Life of an auditor

The competition amongst the firms are getting tougher, and I really don't like what it's doing to the auditing model. Firms are coming in and under-cutting other firms by offering the audit at half the price of the current audit fees charged by the existing firm. First off, there's a constant pressure on budgets, and the firms keep adding checklists after checklists and other necessary procedures to opine on an audit, effectively telling us to do more work in less time. Like the Wolf says in Pulp Fiction, "That's thirty minutes away, I'll be there in ten". Secondly, given the lack of new clientele, firms are going in and undercutting each other like crazy. It's not like our budgets or our fees for that matter are too high. I mean, take a look at the invoices you pay your law firms. I don't hear any complaining there. Look, I like competition, I'm all for being efficient. But this industry isn't like a grocery store - we sell cheap, so sho...

Good times this year....Companies are striving to cut back on our proposed budget, and winning. At the same time, because of the economy, national is sending out more checklists, and making us do more work around debt covenants, and other specific company risks. So essentially, they're telling to work less by drastically cutting the hours, but at the same time, work more by drastically increasing the required amount of work. (Psstt....eat hours) Look, I agree that such times require more work, but come on now....work to atleast keep the hours as is. You can't cut back on charged hours. And don't even get me started on the checklists.