress, with a few people getting a bad deal. Luckily me and Faye didn’t, we had angel wings and tiaras. After our late lunch we went out to a bar in Leicester Square where we met up with all the other departments. All the other departments had different fancy dress as well with Late Trading wearing some lovely hats and glasses or swimming caps and goggles in some cases and an Indian Chief Head Dress for another.

As the night went on and the booze was flowing, everybody got up for a boogie! Some people were a little worse for wear and had to leave a bit early, including one of the placements. The next day everyone was feeling a little worse for wear…

TUI Christmas Party

The week after the Commercial party which was held at a marquee in London. We all got our glad rags on in the office toilets (just like the Boots ad – we were all desperate for a bit of mirror space!) and then all got in coaches from Luton down to London.

When we arrived we all made the most of the free champagne and cocktails, and then we went into the main room were we were all seated with our teams. We had a 3 course meal with wine constantly flowing. In between courses the director gave a speech and handed out awards for recognition within the business. After the food and speeches we all went onto the dance floor to the cheesy music and a few of the directors were a bit worse for wear by showing of their dance moves!

At the end of the night we all got back on the coaches to head home, as we were getting closer to Luton rumours were flying about the snowy conditions back at Luton. As we got off the coach there was a thick blanket of snow and no taxis were running so there was no way home other than to walk. When we got into the office at 2am people were everywhere and quite a few had to make the most of the sofas downstairs. Heather and her flatmates ended up walking the hour journey home after borrowing a few warmer clothes for the journey. Faye ended up joining a few others and stayed the night in the office.

The next day barely anyone could make it into work due to the bad conditions, but we did!

It’s been a busy month for me in January, besides the usual work at Microsoft I was lucky enough to be invited to the RateMyPlacement awards in Oxford which was a great afternoon of networking and awards. I didn’t win but now I know what I need to do to win next time around!

Microsoft won the best internship employer based on reviews and it’s not hard to see why when I’ve been given as much responsibility as I have. I’ve also appeared in the Sunday times to showcase the great opportunities there are at Microsoft for Interns and grads which was fantastic to be chosen to represent Microsoft. I did get a lot of funny comments from my team about my family!

I’ve also been helping out to make a video to give an even better insight into what it’s like to work at Microsoft; you can see the video here. The past 6 months feel like they have flown by and now I only have another 6 left, and it’s nearly time to start recruiting for the new me – it doesn’t feel like yesterday since I was being interviewed.

So now I’m getting really into my role it’s nearly time to leave, but not before I leave a few more marks. I’ve been working on planning and organising the Imagine Cup Student event at Microsoft to make it a fantastic day for the competitors. It’s also getting very close to X48 which is 48 hours of hard core coding to create a working game in less than 48 hours – a challenge I am told, but I don’t hold a deep technical understanding. Instead I deal with the marketing and PR of the event to ensure it is a great event and also it generates some positive stories in the press.

I’m also lucky enough here at Microsoft to have great access to training to give my CV that edge we all want. I’ve got to make the most of the next 6 months, so I’ve been doing a marketing course from the Kellogg School of Marketing, as well as more practical exams such as Excel, Word etc. I’m also doing a copywriting course to improve writing skills so that my CV will be jam packed with experience. Ah well, back to revision!

And so I’m in Newark Airport in New York as I write this, as I’m en route from Quebec City in Canada back to London, after spending a good 10 days in Canada with friends and also visiting McGill University in Montreal. My reason for being at McGill is that I’m applying to do a masters in taxation law there for the next academic year. I had always been somewhat sceptical of masters programmes in general, hence my looking further afield and I must say that the masters programme at McGill does seem to float my boat, as they say.

The subjects are taught with both Civil and Common Law systems in mind (as the province of Quebec is a bit of both), where there is a strong comparative approach which is something I’ve become fond of and find extremely useful, having studied the German language and German law. I find that studying a language or legal system other than your own enhances your understanding of your own language or legal system, whilst broadening your horizons (yes, English law is great but would you believe it, there’s a whole world out there).

It is with this in mind that I chose McGill and this trip has highlighted my desire to study there, as the staff and students alike seem to be exceptionally welcoming and hugely helpful and the atmosphere seems to be one where fun is necessary but so is hard work, which is an ethos I’ve become to love and cherish at Cardiff Law School. Anyway, enough about that…what has happened since we last spoke? In other words, how did our Law Trip to Edinburgh go and what other things have been happening on the Cardiff Law scene I hear you ask. Well, here goes…

When we spoke last I’d just finished my work experience with John Gardiner QC back at the beginning of November (apologies for the lack of contact since then). Since then we’ve had, as aforementioned, our highly successful trip to Edinburgh, which absolutely everyone loved. Our hostel was in a fantastic location and allowed us to reach the castle and the Royal Mile in a smooth 10 mins. We had some epic nights out albeit we had a close call with a petrol bomb, as the nightclub we were queuing outside of was petrol-bombed by a motorbike rider, causing me to sober up immediately (not that I drink of course ;P) and get a plan into action with the rest of our trusty Exec and make the night a definite one to remember!

We managed to wrangle free bottles of vodka and mixers in a neighbouring club, ensuring a cracking evening despite the little hiccough. It could’ve been worse, I know, but luckily noone was hurt. That excitement aside, we’ve also had talks from Lord Bingham (a true legendary figure) and Michael Mansfield QC (slightly contentious), which were both very well received, and we’ve had our Law Society Christmas Soirée, which was attended by several hundred of our Law Students, as well as others, which made for a brilliant night!

As you can tell, we’ve been very busy socially, but the fact we’ve also been highly busy academically goes without saying. We’ve had essays coming out of our ears, presentations to do before term ended and now all of the tutorial prep, revision, etc for the coming semester. Oh how I feel sorry for myself sometimes! Ha!

I shall leave it there and check in with you all with the gossip of the next semester as soon as possible, as it’ll be a more exciting affair I’m sure. We are at Cardiff Law School after all…

‘Nick Wolfe…out!’ (A smooth quote from Californication, for the viewers among you — prizes for those who can correctly recall the episode).

My last blog was kind of a whirlwind tour of the first 3 months of life as a PwC Business Placement student, so I’ll try and include a bit more detail this time…

I last posted at the beginning of the second set of exams, about a month ago. This study period was really intense, especially as I’d got an exemption from one. That sounds backwards, but you have to work on the days allocated to studying for that exam, so the mix of work and learning was quite tiring, but I’ve got some extra work experience in. When I started, I didn’t think I’d get any exemptions from the exams because I’ve obviously not finished my degree yet, but you can if you’ve done the relevant modules so make sure you apply!

Our exams were on the day of the Christmas party, which was a great incentive to work hard because we could let our hair down and really celebrate afterwards. Nearly all the office came along for a proper Christmas dinner, the highlight of which was the first years’ Christmas song. There’s a tradition in this office for the new starters to sing a song in front of the whole restaurant, and unfortunately for us this year was no exception. We’d re-written the lyrics of Jingle Bells with a PwC theme, which got a good reception, and then we sat back and enjoyed awards for ‘worst tie’ and other random achievements. It was a good way to get to see what the people we work with are like when they’re out of work.

The Christmas period here can be very busy, and as a first year I have to do a lot of stock counts. These are one-day jobs where you go out to a client on your own and audit their stock count, checking that they’ve counted, recorded and followed procedures properly. The first one I did on my own was fairly scary, because there’s a massive difference between spending time with a client knowing your in-charge and being on your own at a site. However, because you have to do it a lot, you pick it up really quickly and get a real sense of achievement from doing it yourself. It’s also a good way to get to know a client ahead of jobs, as you’re often booked to the stock count of companies that you’re auditing later in the year.

Looking ahead to January and February is a little scary, as I’m booked to clients back to back until late April, spending time both locally and away in London. I’m looking forward to getting stuck in and learning more on the job, as being at home studying does leave you feeling a little detached. But I’m sure I’ll be taking that back in a few weeks when I’m desperate for a day of textbooks and exam questions! That’s the thing that’s great about this placement; it’s a mixture of work in the office, and work studying for exams, just like uni, so you won’t feel like you’ve had too much of a culture shock!

Now I’m enjoying a well earned break over Christmas (working makes you really appreciate the holidays by the way!) I thought I’d let you know what I’ve been up to.

As it’s been party season, funnily enough we have had a fair few parties. I’ve had a couple of nights out with my team and we had a night out in London on a river boat down the Thames for our intern party, then onto a club. It was great to see nearly everyone, as there are 70 interns here and we don’t always get the chance to see everyone!

Microsoft also laid on a Christmas lunch for everyone which was great fun. Unfortunately the snow got the better of us last week and meant the office was snowed in. Luckily we are all equipped to work from home with laptops and headsets so nobody had to go in!

So the past month I have been involved in some extra activities outside my job role to support the recruitment process. We are in the making of a new video to showcase what life is like at Microsoft for an intern and graduate so I have been busy filming all sorts of people across the business. I’m also helping out an open day we are holding in the New Year to talk to potential candidates; it’s scary to think that was me a year ago!

Back to the day job and I’ve been helping to plan X48 for students, a 48 hour code-athon for keen gamers to come along and build a game in 48 hours in teams at University. I’m involved in planning the event (with the help of others) as well as the PR side of the event to raise the profile and awareness.

I’m also working on the Imagine Cup Finals which is the worlds premier student technology competition, to invite the final UK teams who have entered the competition and choose the winner who will compete in the World Wide finals in Poland. This is amongst other jobs I do regularly each month, including the newsletters, so the new year will be a busy one!

Take Care,

After a pretty hectic induction week, starting with a large welcome event in Manchester, our group embarked on study for the first 3 professional exams. It was intense, but the tutoring and support were second-to-none and everybody passed. We celebrated with a big night out, and pushed the next set at Christmas to the back of our minds!

We then had a couple of weeks of vocational training with new starters from other offices in the area, which was really useful to get an idea of what we’d actually be doing on the job, as nobody really had a clue! It was also a great opportunity to meet new people. ‘Networking’ is a massive deal here.

We then had a month of working, which varied for everybody. As placement students are essentially treated the same as graduates, there’s a massive amount of responsibility straight away. It’s challenging at times, but we’ve found that they weren’t lying about the attitudes of everyone in the office towards the new starters; no question is stupid, and they always have time to help. I’ve learned so much already! There’s been a surprising amount of client contact; I didn’t think I’d really be allowed near finance directors and heads of departments, but job managers have real faith in your abilities, and there’s nothing like being thrown in at the deep end to teach you to think fast.

The welcome we’ve all received has been unbelievable. In the first week at our office, we were taken out for drinks and had a bit of a party in one of the meeting rooms, which was a great way to get to know everybody with a bit less pressure. All offices are different, but I’ve not heard any bad stories from graduates in other ones. I haven’t met any other placement students yet because I’m the only one in the North, but they set up a really useful conference call where we could all ask any questions or voice concerns, and we’ve been given useful contacts in case we need any help. I don’t feel at all isolated though, because the graduates I’ve started with are such an amazing group, and I reckon I’ve made some friends for life.

We’ve just this week started studying for our next set of exams, and it’s going well so far. We also have the Christmas party to look forward to later this month, and then work, work, work in January. As a placement student, my path moves away from the graduates’ after these exams, as they will do even more in March, whilst I will continue to work. Provided my work is of a good enough standard though, I will get the opportunity to do even more exams in the summer to get a head start if I accept a graduate position, so there are lots of options. I’m really excited to get as involved as possible and make the most of an amazing opportunity.