A warm welcome to Tim Chapman to the Elevate CA team this week.  Tim will be a fantastic addition to our crew – but we still need one more accountant to join our team.

Do you know this person?

We’re looking for a person who is up to speed in the industry right now.  He or she will need to have at least two years recent experience in an NZ Chartered Accounting business.  And equally important is the attitude to thrive in the unique way we operate.

If you know someone who can tick those boxes, please pass a link to this page on to him or her.  A partial accounting qualification – and knowledge of the Acclipse iFirm software would be ideal but not essential for the right person.

Who are we?

We are new (just four years old), we are different and we are growing fast.   We are small enough to be nimble – and we are willing to take a risk to deliver better value and service to our clients.   We are a relaxed team – but highly focussed on providing fantastic value and service to our clients.  And we’re a very long way from the traditional accounting “factory”. 

We embrace innovation and change as a positive rather than avoiding it as a threat to “the way things are done around here”.  We have up-to-the-minute IT, we are marketing focussed, and are always looking for opportunities to connect our business clients with each other.

We are members of the NZ Institute of Chartered Accountants – and if you’re completing PCEI or PCEII, we have a registered mentor on the team.

The position

This is a full time position based in our CBD Whangarei office, with plenty of client contact.  Here’s what you’ll be doing:

1. Preparation of financial statements and tax returns from source documents;

2. Playing a key role in managing our relationship with clients, other professionals and the IRD.

What to do from here

Here’s how to grab hold of this opportunity:

1.  If you have at least two years recent experience as an accountant in an NZ Chartered Accounting business – and you like what you see on this website, proceed straight to step two without delay!

2.  Email your CV to goingUP@elevateCA.co.nz now.  We want to know about your CA experience, where you’re working right now, the kind of work you’re doing – and any questions you may have.  You can count on our complete confidentiality.

3.  We will move quickly.  You’ll hear from us straight away to acknowledge receipt of your CV – and to arrange interviews where applicable.

4.  Start date will be to suit – and you’ll be very busy from day one! 

Thank you for taking an interest in joining the Elevate CA team!

 

If an employee reports for work ready to operate dangerous equipment – then tests positive on a random drug test, you’d be on safe grounds dismissing for serious misconduct, right? 

Not so simple.     

Correct process is essential regardless of the facts – and employers who do not pay close attention to this will struggle to defend their actions under the gaze of the Employment Relations Authority (ERA). 

In a recent case, the ERA determined that Ursula Te Huia was unjustifiably dismissed by South Pacific Meats Limited (SPM) following a positive drug test result. 

It seems that Ms Te Huia had been employed as a meat worker by SPM at its Awarua plant for five years – and that she was also a site union delegate.  She had a poor record of absenteeism, although Ms Te Huia had recently succeeded in having this wiped by SPM leaving her with a clean attendance slate.  SPM conducted a random drug test of their meat workers – and in some cases at their discretion, they offered a rehabilitation programme to those returning a positive result. 

Ms Te Huia was one of those not offered rehabilitation – although her result was lower than some of those who were offered rehabilitation.  At her disciplinary meeting, Ms Te Huia said she had only smoked cannabis and taken the drug test in her role as union delegate to prove that the results were unfair.  Despite this explanation, SPM dismissed Ms Huia.

Convinced that her explanation was reasonable and that she had been treated unfairly, Ms Huia claimed unjustified dismissal – and the ERA agreed.

 

The ERA found a number of flaws in the process followed by SPM in dismissing Ms Te Huia:

• SPM had already decided that Ms Huia wold not be offered rehabilitation before she had attended the disciplinary meeting;
• A factor in this decision was Ms Te Huia’s record of absenteeism.  This was unfair because Ms Te Huia had earlier negotiated a clean slate of her record of absence;
• Even though Ms Te Huia had broken the law by consuming cannabis, it was unfair that she was dismissed when some others who returned a lower score had been offered rehabilitation and kept their jobs.

 

The ERA ordered SPM to pay Ms Te Huia $5,100 for loss of wages and an additional $5,000 as compensation for the humiliation of being dismissed.

We have no way of knowing whether SPM considered this to be a bargain price to rid themselves of an employee they may have considered troublesome.  But we do know that if employers wish to defend themselves successfully at the ERA, they must be seen to treat their employees consistently – and to give them genuine opportunity to respond to any allegations put to them before any decision to dismiss. 

 

 

The benefits of a physically active lifestyle are well proven.  No surprises here, right?  We all know that regular aerobic activity reduces the risk of all sorts of chronic disease.

But here’s something new that goes one step further than what we already know:

On 26 March 2012, a fascinating piece of medical research was published in the journal “Archives of Internal Medicine”. For three years, Australian researchers studied 222,497 participants from the New South Wales’ population aged 45 and older. 

That’s a serious sample size, which makes up around 11% of the state’s population from that age group.

 

Check the commentary out here >>>.  The results show a strong relationship between sitting time and mortality amongst the 222,497 people studied – even among participants with relatively high levels of physical activity. The association between sitting and mortality remained strong after adjusting for the likes of age, sex, educational level, urban versus rural residence, physical activity, body mass index, smoking, pre-existing conditions and disability. 

 

This is bad news for many business owners and their crew who spend the majority of their day sitting – in meetings, driving or in front of a computer screen.  The results even sound a warning for those who make a conscious effort to build regular excercise into their routines – but who also spend a large proportion of their working day sitting.

The researchers conclude that reducing total time spent sitting may be at least as important as increasing participation in physical activity.  “To put this in perspective, 30 minutes of physical activity is as protective an exposure as 10 hours of sitting is a harmful one.”

Prolonged sitting time is a reality for many of us in today’s world, right?  So what’s to be done?

Well here’s our solution – “The Elevate CA Standing Workstation”.

 

We had a prototype built a month ago now – and I have been using it ever since.  You can see the original desk underneath – and the new 150mm high unit is placed on top, bringing the entire desk to a standing height.

So what is it like standing up all day to work?

Well one month on, it works just fine for me.  For the first couple of days I did go home with sore feet – not that I admitted that to the rest of the Elevate CA team!  But otherwise, standing all day at the desk really does feel good.  It seems to keep the blood flowing and the metabolism up so I’m always focused and alert.  No slouching in the chair, no mid-afternoon yawning – and no looking for an excuse to get up and stretch my legs every hour or so.  And who knows, it might even add a year or two to my life expectancy.

The additional unit can be lifted off at any time if I have a change of heart and decide to go back to a sitting posture at the desk.   But after a  month of standing all day, I know I won’t be wheeling the chair back into the office any time soon.

If you’d like to check it out and see how natural it feels to stand at the desk, just stop by and give it a try!