Job Description

A consultant is someone who borrows your watch to tell you the time but ends up keeping it instead… as the saying goes. 

Jokes aside, many people don’t know what a consultant actually does or what they’re for. Frankly, even I didn’t – up until recently. Last summer, I interned at a Big Four in its financial accounting advisory services. That’s a mouthful, isn’t it? Let’s break down what that exactly means.

Financial advisory focuses on uncommon accounting issues and business deals. I would say it’s a good mix of consulting and accounting. You use your accounting knowledge to consult your client on their needs and prepare them for long-term growth. Think of advisory consultants as mentors. We share expertise with our mentees (clients) to guide them toward success. 

During my internship, I mainly focused on three areas: 

• Sustainable finance

• Finance optimization 

• Transactions and IPO

Sustainable Finance

This area is probably what you think it is. It’s about helping businesses become more sustainable through their financial practices. Below are three steps that summarize this type of project:

• Identifying risks and opportunities

• Performing an analysis

• Communicating with the client

We first want to find out if the client currently has any sustainability-related risks or growth opportunities. We then conduct a gap analysis. A gap analysis helps us determine what is missing between where the client is and where they want to be. Throughout the project, we communicate with the client. By the end of it, we provide them with recommendations on how they can change what they are currently doing to become more sustainable. 

Advisory consultants are like a toolbox. We provide the client with the right tools, but they are the ones who need to use them and do the fixing.

Finance Optimization

In this area, we help the client improve their financial systems and processes. What does that mean, exactly? Here is an example:

Imagine you just got home from classes and are about to make dinner. You’re tired and don’t have time to cook a full meal. What do you do? Instead of cooking, you quickly season some veggies and chicken and toss them in the oven. While they bake, you do your homework. You find baking an easy alternative to preparing food while making the most of your time. 

Finance optimization is about making things simpler and more efficient. Let’s say our client manually inputs their financial data but wants to change that. That’s where we come in. We help them create and put in place a system that allows them to automate the process, saving them time, money, and resources.

Transactions and IPO 

Out of the three areas, this one may be the most important. Transactions and IPO is a broad but complex area that often involves high stakes. Below are examples of such situations: 

• Helping a company merge with or buy out another one

• Preparing a company to go public

Heard of Facebook or Uber? They were once small, private companies that eventually decided to go public on the market (IPO). There are many reasons why one may want to do so, but a common one is to raise more money. If you go through an IPO, you can sell shares to the public for the first time and expand your business. Here’s an example:

Imagine you’ve been baking cookies as a hobby for you and your family for years. One day, you stumble upon a nice pair of boots but don’t have money to buy them. You then have a great idea and decide to expand your hobby and sell your cookies to the entire community. They all love your cookies and buy them, giving you enough money to buy those boots!

But, before a company can go public, its financial statements must be accurate. Financial statements summarize a company’s financial information. Investors rely on them to see if the company is worth investing in. During my internship, I helped one of our clients make sure their statements were correct and met legal requirements before they went public.

Passive Sentences: 0%

Flesch Reading Ease: 68.1

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 6.9