What will I do if I run my own office?

Again, related to CA-commerce..? Don’t groan..just read; I promise it’ll be fun! Not all accountants are boring, you’ll find!! J

Articleship, an ocean by itself, an albatross around your neck if you don’t ‘watch it’ and a boon if you know how to ‘handle it’! It’s actually a pretty much interesting phase as you get to meet the maximum number of clients, offices, corporate cultures, people at work and at the clients’, followed by the maximum number of files, assessment orders, returns, revisions, vagera vagera.. again followed by maximum amount of what-do-you-call-its from the clients as well and maybe even from your principal chartered accountant which maybe as a result of a client meeting!!! ;)

So typically since we have 3 full years here, we have a good scope to cover a lot of areas right? Broadly we have audits, tax, accounts mostly and consultancy which gets interlinked on and off. Being an articled assistant myself, I sometimes wonder what I would do when I start an office or when I run my own office. Ok reader, whatever you do, don’t dare to spill these out as my blog is my copyright!! We got a deal right? J

So here goes..a peek at the future..:)

“The day starts, as I walk in, my articles and staff greet by saying ‘Good morning ma’am!!’ ‘good day srini!!’ I give a warm smile and proceed to my office.”

Ok enough about me, now the real focus is not on me, but on my articles and staff, teek hain? So what would I do for them?

If new guy joins, I’ll give him a handbook about the firm’s clientele, a quick look at what work we do and have done and what he needs to read up on before starting an audit or a work. Also familiarise him with the office procedures, rules and task allotment-performance-reporting-follow up flowchart . . which will be the ultimate flowchart of brilliance!! ;) Timely guidance, updates, discussions at the end of each assignment/ team meetings and what not!!

Let me tell you that going for audits in corporates educates you on the practicality of organisation structure and management stuff you might have come across such as delegation of responsibility, authority, etc. It is the clarity in the structure and the fact that you can actually adopt it is what enhances its awesomeness!

One interesting thing I noticed during one of my recent audits was this client company of ours..they have a huge LCD tv in their cafeteria and also a billiards table!!

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”..Eureka! an idea strikes!! When I see my friends cringing in their seats, not able to sit and watch the full final of FIFA or IPL or World Cup, mercilessly poking their mobile phones, craning their necks to peer at the next guy’s monitor to catch up on the scores..!! it makes me think about our brilliant client here, I say why not a tv in my office where people can actually take time off in between work while feeling tired or exhausted; where they can catch up on the news as well! (as we now do, secretly hoping for strikes or hartals!!) and maybe even sit and watch a Federer - Nadal final game-set-and-match point as a full office team and shut out the clients for a while?! Let’s call it a stress-buster?!

Party!!! Atleast once a year..maybe on foundation day (we have that in our office..kinda)..that’s good enough as we aint being partial to anyone’s birthdays!!

Road trips..weekends off..client-staff-convenience timings..bonus half day off to go watch a movie if you complete your work before your target time or if a client’s really happy with you..treat if anyone gets an Income tax refund.

Adequate seniors and knowledge bearers to guide the freshers and just like how the MCA site offers info about companies if you feed in the name, maybe I’ll have a site or program whereby each client’s status and diverse scope or areas can be viewed and updated by us, of course paper files are inevitable but this would be awesome too, don’t u think??..oh and also something similar for my staff too, where they can update their work status online for their seniors or me to review and comment so that one doesn’t have to physically wait for another..Just like how factories have plant shut-down, I’ll also have an office shut-down for a couple of days, especially after the return filing rushhhh!!!

Yes yes I know I’ll make a brilliant CA.!! J