Apprenticeship rotations guide 2023/24

Introduction and key principles

■ We encourage all trainee apprentices to broaden their mindset and skillset through a rotation across the business.

■ Rotation experiences are a great way to develop professional capabilities while exploring new team environments. You will get the chance to make an impact and unlock your career potential by expanding your Hazlewoods network. We have a wide variety of options to explore and there is sure to be the right opportunity that is perfect for you.

■ Our learning environment will enable you to explore a multitude of opportunities. You can always talk to a partner, HR or your manager about how best to achieve your ambitions and goals.

■ Whatever rotation you work on, as well as the talented people you work with, will be yet another base for knowledge building. Rotations will help you reach key milestones, like becoming a manager. We will make it a priority to give you the tools you need to grow in the next phase of your career.

Key principles:

When?

▪ Rotations will typically take place between February and August each year. This can be flexible, depending on the needs of the business.

▪ The rotation will last between four and six months, depending on the team requirements.

▪ Exact timings will be agreed between team managers.

Who?

▪ All trainee apprentices.

▪ ACA/ACCA apprentices will be able to undertake a rotation approximately 18 months after starting your training. For example, if you join Hazlewoods in September 2022, you will be able to apply for a rotation to start in February 2024

▪ AAT apprentices will be able to apply to start a rotation once they have completed their AAT apprenticeship and started their ACA or ACCA qualification. For example, if you join Hazlewoods in September 2022, you will be able to apply for a rotation to start in February 2025

How?

▪ You should discuss the opportunity, and any questions you may have, at your appraisal or one-to-one discussion.

▪ You should register your interest and complete an application form to give us an indication of your preferred team by 08 September 2023. You can select up to three teams. Please note not all applications will be successful and we may not be able to fulfil your preferred choices, but we will make every effort to do so.

Timetable

▪ Applications open - June 2023

▪ Deadline for application - 8 September 2023

▪ Interviews (if required) - w/c 2 October 2023

▪ Confirmation of rotation - 20 October 2023

▪ Placement to begin in seconded team - February 2024

On completion of your rotation, you will be invited to complete an evaluation form, which will provide us with feedback to help us develop our rotation programme and continue to make improvements.

Offices and parking

Things to consider when making your choice

Cheltenham (Bayshill Road and 95 Promenade) Staverton

Town location if you need anything from the shops as well as lots of nice lunch options.

Easier and closer to use your Revolution free drinks token!

Good transport links to get into work. Walking distance from the train station, good bus routes and park and ride service.

Breakout rooms in the basement and outdoor seating to the side of the building (Bayshill Road).

Free parking only a 10 minute walk away.

Is there free parking in Cheltenham?

The following roads in Montpellier, Cheltenham are free to park on all day:

■ Grafton Road

■ Painswick Road

■ Upper Norwood Street

■ Fairfield Avenue

■ Francis Street

■ Naunton Lane

■ Andover Street

■ Ashford Road

■ Southwood Lane

The Staverton office is located approx. 14 minutes (4.4 miles) from Windsor House.

Beautiful views and gardens, you may even spot deer out the window!

Lauren’s catering van visits daily if you don’t fancy making a sandwich.

Would need to be able to drive or car share as the transport links are not so easily accessible.

Large hub area for lunch time breaks and socialising. Plenty of seating in the garden for the warmer months.

More open plan offices allowing you to get to know other teams easily.

Onsite parking.

Team overviews: What to expect from each team

Business Solutions (Cheltenham – Windsor House)

Year end compliance work

The team have a portfolio which requires hundreds of sets of accounts to be prepared annually. These include sole traders, partnerships, limited liability partnerships and companies. These clients are at varying stages of their life cycle and cover many different industries.

Bookkeeping, management accounts and VAT

■ Monthly and quarterly bookkeeping on Xero, Sage and other accounting software.

■ Preparation of monthly and quarterly management accounts.

■ Preparation of VAT returns.

■ Support clients with bookkeeping queries.

We offer practical experience in the following:

■ Preparation of year end accounts using Digita Accounts, our working papers are all on Excel with supporting links and a pivot table for profit and loss analysis. The accounts preparation includes reconciliation of balance sheet items such as fixed assets, accruals, prepayments, VAT, HP, loans and many more. Clients use a mixture of Sage, Xero, QuickBooks, Excel and other bespoke software.

■ Preparation of company tax computations and returns using Alphatax.

■ Preparation of partnership tax computations and returns using Digita Tax.

■ Preparation of personal tax computations and returns using Digita Tax.

■ Drafting of letters to accompany the accounts and tax returns.

■ You will have the opportunity to talk to clients to discuss any queries or outstanding information during the preparation of the accounts and tax returns.

■ Assisting the department on ad hoc client assignments, such as preparing business plans, cashflows and budgets.

The team works in the Cheltenham office and comprises of approximately 40 staff.

There is a lot of experience in the team to support you.

Corporate Finance Transaction Services (Cheltenham – The Prom)

The Corporate Finance team specialise in carrying out financial due diligence for corporate acquirers, predominantly private equity house, and we work closely to support them with their buy and build strategies. We have won numerous awards in the South West and nationally in recent years, which has recognised the expertise we have in our team.

Over the last 20 years or so, we have developed a focus in certain sector specialisms including the following:

▪ Health and Social Care

▪ Veterinary

▪ Dental

▪ Schools

▪ Insurance Brokers

▪ Estate and Letting Agents

▪ Holiday Lettings

We are generally instructed by our clients to evaluate the financial performance of the company that they are looking to acquire. By the time we are instructed, our clients have made an offer to acquire the company, which is typically based on a multiple of profits. Part of what we do is to carry out a financial appraisal to determine whether we think the business is making the profits that they have presented to the acquirer.

Whilst each transaction is individual, the work involved in the process will typically include:

1. Detailed analysis of the underlying accounting records and gaining an understanding as to how these map to the financial statements.

2. Historical trading review and determination of current run rate profitability based on current information provided by the target company (for example, in a school we would analyse the current pupil list and current staff lists to form a view on currently profitability).

3. Detailed review of recent balance sheets of the target company, with a focus on the working capital cycle and intramonth cash requirements of the target business. This will later feed in to advise when reviewing the legal documentation that will bind the transaction.

4. Discuss initial findings and any potential red flags with the client.

5. Review historical tax compliance and assess any potential tax risks that may be inherited by the buyer on completion of the transaction

6. Draft the financial due diligence report.

The majority of the work involves use of Excel and you will quickly develop strong analytical skills.

We look to provide as much exposure into the detailed work as possible to our trainees, who have access to senior management and partners.

Audit (Staverton)

The Corporate Services audit team has a varied client portfolio with audit engagements ranging from single companies with turnover less than in £1 million, to larger group companies with turnover in excess of £100 million These include venture capitalist backed entities, full and AIM listed companies as well as owner managed businesses. The client portfolio covers a broad range of industries, which include manufacturing, agriculture, construction, information technology, sport and leisure, professional services and pharmaceutical.

The team work in a friendly open plan office with over 50 members. Work is split between office-based, homebased and work performed at the client’s premises. Generally, audit planning procedures and completion aspects are performed in the office while the fieldwork aspect (audit testing) will involve going out to the client. Trainees taking part in audit fieldwork would be in teams of between 2-4 people comprising of graduates, seniors and managers. For smaller clients you can expect to be out of the office for anywhere up to a week, increasing for larger client due to the scale and complexity of the audit work. You may also be required to stay away for the audit fieldwork where clients are located more than an hour away from the office.

The audit fieldwork phase presents an opportunity to improve interpersonal skills by interacting face to face with clients as opposed to phone or email. This will involve dealing with the owners of the business, managing directors, finance directors as well as the accounting teams You will also be exposed to technical auditing and complex accounting matters as applicable to larger corporate entities

We offer practical experience in the following:

■ Attendance at audit team planning meetings where issues such as key audit risks and audit strategy will be discussed between team members.

■ Drafting audit planning documentation which could include engagement letters, communication of audit matters letters and bank confirmations. Preparation of preliminary analytical reviews which we use to identify any additional risks which have not already been considered by the audit team.

■ Perform audit testing on various balance sheet and profit and loss account items. Audit sections for trainees could include the following: cash, debtors, creditors, equity, purchases and commitments. Specific audit testing involved in each of these sections will be discussed between team members.

■ Preparation of audit completion documents including final analytical reviews and management representation letters.

■ Preparation of corporation tax computations using Alphatax. Review of profit and loss items to identify non-deductible costs. Review of fixed asset additions for capital allowances purposes.

■ Preparation of financial statements using Digita accounts production.

Support will be provided on site to trainees by the audit team members who are assigned on the same client and the wider team including a personal ‘buddy’ who you can approach with any questions

Dental (Staverton)

The Dental team has a portfolio which requires approximately 385 sets of accounts and 500 tax returns to be prepared annually. The team also prepare a limited number of personal tax returns.

The portfolio contains a variety of clients including sole traders, partnerships and limited companies.

Our clients range from associates and hygienists to businesses with multiple dental sites. We also have a portfolio of non-dental clients.

The team works in an open plan floor in the Staverton office and comprises nine staff in total.

One to one support will be available from an allocated mentor throughout your time in the team.

We offer practical experience in the following:

■ Preparation of year end accounts using Digita Accounts, our working papers are all on Excel. Accounts preparation includes reconciliation of balance sheet items such as fixed assets, accruals, prepayments, VAT (for some nondental clients), HP, loans and many more. Clients use a mixture of Sage, Xero, QuickBooks, Excel or in some cases nothing, so the accounts are then prepared from bank statements.

■ Dental accounts involve additional summarising of NHS and associate pay statements and this is done on Excel. This helps advise clients on a practice’s performance; we also do benchmarking/KPI work.

■ Preparation of corporation tax computations and returns using Alphatax.

■ Preparation of personal tax computations and returns using Digita Tax.

■ Drafting of letters to accompany the final accounts/tax returns.

Farms and Estates (Staverton)

We offer practical experience in the following:

■ Interrogating client data in order to prepare the year end working papers file. The majority of clients use Sage or Xero but several specialised packages are also routinely used such as Landmark, Farmplan and Sum-It.

■ Calculation of balance sheet items such as fixed assets, depreciation, accruals and prepayments.

■ Preparation of year end accounts using Digita accounts. We act for a range of business types including sole traders, partnerships, LLPs, limited companies and trusts.

■ Preparation of business tax computations using Alphatax or DigitaTax. Review of profit and loss items to identify costs non-deductible for tax. Review of fixed asset additions for capital allowances. Understanding how the accounts profit converts to a taxable profit.

■ Attendance at a client meeting to observe. Typically, the accounts and tax take up less than half the meeting time with bigger picture issues being discussed.

The Farms and Estates team has a portfolio which requires circa 600 sets of accounts and business tax computations to be prepared annually.

Our clients range from the traditional family farm partnership to larger scale soft fruit producers and poultry units. We also act for estates holding land and property in trusts. There is a huge amount of variety in both client activities and trading structures.

The team work in an open plan office with the Farms and Estates tax team comprising 35 staff in total.

One to one support will be available from an allocated mentor throughout your time in the team.

Work is office based.

Forensic Accounting and Litigation Support (Cheltenham – The Prom)

The Forensic team is based at The Prom and is regularly instructed by solicitors and surveyors to provide expert accounting advice to assist with the pursuance and resolution of disputes. The team is led by Ruth Dooley and Hannah Griffin who collectively have over 30 years of forensic accounting experience.

Ruth and Hannah have acted as expert witnesses in a wide range of scenarios, including:

■ Divorce cases – often requiring a valuation of a business, an assessment of one/both parties’ future earnings from the business and consideration of the ability to use the business to raise funds for a divorce settlement.

■ Shareholder and partnership disputes – often requiring a valuation of a business and individual shareholdings.

■ Commercial disputes – often requiring an assessment of the losses arising from alleged actions, including an assessment of the counterfactual performance of a business –what would have happened had the alleged actions not taken place.

Whilst every job is different, there are certain skills which are important for undertaking forensic work:

■ Attention to detail

■ Logical and analytical skills

■ Interest in building your network with young professionals

■ Inquisitive mind

■ Report writing and communication skills

■ Prepared to share ideas and contribute in meetings –we do not always know how we progress a case at the start.

■ Compulsory Purchase Orders – quantifying the impact of the loss of land on the performance of a business. This can involve loss of profit claims as well as business valuations if the affected business must be extinguished.

■ Professional negligence – quantifying the impact of the alleged negligence on the performance of a business.

■ Business interruption claims – quantifying the impact, of an insurable event, on the performance of a business.

■ Able to test and challenge others - this is crucial. A forensic accountant must expect to be challenged by the opposing expert and their legal team so we will encourage you to test our thinking and ask questions!

You will work closely with the partners and will form an integral part of the team. Depending on the current cases, you may get to be involved in early stage quantum assessment, expert report writing, ADR such as mediation, meetings of experts, conference with counsel and possibly attending a trial!

Healthcare (Cheltenham - The Prom)

We offer practical experience in the following:

■ Attendance at audit team planning meetings where issues such as key audit risks and audit strategy will be discussed between team members.

■ Assisting in the drafting of audit planning documentation which could be the preparation of audit file, risk identification, materiality calculation and preparation of preliminary analytical reviews which we use to identify any additional risks which have not already been considered by the audit team.

■ Perform audit testing on various balance sheet and profit and loss account items. Audit sections for trainees could include the following: tangible and intangible assets, cash, debtors, revenue, creditors, equity, purchases, journals and commitments. Specific audit testing involved in each of these sections will be discussed between team members.

■ Assist in the review and analysis of business acquisition documentation and the overall audit of acquisitions. This could include agreeing completion accounts to supporting evidence, identification of terms which give rise to contingent and or deferred consideration and a review of management’s assessment on the likelihood of contingent consideration being paid out after year end.

■ Preparation of audit completion documents including final analytical reviews and management representation letters.

■ Preparation of financial statements using Digita Accounts Production, together with some exposure to management accounts preparation and corporation tax compliance

The Healthcare team specialises in the audit and accounts preparation of companies and groups providing care services, such as residential and nursing homes for the elderly, specialist care, independent hospitals, domiciliary care, supported living and more. Our team recently won the Business Advisors and Accountants award at the 2022 Social Care Premium Suppliers Awards.

Our client base ranges from small owner-managed companies to large and complex groups with over 50 subsidiaries and revenues in excess of £300 million.

We are located at The Prom Cheltenham office and split into a small accounts team and an audit team. Due to the geographical dispersion of our clients, some onsite audit work requires teams to stay overnight close to the client’s premises.

We will provide you with opportunities and challenges, with the necessary support from seniors, managers and partners.

If you are looking to challenge yourself or are looking to get some exposure to large groups then a rotation into the Healthcare team is for you.

Legal (Cheltenham – Windsor House)

The Legal team are one of the largest law firm specialist teams in the UK, working with approximately 200 law firms and 800 individual law firm owners. Whilst we specialise in one industry, the work we carry out is extremely varied, from sole trader accounts to multi-national group audits, all the relevant business and personal tax, Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Accounts Rules audits and advising on all sort of issues, including mergers and acquisitions, partner succession, benchmarking, performance, management reporting and changes to the practice structure.

The way that we work gives a high level of responsibility and exposure to junior members of staff at an early stage. This is particularly true of the SRA Accounts Rules audits, which are managed by new starters within a couple of months.

Our client base includes a wide variety of clients, from small sole practitioners to substantial partnerships, LLPs, limited companies, and corporate groups, from all over England and Wales. We are well represented in the sector, working with the Law Society and the ICAEW’s Solicitors Group. Our work with the Law Society is nationally known, as we produce their annual Financial Benchmarking Survey.

The team of 48 work in an open plan floor in the Cheltenham Windsor House office.

We often visit clients at their offices, which are in almost all major cities in the UK as well as some in more remote towns. Our new starters often enjoy the ‘stayaways’, as it gives a good excuse to socialise in the evenings!

We offer practical experience in the following:

■ Preparation of year end accounts using Digita Accounts (our working papers are all on Excel). Accounts preparation includes reconciliation of balance sheet items such as fixed assets, work in progress, debtors, accruals, prepayments, VAT, HP, loans, directors’ loan accounts and partners’ drawings and profit shares. Our clients use a wide range of specialist solicitors software, but also some use more common software such as Sage and Xero. We often visit our clients to complete this work.

■ Performance of SRA Accounts Rules audits - a requirement for almost all firms that hold client monies. An example of client money would be where an individual purchases a property; this money sits in a solicitor’s client account before completion. We are required by the SRA to carry out an audit on the client account based on a set of rules: https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/standards-regulations/accountsrules/. The audits are performed using CCH, and we have a tailored work programme for each client. The client receives a report and management letter at the end of each audit. Trainees take ownership of the whole audit, including planning, fieldwork, and completion (with manager involvement for completion). This gives trainees a lot of exposure to clients.

■ Performance of statutory accounts audits, including testing on various balance sheet and profit and loss account items. Key sections for new starters are fixed assets, cash, creditors, purchases, wages and VAT. Again, we often visit our clients to complete fieldwork testing.

■ Preparation of business tax computations and returns using Alphatax.

■ Preparation of personal tax computations and returns using Digita Tax.

■ Preparation of management accounts.

Personal Tax (Staverton)

We offer practical experience in the following:

■ Preparation of year-end tax returns for individuals and business and computation of tax liabilities using Digita Tax.

■ Preparation of P11D forms in relation to benefits in kind received by employees.

■ Preparation of year end trust tax returns and preparation/awareness of trust registration and inheritance tax forms.

■ Preparation of 60-days capital gains tax property reports for disposals of residential property.

■ Awareness of business tax computation reviews for companies and individuals and the link with accounts departments.

■ Assistance in collation of information for planning assignments.

■ Ad hoc assistance where required with contacting HMRC, preparing information for meetings, notifying clients of tax liabilities etc.

■ Preparation of other annual compliance returns, such as annual tax on enveloped dwellings (ATED) and employment related securities (ERS).

A friendly team of about 30, the personal tax department is responsible for preparing about 3,200 tax returns being a mixture of personal, trust and partnership returns. In addition, a range of advisory work is carried out and tax support given to the Vet, Farms and Estate and Business Services teams.

The client range includes large professional partnerships, landed estates, high net worth individuals, trustees and family concerns.

The department works in an open plan office on the ground floor of the new building.

In addition to one-to-one support, help from other team members will always be available.

Work is office based.

Tax (Cheltenham – Windsor House & The Prom)

The tax team has five sub-teams listed below with key duties. During your rotation, you will get specialist exposure to the work of a particular sub-team, with the opportunity to move around.

The Cheltenham Tax team are situated at Windsor House or at The Prom office. Please note that parking is generally not available on site but can easily be found within a 5-10 minute walk of the office.

The team is led by Nick Haines along with four other tax partners who are supported by the sub team leaders. There are a wide variety of specialisms across the partners and teams, all of whom relish the opportunity to train and develop the next generation of tax advisers.

The Cheltenham Tax team offers a unique opportunity for our trainees to develop their awareness of a broad range of tax matters throughout the duration of their training contract. The team acts partly as expert advisors in specialist areas of tax and partly as a service provider to a number of teams at Hazlewoods, providing supporting compliance services, i.e. corporation and personal tax returns and other annual reporting. Our personal tax clients include landlords, director-shareholders and high net worth individuals with the occasional celebrity thrown in. Whilst our corporate portfolio offers a wide range of clients from small family owned and managed businesses to large private equity backed corporate clients with complex group structures, some of which have multinational reach. With over 1,200 personal tax clients and more than 2,000 corporate clients there is always something to engage and challenge those who have an interest in tax… and that’s before we’ve even got onto our sector specialisms.

For those who have not worked in tax, a rotation into the tax team offers the opportunity to complete the compliance cycle for clients, taking the accounts generated and producing the final output required. But the team does so much more than compliance by providing specialist advisory dealing with Capital Gains, Stamp Duty, Corporate Restructuring, VAT, Due Diligence, Innovation Tax Reliefs and Employment Taxes.

Depending on the time of the rotation, we would typically expect an individual to receive practical experience in the following areas:

Sub-team Work experience

Large Corporate and Healthcare Tax

■ Optimisation of a group’s tax losses via group relief, carry forward, carry back etc

■ Tax relief for capital expenditure – detailed capital allowance reviews and optimisation of the Annual Investment Allowance

■ Preparation of tax disclosures for financial statements

■ Tax deductibility of interest expenses including transfer pricing, Corporate Interest Restriction, late payment rules

Personal and Employment Tax

■ Personal, Partnership & Trust tax returns

■ Capital gains tax computations on disposal of property and/or shares, including 60 day reporting

■ Dealing with HMRC enquiries

■ Client engagement

■ Trust registration requirements

■ P11D reporting and benefits in kind

■ PAYE settlement agreements

Owner Managed Business

■ Personal, Partnership, Trust and Corporate tax returns

■ Group relief

■ Annual investment allowance and capital allowances

■ Loss allocations

■ Capital gains tax computations on disposal of property and/or shares

■ Availability of business asset disposal relief and qualifying criteria

Innovation

■ Corporation tax returns

■ Group relief

■ Annual investment allowance and capital allowances

■ Corporate interest restrictions

■ Loss allocations

■ Capital gains tax computations on disposal of property and/or shares

■ R&D enhanced tax relief claims

■ Capital gains tax computations on disposal of property and/or shares

■ International tax aspects

■ Employment related securities advice (advice relating to employees who acquire/dispose of shares relating to their employment)

■ Due diligence

■ Corporate restructuring

■ Employment status reviews

■ Availability of business asset disposal relief and quantifying criteria

■ Due diligence

■ Annual investment allowance and capital allowances

■ EIS / VCT relief

■ P11D and benefits in Kind

■ PAYE settlement agreements

■ Corporate restructuring

■ Due diligence

■ Employment related securities and EMI end of year reporting

■ HMRC enquiries

■ Patent Box claims

■ Grant audits

■ Potential for EMI and other valuation work

■ Potential for involvement in restructuring and other advice to maximise innovation tax reliefs

You will be assigned a mentor for the duration of your rotation, and they will provide guidance as needed. Feedback from jobs will be provided by the senior/manager responsible.

The rotation will be office based, but there may be opportunities to attend client meetings (on or off site) or to sit in on conference calls.

Vets and Pharmacy (Staverton)

We have a combined team of over 30 people. Our clients range from sole traders to large partnerships, Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) and Limited Companies.

For vets, our clients can be small animal, large animal or equine only practices or a mixed practice covering all species of animals (including zoos!).

In Pharmacy our clients range from single to multiple operators, with a range of different pharmaceutical services being provided.

The Vets and Pharmacy team work in an open plan offices and work is predominantly office based. However, we do have the opportunity to visit local and large clients to prepare the work required onsite.

You will be provided with one-to-one support from an allocated ‘buddy’ for each job.

Support from all team members is always available.

On completion of your rotation you will have gained an understanding of the veterinary or pharmacy industries and an awareness of key/current business matters.

We offer practical experience in the following:

■ Preparing management accounts and VAT returns using Sage and Xero accounting software.

■ Preparing year end accounts from either bookkeeping software or manual records.

■ Preparing analytical review to support the year end accounts and provide added value to our clients

■ Preparing/aware of benchmarking reports which support the business strategy advice we provide to clients.

■ Preparing/aware of business tax computations using Alphatax or Digita Tax.

■ Assisting in the collation of financial due diligence for the purposes of a sale/purchase of a business, including preparation of the financial due diligence report on acquisitions.

■ Ad-hoc assistance with data analysis, projections, etc.

■ You will have the opportunity to talk to clients to discuss queries.

■ Opportunity to prepare veterinary business valuations and the associated reports.

■ Bespoke software training provided.

HAZLEWOODS IN CHELTENHAM

Windsor House Bayshill Road

Cheltenham GL50 3AT

Tel: 01242 237661

HAZLEWOODS IN STAVERTON

Staverton Court

Staverton

Cheltenham GL51 0UX

Tel: 01242 680000

Hazlewoods LLP is a Limited Liability Partnership registered in England and Wales with number OC311817 Registered office: Staverton Court, Staverton, Cheltenham, Glos, GL51 0UX. A list of LLP partners is available for inspection at each office. Hazlewoods LLP is registered to carry on audit work in the UK and regulated for a range of investment business activities by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.