Solomon Tax Services
Internship – Summer 2018
This summer I interned at Solomon Tax Services, a small accounting firm based out of North Vancouver. I had happened to mention my schoolwork while the owner’s wife was in the room, and two days later I received a phone call with an offer to work at the firm. I was extremely excited, albeit extremely nervous, to get to experience working in a professional environment in the industry of my choice.
The entirety of May, my first month, was spent watching Chris, my boss and the owner, while he worked, showing me the different software used and work to be done. The office used QuickBooks and NewViews for bookkeeping, and CaseWare to complete tax forms and send them to the customers. At first it was difficult to follow what was being done, as half of some had already been completed while others were further behind, but as I saw more files being completed I began to understand the quirks of each software. Approximately two weeks in I began entering trial balances in CaseWare and updating stocks on Excel. These were very repetitive actions, but they required concentration in typing the correct number and following the templates properly (especially the stocks).
When June came around I was given my own computer to work on. I began entering bank information in QuickBooks and reconciling accounts. It was slow progress at the beginning, but once I completed a company’s file the next one was slightly easier. Once I had successfully completed an account in QuickBooks I was introduced to NewViews, which was slightly more difficult to learn at first with the customization options. I worked on four files in that system, slowly learning more uses for the software until I knew most of the information. My greatest challenge through this was remembering which accounts were used in each file, as they all used slightly different methods and systems. Since many of the files were used by the companies as well, suspense and bank and other expense accounts used different numbers, and checking through the chart of accounts slowed my work down a bit.
By July and August I was able to fully reconcile company files, pay accounts payable through NewViews, update taxes in both systems, and complete other assorted tasks I had been asked to work on. At the end of my time at the firm so far, I was being brought into CaseWare to prepare files for Chris to look over and complete afterwards. I still have a lot to learn in the coming years, but I have a solid foundation moving forward.