Big 4 Work

schumacher

Hi. Im about to start work in a few weeks in one of the Big 4 in audit. Im just wondering what type of work I will be expected to do for the 1st few months. I worked in accountants before but it was just financial prep work so I know this will be different. Thanks

Pisco Sour

Photocopying

Printing

Ticking and Bashing

Ringing Banks 100 times a day chasing confirmation letters

schumacher

04072511 wrote: »

Photocopying

Printing

Ticking and Bashing

Ringing Banks 100 times a day chasing confirmation letters

Thanks. Sounds interesting stuff:pac: What's bashing?

Relevant

04072511 wrote: »

Ringing Banks 100 times a day chasing confirmation letters

Ha, it is probably me that you ring!
Not to mention asking banks for irrelevant info at the last minute that has long since been put in to storage.:mad:

Pisco Sour

schumacher wrote: »

Thanks. Sounds interesting stuff:pac: What's bashing?

Basically ticking and bashing is a term used to describe checking figures against invoices to see if they are correct. You could have a sample of around 50-60 items to test and you would have to request the 50-60 invoices to back up the figures for these. If they agree you put a "tick" beside the item and at the bottom of the page you put another "tick" and beside that "agreed to invoice". So the "tick" indicates that you have agreed the item to an invoice. Its a lot of banter

Little Miss Cutie

I always thought it was called ticking and batching as you tick a batch of invoices??

OP what you are asked to do will really depend on your dept. Some juniors are out on audit from week 1 doing smaller sections of the files while others don't get out of the office for months and do filing etc....

My only advice is do whatever you're asked to with a smile. If you moan about having to ring bank or photocopy etc you will get a rep as being a pain in the ass and seniors will not want to work with you. And trust me no matter how silly the task seems to you, it is important to the senior/manager/partner.

Pisco Sour

Cutie_pc wrote: »

I always thought it was called ticking and batching as you tick a batch of invoices??

QUOTE]

Haha, maybe that is what its called. Maybe I heard it wrong from the start and have been calling it ticking and bashing ever since.

crapmanjoe

04072511 wrote: »

Cutie_pc wrote: »

I always thought it was called ticking and batching as you tick a batch of invoices??

QUOTE]

Haha, maybe that is what its called. Maybe I heard it wrong from the start and have been calling it ticking and bashing ever since.

Ive defin always heard it as ticking and bashing. Maybe it is supposed to be batching but I think its evolved to bashing

I'm in big 4 audit for for some reason managed to dodge all the 1st yr crap and got put doing semi important stuff from the off, guess it all depends on the jobs / senior u get. I prob got lucky cause there was an intern on the job who got stuck doing all the rubbish work

and yeah, what ever u get asked to do initally. Do it quickly and with energy etc, managers start judging (and as a snr I've noticed myself doing it) people very quicly and it's very easy to get a bad rep

Hanley

crapmanjoe wrote: »

and yeah, what ever u get asked to do initally. Do it quickly and with energy etc, managers start judging (and as a snr I've noticed myself doing it) people very quicly and it's very easy to get a bad rep

Good point.

And it's definitely ticking and bashing!

Facelessman

I agree with the above point. Even if you hate the job you've been given, look enthusiastic and do it as quickly as possible. As a junior, you never know when a pile of work can land on your desk so best to do the menial tasks as quick as possible. Bad attitude and 'go slow' rep will spread pretty quickly amongst the people you work with. Don't forget that as quickly as twelve months time you will be asking a junior to photocopy for you. The senior has enough things to worry about without motivating you. As work drys up, the most enthusiastic people will be assigned to jobs. Better to be busy than disengaged all the time....

Little Miss Cutie

Why is it called bashing?

djdeclan

Cutie_pc wrote: »

Why is it called bashing?

Bashing refers to entering (or "bashing") a load of numbers into a calculator, AKA checking tots

Little Miss Cutie

djdeclan wrote: »

Bashing refers to entering (or "bashing") a load of numbers into a calculator, AKA checking tots

Thanks You learn something new everyday!
As that's my something new for today no need to study

schumacher

Thanks for the advice. Its pretty much what I had expected to be doing. I will make sure to do my work quickly and properly cos I dont want to get a bad rep.

Hackysack

Haha, well it's cool that you're trying to get a headstart. In my firm they have 3 weeks of training for 1st years and to be honest, as soon as you step into the office, you don't really need to know anything.

The perception that I had (along with many others before me), is that the people in the company have no expectations of you. You're usually shown what to do, and if you're not sure ask.

There's nothing worse than wasting the time if you're stuck on something for ages, where if you just asked how to do it, you'll eventually get it done.

Don't worry about it too much. You pick it all up the more you do it. Good luck.

Hanley

Hackysack wrote: »

Haha, well it's cool that you're trying to get a headstart. In my firm they have 3 weeks of training for 1st years and to be honest, as soon as you step into the office, you don't really need to know anything.

The perception that I had (along with many others before me), is that the people in the company have no expectations of you. You're usually shown what to do, and if you're not sure ask.

There's nothing worse than wasting the time if you're stuck on something for ages, where if you just asked how to do it, you'll eventually get it done.

Don't worry about it too much. You pick it all up the more you do it. Good luck.

Serious +1. The majority of the work I did in my first couple of months was for semi-seniors and seniors who were only a year or two ahead of me and knew exactly what it felt like not to have a clue. They were always happy enough to sit down and run thru things, even if it was brutally simple and I was just being a dope!!

Hopefully I remember that in a couple of months when our juniors start!