We interviewed one of our senior accountants to bring you a brief overview of this profession. Hana will tell us what was her journey to gain quality experience for the future.
Hanka, what had been your professional history before you joined ASB?
This is my first job after graduating from the bachelor studies at the University. I wanted to continue with a follow-up economic field of study here in Prague, but unfortunately I didn't succeed. Therefore I had been looking for a job in the field of economics as I had studied it both in the high school and in the college. I had never been attracted to accounting before, I was even persuaded that I would never work as an accountant. I found it both too complicated and too difficult to understand. Nevertheless, ASB has been my first job and in October it will have been five years since I have started working here.
What is your role within the provision of client service?
I am responsible for the company's bookkeeping - i.e. I keep an agenda of all its activities and enter everything into the accounting system. My daily agenda includes many activities from entering accounting documents through account inventory, Intrastat processing, tax returns preparation, statistical reports or cash-flow reports to communication with clients and auditors. Most of my clients do their business in the real estate sector, investment funds, software and goods. In ASB we cooperate on the client agenda across teams. As for me, I work with the Corporate Services Team and with the Tax team within the corporate income tax.
What I really enjoy, is diversity, as every day is different in terms of the scope of the client activities or processing deadlines. As for common activities, I like doing stocktaking or VAT processing. On the other hand, I am not a real fan of administration, such as printing documents and archiving.
What is the biggest challenge for you in this position?
Actually, every contract I have had to manage by myself from the beginning has been a challenge - as certain experience and an "out of the box" view are required here.
What was the most difficult thing for you during your work here?
At ASB, I have had the opportunity to learn everything step by step and to clarify all points I did not understand but it was not possible without my own diligence. At the beginning it was not easy - I had to do my best to learn as much as I could about the accounting. At the time I started to work there, the company was much smaller than now, therefore seniors were quite busy to find enough time to train us “in depth”. These days, it is different as everything is scheduled and orderly.
The fact that these beginnings influenced me a lot has been a reason why I have been trying to help “my” juniors as much as I can and make sure that they have enough information in spite of the fact I am quite busy with my work. It is a satisfaction for me that all the juniors working with me have been doing well, hopefully also thanks to my leadership.
How do you perceive your personal development in the accounting?
I have been still gaining experience, keep growing and I know that this work is meaningful for my future. I believe I have become experienced enough by now to be able to process annual accounts of any client.
What do you think the difference between ASB and consulting companies of a similar type is / what have been the benefits of working here for you?
There can be no doubts, our company is exceptional in terms of organized teambuilding activities. Employees are given an opportunity to attend English lessons with perfect lecturers. What I really appreciate here is that mostly young people work here, which is not so usual in accounting businesses.
Still, the professional growth has been the most important thing for me in ASB. During those five years I have been working here I have moved to a completely different professional level. ASB is a very good starting point for gaining experiences. Here, people can learn how to cooperate with very diverse clients, who are often very specific in accounting methods or fields of their business.
If one decides to work wherever else in the future, this is a huge benefit.