Accounting Internship Journal

            Each week proved to be so beneficial to enhance my skills, knowledge and abilities by handling different kind of tasks at Jones Lang LaSalle. I must admit that I was able to learn so much and enhance my ability to handle different responsibilities. This week was important for the company as Bank Statements Reconciliation was to be made for the company’s accounts. Earlier I had managed the bank reconciliation for a company’s client, but this time, the task was to do it for the company itself. So, it was quite an important responsibility given to me by my supervisor.

        The task was to make sure that bank statements provided by the bank are compatible with the amounts mentioned in the cash account of the company. The task was also a lengthy one, which was about to take more than a week, as I had to verify each & every entry, and make sure that I make no mistake in this regard. Such kind of task is crucial in so many ways as it has to verify each entry in cash accounts and find any inconsistency or mistake made by the bank. I worked. The work of Bank Reconciliation continued for the whole week, and I kept verifying the entries on company’s accounts. During the whole assignment, I came to know that there was bit difference between the two in terms of using words or terminologies, but slightly different terms were for the same things.

Areas for improvement of Accounting Internship Journal

        I was guided by my supervisor in detail that how I can complete this task of bank statements reconciliation without making any mistakes. His insight on the task was so beneficial for me, and I followed each and every guideline provided by him. So, overall, the process was going smooth throughout the week, but one issue that I was facing as identified by my supervisor was that my speed was slow. The supervisor insisted that I should improve my speed of doing this task, and complete it as soon as possible.

        So, the area of improvement for me was to enhance my work speed, which means that doing my task with 100% accuracy but with more speed so that task can be completed as quickly as possible. My supervisor also guided me that how can complete this task quickly. It was a great learning curve for me to learn so many skills from the experts of the financial fields, who were working in the fields for so many years. It is always great to work with people, who have knowledge as well as experience of the field.

Application to the future of Accounting Internship Journal

        I was able to learn the art of completing my tasks as quickly as possible without compromising on quality and accuracy. It was something that I could apply in every other area of internship as well as future professional work. Next time, when I will be assigned the task of bank reconciliation, I will be more expert in completing this task with accuracy and speed.

Week 2 of Accounting Internship Journal

        As mentioned earlier during the first week that I was handling the Bank Reconciliation task for the company’s accounts, and this work was going to take more than a week. However, the work done in the previous week, and feedback and guidance from my supervisor helped me to complete it more quickly. So, four days from this second week were taken for this bank reconciliation task, and I completed it successfully. All the bank statements were consistent with the company cash accounts except one entry, which was incorrect on behalf of the bank. I was able to identify the mistake that one of the amounts debited by the bank was incorrect. It was not showing in the company’s account list.

        The next two days in this week continued with the same task as I remained busy in verifying the statements again with overall analyzing the accounts because the one mistake was found, and I was more conscious that there may be more mistakes in the accounts. I submitted the report to my supervisor and briefed him about the mistake in the bank statement. He asked me to correspond with the concerning bank authorities, and get a response on this mistake or inconsistency found in their statements. He also asked me to check all entries again to make sure that all entries are consistent, and there are no more mistakes. This week was not supposed to be spend on the same task from the previous week, but the way things were unfolding, this second week also spent on this task. The response came from the bank that mistake was made by one of the agents, as he wrongly entered the same debited amount twice. The mistake was removed from the bank side, and I submitted the final report to my supervisor.

Areas for improvement of Accounting Internship Journal

        This task was so great for me in different ways. It helped me to keep an eye on the minor details and found out a mistake, which I did. I was appreciated by the supervisor on this as he said that amount identified in the mistake was not too big, but still, it was important that bank statements should always remain consistent with the company’s cash accounts. If any inconsistencies go unnoticed, then things can get serious in future as anyone may take the advantage of such situation, and make any fraud. I came to know that how quality and accuracy can be so crucial in a company, where financial matters are the most part of their services.

Moreover, I learnt that how one can improve his work speed, accuracy with utmost quality during a task. Initially there can be issues and work speed may be bit slow, but once a person gets used to do same thing for two weeks, and focus on improvements areas, then things can change quickly.

Application to the future of Accounting Internship Journal

    This is going to be a great two week practice for me to apply in my future tasks in this company or any other company, where I will work as full time employee. I will be more conscious about processes or tasks, which can have minor mistakes, which are hard to identify. It has helped me to put more focus and attention in accomplishing my tasks so that 100% quality and accuracy is achieved most of the time.

Week 3 of Accounting Internship Journal

        After spending two great weeks on the task of bank reconciliation, my supervisor told me to join one of the budget expert to learn about a new task that how to do actual to budget variance review. The supervisor told me that it is one of the most important tasks, as it would allow me to learn about various aspects of budgets, expenses and revenues. Moreover, it would also allow me to learn that what variance review means with regards to budget, and how it can be positive or negative for a company. So, I was appointed on this task as an assistant to a full time employee, who was expert in this field. The task was for one of the clients, who approached the company for Actual to budget variance review services as they wanted to have a clear picture that how things are going for them in last 12 months as per the annual budget.

        This budget variance review was not for the whole budget of the organization, rather they wanted to look at on area in terms of spending on employee training and development. The data provided by the client was reviewed with all given facts and figures. When the review was done on employee training and development, it was analyzed that total budget allocated for this was $30000 on annual basis. When the entire spending budget was calculated for the training and development events and activities, it was found that actual spending in this regard was $32500 for the whole year. The variance in this budget was $2500 for the whole year, which was negative variance. But as per the experts that minor variance in the budget is never a worrying sign. So, the client was reported that their variance in the budget is not too big and they can develop their next year budget as per this review.

Areas for improvement of Accounting Internship Journal

        This little experience of involving in the budget as well as budget variance review process was a great one for increasing my knowledge base. It was such an exciting learning experience for me to review that how budgets are made and how crucial they can be to analyze the future performance of a company. I was not known to favorable and negative budget variance before this activity. I was also able to learn to use excel sheets for this kind of budget review. The person working with me on this task was so kind to explain different concepts and allowed me to enhance my practical knowledge. He really guided me on each step that how to use figures from the actual spend budget, and then calculate the whole figure to review it with the set budget. He explained the numbers game with simple method, which made it easy for me to understand this concept. I must say that I need to work on my ability to deal with numbers and focus on developing the skills in this regard.

Application to the future of Accounting Internship Journal

        The activities performed during this week were very informative for me and it increased my professional knowledge on budget variance review. It helped me to understand that how budget is crucial for any company and how variance should be calculated to see the outcome. If variance is favorable then it means that things are on right track, otherwise company must look at its expenses and processes. I can use this information in the future when I will be solely responsible to do budget variance review.

Week 4 of Accounting Internship Journal

        The major event of this week was a 3-day training and development session held by the company for employees working in accounting department. This training session was held for three days so that all employees from the accounting field can be accommodated without having any impact on the work and productivity. I was lucky enough to be a part of this training and development activity. The experts of the accounting fields were called for this 3-day trainings session. The experts delivered their speeches with training and development activities. It was great to get insights from industry experts on the essentials of accounting field. They explained in detail about the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

        It was great to get so much valuable information on GAAP that what rules as well as standards are needed to follow in accounting practices. I believe it is always important to understand that how things should be done to make sure that GAAP is followed with its true sense. The overall training and development sessions was great to enhance the knowledge, skills, and capabilities along with understanding the latest trends of the industry.

Areas for improvement of Accounting Internship Journal

        The training and development session was extremely valuable learning experience. I always wanted to be a part of such sessions, where we get a chance to meet with industry experts, and get their knowledge on the latest rules, regulations and trends. It can be difficult for a newbie in the accounting field to understand each and every aspect. Such guidance and training is crucial for a new person in the field to learn more and improve his knowledge, skills and abilities to adopt relevant standards. The accounting field has so much diversity and there are so many relevant subjects to understand. The session was significant for my learning and improvement.

        The other area, which allowed me to improve my skills and knowledge, was on fraud. A complete session was held during the training to talk about frauds that can happen in the accounting matters. The experts gave great insights on this thing that how professional accountant can be aware of any frauds. They also explained that what kind of frauds can occur, and how to avoid each one by following certain parameters. The frauds can be damaging in this field as any fraud can be costly in terms of financial worth. A company can lose a lot of money of its own accounts or accounts of customers, if any fraud activity occurs. The experts also shared latest fraud cases in the field to ensure that we know about latest trends.

Application to the future of Accounting Internship Journal

        This training and development session would be instrumental for my future career, where I can apply all the acquired knowledge to make sure that I follow GAAP guidelines so that any issue can be avoided in the work processes. Moreover, the fraud related information would be great for me as an accounting professional, because I can use this information to be aware of common frauds, and can develop the ability to identify any potential frauds, and fill the gaps in company’s processes.

Week 5 of Accounting Internship Journal

        This week was again great for my internship experience as I was given a chance to learn more by shifting my services to another department. I was asked by the supervisor to be part of the customer services department to see that how company is delivering its customer services. It is important to mention here that my overall duties were related to accounting work only, and this customer services work experience was not part of my internship. But looking at my work commitment and dedication, the supervisor gave me a chance to enhance my knowledge on other aspects of the company. I am so thankful to my supervisor who gave me this opportunity to look at the work processes and procedures done by the customer services department.

        I was there in the department for the whole week, where I was with different people handling customer services. The front desk was the most important in this regard as it was the first point of contact with clients. At front desk, there were two employees working to guide clients as per their required information. I was allowed to sit at the front desk for two days to experience that how clients are served at this first point of contact. There were different kinds of clients each day inquiring about different services of the company. Then I was given a chance to stay with the team handling customers’ calls and emails. These teams were helping customers to get information on their queries, and customers complaints of any sort were also resolved by this team.

Areas for improvement of Accounting Internship Journal

        For any business entity, customers are extremely critical as they are the ones who determine success or failure of a company. So, this experience in the customer services teams was extremely beneficial for my professional knowledge. Being a part of the accounting team, it was important for me to understand customers’ perspective on different things, especially their complaints. It was important to understand complaints because it would allow me to improve my work capabilities to ensure that any mistake is avoided so that customers don’t complain about anything.

        I would allow me to understand that which areas are more crucial in the eyes of customers’, and on which issues they were angrier and more concerned. The department shared customers’ complaints data with me, which enhance my understanding of customers. This move from one department to the other also allowed me to learn more positives of the field that how one can remain successful by following certain concepts.

Application to the future of Accounting Internship Journal

        This knowledge and experience during this week can be crucial or my future career and success. I can be aware of more elements and things in the financial industry and accounting business. The overall experience of internship has also been great in so many ways. I am sure that by applying this experience and knowledge in my future roles, I would be more responsible, equipped and resourceful to handle diverse range of tasks in this field. The skill set has immensely improved due to this internship at Jones Lang LaSalle.