This month we spoke to Jonathan Carter, Accounts Junior at The Accountancy Partnership!

Give an overview of the duties, functions and responsibilities of your job.

I have my own portfolio of clients where I complete sets of annual accounts for sole traders and limited companies, along with Self Assessment tax returns and Company Tax Returns. As well as this I complete VAT returns for my clients. The responsibilities I have are to ensure all deadlines are met while providing excellent customer relations and customer service all year round.

What is a typical working day like for you?

I will start my day responding to emails to ensure our 24-hour response time is met. I have recently started taking initial consultations in the morning to talk to new clients about their business, getting a better understanding of how their business operates while offering support and answering any questions they may have.

After that, I will get started on the next set of accounts, tax return or VAT return that is on my list. Monitoring my emails and calling clients throughout the rest of the day.

What particular challenges do you regularly encounter?

Meeting client deadlines is the main challenge, to avoid any penalties or interest payments.

What are some of the biggest challenges faced by your clients?

Working within the deadlines can be hard to get to grips with initially. The importance of keeping bookkeeping up to date to give current updates on how their business is doing throughout the year.

HMRC and Companies House letters can appear to be scary and threatening. Threats of future legal action and big wording can be daunting, however it may just be explaining the worst-case scenario if deadlines are not met.

How are you able to use your skills to solve problems for them?

I have a degree in Accounting and Finance, which gave me the base knowledge to deal with a wide variety of client queries. I am currently studying towards my ACCA qualification so I am always expanding my knowledge of the accountancy world to support my clients as best as I can.

I am a problem solver and will happily investigate further for any client queries I may not have come across before.

What is your favourite part of the job?

A McDonalds trip with the work lads on a Friday is always a nice way to end the week.

What do you like most about working for The Accountancy Partnership?

Everyone in the office is friendly and a good laugh. Everyone is always willing to offer support to another colleague when needed, showing our professionalism when targets and deadlines need to be met.

What skills do you find most useful to do your job?

Time management is essential to meeting deadlines, turn around times and response times.

Also, being good at Maths throughout school and university is a big help to me as an accountant.

Where’s your favourite place to visit on days off?

Anfield. Watching Jurgen’s reds gives me a rollercoaster of emotions over 90 minutes is always worth it in the end when we win. (I am dreading Jurgen leaving).

What’s your proudest achievement?

Graduating University in July 2023 after 3 years of hard work was a great feeling. I achieved all 9 ACCA exemptions on top of my university degree resulting in me being able to qualify quicker after university.

Passing my driving test was also a great achievement of mine straight after lockdown.

How would your colleagues describe you?

Sarcastic, bad jokes, and a wind-up. However, I am friendly and always willing to help my colleagues where I can.

The lads in work play football a couple of times a week and I am one of the first names on the team sheet – albeit I spend most of the time injured with two dodgy knees.

Who do you admire, and why?

Mo Salah must be an inspiration to everyone. Hard working, leader, and an all-round good person. His footballing ability is amazing however he is an even bigger inspiration off the pitch for his charity contributions and nice gestures.

What question would you really like to answer, and what’s the answer?

Are Manchester City guilty of ‘cooking their books’ to potentially receive 115 FFP charges? Well!

 
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