Accounting and Tax-Compliance Support in Two Chartered Accountancy Firms: A Comparative OJT-Based Case Study

Author

Akash Prajapati, Sayali Pramod Pawar, Shirly Abraham


Abstract

Background: On-the-job training (OJT) in Chartered Accountancy (CA) firms exposes management students to accounting and compliance workflows, but few accounts compare how source-document checks, reconciliation, documentation and supervisory review operate across internships. 

Purpose: This comparative case study asks how selected accounting and compliance-support activities were organised in two OJT internships of MBA students at CA firms in Maharashtra, what recurring difficulties arose and what improvements the evidence supports. 

Method: The internships were analysed retrospectively. Each was described individually and then compared across common activities: accounting entries, tax-information review, documentation, professional-tax work and supervisory review. The evidence comprised OJT daily work diaries, weekly reports, working sheets and work records.

Findings: In both internships, support tasks followed a similar sequence of source document, record, comparison or reconciliation, and supervisory review. Differences, such as GST and bank reconciliation in one internship and audit-report formats and Import Export Code documentation in the other, reflect assigned tasks and access to records and cannot be read as differences between the firms. The proposed improvements (task checklists, a work-status tracker, a documented review step) are untested. 

Limitations: Two internships, trainee-level support roles, short duration and the absence of quantitative data limit generalisation. No client data are reported.


Keywords

On-the-job training; Comparative case study; Chartered Accountancy; GST compliance; Annual Information Statement; Bank reconciliation; Audit documentation; Professional tax



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