Accounting Intern Day in the Life
To get a sense of what a typical day is like for a General Accounting Intern, take a look at a day in the life of Hannah who works in the Corporate Office in Willmar, Minnesota. This is an entry from her fifth week at Jennie-O Turkey Store.
June 19, 2007
7:30 a.m.
Arrive at work and start my computer in my cubicle. I check my company email and go through the new messages.
7:45 a.m.
My supervisor Betty checks in to make sure I have plenty of work to do. I start my daily routine of checking the outstanding deductions against the outstanding deductions from yesterday. If there are any still open, I check them against the changes to the pdeduct file and make sure the open ones are listed.
8:15 a.m.
I start to work on food service RCDs (Request for Credit on Deductions). I go through every one to make sure there is backup. If there is none, I scan the RCD and email it to the broker and request backup for the particular RCD. If there is backup, I go through it to make sure everything is correct. I fill out the name of the customer, date and the contract for which the transaction took place. I then print off a checklist for every RCD. If the amount requested is over $3,000, I have to get approval from Rick before anything else happens with it. After all checklists are printed and approvals are complete, I bring them to Maggie so she can key them into the computer.
10:15 a.m.
I go through my email again to see if any broker has sent me the backup I requested earlier. One of the brokers sent me some, so I print it off and complete the same process as before.
10:45 a.m.
While waiting for my RCDs to be keyed, Betty explains my new project I am supposed to work on when I have time.
11:30 a.m.
I begin to work on the project. I log into the iSeries and make queries by accounting month, accounting year, and division (deli, food service, or retail). I then export my query into Excel. I find the average number of days it takes to process a deduction by territory and broker for a particular accounting period. I then document my findings in Excel and make graphs. Betty and I are trying to find problem territories and brokers so we can cut down the number of days it takes to process a deduction.
12:00 p.m.
The other intern Alyssa comes and gets me for lunch. Most people take an hour lunch break but I only take a half hour because I have a long drive home in the afternoon and that half hour really helps!
12:30 p.m.
I return from lunch and check my email for any new messages.
12:35 p.m.
I receive the changes to the pdeduct check off list for the day. I check the claim numbers against all the documentation that came with it to make sure they are all listed. If not, I make an ongoing post-it for the week with all the claim numbers not listed. If there are some listed but have no documentation, I put a post-it on the top and write down the ones that are open for that day.
1:00 p.m.
After going through the pdeduct file, I take the post-its and check every claim number in the iSeries. I can sometimes clear the claim numbers off my post-it if iSeries shows it has cleared. If some are still listed, I take care of them in the next week.
1:10 p.m.
Since it is Tuesday, I take care of last week’s post-its from the pdeduct file. I find out who is in charge of the region the claim number is from. I email that person and tell them one of their claim numbers has not gone through. They usually take care of them right away and I can clear them.
1:30 p.m.
I receive my keyed RCDs from Maggie. I go into the iSeries and make sure all the dates are correct and print the memo for every RCD. I find a couple of errors and change them. I then make a list of the completed RCDs for the day and bring them to Jessie.
2:15 p.m.
I am all caught up for the day so I continue with my project.
3:00 p.m.
I receive more food service RCDs. There isn’t backup for any RCD, so I scan all the RCDs and email them to the brokers requesting backup.
3:30 p.m.
I file the RCDs until I receive the backup. I continue with my project.
4:00 p.m.
It is now time to go home. I try to clear all the papers off my desk and shut down my computer.