What do day to day tasks in audit usually consist of (graduate level)?

Hi Ranita! The tasks you get involved in a far more varied than you'd expect. There's always a lot spoken about the mundane tasks that first years have to do but from my experience this isn't actually the case. Of course some time is spent on the more standard levels of the audit (like stock counts) but there's plenty of opportunity for shadowing seniors in all stages of the audit. Even at an early stage it is what you make of it!

Thank you for your reply. Apart from stock counts what other kind of tasks could we be expected to do? I'm trying to get a better understanding of the role.

So it depends on which stage of the audit you are working at. At the planning stage at this time of year a lot of your work will be research into the company, getting to understand the various risks that are involved specific to a particular client. Then over Christmas the focus will be on stock counts and getting ready for the more substantive testing.

After christmas you will actually be spending a lot more time at the clients site and this is where the more substantive testing takes place. This is where you actually look at the financial statements provided for by the client and seeing if the numbers are as they should be

Could you please elaborate on what you mean by: getting to understand the various risks that are involved specific to a particular client? Would this be more the non-finanical side to audit?

So it can be a mixture of things. A lot of risks from clients arise because of the working culture and the controls they have in place. So at the earlier stages a lot of the work done involves talking to clients, observing how they work and looking at their past performance. Then later on is where you will actually do more of the financial stuff.

Once you have conducted the risk analysis, do you suggest improvements? Is this risk analysis conducted to help with the financial statement testing after Christmas (why do you do this risk assessment as part of your role as an auditor)?

Particularly nowadays, clients expect a lot more from their auditors! So yes, after the controls testing phase, suggesting improvements is certainly something that can add value to clients - normally done through things like a letter to the directors. The reason that risk assessment is so important is because it highlights areas that are actually working well. This means that later on these areas can be relied upon and less deep testing work will be needed - which is better for everyone!

How would you say technology is impacting audit?

Massively! For example in the past, an auditor would check a clients invoices to ensure they were accounting for sales correctly. Now we can obtain an electronic download of clients sales for a full year and our analytics tools will produce graphs and correlation analysis of this data. The auditor then interprets this data to clients. We use automation to avoid the mundane tasks such as invoice ticking and focus more on data analysis

Stock counts-can this also be improved via technology? As you mentioned looking at financial statements has been improved via technology

Definitely - the more we can use technology to improve the efficiency of our analysis of data, the less work we have to do at the initial stages

Thanks a lot for your answers. They were very helpful and informative!