Zarqa Nur
Intermediate Accountant at Cor Cordis

Zarqa graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the University of Melbourne and a Masters of Professional Accounting from Monash University, and is now working as an Intermediate Accountant at Cor Cordis.

5:00 AM

My alarm goes off and I’m ready to start my day. This time of the day is my 'me time’. I do a quick home workout, drink my first cup of peppermint tea and get ready for the day. Once the kids’ lunchboxes and breakfasts are ready, it’s time to tackle my first hurdle of the day – waking them up! We run through our morning routine and after day-care drop-off I catch the train into the Cor Cordis Melbourne office.

8:00 AM

I am ready to start my day. First stop – the coffee machine! I then start off by checking my emails, and flagging any emails and tasks that need to be attended to in the morning. I update my task list for the day and prioritise the urgent tasks to be completed first.

Zarqa Coffee

I get a message from my director and supervisor that we will be having a team catch-up this morning. Our office was appointed to two receiverships yesterday afternoon managed by our team and it’s important for the team to have a strategy meeting right away.

8:30 AM

In our meeting, we discuss the tasks that were completed late yesterday – essential correspondence that is issued on the first day of appointments. The next step for me is to prepare the remainder of the initial correspondence, including letters to appropriate parties, statutory authorities, and secured creditors.

Given the scope of the appointments, preparing the initial correspondence takes the bulk of my morning. Once prepared I send it off to my supervisor for review, and then finally to my director for approval to issue.

Zarqa 2

11:30 AM

While that happens in the background, I work on a couple of other tasks requested by my manager. I work in the PCO (Personal, Corporate and Other) team in the Melbourne office. Along with corporate insolvency matters, like the receivership mentioned above, our team handles all the personal insolvency matters in the Melbourne office.

I start by analysing copies of a bankrupt’s bank statements to determine if the income disclosed by the bankrupt can be confirmed by the bank statements. Once I’ve completed preparing a schedule of income-like receipts, I complete an income assessment and draft a letter to the bankrupt to notify him of his income contribution liability requirements. I send that, along with supporting documentation of my investigations, to my manager for review.

12:30 PM

Once my director has approved all the correspondence documents, it’s time to issue. Some notices are emailed, others need postage to be arranged, and the ATO notification will get lodged via the ATO Business Portal. Once completed, I diarise dates to expect responses and prepare a tracking spreadsheet to keep track of all party’s correspondence has been issued to and leave room to update with relevant responses. This way, any member of the team, or office, can refer to the spreadsheet for the status of ongoing investigations of the appointment.

Office

2:00 PM

I look at the time and somehow, it’s time for my day in the office to end? I finalise my timesheet for the day and make my way home in time for school pick-up.

4:00 PM

Once home I do a quick email check on my phone to check on any initial correspondence responses, or any other matters, I need to update my director about – and forward it on for actioning tomorrow. The Cor Cordis flexible work hours are helpful in maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

5:00 PM

We cook dinner, run through our evening routine and before we know it its bedtime for the kids. Once they’re down I’m free to curl up on the couch with my last cup of peppermint tea for the day – and my husband!

Simon Walker
Intermediate Accountant at Cor Cordis

Simon graduated with a Bachelor of Business (Honours) (Finance) from the Queensland University of Technology and is now working as an Intermediate Accountant at Cor Cordis.

6:30 AM

I begin my day with a quick shower, a cup of coffee, and brushing my teeth to wake myself up. I dress up for an upcoming Voluntary Administration First Creditors Meeting, which is an important meeting for one of our files. I put on a suit to look professional.

7:30 AM

I ride my e-scooter to work. It takes me 30 minutes to reach the city, and I prefer using the scooter instead of a bus as it is quicker, and it's a fun activity to do before starting work.

8:00 AM

I arrive at work and start setting up my computer. I check my emails to see if anything needs to be added to my task list for the day. I had already updated my list yesterday afternoon. My manager asks me to get coffee from the usual gathering spot for the Cor Cordis Brisbane office, “Coffee Anthology”. On the way, we discuss various things such as our weekend plans and expectations for the upcoming creditors meeting. As it's my first meeting, I'm a bit nervous.

8:30 AM

I start reviewing my emails from partners, managers, and other accountants in Cor Cordis. I find out about a training session on "using Excel to clean client data and produce Financial Statements" this afternoon, which I am keen to attend as I'm an Excel nerd.

9:00 AM

I begin final preparations for the creditors meeting using Insol6, the insolvency practitioner's accounting software, to record all the creditors' Proofs of Debt and attendance at the upcoming meeting. If they can't attend but still want to vote, I save their "Proxy form" so the chairperson knows how the creditor will vote in the meeting, even if they aren't present.

9:30 AM

I print out all the necessary documents that the Chairperson needs at the meeting, including attendance registers, all proof of debts, and a draft meeting of minutes. Yesterday, I had prepared the minutes, which were approved by both the manager and the Partner on file. This document will be what the Partner uses when they chair the meeting. I also set up the computer and all digital files for the meeting as I will oversee the technology.

10:00 AM

The meeting begins, and I start the Teams meeting on my computer, accepting all the creditors' requests to enter the meeting virtually. We have the ATO, some of the Administration Company's employees, and various smaller creditors (such as cleaners, mowers, and suppliers). All creditors have many questions throughout the meeting, and the Chairperson does an excellent job of answering their queries and reassuring any concerns they have.

11:00 AM

I attend a debrief with the Partner and manager. We go over the meeting and plan for the upcoming Second Meeting of Creditors, which is a much larger and more critical meeting to decide the future of the Company in Voluntary Administration.

12:00 PM

I go for lunch with the other graduate accountants to our usual spot, where we get an $8.90 curry bowl that is delicious and prepared quickly. We sit by the river and discuss work, hobbies, and our upcoming social club event, X-Golf.

1:00 PM

I catch up on my emails to see if there are any updates on my other files while I was in the creditors meeting.

1:30 PM

I prepare the meeting minutes so that they are completed, signed, and ready to lodge onto the Australian Security Investment Commission's (ASIC) liquidator portal. Once I prepare the ASIC form, my manager reviews it.

2:00 PM

My manager lets the office know that the Excel training will now be in the board room. I bring my computer and notebook into the training, as we will be doing a lot of Excel activities. In the training, we learn a lot about how to navigate Excel entirely mouse-free, and how best to use the function "=XLOOKUP" when analysing bank statements, financial information, and other data. It's quite an in-depth session, and I had to take a lot of notes to make sure I have the information on hand when I need it.

3:00 PM

I review my task list for today and check off the First Meeting of Creditors. It's time to work on my other files, with a wide variety of tasks from Excel analysis to calling creditors to ask some questions.

4:30 PM

It's time to have a final look at my emails and answer anything that has come up recently. I clean up my desk and update my task list for tomorrow.

5:00 PM

I say goodbye to everyone in the office and then get on my e-scooter and head home.

5:30 PM

I get home after a nice ride and start getting ready for my Touch Football Game tonight. My team is in the semifinal today, so I need to get ready and get there early to warm up with the team.

6:30 PM

I drive to touch from home and start warming up by passing the ball between team members. We catch up on our day and talk about the game plan for the upcoming game.

7:30 PM

We score a few tries at the game, and overall we do quite well. The other team also puts up quite a fierce competition, but we end up winning thanks to a last-minute try from one of the women on our team. We decide to celebrate by going out for some celebratory McDonald's, our guilty pleasure for winning and running continuously for 50 minutes.

8:00 PM

I head home after dinner/celebrations and immediately have a shower to wash off all the mud and grass from the Touch game and brush my teeth.

8:30 PM

I unwind by watching "Community" on Netflix. I think I have watched all seasons twice by now.

9:30 PM

I find myself falling asleep on the couch and think it is time to go to bed. I had a very busy day, so I need some well-earned rest.