Updating Results

BDO Australia

4.2
  • > 100,000 employees

Nick Curran

5:00 AM

It’s time to get going, off to the gym or a quick run to kick off the morning, unless its “one of those days” – safe to say it may well be so let’s skip to 7 AM.

7:15 AM

Perfect - a nice sleep in, an even better way to start the day! It is time to get going, I pack my laptop and grab a quick bite to eat and hop in the car. Due to the nature of audit, most of the time I am meeting at the client’s office. So most mornings I am picking up a colleague to head out to visit the client. Sometimes this could even involve a morning flight.

Arrive at the office

A week in audit may span from Brisbane to Sydney, Cairns to Noosa and beyond!

8:00 AM

Quick team coffee, usually we try to find a groovy local coffee shop, which we will meet at every morning for a quick chitchat before driving to the client to start the day.

quick coffee with team

8:30 AM

On Monday’s the first half hour of the morning involves meeting the client’s finance team and those involved in the audit (first impressions are key!) followed by a meeting with the BDO staff on the job to determine a plan for the week. This is the chance you get to voice your interest in any audit areas you would like to work on that week. This means that every week you get the chance to try something new or work on an area of interest.

9:15 AM

By this time, the team has their allocated work for the week and now it is time for me to sit down with the client. During this time I get the chance to understand the entire business’s process to identify any risks or controls, request any documentation I may need and figure out how best to approach my work.

11:30 AM

After checking emails and maybe quickly checking FoxSports or the AFR I realise that first coffee is wearing off, let’s go round two.

12:30 PM

Lunch time – time to go exploring around to find somewhere nice to eat, depending on your team members this can be a quick and simple task or harder than getting up for that run this morning.

lunch with team mate

1:30 PM

Back from lunch everyone is feeling a little bloated from the crowd favourite, Southport Schnitty but it is time to get back into it. After checking the global portal for the documentation the client has provided I am able to complete some audit fieldwork using our audit software. This may include:

  • Financial analysis using data normalisation in our data analytics tool in order to visualise and analyse trends in events during the year, giving us a deep understanding of businesses performance; or
  • Assessing and recalculating client accounting estimates to ensure appropriate assumptions have been used, verifying inputs or data using external sources; or 
  • Obtaining supporting business evidence to verify and support business transactions.

3:30 PM

This coffee habit is getting bad – back to the morning coffee spot to stretch the legs and get a third hit.

afternoon coffee

4:45 PM

Growing close to the end of the day it is time to do a bit of a wrap-up. Our team will go around the room, discussing what work they were doing for the day, if they came across any issues or if anyone needs any assistance.

5:00 PM

As most client’s offices close at 5pm it is pack up time, so we have a quick discussion with the client about how we have progressed for the day and say goodbye until tomorrow. Work-life balance is an important part of BDO’s culture and assuming I have completed all work needed to be done, I can turn off my computer for the night.

Working on client site

Due to the nature of audit work, larger workloads come during different times of the year, usually tied in with financial year-ends. The most commonly known period is “busy season”, following 30 June 2019 (Australian Financial Year-End). The flexibility in audit allows you to design your night, whether it be attending social sport after work and logging on later or putting in a quick extra hour in the office.  The following is an example of a busy season night for me.

5:15 PM

The technology we have at our disposal allows us to either work from home at night if we have any outstanding items, but my grad group preferred to all head into the office at night, looking back on it, maybe it was more for the socialising than working.

5:30 PM

Arrive in the office from the client site and continue working on any outstanding items for the day or preparing as best I could for the following day.

6:45 PM

Head out for dinner with other Auditors in the office that night. Pizza or pasta? Tough decisions.

7:15 PM

Finish off all outstanding work and reply to any last emails before calling it for the night.

8:15 PM

Lucky I live close to the office. It is time to get ready for tomorrow and head to bed after an hour or so of Netflix. Goodnight!