Owen Rigden - Accounting & Finance Student from the University of Worcester
Being a placement student can be very daunting. There’s a lot of work to be learnt that may seem too difficult to perform or remember at first! Now that I’ve settled in to working at JRMA, however, I can share a usual workday as a trainee management accountant.
First off, when I get in, I turn my computer on – very important for being able to do my job! I then check the previous day’s timesheets using Harvest, to make sure no-one else in the team has accidentally forgotten to start or stop their clock. I also check my emails to see if anything has appeared overnight and send or flag anything needed. This takes around 10 minutes on a normal day.
Next up, it’s time for the first round of hot drinks. As the apprentice, I am tasked with making the teas and coffees for the team, so it’s paramount to get this correct! If we have guests, we can open the nice coffee beans and enjoy a freshly brewed filter coffee. Normally it takes only 5-10 minutes, but the filter coffee takes longer.
On to the computer work. I use accounting software, such as Xero, to do some bookkeeping for some of our customers. Within this, I ensure that the bank feeds are correct and updated, alongside uploading any invoices that have been emailed or downloaded from the previous day. Additionally, we use Xero for our own accounts, in which I ensure JRMA’s bank feeds are kept correct and up to date.
On Mondays, we have a meeting, normally to co-ordinate the team and updating everyone on what upcoming work is planned to be done. We also have marketing meetings, to optimise our strategies for advertising. These are usually performed in the morning, for about an hour long. While some may consider meetings to not be very interesting, I find them to be a rich source of updates and information which help me plan my own week. After these are completed, it’s time for more drinks!
We also use Intuit QuickBooks for some of our customers, which I use for processing sales; both sales from in the stores, and from online internet sales. Using various softwares has been very beneficial for me, as it allows for me to understand the methods used in more detail, as they are all presented differently across the softwares.
Lunch time! I’m partial to a Meal Deal, if I do say so myself. I am a student, after all. After my lunch, you guessed it, more coffees!
One thing about being an management accountant is that, despite there being a lot of routine, there are also plenty of tasks that can suddenly appear and fill up your schedule. Lately, I have been uploading and processing many invoices for businesses that we have recently taken on, and making sure nothing is missing, and that their accounts are updated and correct.
To help keep our work managed correctly, we use Trello, which is a software that can track when deadlines are due and completed, and inform us of any routine tasks that are upcoming. It’s vital for management accountants and bookkeepers to have good timekeeping skills. Working at JRMA, using tools like these, has certainly improved my timekeeping.
Since I have started working at JRMA, I have taken control of adding new tasks onto the system, keeping our tasks accurate and running smoothly on Trello, along with maximising the use of their features to improve the company’s efficiency. This is a job that can be done at any time, so it is very useful at quieter times.
Accountancy is a job that never ends, just like many others. Once the end of the day approaches, and I have reached a conclusion on the work I have done for the day, it’s time to stop my Harvest timesheet, put my coat on and head home. That was just a small snippet of my placement student life!
If you would like to connect with me, please feel free to do so here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/owen-rigden/
Owen's first 3 months with us has been packed full of new experiences. We regularly look out for enthusiastic students, to give valuable work experience to. If this is something that interests you, we have an open position available.
We're looking for our next placement student for 2026-2027. It's a 12-month placement, available for students with a 'sandwich' year at the University of Worcester. If you're interested in the role, please read here for all the instructions on how to apply, and what the role involves.
