You may have noticed that we talk a lot about our staff training and on-boarding. That’s because we believe that on-going employee education is one of the key ingredients in successful outsourcing. In fact, there isn’t a week that goes by that our off-shore team members, be they accountants, bookkeepers or admin staff, aren’t involved in educational activities.
On a recent visit to the Philippines office in Clark, director Scott Findlay took the opportunity to provide extra training sessions. These sessions included bookkeeping and drafting accounts. He also went through general orientation training for our new-hires.
Bookkeeper training
With a growing number of bookkeepers supporting our accounting staff, Scott set out to bring our new-hires up to speed on some of the specifics of New Zealand bookkeeping. He covered:
- The process of filing GST
- An orientation on the common entities in New Zealand and how to code them
- How to use the Xero GST Audit Report to check on coding
- Some points related to ACC adjustments
Introduction to drafting
Drafting is a stage in the preparation of financial statements and tax returns for clients where an accountant compiles and verifies financial information by examining supporting documents or carrying out calculations on a workpaper.
It is everything from assembling the annual accounts of clients to compiling their tax returns – in draft form, subject to review by the New Zealand team. This stage requires an excellent degree of understanding about New Zealand accounting and taxation as financial statements and tax returns need to be in compliance with the relevant laws.
Scott’s training explained the steps involved in drafting, covering the importance of each part of the final draft and the general theories behind what we do on each workpaper.
General orientation
Scott, along with President, Mark Stables, ran a general team meeting where they shared some changes and updates at TBR and also expressed their thanks to everyone for what we all have achieved so far this year. The updates included new quiet-time and phone policies.
Quiet time policy – in order to increase productivity by minimising distractions in the workplace, quiet time has been introduced to the Clark office so we have time each day where all staff are 100% concentrated on the tasks at hand. Quiet time in the Clark office is between 12 noon and 2pm – an ideal time slot as our Australasian-based clients usually contact people here in the morning for catch ups, allowing for full concentration after lunch.
More about our staff training programs
Keeping our team one step ahead
Onboard, upskill, onwards!
Training programs enhance learning for outsourced staff