Olivia Burt

5.30 AM – Wake up

I always like to start my day early! As soon as my alarm goes off, I quickly get up and head to the gym, which is paid for by RSM. I like to go to the gym before work each morning because it sets the tone for the rest of my day. After the gym, I head back home to get ready before I drive to work.

8.30 AM – Arrive at work

I arrive at work and I am greeted by our lovely receptionist Lee. I make myself breakfast and a cup of tea before I get to my desk to start working. I begin by checking my emails and calendar to see if I have any training or meetings for the day. I also update my workflow and prepare a list of tasks for the day.

9.00 AM – Team meeting

Next, I have our weekly team meeting. We always have a chat and today we catch up after the long weekend. Our team meeting is on Zoom today because we have a few people working from home. During this meeting we go through the clients we are currently working on and determine what work we need to prioritise for the week.

9.45 AM – Desk time

Currently, I am preparing the financial statements and tax returns for a group of entities. Today, I begin working on the second entity for this client group. This involves importing the client’s bank statements and reviewing documentation provided by the client and the ATO so I can prepare the correct adjustment journals. During this process, I also need to prepare a work paper pack for the review process with my manager.

11.00 AM – Coffee break

It’s time for a coffee! I message two of my friends, Isaac and Conor, and we head downstairs to the café for a much-needed hot coffee. Today is freezing! We enjoy our coffees and company before we head back upstairs to continue working.

11.30 AM – Back to work

I get back to my desk and I continue preparing the financial statements from where I left off. Today I also catch up with another grad, Neel. We are preparing the 2022 FBT returns. Together, we go through the client list and update each other on any client information received, the progress of each client return, and allocate the returns we need to do.

1.00 PM – Lunch

Finally, it is time for lunch! Today, I am having lunch at my desk. My lunch breaks always looks different. Sometimes a few of us will go downstairs to the gym and when it is sunny I will go to the café and eat outside. My favourite is when we go out for a team lunch!

2.00 PM – Continue working

It’s time to get back into it! I have a phone call with one of our Canberra Office Principals, Andrew, to discuss a client’s individual tax return that I have prepared. We also go through my list of client queries from another financial statement I prepared and I update him on today’s work. After our phone call, I plug in my headphones and choose a playlist whilst I finish my work paper pack from this morning. If I have any queries, I will draft an email with a list, and send it to my manager, Isaac, to then send to the client.

This afternoon I am also working collaboratively with Isaac. The client that we are working on receives foreign income from international customers, so we need to determine which sources of income have GST or is GST-free as we prepare the outstanding activity statements and financial statement.

5.15 PM – End of day

It’s almost the end of the day – where did the time go! I make sure I have answered all my emails and I take a few minutes to complete my timesheet. As important as work is, it is just as important to relax and enjoy my time off so I can reset and re-energise for tomorrow.