Jennie Free
It was all the fault of the careers advisor who decided that as I was good at maths I should be an accountant!!! So after completing A levels I did an accountancy foundation and business studies course at Nottingham Trent, then on to work as an articled clerk with a very old-fashioned firm of chartered accountants – where I lasted about 6 wks!!!
Having decided that the professional office environment really didn’t suit me I got a job working for a local firm of builders as an accounts assistant – where I stayed for a number of years ending up running the accounts dept which in those days included manually calculating wages – back then it took the best part of a day to process a relatively small payroll of approx 30 staff!!!
Various accounting jobs later, most of which involved preparing payroll, I found myself working for a London based temp agency where I was responsible for running a large payroll of 600 weekly paid staff single-handedly, fortunately by this time we were using computers albeit rather slow, temperamental ones!! – after a number of years in this demanding role I moved to France and had a complete break from accounting work for approx 5 yrs.
Returning to the UK I went back to work for the same agency as assistant Financial Controller – no longer involved in payroll but producing management figures
After spending a number of years working outside the financial sector (mainly indulging my passion, working with horses) I met Marian who offered me work within her small but developing company of MJ Numbers where I soon became the Salaries/Wages specialist as well as carrying out general accounting work for a variety of clients
These days I am back living in France, running my own business, as well as working for Magenta (formerly M J Numbers) handling all the payroll work and some client banking tasks.
Personal stuff – I live in the South West of France with 4 horses, 1 donkey, 2 dogs, and a stray cat – when I am not working I am spending my time doing up the wreck of a wonderful old farmhouse that I have bought and riding or walking the dogs in the Chestnut woods that surround the property.