Gillian Rosen Participates in London Secondment with Nexia Affiliate Firm
5/18/2011
| Audit senior Gillian Rosen, of J.H. Cohn's Roseland office, has embarked on an adventure open to qualified J.H. Cohn employees: a three-month secondment in London where, through the Firm’s relationship with Nexia International, she is working with UK firm and J.H. Cohn global affiliate Saffery Champness. |
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From April 4 through June 24, Gillian will reside in London and work with various Saffery account teams, learning more about global business and enhancing her exposure to foreign culture and customs.
Eager to share with her American colleagues her experiences, she shared some insights:
What are you doing in London? I am in London on a secondment working for our international Nexia affiliated firm, Saffery Champness.
What types of clients are you working on?Are all of your clients in the UK? I am working on a real estate/investment client now and am scheduled to do work on such jobs as personal estates, hospice, foundations, and investment companies.
I’ve already had to go on an away job to Gloucester (a three-hour drive outside of London) and the client was a chain of pubs! The team actually rented a house instead of staying in a hotel and had a lot of food delivered so we were able to cook instead of eat out all the time.
What is a typical business day like? A typical business day in the office will start at 9:15; most people go home around 5:30. Everyone gets an hour for lunch and they usually take the full hour. The weather has been beautiful so everyone goes to the park and eats their lunch there. During the day it is accounting and auditing work as usual. On Friday most of the staff go straight from work to the pub together, which I really enjoy!
Unless you are qualified (the equivalent of a CPA) you don't have an official desk so everyone is constantly moving around—basically the plan is open and there are no cubicles. You sit on either side of what looks like a large conference table with drawers and shelves for your paperwork.
They use a program called Retain where you can look up anyone's schedule and see which staff are working on which jobs. As of right now, people are fully booked until the end of 2012!
If you are scheduled to go out to a client, the team still comes to the office first and will all leave together to show up at the client at the same time. They use Caseware here, but differently than we use it. They check files in and out.
How do accounting processes differ in the UK from the US? They can use a lot more judgment here, especially when determining their sample size. They do use a spreadsheet with built in formulas, but they can decide if they want to do more or less. The terms that are used over here are very different from our terms: Accounts Payable = Creditors, Accounts Receivable = Debtors, Inventory = Stock, Foot/Add = Cast, General Ledger = Nominal.
What is your living arrangement while you’re there? I am in a very small one bedroom flat by myself in the Marylebone area of London, only a few minutes’ walk away from the beautiful Regent's Park and the famous street of Sherlock Holmes, Baker Street. My flat is so tiny that my sink is actually in my bedroom!
What has been the biggest adjustment for you thus far? The cost of living is very expensive here. Basically everything costs the same as it does at home, but then when you factor in the exchange rate everything is almost doubled in price!
What have been your most and least pleasant surprises so far? My least pleasant surprise has been the coffee here!! Most places use instant coffee. Of course they have Starbucks and other various coffee places, but they are super expensive and just not as good as in the NJ/NY area! It is unusual to have a filtered coffee maker, so I bought myself a French Press and am having friends from home bring me coffee when they arrive.
My most pleasant surprise is how easy it is to get around on the tube. The tube is well marked and has a map of the stops right outside the platform and painted on the platform walls, so you always know you are in the right area for which stop you are looking for!
What is one PERSONAL thing you hope to achieve during your time in the UK? I hope to culturally experience as much as possible while I am here. I have been trying to go see as many sights and do as many different things as possible. I have already discovered a lot of things that I want to do or take back to the US with me. I walk everywhere here so when I get home I am going to walk to more places rather than drive.
Being in the city of London has also made me realize how that I don't really take advantage of what New York City has to offer, so I plan on doing more day trips there when I get home. People are more relaxed here and try to take full advantage of their weekends. Picnicking in the park is a popular weekend activity for Londoners. I plan on doing more of that when I get home in the summer! I am also travelling as much as I can here. I recently went to Canterbury and Kent, England, which were lovely, and went to Amsterdam last weekend. I plan to travel to Ireland in June and Italy right before I come home. I have never been to Europe before but intend to take full advantage while I am here!
What is one “fun fact” you’ve learned that most Americans /J.H. Cohn folks may be surprised to hear. A lot of the myths that I was told before I came to London are not true: All beer is not served warm, and it does not rain all the time (although I have just been very lucky with the weather I have had).
A couple other fun facts: everyone in the office gets each other drinks. When someone gets up to make tea or instant coffee they ask everyone who sits around them if they would like a drink. They know how each person likes their tea (with sugar, different strengths, etc.); it is very nice.
People here were so excited about the Royal wedding. There was not as much media coverage in London leading up to the wedding as there was in the States (so I am told) but day-of, the wedding was a big deal. The city set up big concert screens in Hyde Park and had about 200,000 spectators there as well as lined streets and other designated areas to watch the wedding. People dressed in fancy dresses and wigs, and Union Jack flags were everywhere; the city was very exciting that day and I am very happy I got to experience it!