Skip to main content

How do I view auditors now?

When I was in Public, I always noticed that the toughest ones to deal with where the individuals with Big 4 experience - they thought they knew everything and so decided to tell us how audits should really be done and what we really need to get it done - i.e. a lot of what we were asking was superfluous.

When I first started - I certainly felt more sympathy towards the auditors than the rest of my group, and was very nice to them, helping them along the way. Now, I've switched gears -and I am now the kind of person who tells the auditors what they don't really need and that it's a waste of time. I'm well aware of this switch - and I can't help it. For the most part, auditor questions don't really add value (was aware of this on the other side too) so I don't really care much for it and either ask them to go to someone else or tell them why it's irrelevant. You sometimes expose the auditors too - by challenging them on why they need certain things. If it's the usual "because we received it last year" or "it's in our procedures", we tend to go after them so they don't repeat this again. There's always 1-2 people on every audit team that knows what they're doing, and those are the individuals who add value - since they can help you conclude on an accounting issue.

Where do I stand now? I don't really like wasting time dealing with them, but when I get requests/questions, I'm happy to give them what they need to get them to their conclusions - even if it's a painful request, with the caveat being that I understand why they need it. If I don't believe it's necessary, then I'm in the mood for an argument as long as it saves me time on the back-end. I do believe that there is some value to audit - I just don't want to be wasting my time on the non value-add part.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hello,
If you don't mind me asking. What position in public did you depart from and what position do you currently hold in private?
thanks
ifudgeupguys said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
ifudgeupguys said…
A good read, on different topic if you are looking for a credible auditing services in dubai please try visiting: www.farahatco.com for more information.
Anonymous said…
Hi again, Sir. Thanks for keeping the blog updated.
I guess it might be a little weird for you to be “on the other side” after many years in public accounting. But at least you understand the work of auditors, why they are asking all that information and what it is to be used for (at least in most of the cases).
Good luck with your new job and….beware of the auditors, man!!! 
Anonymous said…
Hi There,
I am starting a new blog for Risk, Compliance and Audit professionals and title of your blog impressed me so much that I have mentioned your blog on mine. I hope you have no objections to that. Please find below a link...

http://www.tronixss.com/index.php/blog/138-my-favourite-blogs-life-of-an-auditor

Also, I am looking for Guest Bloggers and would really appreciate if you can write a blog sometime in near future that we can publish on our portal.
Unknown said…
Reference is wonderful thing for finding suitable suggestion and idea. in this article is very nice excellent scholarship essays is also makes article like this.
Unknown said…
There are various online sources to provide you informative details on this topic, but this is one is very helpful.


accounting in atlanta
Tally Training said…
One more useful website to learn tally....
Jhon Marshal said…
I am really very agree with your qualities it is very helpful for look like home. Thanks so much for info and keep it up.
New Hall tax preparation
Anonymous said…
I was searching for that post quick a long time... fortunately I found it on right time...Thanks again for sharing
prior year taxes
Anonymous said…
This is easier and surely gives comfort to internet users. Thanks for sharing. Post like this offers great benefit. Thank you!
accounts and bookkeeping
William Stinner said…
Thanks for sharing such an informative article. I really enjoyed it. Please visit http://goo.gl/dnHZjp
Jr. Williams said…
I am not much into reading, but somehow I got to read lots of articles on your blog. Its amazing how interesting it is for me to visit you very often.
takeaway food industry accountant
Anonymous said…
This is a great blog . Very helpful.
tax and wealth planning
Jhon Marshal said…
Thank you for the helpful post. I found your blog with Google and I will start following. Hope to see new blogs soon.
superannuation
Anonymous said…
I like your postings.KEEP UP SHARING.
tax return

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