To wrap up the 2021 Financial Year, we caught up with William Ko, our Audit Manager, for a quick Q&A.
When did you join the team at CountPro?
July 2006
What do you enjoy most about working at CountPro?
Working in an agile, adaptive and supportive team environment. Help is never far away.
Tell us about any clubs or community groups that you are involved in.
I have been involved in the Chinese Australian Cultural Society of Ballarat for many years, a small association that promotes cultural understanding about differences and similarities of the two distinct cultures.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
I enjoy cutting and joining parts of trees after they are dead, dry and square, and turning them into furniture. Some call it woodworking!
When restrictions allow, where would you like to go on your next holiday?
Everywhere (missed travelling too much). To be realistic, I just hope we can spend a few days in the snow in the Alpine region this winter.
Did you enjoy working remotely during the period of COVID restrictions? And why?
I saved time travelling to work, from 10 minutes driving through Ballarat’s traffic to 10 seconds filtering through indoor plants lying around the living room. However, the marginal difference did not outweigh a good morning coffee in the café and talking to a real person without having to worry about the “mute” button. So no, not so much.
Being an expert in audit and financial reporting, what is one major issue that clients need to be across for this financial year end?
Consider early adoption of AASB 1060. This coming 30 June year-end is the last chance to consider early adoption of AASB 1060 General Purpose Financial Statements – Simplified Disclosures for For-profit and Not-for-profit Tier 2 Entities. The transitional relief options will no longer be available after the standard becomes mandatory from the 2022 financial year.
Which change that you have seen implemented during COVID do you think will be adopted permanently?
We have seen professional bodies, organisations and regulators opening more channels to allow for communication to be conducted online, e.g. documents able to be supplied electronically, meetings able to be held remotely, learning to be conducted “virtually”, etc. As we are all getting better at and used to conducting our business virtually, I believe that these new online options will always be available.