Life of an auditor

I am a Recruiter, searching for various executive and senior level positions at PCAOB in Washington, DC, and your name came up in my search. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) is seeking interested candidates to join the team. Deepen your audit and accounting skills. Develop expertise in forensic accounting, one of the most sought-after and exciting specializations in the accounting world. Come join us in protecting the investing public. We are currently seeking individuals that have earned CPA certification and have at least seven years of professional experience. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is a private-sector, non-profit corporation created by Congress to oversee the auditors of public companies and protect the interests of investors. When you choose a career at the PCAOB, you are choosing to make a difference to the accounting profession, to investors and to the public. The PCAOB offers career opportunities to professionals in accounting, la...

Source: John Kehoe , Australian Financial Review, 8 July 2009 In another sign of the economic downturn hurting the professional service sector, accounting firm KPMG is cutting the working hours of staff by 20 per cent and informing staff that they may be required to take up to 12 weeks' leave. The firm informed staff of the plans in an email yesterday, KPMG managing partner for people James Allt-Graham saying that under the 'voluntary program' designed to stave off a third round of redundancies, the first two seeing cuts of 101 and 99 staff, that KPMG may ask staff to reduce their work schedule by one day per week. A second option is 'part-paid leave', with the firm also encouraging employees to use their spare time for further study or volunteering in the not-for-profit sector. More than 75 per cent of employees have agreed to participate in the 'temporary work arrangement' agreement. Rival firm Ernst & Young is understood to have laid off over 100 acco...

Gotta love those review notes. Formatted in Word or Excel, they can be an endless source of frustration. I've heard stories where people have 3 or 4 pages of review notes on easy accounts like cash and prepaids. The worst ones, the ones I hate, are the ones that take 2 seconds to complete. "Make this tickmark green instead of blue" Are you bloody kidding me? Do it yourself. Also, the use of multiple question marks and exclamation marks kill me. Come on now, be a little more mature. This is not AIM or facebook. At least discuss them in person or on the phone prior to handing them the notes instead of handing the review notes, not saying a word and leaving the field. Timing's also key. Don't give review notes two weeks after everyone leaves the client site, and expect the notes to be cleared up within a few days. Also have to laugh at the ones with a sense of attitude in them. "This doesn't make any sense at all!! Why is there a $1,000,000 variance?????...

In the words of Shaq... "Just because your certified , doesn't mean your qualified"

Took a few months, but the reason why I was so frustrated with this job hit me again this week. Managers who bear down on you to finish off 3 days worth of work in one day. Clients who have no idea what your job entails, and who are shocked by the fact that their g/l detail isn't enough as support. Trying to audit accounts, which are in essence, unauditable due to a lack of support. April and May year-ends. I have to say, small private companies can sometimes be a major shitshow. Quickbooks? Look, I understand that quickbooks are easy to use and are cheap. But if you can afford to pay five figures in audit fees, I think an accounting application upgrade is due.