The Practice: a new game puts accounting into practice
The Practice is a free browser game that gives you a year of work experience in a New Zealand accounting practice.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand, 11 November 2026
A Hamilton accountant tried to teach his developer accounting. He got a game instead.
The Practice is Colab Accounting's first step into fintech, built by developer Adam Murray with Anthropic's Claude. It's in beta now, and free while in beta.
How it started
When Dave Mundy of Colab Accounting set out to teach the practice's developer some accounting, he pictured worked examples and a few patient afternoons. Adam Murray had other ideas.
Curious, creative and not one to stay on a lesson plan, Adam decided the fastest way to learn the job was to build it. He brought his gaming, design and development know-how, teamed up with his sidekick Claude, Anthropic's AI coding agent, and kept asking Dave questions until the answers held up. The result is The Practice.
What you play
Players start in their last semester at the University of Waikato. They code a student society's bank feed, check a classmate's pizza claim and sit a final exam. The mark decides which of three Hamilton practices will hire them: the gentle Cooke Books, the steady Kitty & Co., or the relentless Burnham & Out, where the pay is better and the clock is shorter.
Then it's a working year, one week at a time. Jobs land in an inbox: cash coding, bank recs, receipts, client queries, deadline triage, and expense claims checked with a red pen and three stamps. Clients ring mid-job. Each month ends with month-end work and a review from the boss. IRD visits twice, the auditor turns up in May, and the year ends with Close the Year.
The stats follow you everywhere. Skill, Reputation, Likability, Stress and Speed all move with every choice, and a graduate's salary has to cover the rent. Ignore a colleague's message and your likability drops. Leave work in the inbox at five on Friday and the boss notices. Between jobs, a phone holds your messages, your bank app and three quick mini games for when the stress builds.
The cast
The Practice is unapologetically Kiwi. Its 28 fictional clients include a drainlayer called Laying Pipe Ltd, a laundromat called Lord of the Rinse, Heisensuds Car Wash, Hakuna Matamata Holdings and a fried chicken shop in Frankton. Some of them will try to pull the wool over your eyes. Family members ask for favours that come back months later.
These are the stories accountants usually only tell after a few drinks at the Christmas party. The joke is never the profession: the humour comes from the people and the situations every junior will recognise. Keeping it all on track is Bully Clipperton, a bulldog clip who explains the rules when asked. He's here to help. Mostly. He also bears no resemblance to any other anthropomorphic stationery helpers.
A real opportunity for students
Uni, polytech and even high school students learn the theory in class. The Practice is where they put it to work: test what they know, fill the gaps and see the job before they choose it, with nothing at stake.
- Real New Zealand rules, simplified: GST at 15% and 3/23, PAYE, KiwiSaver, provisional tax, bank reconciliations and the 31 March balance date.
- Learn by doing: every mistake shows the right answer and why, and a searchable rulebook grows as you play.
- The pressure of the real thing: an exam mark that decides who'll hire you, a clock, and a boss who reads your work.
- For uni, polytech and secondary students taking NCEA accounting, on any phone, tablet or laptop.
A head start for firms and lecturers
Graduates arrive knowing the theory but not the job. Practices fill that gap with partner time, supervised work and first-year write-offs. The Practice gives grads a go at the everyday work before day one.
Firms can use it to train grads before they start, test the basics, or as a recruitment piece ("play our game"). Lecturers and teachers can set it as a class exercise. Class groups with a teacher login are planned.
A challenge for accountants, and a game for gamers
Accountants already in practice can see whether they'd still pass the exam, then try to survive a year at Burnham & Out, the hard mode.
You don't need to be a gamer, and gamers don't need to be accountants. The uni weeks and Bully teach you the rules as you go. For anyone who likes a desk game in the spirit of Papers, Please, it's a clock, an inbox, a red pen and three stamps, with three bosses to set the difficulty. The full game runs 11 to 14 hours, or 7 to 9 for the short version.
How it was built
The credit is split down the middle. Adam designed and built the game in conversation with Claude Code. Dave brought the accounting: he set the standard, checked the rules and made sure the jobs are the ones a real junior does.
Claude wrote much of the code and content and 605 automated tests, and played the game in a browser to check it. Separate AI reviewers tested it at phone and tablet sizes, and the content went through a structured New Zealand tax-accuracy review.
In Dave's words
Sorry, there isn't one. Why? He's too busy finishing the work he actually asked Adam to do. A quote might come later.
Dave Mundy, BMS(Hons) CA CPP, Colab Accounting
Where it's at
The Practice is in beta now. The uni semester, the exam, the job offers and Year 1 are complete and playable, and it's free while in beta. It runs in any modern browser on a phone, tablet or computer, with nothing to install. Players sign in with an emailed code, and their game follows them between devices.
Request to play, or leave your details to hear about the launch. Year 2 (CA study, a poaching offer and a parody share market) and Year 3 (running a practice of your own) are in development.
ENDS
Notes to editors
The Practice by the numbers (counted from the game, November 2026)
| What | Count |
|---|---|
| Working weeks (4 at uni, 25 in Year 1) | 29 |
| Jobs in the inbox | 211 |
| Expense claims to check | 123 |
| Kinds of job | 10 |
| Fictional clients | 28 |
| Life events (with 82 choices) | 31 |
| Rulebook pages | 112 |
| Exam question bank (20 per sitting) | 48 |
| Practices to join | 3 |
| Automated tests | 605 |
| Playing time | 11–14 hours (short game 7–9) |
About The Practice. The Practice is a free browser game that gives players a year of work experience in a New Zealand accounting practice. It's set in Hamilton, and its tagline is Practice makes partner. It's a game: the rules are simplified for play, it isn't tax or accounting advice, and every business and person in it is fictional.
About Colab Accounting. Colab Accounting is a chartered accounting practice in Hamilton. The Practice is its first venture into fintech.
Press contact: Adam Murray, Full Stack Creative Consultant · [email protected] · thepracticegame.com
Screenshots, logo files and interviews with Adam Murray are available on request.