Current Events > CPA/Accounting General Thread: Public/Private, Tax/Audit, etc.

(+) Yeah! (+)

This is a thread designed for all things accounting I guess. Whether you're an accountant in the public or private sector, working for a public accounting firm or otherwise, or just someone studying accounting or interested in it.

I just recently started my job as an Auditor for a big 4 firm. I still need to take the CPA exams, and find studying hard to do (not because of the job, but because I'm lazy). I guess it's a little intimidating knowing that I can't just study like normal, and even if I do well on one test, there's three others to worry about. I'll get it done, though, just gotta stop being a baby.

I was in my "protected" training week when I got assigned a PIO this last Friday; this was only 3 days after I did the PIO training, lol. I hope it went well; the count itself wasn't too bad. It was budgeted for 8 hours (7 hours of counting, 1 for documentation), but I went overbudget due to a delay on the client's part. Got there at 9 (when I was scheduled to arrive), but didn't get on the floor to actually start the count until 11:30, so that was 2 and a half hours of waiting. I'm more worried about my actual documentation, if I did it right, than the count itself. Hope I filled out everything I was supposed to, and that I didn't miss any information while I was there that was necessary for it (I basically based my count around the PY workpapers, which didn't include the information that I left blank as I assume it was just a leftover that all templates have and doesn't apply to this specific count). Was able to obtain all the documentation that my firm wants as well other than the post-cutoff for obvious reasons (got the pre-cutoff, pre-count inventory listing, instructions, count sheets, tag log, tag list, final variance report), so at least I did that part right!

As for errors in their count, there was one instance where my count did not align with theirs. It was only off by one (I counted 50 while the company counted 49), and it was resolved and included in their final variance report/tag listing. When I spoke to my seniors about it, it didn't warrant additional samples, thankfully, and that was that.

The client seemed happy with their variance report, said it was their best year yet (the amount they would have to write-down their inventory was significantly lower than years' past), so I'm happy to get to see a happy ending there. Not related at all to my tests, but thought it'd be nice to share. Already scheduled for another one on the 5th, so I'm just reflecting on what I could have done better. I do feel a lot more confident about future PIO's; I think I'll be able to do them quite well, especially when I find out if there was anything I missed from this first one, so I know what to generally look for in future counts.

This was my first audit-activity (it was strange to be referred to as "The Auditor" by the clients), so I just was excited about it. Hopefully, my actual engagements and RTM coaching goes well (I didn't expect to be thrust into a coaching/review role immediately as a newbie since a lot of what new associates do nowadays is coach the off-shore audit teams).

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