Skip to main content

controllers

Memo to all controllers/assistant controllers out there: your internal records or general ledgers are not adequate supporting documentation for us, no matter what you think. How can you put a number in your financials and say that the general ledger is the final support, even if it's in the millions. If you find it hard to understand why we aren't using that as evidence, well stick a post-it in your office: public accounting auditors do not just trace stuff from one number in your internal record to another number in your internal record. Please go back to school and sign up for introduction to accounting, or google 'public accounting' to understand what we do. We can understand if you think we only do taxes, but if you really think a piece of paper that your team creates is exactly what we were looking for, well, just move to another position. Please!
Labels:

Comments

kokostiletto said…
I know exactly what you mean! This happens to me all the time!
January 26, 2008 at 10:46 PM
Anonymous said…
Hardly a day goes by that I don't thank my luck for going into IT audit instead. :)
March 3, 2008 at 12:08 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ADP/Payroll

Just realized that the very payroll/adp reports we all enjoyed looking at in order to see how much our client contacts made, now seem to piss me off. Especially when your main contact, who couldn't tell a debit from a credit, makes significantly more than you, and leaves at 5. It's almost guaranteed to get you in a foul mood and yak with your team about the ridiculous salaries that certain employees get when compared to yours.
36 comments
Read more

should you choose to audit financial services?

I'm trying to decide whether to audit financial services companies or non-financial services companies. What would you say are the pros and cons of either industries? Do individuals who choose non-FS have less career mobility within the firm or if they decide not to stay with the B4 after a few years? Really depends on what you'd like to do after (unless you really love auditing). If you want to a controller,etc. at a p/e firm or a hedge fund down the road, you'd want to go into financial services. The pay won't be too bad, especially if you get a share of the insane bonuses they dole out. If you want to audit industries with tangible products and want to get a better understanding of the operations of such businesses, then other industries are the way to go.In terms of mobility outside the firm, auditing other industries is the way to go since you have plenty of options when you exit the audit world. For example, in 2008, after Lehman collapsed, it was incredibly hard ...
47 comments
Read more

auditing vs consulting

I was wondering if you could break down the career opportunities in auditing and consulting (in a big 4). I know that consulting pays more in a big 4 and has more interesting work, but it seems that auditing has extremely good exit opportunities (Financial controller, CFO etc). Any thoughts on which is better in the long run? Well there's different consulting services offered by public accounting companies - the most popular being IT consulting and risk consulting. There are also other consulting services offered, but these two hire the most. Do they pay more? Yes, but not by much. Not enough for you to say: Shoot, the $$ is a huge reason for me to move over. Is the work more interesting than audit? Yes. You're actually looking over a company's processes and telling them what to do instead of what not to do (audit). Everyone I know who's made the switch likes it waay better than audit. In the long run though, choosing audit vs consulting really depends on what you want ...
66 comments
Read more