Yellowknife (Feb 28/03) - The old stereotype of the accountant crunching numbers behind a stack of books and papers in a poorly lit, cramped room no longer applies.

"You have to love the numbers but you also have to love the people," said John Laratta, chartered accountant with MacKay.

Laratta said the accountants in his firm travel around the North, handle diverse files and do work that's just as sophisticated -- if not more -- than accountants in bigger cities down South.

"You're doing something different every day," he said. "That's probably the best part of the job, the diversity." Laratta, who is originally from the Niagara Falls area, started work as an accountant in 1980 and moved to Yellowknife in 1983. He had planned to stay for a year but he got hooked on the North.

Now he's a partner in the firm and he said he plans to stay here for at least another 10 years.

A chartered accounted has to take a mandatory 50 hours of professional development each year, so typically Laratta takes a couple trips South each year.

He said some courses are being offered remotely on the Internet using Powerpoint and e-mail.

"Things have changed a lot since I started."

He also said the digital revolution has changed the job. Rather than spend all day poring over several volumes of information, looking for something specific, Laratta said he can pull it up on a CD-ROM and find whatever it is he's looking for in seconds.

A more efficient process allows accountants to spend more time with the clients working on more forward thinking strategies for their finances, he said.

Laratta said income tax season is always one of the busiest times of year for accountants.

"It gets pretty frightful, pretty busy."

The work comes in peaks and valleys and, Laratta said, some accountants work 12 to 14 hour days. There are the early bird filers and last-minute filers.

There's always a rush in late February because T4 slips have to be sent out by the end of the month.

He said the busiest week is always the second-to-last week before the April deadline.

The most useful tips Laratta can provide for personal tax filers is to file early and be organized.

He said he still sees the odd client who comes in with a jumble of receipts stuffed in a shoe box.

"We all have a few of those," he said.

"That's OK, some people just aren't good record keepers."