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There are several discrete divisions within Pitcher Partners, each specialising in its own area. Often students want to know what they can expect to be doing as a graduate at Pitcher Partners. There is certainly ‘no typical day’ at Pitcher Partners because of the exciting and varied client base that we work closely with. The information below will hopefully help you decide what division you may like to put as your first preference when applying for a position at Pitcher Partners.
Business Assurance and Advisory
Do you want to visit clients regularly?
Do you want exposure to areas such as revenue, expenditure, payroll, inventory, property plant equipment, equity, cash and tax?
Do you want to experience a diverse range of clients?
Then BAA is for you.
Our Business Assurance and Advisory division assists clients with a range of advisory and audit services including statutory and risk assessment audits, due diligence and business acquisitions, special purpose audits, investigative and forensic accounting and internal audit. As trusted advisors, we become an integral part of our clients’ businesses.
As Leigh, one of our graduates explains: “audit experience gives you a general understanding of how different clients business’ work – it looks at the nuts and bolts, and builds your business acumen”.
The work that you can expect as a BAA graduate includes:
- Preparing tax returns (individuals, companies, trusts)
- Preparing management accounts for clients - agreeing cash, trade receivables, trade creditors, assets, liability, and payroll
- Billing – help Senior Accountants with billing clients
- Lodging Business Activity Statements (BAS)
- Dealing with the ATO over the phone enquiring about a range of tax issues to assist Senior Accountants
- Preparation of letters and various other workpapers
- Audits – often following the cash, property plant equipment, payroll cycles and also unrecorded liabilities with the audit team
- Bank Cycle – agree accounts to bank statements
- PPE Cycle – ensure final figures agree to opening balances
- Payroll Cycle – ensure superannuation, payrol tax and work cover are been recorded at the correct rates per State Revenue Office
Our Risk Services division assists clients to manage their business risks through the provision of integrated services, including: outsourced and co-sourced internal audit, enterprise risk management, information technology assurance, advanced data analysis and environment risk management. Our team has developed risk services tools and technologies to support the delivery of risk services to our clients.
“As a Grad in Risk Services, I have found the work assigned to me highly varied, challenging and exciting. My work generally involves reviews surrounding processes within our client's business, such as emergency incident management to procurement and supply and requires assessing risks, the adequacy and existence of controls to mitigate those risks and identifying opportunities for improvement. This work generally requires undertaking interviews, testing for controls, analysing information provided to us and writing reports for our clients and their audit committee. The most important things to note about working in Risk is that the work is never the same and the you never feel like you are doing junior level work with the amount of responsibility and accountability assigned to you." Paul – Graduate Risk Services
A common misconception is that a Risk Services practice only considers financial or accounting areas, which isn't the case at Pitcher Partners. Having built up a wide range of clients in various industries, we consider a wide range of business aspects including, environmental, scientific, engineering, IT, marketing, human resources, retail, communications, energy, enterprise risk management, corporate governance, etc. Such exposure means work is incredibly interesting and you end up becoming highly versatile and a knowledgeable business professional capable of tackling just about anything.
The most rewarding aspect of our work is seeing our clients implementing the solutions provided. In this way you can really make a difference.
Our Superannuation division assists individual employers, superannuation fund trustees and Government agencies to provide practical superannuation advice including, tax effective contribution strategies, asset protection strategies, the use of small business concessions in super planning, family law issues, compliance matters and accounting, audit and tax services. Our superannuation specialists also assist with retirement and estate planning, self managed superannuation funds and superannuation in family law disputes.
What could a graduate in Superannuation expect to do -
The majority of work undertaken by graduates in the Superannuation division involves self managed superannuation funds. Our client base is wide spread with fund balances ranging from $400,000 to $30+ Million, with the typical fund balance being around $1 - $2 Million. The majority of funds we work on invest their benefits in the following sectors: Australian and Overseas Shares, Managed Funds and Listed Unit Trusts, Real Estate and Fix Interest Securities. However some funds may invest in more obscure investments such as Life Insurance Policies, Artwork and Livestock.
It’s more than just numbers…it’s about career development
Vicki Macdermid has progressed from being a graduate at Pitcher Partners and now heads up the Superannuation division as Partner. Vicki says that Superannuation is a growing area and is becoming increasingly important. She says that working in Superannuation at Pitcher Partners is a great choice because you learn a lot about tax, audit and superannuation. “For graduates it’s great because we involve staff from the beginning to end, so they can see the whole process.”
Vicki says that she “lives for the interaction with staff and clients” and when asked why she continues to work in her career and at PP explained “it doesn’t get much better than this.”
“Working in the superannuation group gains you exposure to both auditing & taxation skills, with elements of financial planning.”
Our Tax specialists provide a range of tax services including advising on income taxes, capital gains taxes, international taxes, transaction taxes and employment taxes. We manage relationships between our clients and the various revenue authorities, and keep ourselves and our clients up to date with regular training and briefings. We have a strong reputation for technical taxation experience and excellence.
We also have an International Tax team who provide advice to Australian businesses looking to expand overseas, foreign businesses establishing operations in Australia and private groups and individuals who require advice in relation to foreign assets and activities.
Our Tax staff are given weekly training sessions, in addition to regular external training.
As a Tax Consultant, you will belong to a moderately sized, very friendly group.
Milana, one of our consultants says,"we work in a loose team structure, where everyone gets a chance to work with everyone else in the group. This means that you are exposed to a large variety of clients, types of work and personalities." The tax group has a broad spectrum of clients, from large family groups to charitable institutions, corporate groups, individuals and more than a few familiar names. According to Milana the work ranges from small, one off assignments to ongoing consulting arrangements.
Other than direct taxes, we also have sub groups that specialise in state taxes, employment taxes and GST. Sabica, one of our recent graduates in tax consulting says "there are always plenty of opportunities to work across a range of these specialisations."
Within the tax group, there are weekly two hour training sessions on current issues, and encouragement to attend seminars and conferences held by other professional bodies. Within the tax arena, the sheer volume of legislation and case law, as well as the ingenuity of taxpayers and advisors mean that there is hardly ever a dull moment and plenty of new issues to think about – or old issues to reconsider in a new light.
Business Recovery and Insolvency
Our Business Recovery and Insolvency division assists clients to manage their financial difficulties. We work closely with our clients to understand the primary cause of their financial issues and provide them with a range of services to achieve the most favourable outcome. Our services include general insolvency advice and restructuring, investigative accounting, debt recovery, negotiations with financiers, litigation support, voluntary administration, liquidation, receivership, bankruptcy and personal insolvency agreements.
Ryan one of our recent graduates in the BRIS team said that at Pitcher Partners “you get put in the driving seat…it's great” and “you get more responsibility on smaller jobs” and “I didn’t expect to get to work with corporate clients too.”
Investment Services
The focus of the Investment Services division is to meet clients’ investment and financial planning needs including providing advice on cash flow and debt management, tax efficiency, asset protection, superannuation and retirement planning, insurance and risk management and estate planning. Our team of expert researchers and highly qualified advisors ensure all our clients’ investment opportunities are explored and the benefits maximised. Within the Pitcher Partners network of firms, investment and financial planning services are delivered somewhat differently in each state with a common culture of service excellence and client commitment.
Alice one of our graduates in the Investment Services division of Pitcher Partners, says “my days are fast paced and varied.” We service high net worth individuals with completely independent financial advice. We don’t sell our own products, which means we can pick the best of the best investments for clients. As part of the research team Alice looks into a range of securities, such as equities and managed funds, to see where to optimally invest our clients’ money. Her day to day work includes writing thorough reports on ASX listed companies and managed funds. These reports include company valuations and fundamental analysis through to macroeconomic influences that affect the company. Alice’s most enjoyable task is updating the group of advisers on the week’s events for our authorised companies at our technical training session each Tuesday. Alice says she enjoys keeping up to date and attempting to forecast what is going to happen next. “Variety is the key word, no two days are the same”.
Our Business Consulting division deliver a range of services including: Business Evolution, Commercial Negotiations, Financial Modelling, Validation and Assessment, Probity and Process, and Strategy and Organisation. The division comprises staff with a range of experience spanning both professional and commercial environments, who work closely with clients to assist with strategic decision making and the driving of business performance.
Amanda, one of our graduates, says she loves working in Business Consulting because it gives her “the opportunity to do a lot of different things.” Within the first 6 months of working with Pitcher Partners she had already been involved in devising a strategic business plan for a start-up company, assisting a client to grow their business, writing tenders for new projects, financial modelling and has had exposure to some probity work. Her clients have come from various industries including health, transport and government.
As a graduate in the Business Consulting Group you are exposed to specialised areas of consultancy in many different industries.
Within these areas you have responsibilities for a huge variety of tasks, each of which is unique to the particular job and client including:
- Business Strategy - industry research, client correspondence, report writing, attend client meetings
- Financial Modelling - assisting in building spreadsheets, performing statistical analysis and interpretation
- Business Evolution (Business Succession Planning) - liaise with clients, graph business structure
- Commercial Negotiation - data analysis, preparation of documents · Probity - attending client meetings, report writing, providing advice
You will be a part of an experienced and challenging team in researching, collaborating, analysing and interpreting information with the objective of helping our diverse client base operate more successfully and efficiently.
Our Private Clients division provides what we call a true”cradle to grave” service. We form long term relationships with our clients based on a solid understanding of their families and their businesses. We work with our private clients as they establish and grow their businesses, move through succession and sale, and eventually we look after the personal and business needs of the founders and their families.
Private clients is a dynamic and evolving division. Daniel, a graduate in Private clients says he has been involved in numerous facets of clients’ businesses including company splits, sales, due diligence on new business purchases and their everyday operations. Daniel has been able to attend a client’s office with others in the group to help to prepare financial accounts. This may often entail working through specific sections of their business including cash, property, plant and equipment, accruals or capital and being able to sign off on the figures presented. Private clients are very highly involved in tax and tax compliance and Daniel has been involved in the preparation of annual tax returns and BAS statements. A day in the life of a graduate in Private Clients may include any of the following –
- Preparing Financial Reports for companies, partnerships and trusts
- Preparing Business Activity Statements and Instalment Activity Statements for companies, partnerships and trusts
- General banking and filing for clients
- Preparing a variety of spreadsheets for clients to inform them of their ongoing financial position
- Preparing Tax Returns for companies, partnerships and trusts
- Assisting clients with general bookkeeping (MYOB and QuickBooks)
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