Stepping Beyond the Spreadsheet: Lessons from My Accounting Work Placement

Hello, my name is Olamide. I am a T Level Accounting student who plans to pursue higher education in September to study Accounting and Finance. Over 9 weeks, I completed a 315-hour work placement at TPSquared, as required by my course.

Most of the work I was assigned involved administrative tasks focused with a focus on bookkeeping. This included data governance tasks, such as maintaining customer and supplier information, updating the status of active jobs, and evaluating invoices to ensure consistency across all records. I was also given finance-oriented tasks, such as issuing invoices and performing credit control.

I was also responsible for carrying out independent research into company policy and updating relevant sections to ensure they align with current legislation.

I’ve honed my professional communication skills through both internal and external correspondence. For example, I have had the chance to notify staff of important changes, send inquiries to suppliers, and issue invoices to customers.

Working closely with the managing director, Carolyn, has allowed me to acquire first-hand experience with raising invoices and an in-depth view of the life cycle of an invoice. Similarly, being tasked with performing reconciliations has let me see the importance of compliance and being thorough when working with accounts. Getting to delve into the intricacies of day-to-day transactions performed between businesses, I feel, has equipped me with knowledge that is essential for dealing with clients and stakeholders.

Besides my regular duties, I was allowed to attend a client meeting, which has helped me to better understand how businesses engage with their clients and how these practices could be applied in my career.

Overall, I think the work I’ve completed during my placement has proven to be extremely beneficial due to how often I could apply previous academic knowledge, which in turn aided in furthering my understanding of these learned concepts.

My time at TPSquared has taught me to work independently, take initiative, and ask questions – whether it was through finding efficient ways to streamline tasks or asking for further clarification when I was unsure of how a task should be approached. The opportunity to work with bookkeeping and project management software, namely Xero, Dext, and Streamtime, has allowed me to gain a deeper insight into how digital tools are utilised when managing client work.

Even whilst working with programmes I was already familiar with, such as Excel, the nature of my responsibilities often meant that branching out of my comfort zone was a necessity, which allowed me to broaden my knowledge of these programmes and their uses.

The team’s hospitality and willingness to accommodate and support young people have allowed me to feel at ease from the very beginning. TPSquared’s culture of trust and transparency meant that I never felt unsure or left in the dark.

Though the work primarily done by TPSquared differs from my own career goals, I feel that the expertise and professionalism demonstrated by the team have been an invaluable learning experience. I wholly believe that their guidance has contributed to both my confidence and professional development.