When was the last time you looked at your CV? I bet it was when you were looking for work, not many people update their CV until they really need it.

I am sure you have been there too… You’ve just seen a fantastic position advertised you know that you meet or exceed the spec requirements, and you’ve already mentally moved into your new office. Just one snag though. Your CV is a bit out of date, so upon finishing work you update your CV over a glass of wine.

We’ve all been in this position before of know some one that has put together their CV pretty quickly and then wondered why they didn’t get the job.

Here’s some of the most important overlooked areas of CV writing and submission that applicants make:

- You have not fully explained what you do now in your current position

- You have not fully explained why you are applying for the new role in a cover letter.

- Your CV was tailored for the last role you applied for and you didn’t update it to be relevant for this new position.

- You do not have up to date permission from your referees – they’ll be quite surprised if they found out you had listed them as a referee without their permission. If your referee listed is more than three months old, the correct thing to do is to advise them that you still have them listed.

- Make sure that your referee’s are still contactable, it could be embarrassing if they have moved company and you have not kept in touch.

- Update your contact details on your cv

- Update your salary requirements on your application

If you are applying for a senior role or are thinking or applying for positions that don’t come around very often – consider using a professional CV writing service. These typically cost around 50 –150 NZD depending on what your requirements are. A few dollars there could return you thousands in the long run.

Take a moment and enter our poll and find out what how many applications to interviews other candidates get!

A financial audit, or more accurately, an audit of financial statements, is the review of the financial statements of a company or any other legal entity (including governments), resulting in the publication of an independent opinion on whether or not those financial statements are relevant, accurate, complete, and fairly presented.

Financial audits are typically performed by firms of practicing accountants due to the specialist financial reporting knowledge they require. The financial audit is one of many assurance or attestation functions provided by accounting and auditing firms, whereby the firm provides an independent opinion on published information.

Many organisations separately employ or hire internal auditors, who do not attest to financial reports but focus mainly on the internal controls of the organization. External auditors may choose to place limited reliance on the work of internal auditors.

Stages of an audit

A financial audit is performed before the release of the financial statements (typically on an annual basis), and will overlap the year-end (the date which the financial statements relate to).

The following are the stages of a typical audit:[citation needed]

Planning and risk assessment

Timing: before year-end

What is the purpose:

To understand the business of the company and the environment in which it operates.

What should auditors understand?[1]

The relevant industry, regulatory, and other external factors including the applicable financial reporting framework

The nature of the entity

The entity’s selection and application of accounting policies

The entity’s objectives and strategies, and the related business risks that may result in material misstatement of the financial statements

The measurement and review of the entity’s financial performance

Internal control relevant to the audit

To determine the major audit risks (i.e. the chance that the auditor will issue the wrong opinion). For example, if sales representatives stand to gain bonuses based on their sales, and they account for the sales they generate, they have both the incentive and the ability to overstate their sales figures, thus leading to overstated revenue. In response, the auditor would typically plan to increase the rigour of their procedures for checking the sales figures.

Internal controls testing

Timing: before and/or after year-end

What is the purpose:

To assess the operating effectiveness of internal controls (e.g. authourisation of transactions, account reconciliations, segregation of duties). If internal controls are assessed as effective, this will reduce (but not entirely eliminate) the amount of ’substantive’ work the auditor needs to do (see below).

Notes:

In some cases an auditor may not perform any internal controls testing, because he/she does not expect internal controls to be reliable. When no internal controls testing is performed, the audit is said to follow a substantive approach.

This test determines the amount of work to be performed i.e. substantive testing or test of details.[citation needed]

Substantive procedures

Financial audits exist to add credibility to the implied assertion by an organization’s management that its financial statements fairly represent the organization’s position and performance to the firm’s stakeholders (interested parties). The principal stakeholders of a company are typically its shareholders, but other parties such as tax authorities, banks, regulators, suppliers, customers and employees may also have an interest in ensuring that the financial statements are accurate.

The audit is designed to reduce the possibility of a material misstatement. A misstatement is defined as false or missing information, whether caused by fraud (including deliberate misstatement) or error. Material is very broadly defined as being large enough or important enough to cause stakeholders to alter their decisions.

The exact ‘audit opinion’ will vary between countries, firms and audited organisations.

In the US, the CPA firm provides written assurance that financial reports are ‘fairly presented in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).’ The measure for ‘fairly presented’ is that there is less than 5% chance (5% audit risk) that the financial statements are ‘materially misstated’.

Finalization

Timing: at the end of the audit

What is the purpose:

To compile a report to management regarding any important matters that came to the auditor’s attention during performance of the audit,

To evaluate and review the audit evidence obtained, ensuring sufficient appropriate evidence was obtained for every material assertion and

To consider the type of audit opinion that should be reported based on the audit evidence obtained.

Last week we asked do you know who are the “Big four” ?    We thought you would for New Zealand; So we also tested your banking knowledge by asking if you knew which big four are present in USA, Australia and South Africa.  Did you get the it right?

United States - Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo

Australia - National Australia Bank, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac/St. George Bank,Australia and New Zealand Banking Group

In South Africa, these are: First National Bank, Absa Group Limited (owned by Barclays Bank), Standard Bank and Nedbank

Well done to all entrants that got the correct answers! 

So you think that you might want to start trading currency, or are interested in finding out more about financial instruments and currency trading terms which is the starting point of understanding the Financial and currency markets. Below are some of the most commonly used terms and thier meanings:

Spot

A spot transaction is a two-day delivery transaction (except in the case of trades between the US Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Turkish Lira and Russian Ruble, this settles the next business day), as opposed to the futures contracts, which are usually three months. This trade represents a “direct exchange” between the two currencies, it has the shortest time frame and involves cash rather than a contract; interest is not included in the agreed-upon transaction. Spot transactions have around the second largest turnover by volume after Swap transactions among all FX transactions in the Global FX market.

Forward

Another way to deal with the foreign exchange risk is to engage in a forward the transaction. In this transaction, the money does not actually change hands until future date. A buyer and seller agree on an exchange rate for any date in the future, and the transaction occurs on that date, regardless of what the market rates are then. The duration of the trade can be a one day, a few days, months or years. Usually the date is decided by both parties.

Currency future

Foreign currency futures are exchange traded forward transactions that have a standard contract size and maturity dates — for example, $2000 for next December at an agreed rate.  Future’s are standardized and are usually traded on an exchange created for this purpose. The average contract length is roughly 3 months. Futures contracts are usually inclusive of any interest amounts.

Foreign exchange swap

The most common type of forward transaction is the currency swap. In a swap, two parties exchange currencies for a certain length of time and agree to reverse the transaction at a later date. These are not standardized contracts and are not traded through an exchange.

Foreign exchange option

A foreign exchange option (commonly shortened to just FX option) is a derivative where the owner has the right but not the obligation to exchange money denominated in one currency into another currency at a pre-agreed exchange rate on a specified date. The FX options market is the deepest, largest and most liquid market for options of any kind in the world.

Exchange-Traded Fund

Exchange-traded funds (or ETFs) are open ended investment companies that can be traded at any time throughout the course of the day. Typically, ETFs try to replicate a stock market index such as the S&P 500 (e.g., SPY), but recently they are now replicating investments in the currency markets with the ETF increasing in value when the US Dollar weakens versus a specific currency, such as the Euro. Certain of these funds track the price movements of world currencies versus the US Dollar, and increase in value directly counter to the US Dollar, allowing for speculation in the US Dollar for US and US Dollar denominated investors and speculators.

Speculation

Controversy about currency speculators and their effect on currency devaluations and national economies recurs regularly. Nevertheless, economists including Milton Friedman have argued that speculators ultimately are a stabilizing influence on the market and perform the important function of providing a market for hedgers and transferring risk from those people who don’t wish to bear it, to those who do.

Most people will have come across the term the big FOUR within the banking industry, maybe you read about them in the newspaper or on a blog somewhere. However the big four is quite a geo-specific term, and even regional if you are based in the UK when comparing to Scotland / Ireland / Wales.  

Do you work in the banking industry, do you think you know your banks? Take a moment out and answer our FJ online quiz. Answers will be posted on the blog so keep tuned.

Can you name the “Big four” for these three countries?

United States

Australia

South Africa

We considered adding New Zealand to the list - but this would have been way to easy!!  Answers will be posted on the blog, keep tuned.

The foreign exchange market - forex -  is where currency trading takes place. It is where banks and other official institutions buy and sell foreign currencies.   

The foreign exchange market that we know of today started evolving during the seventies when developed countries gradually moved across to a floating exchange rate from their current exchange rate policy. 

So what is FOREX ?

Forex transactions involve one person or party purchasing a number of one currency in exchange for paying a quantity of another currency. 

Presently, the FX (Forex) market is one of the largest and most liquid financial markets in the world, it includes major trading between banking institutions, central banks,  individuals that speculate, corporations, governments, and a range of financial institutions. The average daily volume in the global foreign exchange and related markets is continuously growing. Historically daily turnover on the market has been reported to be over US$3.2 trillion in April 2007 by the Bank for International Settlements. However since then the FX market has grown, with an expeted volume of an addition 50%

Forex Market size and liquidity

The foreign exchange market is unique because of  its trading volumes, the extreme liquidity of the market and it’s its geographical dispersion - any one anywhere can make a transaction with the rise of tele-trading.

The FX market is open 24 hours aday unlike stock trading,  (except on weekends) and unlike stocks there are wider opportunities for markets to rise and fall in a very short space of time . This alone makes it very exciting for day traders and speculators that can earn sesrious money in a short space of time.

Interesting FX facts 

According to the Bank for International Settlements; the average daily turnover for global FX markets is estimated at around $3.98 trillion! Trading in the world’s main financial markets accounts for $3.21 trillion. This is approximately $3.21 trillion in the main foreign exchange market turnover broken down as :

$1.005 trillion in spot transactions

$362 billion in outright forwards

$1.714 trillion in foreign exchange swaps

$129 billion estimated gaps in reporting

If you are looking for a stable income or career then becoming part of the Currency industry could be a high potential option. There are a range of career options from self employed speculator to working within major banks or the FX infrastructure. 

Law of banking… I bet you never did read that small print…. The universal Banking law is based on the contractual relationship between the bank and it’s customer. We’ put into plain English some facts that you may like to know about.  Where the incident of Westpac and it’s customer was incorrectly credited with millions of dollars, it’s well worth knowing where you stand.

The bank account balance is a financial position between the bank and the bank’s customer: when the account is in credit the bank actually owes this balance to you the customer; when the account is overdrawn, the customer owes the balance to the bank.

The bank agrees to pay the customer’s cheques up to the amount standing to the credit of the customer’s account, plus any agreed overdraft limit.

The bank may not pay from the customer’s account without a mandate from the customer, e.g. a cheque drawn by the customer.

The bank must promptly collect the cheques deposited to the customer’s account as the customer’s agent, and to credit the proceeds to the customer’s account.

The bank is not allowed to disclose details of transactions through the customer’s account—unless the customer consents or there is a public duty to disclose, the bank’s interests require it, or the law demands it.

The bank can if they choose, to combine the customer’s accounts, since each account is just an aspect of the same credit relationship.

The bank has a lien on cheques deposited to the customer’s account, to the extent that the customer is indebted to the bank.

The bank is not allowed to close a customer’s account without reasonable notice, since cheques are outstanding in the ordinary course of business for several days.

New Zealand Banks are guaranteed by the Government so if there are unforeseen market events your money is safe.

These implied contractual terms are sometimes modified by express agreement between the customer and the bank. Yet these terms are the basis of the banking industry.  

So you’re thinking of becoming a Chartered Accountant? Is it a recession proof career? We take a look at what countries you could work in, and what the CA profession is all about….

Chartered Accountant (CA) is the title used by members of certain professional accountancy associations in the British Commonwealth countries and Ireland. The term “chartered” has come from the “Royal Charter” which was granted to the world’s first professional body of accountants upon their establishment in 1854.

The Edinburgh Society of Accountants - formed 1854, the Glasgow Institute of Accountants and Actuaries -1854, and the Aberdeen Society of Accountants - 1867, were each granted a royal charter almost from their creation.  The C.A. title is  an internationally recognised professional designation.

Chartered Accountants work in all fields of business and finance.  While some are engaged in public practice work, other CA’s work in the private sector  while some are employed by government bodies such as working for Inland Revenue or other Civil Service positions.

The Chartered Accountants Institutes require members to undertake, and complete a minimum level of continuing professional development to stay ahead of their peers. So if you are thinking of a CA Accountancy as a career be prepared for lengthy training and a high level of dedication will be required.

The Institutes facilitate special interest groups - lead academic and professional thinking in all areas of accountancy. They provide support to members by offering advisory services, technical helplines and technical libraries. The Institutes also offer opportunities for professional networking and career and business development.

The C.A. and careers Overseas

 Republic of Ireland

The Republic of Ireland, CA Chartered Accountants are generally members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, they use the designated letters A.C.A or F.C.A.  - Chartered Accountants could also be members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales or the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.

EU accountants

Under the Mutual Recognition Directive, EEA and Swiss nationals holding a professional qualification can become members of the equivalent bodies in another member state. They must, however, pass an aptitude test in understanding local conditions (which for accountants will include local tax and company law variations).

The local title is however not available for use if the professional does not choose to join the local professional body. For example a holder of the French ‘expert comptable’ qualification could practise as an accountant in England without taking a local test but could only describe him/herself as “Expert Comptable (France)” not “Chartered Accountant”. Within the EEA, only the UK and Ireland have bodies that issue the Chartered Accountant title.

 Australia

C.A. Chartered Accountants in Australia are members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia and also use the designated letters C.A. Some senior members of the Institute may be ‘elected Fellows’ and use the letters FCA.

New Zealand

In New Zealand, Chartered Accountants belong to the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants  (NZICA) and again use the designated letters C.A. Some senior members may be elected Fellows and use the letters FCA like in Australia.

There is also a mid-tier qualification called Associate Chartered Accountant with the designated letters A.C.A.  -  Associate Chartered Accountants are not eligible to hold a Certificate of Public Practice and therefore cannot offer services to the public.

Welcome to the “new look” FinanceJobs website, there have been many changes and exciting features added that makes job hunting easier and faster.

Advertisers can still benefit from the low cost advertising but included with even one advert is a permanent page for your business, so that even with no active job adverts your brand can be recognised as an important company with the financial sectors.

New and updated features for advertisers

  - Enhanced job posting functions

  - Enhanced search engine placements through  new custom software

  - New Assessment questionnaires

  - New CV searching / postcode radius 

  - New CV alerts 

  - Enhanced Registration / Account management system

  - Sub accounts available, easier to create and manage 

  - New Employer profile page  

  - New Job  posting service for bulk advertisers 

  - Upload all your jobs via XML interface 

  - Candidate bulk messaging 

We have not forgotten about our readers and job seekers either, review our

-          Improved blog layout

-          Finance Directory for finding products and services

-          Candidate guides

-          Improved back office for maintaining letters and cv’s on file.

We look forward to seeing you online, why not  register at our blog so you comment on news and articles!  

There’s no mystery about it - when global and local economies slump from the impact of a recession, exploring the job market becomes extremely challenging.

So how do you overcome this and search for a job successfully during a recession?

The Lucky Seven approach

1) Dump the “easy” method of job searching. Typically, everyone peruses the newspaper (because this is a “no brainer” approach) but you face high competition and the employer receives many unwanted applications. The best applicants don’t go via through newspapers ads but use many other tools, techniques and strategies that you may not know about.

2) Find the right company before finding the right job. Working in Accountancy or finance means you already proberly know where you want to work next; devise a specific idea for the type of job you are searching for and then develop your plan for getting in.

3) NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK, Make sure you know who the key decision makers are in the companies you want to work for; if you want to work at partner level you will need to ensure that these DM’s know you, in a recession hiring at senior level takes place only on “safe bets”

4) Don’t throw your CV everywhere- During a recession, you don’t want to be seen as desperate! Make sure you know exactly where your CV has been sent to if you are using recruitment agencies and only register with jobboards and agencies that specialise in accounting and finance.

5) Focus on the revenue factor- When the economy slumps, companies often strive to keep their revenue and sales “in the black.” If you have ever been involved in or out of sales, it doesn’t matter. Highlight past work on your CV where you were incremental or positively increased company revenues.

5) Ensure you have more than one CV – Never send the same CV or cover letter for other jobs, apart from the common mistake of attaching the wrong CV or letter. You have a very low chance of obtaining interview compared to other job seekers that took the time and effort to highlight their skills and experience specific to the vacancy they are applying for.

7) Use your CV as a marketing tool to get you hired. CV writing can be challenging, if you are not getting interviews or not getting job offers, hire a professional CV writer to help you. Their service could add thousands to your salary and make all the difference to being offered your dream job. After all your CV is the most powerful marketing tool in your arsenal.

These 7 insights actually aren’t lucky at all, by using professional services and marketing yourself you can still climb the career ladder in a recession.