Following The American Psychological Association’s Guidelines
Introduction
Verexus Inc. is a financial institution specializing in regular, updated corporate financial reports for both minor and major companies. Its purpose is to provide financial advice for companies both for managing and projecting their future costs in order to determine company goals and status. My internship was dated July 18, 2012 to August 17, 2012 as a summer training program in which many companies submitted posted advertisements to reputable schools to provide internship opportunities and creating job-ready students upon graduation.
Objectives Learned
The University of San Fransisco in recent years has created mandatory training practicums for its students whom at least completed their 3rd academic year. To accommodate the balance between student class attendance and their internships, faculties have arranged standard time tables allotting a minimum number of hours each week. They have the choice of participating in the summertime following 3rd year completion for a minimum of 30 days, or a minimum of 4 hours a week during the preceding year.
Gladly the aforementioned accommodation became incorporated into my program. I chose the former because of consistency of the daily training activities would persist freshly in my mind. Although learning and understanding the theory of financing is compulsory, no other expedient method is better than investing my time into a practical work situation. I acquired the appropriate skills and techniques required to understand, from a company perspective, how corporate financing is executed and how interpersonal relationships between the finance lender and the client develops. The transition between theory and practice, in other words, from textbook to the company, was interesting enough in integrating what I learned and associating financial principles throughout my internship.
Background
Since I currently attend 3rd Year in the University of San Fransisco, majoring in Financial Management and minoring in Business Technology Management (both in the School Of Business Management), I had the opportunity to gain experience through an internship with Verexus Inc. upon completing my 3rd year. My first duty was to understand the history of the company, and how it formed and operated.
Verexus Inc. has been in operation for almost 2 years, spinning off from a larger life insurance and retirement security company before my supervisor, David Warner, transitioned into a more corporate branch to escape the stagnancy of personal financing. This movement attracted new clients geometrically prompting Verexus Inc. to expand its clientele. Currently its vision is to provide customer financial projection of their investments to ensure quality security and longevity.
Daily Duties
The general categories in which I was trained and assisted were preparing corporate financial statements, cost and rate analyses, and maintenance of records for operating expenses, insurance, property value, and depreciation. David Warner, a senior financial advising manager, mentored me and mostly kept me under his wing throughout my internship. He was also a graduate of the School of Business from the University of San Fransisco, which was why he was the designated mentor and recommend by my teaching faculty to train internship students at Verexus Inc.
Tasked Scheduling
Monday - financial statements (Financial Management)
Tuesday – Insurance and Liability Records
Wednesday - Cost and rate analysis
Thursday - Property value (Property Assessment)
Friday – Corporate assets and depreciation
The majority of my work comprised of data and record keeping for future reference, and the detailing of each category I practiced in shall be explained below.
Methodology
Each day I was assigned to perform specific tasks throughout the day. To keep each day operating smoothly, I kept a personal record with me on the skills and practices I acquired to prepare me for the next time I was reassigned the following week. Naturally I was not required to cover all tactics as time was of the essence and the environment was fast-paced.
Financial Statements
For simplicity of my experience, the financial statements I prepared were primarily for small businesses, be they sole or dual proprietors. An existing template was provided on the company’s financial software for my usage. My duty included analyzing data submitted by proprietors tabulating their most common items such as net sales and cost of goods sold monthly. If the data was insufficient, it was my job to contact the proprietors (s) for more information. I needed enough data to identify the purchase amounts, credit card fees, discounts, and remaining company inventory at the end of the month that affected net sales. Other factors playing against net sales included advertising, office expenses, supplies, utilities, and salaries to name a few. The collaboration of the above data was similar to a company’s balance sheet, except for the breakdown of what is owned and what the company is worth at the end of each month.
Some companies however preferred not to disclose all operating expenses for confidential reasons, which was customary to the bank. Except to mask expenses proprietors did not want expose, they were usually categorized under a miscellaneous account item for clarity of expenses.
For slightly larger companies, I had to study company statements in which the said companies created their own products. In this case, a few more steps in more advanced financial software had to be used to keep accurate records of company operating expenses because of multiple entities adding to expenses.
Insurance and Liability Records
In dealing with insurance, I dealt with handfuls of insurance records of operating businesses kept by Verexus Inc. rather than the property itself it is located on. This duty was one in which I requested to attempt. The greatest challenge was obtaining records of each tenant in a business park to be possessed by Verexus Inc. since not all business owners wanted to disclose all information. Still the more information I obtained, the better to formulate the insurance bonds. I learned about the importance of any business operator carrying insurance to cover for any unforeseen events such as liability, foreclosures, or content insurance. Insurance pertained to different types of businesses. It all depended on the proprietor’s practice or the type of corporate identification (a limited or corporation/incorporated company).
The terms differed also for the size of companies and the length of which they would operate. For smaller companies with fewer staff, I recommended limited coverage and kept them within the range of affordability. For larger companies, higher insurance premiums were required. If the company had a limited budget for coverage, I would provide alternative solutions for them to operate minimally.
Interestingly, I had to compare insurance premiums with the subject company’s fellow tenants or neighbors to determine a reasonable rate. I entered into a schedule a database of each company listed under content and liability to maintain their records. I tabulated the customer names, premiums due and their eligibility of higher terms to better their coverage.
Cost and Rate Analysis
When most people hear about cost and rate analysis, they immediately think about home building. However, corporate building plays a significant role in a financial institution’s standing. Verexus Inc. must maintain a constant vigil of varying building project costs for any potential property buyer whether looking to construct a new building or purchasing a building or property for a particular industrial or commercial use. My task entailed monitoring projects, past and present, within a particular commercial zone, and study their records of project costs and the contemporary rates. The projects costs varied greatly by age, location and size. Next I recorded all the data of the nearby projects to compare to the subject property. The theory of comparison helped me determine the going costs and rates of constructing a new building. This method helped the investor decide if the project would be feasible, and the Verexus Inc. would adjust a few factors otherwise to assist the investor.
Additionally a cost breakdown of the project also determined the project’s going rate. I then itemized the cost breakdowns further in dollar values to figure the monthly payments and outweighed them against the benefits of the project. In the final analysis of this method, I compared the dollar values to summarize the feasibility of the project and the decision was made whether Verexus Inc. would finance the project or if another use of the property would provide better benefits.
Property Value
The method of determining property value was similar to cost and rate analysis in the sense of comparison theory. My duty was to compare buildings of nearby or adjacent locations and age to determine property value. To add to the value, past renovations and restorations of neighboring buildings had impacts on subject property value and insurance. My experience in researching property may have been tedious, however, it brought me the talent of keeping my eyes peeled for hidden details, no matter how insignificant they may have seemed. Even minute traces of information on neighboring property helped determine the value of subject property.
Larger parcels of land and prime locations, of course, had higher value, similar to how realtors retrieved sale values. I was to obtain a record of each parcel and study the increments in land value over the years to determine the current value of the subject property, and tabulate projections of future value increments. Another factor I had to consider was the fluctuations in land value. I then had to project the subject value itself if the land parcel was to be put up for sale in the near future. My projected numbers were submitted to my supervisor for review and compared to his numbers to view my progress.
Corporate Assets and Depreciation
When it comes to running a business, operating expenses and depreciation are necessary to monitor, because mismanagement of these items can either “make or break” a business. I was tasked to receive statements from companies who had suffered financial losses over given periods of time, and help them save on costs. Whenever I reviewed statements, I first questioned as much as possible if all operating costs were included. As mentioned previously, not all proprietors wanted to disclose all details. The best I was able to do was retrieve a lump sum amount totaling operating miscellaneous expenses. If needed be, I pressed further to make sure proprietors covered all operating costs they were willing to disclose to an outsider like me, and also if they kept a record of depreciating equipment. What I learned was records of depreciation were not accurately kept or aware of. Much of the focus was on the maintenance of equipment more so than the operating costs.
When a company submitted a statement for projected costs and feasibility, I followed up with a request of operating costs. I kept a conjugate record of depreciation value and advised companies with options of whether retaining their current equipment or replacing it with new equipment. Most proprietors would purchase completely new state-of-the-art equipment. I advised them to think about used equipment especially if they were not used frequently.
Conclusion
I am very thankful for the internship opportunity provided by Verexus Inc. and I am personally thankful to David Warner for paving the way for me to understand all the practical applications from textbook to working environment.. Mostly he had me perform my own work to have it reviewed to evaluate where is stood with each working lesson. He also admitted that I brought forward innovative ideas to handling particular tasks not formerly practiced at Verexus Inc. and will surely initiate my practices through disciplines where I trained. This trait of mine I only instinctively learned where it was only possible on the job training.
Over the course of the next year, David knows of a number of contacts in larger companies and corporations which are having a good number of staff either retiring or promoting to other departments, and will surely need to use fresh minds like myself. David definitely plans to put together for a letter of remmondation and guarantees his contacts will get in touch with me to see if I am on the market for regular full-time occupation with them upon my graduation.
