Lauren McIndoe

7.30 AM

Wake up and have breakfast.  Probably the best perk of working from home during Covid-19 is the extra hour sleep in I get every single morning as I don’t have my hour commute to work anymore.

8.30 AM

Log onto my computer.  I personally prefer to start early as I find I’m more focused in the morning.  Plus that way I can finish work at a reasonable hour before starting my CA study in the evening after work.  First thing I do every morning is check my emails to see if there are any urgent things to add to my daily to-do list before getting started on the rest of my work for the day.  This morning I’m preparing the financial statements for a pub as the team I’m in have a lot of hospitality clients where we prepare financial statements and tax returns for pubs, clubs and gaming venues. 

9.30 AM 

Zoom call with my manager.  Today I have a half hour zoom call with my manager to discuss the queries I have for the job I’m working on at the moment.  Being at home it is harder to get queries answered as usually in the office I’d usually turn to my manager who sits next to me and ask her any questions I have along the way, however, since being at home I find myself making lots of lists then we schedule a time to catch up over zoom and she can answer all my queries in one go which is actually a lot more efficient. 

10.00 AM

Coffee break.  I take a morning break like I would if I was in the office and make myself either a coffee or a tea (depending on how tired I am).

10.10 AM

Continue working on my pub client.  Today I’m finalising the financial statements so that I can then complete the tax reconciliation, GST reconciliation and income tax return.  After it’s finished, I send it off to my manager who will review my work and pick up on any mistakes I’ve made along the way. 

11.30 AM

Training. SW offers a lot of training to its grads both technical training on different tax topics such as Division 7A or Franking accounts as well as software training including Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks certifications.  Today my training is on business writing and how to write professional emails.   

12.30 PM 

Lunch time.  Because we’re working from home at the moment, it’s quite easy to get caught sitting at your desk for hours on end without standing up so I make sure I go for a walk every lunchtime to get some fresh air.   

1.30 PM 

After lunch it’s time to prepare a business activity statements (BAS) for a client with a commercial rental property which involves reconciling the Xero account before preparing the BAS.

In the business advisory division, after drafting the financial statements, income tax returns or activity statements we often have to go back to the client to clarify some queries we may have, then once it’s complete, it goes to the manager for review.  This means that I’ve always got multiple jobs on the go at any one time whilst waiting for other jobs which are in query or in review so prioritising and multi-tasking are a crucial aspect to the job. 

3.30 PM 

Team catch up.  In the business and private client advisory division we all work in small teams within the division.  There’s 8 of us in my team and since working from home, we have implemented a daily catch up where for 15-20 minutes each day we talk about anything except work.  It’s nice to switch off mentally from work for a bit and just have a social chat. 

4.00 PM 

Time to finalise any jobs I’m working on and start planning out what I’m going to be working on tomorrow.  I always like to write a list every afternoon of exactly what I aim to achieve tomorrow so that way the next morning I know exactly what I’m doing and can get started straight away.  Now is also the time to complete my timesheet so I don’t forget what I’ve actually worked on for the day.

5.00 PM 

Time to turn the computer off and do a workout before dinner so that I feel refreshed to sit back at my desk and begin my CA study for the evening.