Skip to main content

outsourcing

Is it possible for auditing work to one day be outsourced like some of the IT sector has? Or do the various exams, credit hours etc prevent that? 


We've slowly started outsourcing work already - the testing of documents clerically, the testing of journal entries for completeness and filtering the entries using certain criteria, independence work, rollforwards of prior year schedules,financial statement tie-outs, etc. I'd say about 10-15% of our work is being outsourced, and I can probably see it keep going up.

At the same time, I can never see it fully being outsourced since there is still a matter of face to face conversations with your clients to discuss accounting issues, to build relationships so as to increase the Firms' revenues, to make inquiries of key client personnel. Plus, in order for staff to go through the heirarchy and become partners, they'd probably need to understand all the procedures that an audit entails.

Are we completely immune from globalization? No, but I can't see the entire job being outsourced. Who knows, maybe the Firms will give it a shot and it will become the new normal. As of now, I like that such work is being outsourced, it frees up the staff to do focus on other areas.


Comments

Anonymous said…
"As of now, I like that such work is being outsourced, it frees up the staff to do focus on other areas."

That makes a big assumption that the work is completed to a certain standard. From my experience as a senior, this standard is rarely met and someone on the on-shore engagement team ends up redoing it all after already wasting time coordinating with India.
notfordisplay said…
I'd say it's hit or miss, just like it is with any senior-staff team in the US to be honest. The odds of having a bad senior-staff team is about the same as the odds of having a bad team from India. We've had primarily good experiences based on what I've been hearing from the seniors.
Anonymous said…
I've had about ten different staff from India. Not one has been able to produce something satisfactory and this is after spending about an hour on the phone and providing written instruction.
Anonymous said…
My company is currently outsourcing our internal audit services, in addition to our permanent staff, to handle almost all type of assignment in peak period.
However, to ensure the maximum quality, the outsourcing staff only get in charge for fieldwork process, meanwhile, the review process is still under the permanent staff's responsibility.
Offshore Software Development India

This post is good and describe the life of the auditor that want to be in IT field.
Len Stephens said…
Outsourcing is a trend that is becoming more common in information technology and other industries for services that have usually been regarded to managing a business.
Unknown said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said…
essay typer Essay is a prose composition which expresses the individual experiences and viewpoints about some specific issue or problem. When writing an essay it is important to consider the following aspects. First of all, you must choose a good topic for your paper. The topic of an essay must be actual and exciting. The introduction and conclusion should focus on the problem. You must summarize the author’s opinion in the introduction. Your essay must include a thesis statement. The body of the essay should be presented with the help of several paragraphs in a logical order. In the body of your paper you must demonstrate relevant examples, convincing evidence and material from checked sources such as textbooks, library catalogs, encyclopedias, manuals, journals and scientific articles. In final part you must write a brief summary of the whole work.
nann said…
These types of scam has been going on for years. It's a copy and paste system. The claims seem promising because the investment is small. For only $25 dollars, EPS claims you can make $3750 per month just by Email Processing System
raju247 said…
Commercia Refrigerator repair in Orange County, CA A broken refrigerator at your house can ruin your day and bring some troubles, but having a commercial refrigerator malfunction can cause negative impact on your business. Any refrigeration syste... Know more just go our website..
“thermal imaging cameras supplier “ As one of the leading manufacturers for long distance thermal imaging camera and infared laser night vision camera. Hope-Wish alwaysing focusing on customer’s requirements, providing professional services and high-tech cameras to protect national security and social stability.
We manufacture mainly three kinds of products which include thermal imaging camera, IR laser camera a
Unknown said…
This is a very nice article. I'm very satisfied with the information you provided. Big thanks and keep on writing. Buy Electric Guitar Online In Bahrain
Hero said…
Making cooking a little easier. It's hard, it takes time and who's got the time after a long day of work, looking after kids and being on your feet all day ? I bet you don't and neither do I.. making cheap and tasty modern day meal kits the new normal among all the changes going on in our world today. meal kits
Rafid said…
Recovery Treatment Programs Substance Abuse Addiction Are you in need of an Addiction Treatment Program? Choosing a Drug Rehab ,Alcohol Rehab or any Addiction Treatment program does not have to be a difficult task.

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.

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

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