First, a brief introduction of myself. Just like any other lost high school student, I chose the bachelor business economics because it was quite known that there are broad career opportunities after you completed this study. After completing the bachelor, I chose to follow the master accountancy to gain more knowledge about a new field of interest of mine: the audit/control practices. In addition to this, it appealed to me to work at a bigfour accounting firm in the future. During this master I attended an in-house day of every bigfour firm. With that being said, I experienced the in-house day at EY as the best one. As a result, I managed to be hired for a thesis internship at EY Eindhoven. I had a nice, pleasant and educational experience at this thesis internship. Afterwards, this formed a fair reason for me to start my career at EY. On the day of writing this article, November 20, 2019, EY Eindhoven is dealing with a 23-year-old starting accountant named Robin Hu. A day at EY is different for each colleague and mainly depends on the client you are working on. For example, you may have to go to a client with the team to carry out the control. Besides this, you can also work with the team at an EY location if it is not necessary to work at the client. This occurs, for example, when all required documents and information have been received from the client. For me, the day looks slightly different than for most accountants at EY. So far, I have only been working with one client, the largest client at EY Eindhoven. Due to the fact that it is a big client, this requires some time and it also explains why I have only had one client so far. It is important to mention that I requested this prior to my start at EY. I saw that this was possible and saw it as a challenge for myself, to start with the largest client. My team and I mainly work from the EY Eindhoven office. It is a large team and most colleagues are already quite experienced. Because of the fact that we are often together as a team, we have the opportunity to discuss a lot with each other and to support each other well. Although my work is fairly new to me, my more experienced colleagues help me a lot to carry out all my tasks. At the same time, I learn a lot about the field and about the client with the help of my supporting and supervising experienced colleagues. They believe that it is important for me to learn a lot and that I also develop myself. To EY, the development of its employees is extremely important. EY offers me many opportunities to develop myself as a person, for example the time EY offers us to study. Each person is also assigned a coach and a confidant. These people support me with the work-study-life balance and any problems that I experience both in business and in my private life. Moreover, informal and formal courses are given internally at EY to help you with your development, such as accounting courses and work-life balance courses. “I don’t really see working at EY as “working”, but more as an experience to develop myself as a person and an accountant, and to have fun and work hard together with my colleagues at the same time.” EY has a lot to offer, but what do I think of EY? It will probably sound very cliché, but in the end it’s all about the pleasant atmosphere ad culture within EY. The bigfour firms offer almost similar conditions, but the atmosphere and culture can be very different between these firms. The atmosphere and culture that I have been able to experience at EY (Eindhoven) is open, warm and informal. I am very happy with all the colleagues I have met so far. It is also often very pleasant and fun at EY, and everyone is willing to help each other. After all, we all work together. Furthermore, we also work very hard at EY and there is also space to do this. EY organizes periodic events where we get to know each other as colleagues in a different way. I have experienced these events very positively. Finally, I want to mention that you do not notice much of a hierarchy, which I also like. Whether you talk to a manager or a partner, you do not notice a certain dominant attitude. Finally, I want to give some advice to the students. -Start with or keep connecting with new people. This helps you a lot to ultimately find your optimum workplace. Moreover, it is always nice to meet new people and to share things. -Participate in events that are organized by both Asset and the accounting firms. Try to be as diverse as possible and to visit as many events as possible. Of course, this takes some time, so it is recommended to compile a top x list of offices that appeal to you the most. -If this article doesn’t provide enough information about my experiences at EY, don’t hesitate to contact me via LinkedIn! -Don’t rush through your studies! Enjoy your student time and think about taking a little longer on your studies because you will be working enough soon. This comes from someone who has completed his master in one year.
Working At KPMG
In this edition of “Working At…” Anke op de Woerd (Senior Manager Audit FS) and Jeroen Gossewehr (Trainee Audit FS) tell all about their experiences at KPMG! See the video below.
Accounting Insight 2017: Why good auditors do bad audits!
On the 29th of November Accounting Insight took place. Accounting Insight is an interactive symposium in which a discussion is held about different accounting-related topics. This event helps building a bridge between academic theory taught in lectures at Tilburg University and the practical situations individuals come across within companies. As of February we, as the organizing committee, have been busy organizing this event. The organization started with choosing a suitable topic and approaching interesting speakers. The topic was quickly chosen, the overall theme of the evening would be ‘Why good auditors do bad audits’. Finding the speakers for the speakers’ panel went more easily than expected. Within a reasonable amount of time we had a prominent and enthusiastic panel of speakers and the two most important components for a successful evening were a fact. After this we could start finding a suitable location, keeping good contacts with the sponsors and designing the promotion materials. “They believe that a whole generation has to be removed before this culture problem can be solved.” Soon we reached the 29th of November and enthusiastic participants who were waiting to obtain more insights in the current developments of the accounting sector were slowly filling the foyer of the Studiozaal of Theaters Tilburg. Chairman of the evening Bas Knoop lead the discussion and four propositions were discussed by Godert van der Poel (CFO Siemens NV), Rob Fijneman (Chairman KPMG), Pieter Jongstra (Chairman NBA), Dagmar van Boekel (Partner Joore) and Johan Hopmans (Partner Deloitte). The 53 measures that were implemented to improve the audits was the first topic that was being discussed. According to Mr. Jongstra the profession is heading the right direction, but this has not been acknowledged by the public yet. On the other hand, Mr. Van der Poel and Mrs. Van Boekel think that the problem is mainly about the prevailing culture within the audit firms. They believe that a whole generation has to be removed before this culture problem can be solved. The capacity problem and the partner structure were the next topics. There was no doubt between the speakers that the sector is dealing with a capacity problem. Audit firms are generally dealing with capacity struggles that don’t benefit the quality of the audit very often. Mrs. Van Boekel states that the partner structure is the reason she left a Big Four firm for a smaller audit firm. Because of this she is working at clients more often, even though she is a partner at Joore now. “Where improvement is needed? Communication” About the role of an auditor when detecting fraud the panel mostly agreed. Detecting fraud should not be the primary role of an auditor, the panel believes, but auditors for sure have to be alert! ‘Where improvement is needed? Communication’, states Mr. Jongstra. The last topic is technology. As of lately, the accounting profession is changing. Technological developments play a major role. Unfortunately this doesn’t show up yet in the education program, states Mr. Fijneman. An auditor doesn’t have to be an IT specialist, but in the future every audit team will consist of specialised individuals including an IT-auditor. After all these insights are being shared, there was a closing drink where all participants could evaluate the evening or get in touch with one of the partner firms of Accounting Insight 2017. All in all, I believe we can look back at a successful evening which has helped bringing together theory and practise! The evening would not be possible without our partners, therefore I would like to make use of this occasion to thank them again. Next to that, of course I want to direct a word of thanks to our speakers’ panel and the chairman of the evening! Last but not least I want to thank my fellow committee members Anne, Rob and Matthieu and our coordinator Cindy for organizing this event! I hope to see you all at the next edition of Accounting Insight!
AI, Accounting And The Audit Profession: A Win-Win Situation?
Nowadays, artificial intelligence (AI) is not the futuristic idea that was present in famous movies a few decades ago. It is now increasingly implemented and accepted by the public as a present reality. Furthermore, a considerable number of corporations are starting to use AI to reach a more efficient balance with core operations. Accountancy firms are tailoring their business concepts by slightly implementing AI. Many accounting firms are beginning to use AI oriented programmes to handle tax, bookkeeping, and auditing-oriented services. This will lead to more efficient practices, which will result in higher quality and a more satisfied client. However, AI has some disadvantages. It replaces the functions of lower and mid-level workers in the accounting field. Moreover, the current roles of highly educated tax consultants and auditors will be completely changing. Instead, data analysts, programmers and continuous auditors are roles that are expected to be widely found in tomorrow’s accounting profession. All things considered, is AI really a great step forward? AI in Accounting The role of the accountant changes every single decade. AI is just one of many factors that will shape the accounting profession of tomorrow. The accountant of tomorrow will probably be more focused on consulting, business innovation, advisory, and risk management. Whereas, AI will probably do information analysis, report preparation, bookkeeping, and transaction analysis in order to help accountants improve their quality of reporting and decision-making. AI will do the cumbersome tasks, while accountants can focus on giving advice and taking on higher-value responsibilities. In the near future, AI will probably do the entire reviewing process of a business. Assurance and compliance are the areas that benefited the most from tools like data mining. By taking this into account, it is even further expected that AI will take a tremendously beneficial role in the near future. Moreover, the AICPA and IIA indicated that data mining is in their top 10 and top 4, respectively in terms of technological priorities. AI can be used to enhance the data mining process in the near future. Tax-wise, AI will be able to compare current business activities with rules and regulations. Consequently, corporations will become more advantageous in terms of tax filings and returns. AI will reveal accounting and tax updates from day-to-day and the accountant of tomorrow will still need to use their expertise to decide on the analysis provided. AI in Auditing AI will also have a positive impact on the audit profession. AI is likely to replace a considerable amount of human audit tasks that requires a lot of time at present. Document review tasks, which demand a lot of time, are especially ideal for AI. AI can review a tremendous amount of contract pages in a short time period. It will quickly check certain key items and highlights items that could be materially misstated, either intentionally or unintentionally. This is extremely useful for the audit profession. Additionally, AI will learn from each separate document review. This will improve its’ capabilities every time a document review is performed. Furthermore, auditors will be expected to move their attention to advanced analytics that is beyond AI. It is even probable that this attention shift will be reduced over time, because of the knowledge enhancement of AI. Consequently, better insights will be given. Moreover, better professional judgement will be applied, which will in the end result in a higher quality audit report. This audit report will lead to more trust from investors and stakeholders. The big four accounting firms, especially KPMG, are already commencing the implementation process of AI in their audit engagements and it is expected that more accounting firms will follow. KPMG Australia has a proposal to use IBM’s Watson computation technology to make the audit engagements more efficient. Hereby, the limitation of sample sizes is a past shortcoming, as IBM’s Watson is able to analyse an unlimited sample size and can analyse all the financials belonging to a specific corporation. This will not only be beneficial for the audit client, but also the audit firm itself, which could probably charge higher audit fees. So Is AI Replacing Humans? With all this information being given on AI, it is likely that many people fear that AI will replace jobs related to the profession. However, the US Bureau of Labour Statistics reported that there were 1.2m individuals employed in the US accounting profession in 2016. Additionally, the accounting profession is expected to grow with 11% in terms of labour over the next ten years. This will result in an extra 142,000 jobs in accounting and auditing in the US. Partly, this growth can be explained by the retirement of the “Boomer” generation; however, this is just a single factor that has an influence on the growth number. In the end, AI will have an incredibly positive impact on the accounting and auditing profession. Against a considerable amount of expectations, AI has a beneficial direction for the employment numbers as well. Structurally, the whole profession will change. The auditor, accountant, bookkeeper, or tax consultant of today is the data scientist or data consultant of tomorrow. Right now, some companies are already hiring people who have experience with data handling, modelling techniques, and software skills related to AI. Therefore, it is highly probable that the accounting and auditing profession of tomorrow will be an environment where employees are data experts who use AI as a supporting, time-saving tool that will increase the quality of the service being provided.
Working at Witlox VCS
My name is Jesse Renier, I’m 22 years old and I come from Bergen op Zoom. After obtaining my Havo diploma I started my HBO business economics program at Avans Breda. During that time I did two internships; one I did at a large construction firm and the other in the FMCG sector. Next to that I was active as chairman and treasurer at study association Oase. Early on I decided that I wanted to continue studying, and I knew the master Accountancy and the RC/RA track would best fit my ambitions. Recently I completed the pre-master, and at this moment I’m enrolled in the master Accountancy program at Tilburg University. Besides studying I really wanted to gain experience within the accountancy profession. Therefore I decided to quit my job as team leader at a supermarket after I graduated from HBO and instead applied for a job at an accounting firm. It was around 8 months ago that I started at Witlox VCS as a working student in the audit department. As a working student your schedule is very schedule. I work at least one day a week, but it can be more if I have spare time. “To me, the social aspect and a friendly environment is very important within an organization, and Witlox VCS can offer me that.” Why Witlox VCS? Witlox VCS is a medium sized accounting firm, with approximately 120 employees. The name is well known among small and medium sized companies in the area of Breda. I’ve known about Witlox since my first year at HBO, and I have a couple of friends who did their internships there or already work there. After an inhouseday I immediately was enthusiastic! I especially liked it that they took me seriously from the beginning, even though I am still a student, and I felt this was unique to the company. The atmosphere at Witlox VCS is informal and the organization is quite flat. During the inhouseday I had a personal conversation with my current supervisor Hugo Fransen, who happens to also be a partner of the firm. After I was hired, I quickly got to know many people at Witlox VCS. Among those people are tax and payroll specialists, corporate finance advisors and of course a lot of accountants. To me, the social aspect and a friendly environment is very important within an organization, and Witlox VCS can offer me that. They also organize many fun activities. A few months ago, for example, I played volleyball on a ‘team-day’. Besides that I was invited to join the ‘employee-day’, which was a lot of fun. The general atmosphere at the firm is very different from what I’ve experienced at other companies. Three weeks ago, for example, the CEO drove me and my girlfriend to one of our colleague’s wedding. But what do I do exactly? At Witlox VCS, I work with an audit team that specially focusses on the bigger clients, while several other firms mainly focus on SMEs. This means that my team consists of assistants and accountants that are concerned with the control practices of the larger clients of Witlox VCS. It does not mean however that I don’t get to see what the other teams are doing, as Witlox VCS likes to offer their clients a complete package. I often get to see clients that make use of our payroll department, but I also work for clients from corporate finance and tax. I like the fact that the organization is large enough to have multiple in-house specialists, while at the same time you get to be involved in a lot of cases. In other words, the firm is small enough in a way that you can still see what is actually going on and be able to see the connections between it all. My team consists mainly of RA-accountants and RA-students who come from many different universities; Neyenrode business university, Tilburg University and the Erasmus University for example. Next to that there are also a couple of working students, like myself. Witlox VCS wants to be an advisor and sparring partner for their clients and that ambition is reflected in my work. Sometimes I’m working with benchmarks and data-analyses for example in order to be able to understand and help clients in a better way. “Employees follow and internal development program that is supported by an external company.” Does working and studying combine well? I think it does! Of course, it’s a full-time master, but you see many students who combine it with an internship or a job. Witlox VCS offers me a lot of space so I can concentrate on my study. It is very important to my colleagues and supervisor that I complete the program well. During exam periods I get more time to study if it’s necessary, and after this period, when my schedule is less full, I am able to work more since my school schedule allows it. After I finished my pre-master, I had the time to work fulltime for four weeks. I learned a lot during that time and I received my own financial statement assignments. And what about personal development? Education and personal development are highly valued by Witlox VCS. Once every two weeks we get trainings that are sometimes just for our team, and other times with multiple teams. This way we keep developing ourselves. Those trainings can for example be about the IT-audit or materiality. Besides that there is a lot of room for personal development. Employees follow and internal development program that is supported by an external company. This can help you in everyday conversations with clients. Witlox VCS also offers my educational possibilities, such as the post-master Register Accountant program, but also the Executive Masters in Business Valuation and Finance & Control (Register Controller). Therefore Witlox VCS will also be a valuable employer in the future. What would you like to say to students of Tilburg University? Look for something you really enjoy doing
Working at BDO
I’m Stef Jacobs – 24 years old – born in the East-Brabant village Boxmeer. I moved to Tilburg for my Bachelor Business Economics and my Master Accountancy. Currently I’m studying the Post Master Accountancy and I’m an Assistant Accountant at BDO. I would like to share my first experiences in the auditteam of BDO. How did I come in contact with BDO While studying I was an active member at the student association Asset | Accounting & Finance. During this period I became more aware about a future career and I wanted to gain some practical experience, next to the theory we get in the lectures. The conversations I had with employees of BDO made me instantly feel that BDO is a professional organization with a pleasant work atmosphere. That’s why I decided to apply for job opening for a work student at BDO. As a work student I worked three days a week at the Audit & Assurance unit in addition to the lectures at the university. This way, I already had a look behind the scenes at BDO, I became acquainted with the work of Accountancy and I had been to different clients. I really liked it there, so I decided I wanted to write my Master’s thesis at BDO, which I did last year. As of September I am working as an Assistant Accountant at BDO. My first weeks The first two or three weeks were marked by introductions, presentations and training. Together with all new colleagues of BDO the Netherlands, we went to Lunteren for several days, where we followed several training courses. Obviously, this was alternated with other activities to get to know each other better. After the introduction weeks the interim period began. During this period, we went to the customer to identify the administrative organization of the customer and describe the controls and evaluated them. Customer Portfolio BDO has a very diverse clientele. Of course, many profit organizations are included to our customers, but in addition, BDO is also very active in other sectors such as healthcare, municipalities and housing associations. My clientele is a mix of different industries. I personally find that quite interesting. This makes the work very diverse and challenging and definitely a lot of fun. You will draw a clear picture of the differences between different branches and you can experience what industry you really like. Ultimately, this also offers opportunities to specialize in a specific industry. I don’t know yet if I want to specialize let alone what industry. First, I want to orient myself broadly by working with all kinds of customers. What I find important in an employer I think trust and responsibility are very important. An employer must have faith in me and let me have my own responsibilities. I’ve experienced that trust during my time as a work student. I went to customers and was handed control related activities during this period. I also find it very important that there are possibilities to develop yourself and that people are professionally critical. My more experienced colleagues review my work and give me tips for improvement. This helps me tremendously in my personal development. Other aspects that I consider important are a pleasant working atmosphere with friendly colleagues and pleasure in your work. “Look for things that challenge you.” My ambitions In terms of education I want to be a chartered accountant. I also want to continue developing within BDO by picking up new and challenging work. In the coming years I want to see as many different branches and customers as possible, so I know what really suits me. Maybe than I know if I want to specialize in the future. Also it seems like fun to guide new colleagues at one point. I’ve not yet decided whether or not I would like to become a partner at BDO in the future. I feel that I can learn a lot at BDO and the company suits me. Tips I would recommend anyone to think about what you would like to do in the future, in time. Look for things that challenge you. Because I was an active member of a student association, I came into contact with fellow students and several companies. It has increased my network and given me a lot of insight and motivation. I would therefore always suggest students to do more than just attending lectures, so you will find out what’s right for you.
