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review notes

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?????" Oh my bad, typo. $100,000 variance. "Bold this number." It's always interesting coming up with answers to these notes. On one hand, I can say "done". But it's tough to resist the urge to say "seriously? You couldn't have done that yourself? You wasted more time writing the review note than doing it. Douche"

Comments

Anonymous said…
This blog had better have a good ending. Have you thought of moving to a small town and going into private practice? I'd be interested in reading about that. Your struggles and successes.
I liked the anger and desperation in the first half, it was full of emotion even if it wasn't a happy time, it was a good read. I expected change would soon come, it had to, but it was an unexpected twist. Like Stockholm syndrome you began to enjoy the cool aid. Then a lull in the story, complaints about exclamation points, and how today's youth have it easy. Granted there is less pain but with the pain went the excitement.
If only life was like a good book.
notfordisplay said…
Wow, I have to say, you're right. I've noticed it myself. I guess if you stay at a firm for so long you have to convince yourself that it's okay. It's human nature. It's also hard venting about our jobs in the current economy. And I've pretty much laid out all my complaints. Now it's just the mundane aspects of auditing.
Well, there's only one ending I can envision. What kind of change did you initially expect?
WM said…
I guess I expected you to take one of the positions offered by the people whom you mentioned call or perhaps be recruited by one of your clients, like your old boss, or whoever he was. But, you are obviously good at your job or you wouldn't be where you are today. If your company is treating you well there's no point in looking elsewhere. It's just that your previous posts gave the impression you were unhappy.
I understand this blog gives you a place to vent your frustrations and as such would be slanted toward the negative aspects of the job. I enjoy your blog just the same. You have given a great insight to the world of Auditing, and I look forward to your future posts.
Robert said…
Review notes are a right of passage. One day...if you continue onward and upward in the world of public..you will get great joy in returning the pain. Or maybe not...at least you'll have gained some insight into the different types of personalities out there. It works no different with CEOs and Boards of Directors. Just different titles and reporting relationships. Funny post though...brings back memories.

Robert
AccountingNation.com
Anonymous said…
a lot of the time, i just say "good point. noted" beside their query if it's stupid. we call the stupid ones DFQs (dumb effing queries)
Anonymous said…
I just stumbled upon your blog, very enterntaining:)
StockKevin said…
Great blog. As an auditor at a Big 4, I can relate on so many levels.
Anonymous said…
so true so true!
Anonymous said…
The review notes are sometimes longer than the correction because you suppose to learn from those mistakes. Next time you hopefully will not repeat them. It is investment in the future. P.S. Some regarding the color of tickmark sounds like too detailed, unless you have major change in definition based on the color.
Anonymous said…
My previous life was an external auditor...got tired of the long hours so I decided to work as an internal auditor...Less hours, yes, but the life is so much not different. More criticisms on the audit reports etc and minute stuff as can you change your tickmark color...I'm in the middle of such frustration right now...which is why I stumbled upon this blog. Glad to know, I'm not the only one banging my head about these audit review notes
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