At the time of writing, I started at Accountability Edinburgh nearly 2 months ago, and the time has flown by!

On my first day I came in half an hour early to make sure I could find everything okay, and this worked out perfectly, as it meant I had some spare time to have some breakfast down by the nearby loch. I sat at the spot in the photo below, watching the geese on the water, and it was the perfect way to start a new period of my life with this new job.

Before starting, my impression of Accountability was that the work would be similar to my previous job, but that the ethos of the company and the team would be entirely new to me.

I had heard Rosie speak at a Dext event in Edinburgh last year, and was immediately struck by how fully she believed in, and how proud she was of, her business and the work that they do. I thought at the time that this was exactly the type of business I wanted to have a chance to work for. I reached out to Accountability via email, explaining how I had come across them, what my experience was, and asking them to let me know if they were looking for staff at any point in the future. I received a lovely email back from Rachel saying that they were actually about to begin the hiring process, and would I like to take a call with Rosie to discuss things further. Everything took off from there and, based on everything I have seen in the past 2 months, I made exactly the right decision.

Everyone here has been so genuine, helpful and friendly from the start. I have had one-to-one meetings with each member of the team to get to know everyone, and since it was such lovely weather in my first week, this resulted in a lot of wanders around the local area in the sun, and even a trip to Portobello beach for lunch with my work buddy, Renata.

I have started to be introduced to some of the work that I will be completing going forward and, although the basics are similar to my previous job where we focussed on producing VAT returns and year end accounts only, the focus here is so much more on showing the information in the best way for each client, and creating processes which are client centric. The shift in the purpose of the work means that a lot more emphasis is put on the best possible quality bookkeeping and client care which I think is fantastic.

The clients I am working on come from a number of different industries – from financial advisors to construction companies and sports clubs. The team set-up here is very supportive, so I am working with a senior on each job to process purchases, prepare payment runs, carry out credit control, and reconcile bank transactions across my clients. I have also been involved in some of the project work being carried out currently. This has been really interesting, seeing some of the ways that bookkeeping can go wrong, and the work needed to bring the accounts back up to standard.

Before I even sent my first email to Accountability, I knew that if they were interested in offering me a chance, I would need to commit to a long commute as I currently live in Glasgow. What I found was that, although there are bus links to get into the office from the train station, I can save 20 minutes each way by cycling, and I was keen to get the exercise in if I could. My commute starts at 6am when my alarm goes off as loudly as possible. I’m out the door at around 6:50am, and get to the office around 8:30am after a walk, a train ride and a cycle. The cycle to the office takes about 20 minutes, and I really enjoy it. Here are some pictures from my first few months!

A week in the life: Freya