Practical assignment during Corona: Excursion into the world of annual financial statements and tax declarations

published on 13 July 2021

In the spring of 2021, I had the opportunity to get a taste of the work and the team of auditor and tax consultant Rainer Morgenroth and tax consultant Carolin Heffner for five weeks during my practical work assignment as part of the SmartUp programme at Rödl & Partner.

The practical work assignment did not mean a change of location for me, as both my main team and my guest team are based at the Nuremberg headquarters. Nevertheless, I was immersed in a completely different tax world. This is because in my actual job I am mainly used to project work and the use of international tax law in connection with reorganisation tax law. My personal objective of the practical assignment was to build up professional knowledge in the preparation of annual financial statements and tax declarations and to integrate the skills I gained into my main job.

The practical assignment enabled me to expand my professional knowledge. Because I had no experience with DATEV and DATEV DMS, getting to know and familiarising myself with the software, which was new to me, was an enormous benefit. I also got to assist with audit correction, financial accounting, and financial statement preparation for clients I already knew from my main job. Seeing how other teams at Rödl & Partner work on the same mandate and how a planned restructuring is later incorporated into the accounting and financial statement preparation was very exciting and gave me a view of the “big picture”. It was also interesting and instructive to look at the issues from different points in time. In my main job, I am used to optimising circumstances for the future or evaluating them from a tax perspective. However, I had to put aside this future-oriented way of thinking when preparing the annual financial statements and doing the accounting, and I had to mentally get back to the past and the business transactions that had already taken place.
 
Integrating into a completely unfamiliar team, working with new colleagues, and getting to know other work practices was for me, in addition to all the professional experience, a benefit for my personal development. Thanks to the latest techniques, this was also possible without any problems despite Corona and working from home. I was very pleased that I was quickly integrated into Carolin Heffner’s team and that my colleagues patiently and clearly explained so much to me and told me about their work.

At the end of my five-week assignment, I can state: Even in times of Corona, a practical assignment is a great benefit both professionally and personally. I can therefore only advise young colleagues to do so. The opportunity to get a taste of another subject area and team without any obligation promises the chance to gain valuable professional knowledge and personal experience.