Detailed Report on Internship Project in Accounts Department at PwC

This report details a student's internship project within the accounts department at PwC, focusing on the completion of accounts receivable and payable for a client in Cyprus. The project involved working on specific accounting software, adhering to a strict two-week deadline and a set budget. The report outlines the project management approach, including project deliverables, stakeholder analysis (both internal and external), communication strategies, timelines, resource allocation, and budget management. It further addresses identified project risks, barriers encountered during the project, and the strategies employed to overcome them. The report concludes with recommendations for future improvements and reflects on the overall project's success in achieving its objectives within the constraints of the internship.

INTERNSHIP PROJECT IN THE
ACCOUNTS DEPARTMENT PWC
Student Name:
Student Number:
Date:
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1. Executive Summary
Project accomplishment requires confirming to deadlines and catering to varied project
stakeholders. In the current discussion of project report, an internship project has been
discussed from start till finish. The project includes timely completion of Accounts
Receivables and Payables at PwC. The project included working on a software used by the
organisation and it needed to be completed within a fortnight and within the budget as per
allocated costs. The project management description is detailed out in the current analysis.
Price Waterhouse Coopers International Limited is a multinational company offering
professional services in accounting. The company has its headquarters based in London,
United Kingdom and has a ranking of being second largest professional service in the world.
The company offers internship to many student’s world over for learning regarding their
processes and style of working. While working as an intern in the accounts receivable and
payable department in Cyprus, the work had to be conducted on particular software used by
the organisation. The accounts was being prepared for a client company based in Cyprus and
deadline allowed to complete the accounts was 14 days. Each and every aspect of the project
had been catered to. There have been adequate measures undertaken to cover risks stated for
the project as well and strategies to overcome barriers faced in the project.
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Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary............................................................................................................2
Table of Tables...........................................................................................................................3
Table of Figures.........................................................................................................................4
2. Introduction.........................................................................................................................4
3. Project Management at PwC...............................................................................................4
4. Project Deliverables............................................................................................................6
5. Project Stakeholders...........................................................................................................6
6. Project Communication......................................................................................................7
7. Project Timeline..................................................................................................................7
8. Project Resources and Capabilities.....................................................................................8
9. Project Cost and Budget.....................................................................................................8
10. Project Risks....................................................................................................................9
11. Barriers faced and strategies overcome them..................................................................9
12. Conclusion and Recommendations...............................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................10
Appendix..................................................................................................................................11
Appendix 1:..........................................................................................................................11
Appendix 2:..........................................................................................................................11
Appendix 3:..........................................................................................................................12
Appendix 4:..........................................................................................................................13
Appendix 5:..........................................................................................................................13
Table of Tables
Table 2: Project Schedule....................................................................................................................12
Table 3: Project Costs & Budget.........................................................................................................13
Table 1: Risks Analysis.......................................................................................................................13
Table of Figures
Figure 1: Organisation Structure at PwC for the Project......................................................................11
Figure 2: Project Stakeholder Analysis................................................................................................12
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2. Introduction
Project accomplishment requires confirming to deadlines and catering to varied project
stakeholders. In the current discussion of project report, an internship project has been
discussed from start till finish. The project includes timely completion of Accounts
Receivables and Payables at PwC. The project included working on a software used by the
organisation and it needed to be completed within a fortnight and within the budget as per
allocated costs. The project management description is detailed out in the current analysis.
3. Project Management at PwC
Price Waterhouse Coopers International Limited is a multinational company offering
professional services in accounting. The company has its headquarters based in London,
United Kingdom and has a ranking of being second largest professional service in the world.
It functions with several network firms present across 158 countries and based in 721
locations. The company employs over 250,930 people in the entire world. Its services
includes advisory, assurance, tax advisory, data and analytics, tax controversy, strategy
consulting, financial advisory, actuarial, and legal. The organisation structure and hierarchy
for the management of this project is given as below and the roles were assigned accordingly
(refer Appendix 1).
The company offers internship to many student’s world over for learning regarding their
processes and style of working. While working as an intern in the accounts receivable and
payable department in Cyprus, the work had to be conducted on particular software used by
the organisation. The accounts was being prepared for a client company based in Cyprus and
deadline allowed to complete the accounts was 14 days. There was a team which handled the
operations of the accounts and there was role assigned to each and every personnel. The
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project leader communicated and monitored the project progress after it had been assigned
and he was in-charge of leading the 10-member team of which 8 people were professionals
and 2 were students doing their internship. The project aim was to accomplish the project and
ascertain any discrepancies whatsoever. For attaining this aim the objectives for the project
was ascertain as;
o Project Objective 1: To prepare accounts receivables and accounts payable for the
client company
o Project Objective 2: To consult different departments regarding the information from
the available company and especially related to outstanding accounts receivables and
payables
o Project Objective 3: To reconciliate any accounts receivables and payable
discrepancies from past record and information available from other departments, if
any
Analysis of project stakeholders, communication, timelines and budget is given below.
4. Project Deliverables
The key project deliverables from the above objectives was ascertained which included;
 Develop accounts receivables and accounts payable in particular software
 Check each and every entry for errors and check with past records for any huge
discrepancies
 Ask and consult with different departments regarding data and information available
with them of the client company
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 Reconcile any differences in accounts and communicate the same over email as well
as in meetings to provide knowledge to teams regarding the same
 Publish reports prepared with comments of any discrepancies in the same
5. Project Stakeholders
Every organisation and project has certain internal and external stakeholders. Every project
leader bears responsibility to satisfy the needs of every varied stakeholder group. The project
stakeholders needs to be ascertained by the organisation as well as the project leaders such
that they can decide upon the communication and treatment they need to provide them. Some
stakeholders needs to be kept informed; those are the stakeholders with high interest in the
organisation but relatively less power. Some stakeholders needs monitoring, they are the ones
with less power and lesser interests in the project. Whereas promoters are the stakeholders of
the project, who needs to be managed closely as they possess high interests with high powers.
Latent stakeholders are the ones with high power and less interests and these stakeholder
group needs to be kept satisfied. The project’s main external stakeholders comprises of the
client company, governmental authorities, credit rating agencies, financers, bank and general
public. The internal stakeholders of the project comprises of the director of the company,
project leader, team manager, senior associates, associates and interns. A brief stakeholder
analysis of the project will reveal the various aspects regarding the project (refer Appendix
2).
6. Project Communication
Project communication is an essential part of the project that needs to be undertaken by the
project leader (Jahreie, and Ottesen, 2010 p 220). The project leader ascertained project
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communication by means of written, verbal (especially oral) communication. The project
charter was outlined and handed over the project team such that they are able to overview the
project progress and ascertain their path accordingly. The project leader regularly conducted
meetings to understand individual understanding related to the project and roles assigned to
team members. There were regular meetings held with the project team to communicate the
stated objective and progress regarding the project. The internal stakeholders and project
team members was communicated by means of internal emails and meetings. There was
meetings conducted with the internal team members where challenges regarding the project
was discussed and strategies to overcome them was analysed. The external stakeholders was
communicated by means of notices communicated to them by means of publishing them,
after they have been approved by the director of the company. There was regular
communication maintained with the client company, this made sure that the project was
undertaken as per the expectations of the client.
7. Project Timeline
As the project was deemed to be completed within a period of fortnight, the project schedule
had to be planned and developed accordingly. The project schedule was developed by the
project leader and agreed upon by the team members. The suggestions regarding schedule
was made by the team members such that they are able to accomplish the goals accordingly
(refer Appendix 3).
8. Project Resources and Capabilities
While designing and accomplishing project of any type, the project resources and capabilities
needs to be ascertained (Hogan et al 2014, p 15). The project resources consists of the
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software on which the project is to be completed, the office equipment and facilities such as
computer, working spaces, internet connectivity, availability of data of the client company in
form of reports and bills. The capabilities includes the skills and knowledge possessed by
personnel who will be working on the project towards its completion. The key capabilities
required amongst the employees working on the project consists of legal knowledge,
accounting knowledge and knowledge of finance along with practical working capabilities.
The resources combined with the capabilities of people working on the project will enable
completing the project within appropriate timeframe and quality as demanded by client.
9. Project Cost and Budget
Ascertaining project costs and budget is essential under specific heads (Narayanan, Olk, and
Fukami, 2010, p 79). The project costs and budget will be mainly be allocated for the
resources that will be consumed only for the purpose of the project. Apart from this the costs
associated with capabilities which includes personnel costs will be borne as a regular cost to
the company. The various heads to costs and budget for this project will be for data collection
and analysis, intern’s costs and costs connected with conducting travel and conveyance and
miscellaneous costs. The table of costs and budgetary heads are given as Appendix 4;
A total budgetary allowance of US$ 5500 will be kept for conducting this project and
finishing it within stipulated time period.
10. Project Risks
It is impertinent to conduct risks analysis of the project before commencing work on it (Mills,
2014, p 460). For the purpose of analysis, the project risks was ascertained and defined by the
project leader in consultation with the team members prior to the onset of the project such
that the project can performed and be accomplished without facing any hindrances. Risks
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analysis of the project also enabled to decide upon the risks that had to be transferred,
managed or avoided altogether. Some of the pertinent risks identified for the project included
economic risks, risks of exceeding budgetary allocation, risks from exceeding time-line
decided upon, risks from discrepancies in report, and risks from political disturbances.
Attached in Appendix 5 some pertinent risks for the project completion and their treatment
thereof.
11. Barriers faced and strategies overcome them
The barriers facing the project needs to be stated and outlined. Then suitable strategies to
overcome them has to be decided upon. Some of the barriers faced in the project includes
incapability of the intern to handle such complex project, another barrier was unavailability
of data to complete the accounts in the manner that had been demanded by the client. In order
to overcome these barriers all, the staffs and employees needed to be provided with relevant
skills and knowledge briefing regarding the whereabouts of the project before its start.
Moreover, the team was selected such that each one possessed some experience and expertise
related to accounts receivables and payables. In order to overcome barrier of unavailability of
accounts of the client, interviews was conducted with the suppliers, customers and
accountants of the client company. Interview regarding specific accounts revealed the
discrepancies remaining and also provide ways to overcome them.
12. Conclusion and Recommendations
In conclusion the project have been accomplished in an effective manner. Each and every
aspect of the project had been catered to. There have been adequate measures undertaken to
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cover risks stated for the project as well and strategies to overcome barriers faced in the
project. Some recommendations for further improvisation of the project are as follows;
 Adopt suitable team members with expertise in the given domain of work. Personnel
with capabilities can enable accomplishing project objective in a faster and with
appropriate quality standards.
 Adopt standards of working such that each personnel can abide by the same. Every
project needs to have their own set of standards that can be complied with. In case of
this project as well a standard such as IAS needs to be adhered by.
 Have regular meetings to prevent any discrepancies in the minds of personnel
working on the project.
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References
Hogan, L.R., Callahan, J.L., Tompkins, K.A., Swift, J.K., Connor, D.R. and Klonoff, E.A.,
2014. Subjective well-being among internship applicants. Psychotherapy Bulletin, 49, pp.13-
16.
Jahreie, C.F. and Ottesen, E., 2010. Construction of boundaries in teacher education:
Analyzing student teachers' accounts. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 17(3), pp.212-234.
Mills, M., 2014. Effect of faculty member's use of twitter as informal professional
development during a preservice teacher internship. Contemporary issues in technology and
teacher education, 14(4), pp.451-467.
Narayanan, V.K., Olk, P.M. and Fukami, C.V., 2010. Determinants of internship
effectiveness: An exploratory model. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 9(1),
pp.61-80.
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Appendix
Appendix 1:
Figure 1: Organisation Structure at PwC for the Project
Source: Author
Appendix 2:
Power/ Influence
Keep them satisfied
o Client Company
o Director
o Project Leader
Manage closely
o Senior Associate
o Manager
Keep an eye (Monitor)
o Associates
o Interns
Keep them informed
o Financers
o Bank
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PwC
Director
Senior
Associate Manager Associate
Project
Leader