What do day to day tasks in audit usually consist of (graduate level)?
Ranita X. asked a question to EY
Category: Day to Day
Date asked: Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Last reviewed: Friday, January 10, 2025
Pinned reply
Ross W.
Assurance Associate
As someone who has recently started in assurance, I have been quite surprised by just how varied my workload has been from day to day. For a start, our first couple of months were spent studying with ICAS towards our professional qualifications. There was a reasonable mix of self-study and in-person classes, so you got the chance to build relationships with your year group before you started working on engagements. You will normally do a few blocks of study with ICAS, ACCA or ICAEW towards your chartership - the spacing helps, as you get the chance to learn some of the theory and then apply it in practice when you're working in engagements.
In terms of client engagements, there can be quite a bit of variety depending on where in the audit process you are. For example, my client have just reached their year-end, which means we are finalising our interim testing and moving onto our year end tests. We sample different aspects of the business - for example, their VAT account or their machinery purchases for the year - and work with the client to ensure we have evidence to support that these transactions took place. I'm really enjoying this stage as I get to focus on different parts of the business and gain a deeper understanding of how the company actually operates in practice; knowledge which I know will help me in my next engagement. Our team also have a model where we spend two days a week on our client site, so you get to work with different people and build relationships, which I personally enjoy.
At the planning stage, you will be more focused on learning about your client firm and the industry in which it operates, as well as any risks they face and how this might impact their financial statements. This can be as simple as reading news articles about your firm, or using our EY resources to help you conduct analysis of the business; it could also involve visiting your client and speaking to management about how their business and how it operates. Once you have an overall picture, it's a lot easier to focus on specific processes and aspects of the business.
You'll do a few stock counts in your first couple of years with EY - the guidance is constantly evolving to ensure we deliver a good quality audit, but there are plenty of resources available to help. My first count was spent shadowing a second-year associate, which definitely helped when it came to doing a count on my own. I quite enjoy the counts as you get to work with different clients and also connect with EY staff from other offices - they can seem quite daunting, but your EY contact is there to prepare you and help on the day if you encounter any issues.
Overall, there is a lot of variety in Assurance - even aside from having a varied workload, EY have a remote working policy which allows you to split your time between the office, your client site, and working from home. There's much more to life in Assurance than sitting behind a computer all day!
Friday, January 10, 2025
Duncan O.
Associate - FSO Assurance
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!
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Ranita X.
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.
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Duncan O.
Associate - FSO Assurance
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
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Ranita X.
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?
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Duncan O.
Associate - FSO Assurance
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.
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Ranita X.
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)?
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Duncan O.
Associate - FSO Assurance
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!
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Ranita X.
How would you say technology is impacting audit?
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Duncan O.
Associate - FSO Assurance
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
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Ranita X.
Stock counts-can this also be improved via technology? As you mentioned looking at financial statements has been improved via technology
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Duncan O.
Associate - FSO Assurance
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
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
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