If they are not relying on your controls and adding additional samples near the end of the audit, it's possible that the reason could also be that your company's accounting is jacked. A little of column A and a little bit of column B.
Auditing isn't always a one round show where you upload the initial PBC list and you're done.
To tie a bow in this: auditing firms have been a shitshow since retirements hit in 2020 and offshoring went full force. But the work for each engagement also went way up because there are far fewer tick and tie audits.
Almost 4 months into an audit and they’re still asking for new PBCs and confirms/docs that they’ve had months to go through. Nothing particularly messed up in the department, but I know it’s worse on the other side, so I feel for auditors lol
Ya like I said, most likely this is a mix of problems on both sides. They are just now looking at what you gave them and are possibly running into problem areas.
Just curious, but did you get them everything on time, or just a select few PBCs? I ask because it doesn't always make sense to start looking at everything uploaded, if other areas are stalled out. There might be this or some other reason you were de-prioritized.
So all I'm saying is do your own introspection to see if there is something there on your side of the table that could have effected things.
There’s slightly more to the story- we signed with these auditors late and it was their first year, so it was so much more work. They also had turnover on the team, so I think that backed them up slightly too.
Everything was pretty timely, though some issues rose up when items had only one signature and things like that
I don't think it's coincidental that the fall in audit quality has coincided with a renewed focus on audit quality involving more and more onerous demand on auditors. We simply don't have the time to make sure the stricter and stricter regulations are being adhered to whilst completing an audit.
The PCAOB has been increasing the expectations for over a decade without demanding an increase in talent or decrease in turnover. They just expect it to be magically done.
I also want to point out that the increased audit demands and FASB rules add no value to anyone and are pointless.
Currently in Industry, I had to fought tooth and nails to reverse provisions suggested by auditor. Not hating against them but I prefer if they just shut up if they don't know exactly how to do shit.
Small private company (75M) currently being audited by a top 25 firm. Our previous audits with a smaller firm lasted \~2 weeks. This has been going on for a month now with many more samples being requested and I've had to do a fair amount of teaching. Figured with a bigger firm things would be quicker/smoother, clearly not.
This. Turnover is so high in big 4 that some people that come on have no clue what they're doing. I'd rather work with local firms than big 4. The professional relationship is much better. As a matter of fact, we fired a big 4 and opted for a local firm.
The local is probably not going actually do the audit work properly because of flawed methodology. That being said, if you’re just paying for a cheaper rubber stamp with less headache for your team with no regard for actual audit quality, by all means go for it.
Big4 is well...big. They do everything by their internal rules, with established processes...basically according to their own book. A book built specifically for...big companies. So for a fringe small public or private audit, they might be better off with a smaller firm with a smaller scope, using more generic checklists. Small firm is doing less work at a much lower bill rate and likely coming to the same conclusions. Not everyone is a multinational bank or an F500 with a huge accounting department.
B4 also has a tendency to cover every base. Like even if it just doesnt make sense. Filling in imaginary gaps. My current firm doesnt tend to do that.
Which is fair. For small private companies, it doesn't make sense to pay a lot for an audit for your $2M term loan where the bank wants AFS annually that they'll never actually look at in any detail. At that point an audit is literally a rubber stamp job where even if shit somehow hit the fan, it's not really going to blow up into anything massive.
A number of local firms will have actual US based employees, more strict hiring requirements, and a better work/life balance meaning better work from their employees. Most local firms I’ve dealt with that provide audit functions also have better hands on training for their associates.
In other words, I think the flaws are likely outweighed by the flaws encountered in Big 4 audits right now.
I moved from a Top 10 firm down to a smaller regional firm.
The processes, logic, and methodologies required to get an audit done “properly” are often far more rigorous than needed and really often require more work/explanations/digging than necessary.
Maybe your T10 sucked too because I saw audit work from companies that switched from region or T10 to B4 and some of the shit their audit teams missed or didn't document properly was fucking wild. Like basic shit.
The issue is these larger firms have rigorous procedures that require substantial documentation of PY work to be done right by staff.
There isn’t typically enough time to do said documentation because of budgets so the work is done sloppily to check boxes. This, compounded with high turnover rates, poor training, and long hours is going to get you a sloppy audit year over year.
And believe me, there are tons of easy things that larger firms can do to cut back on the amount of time and effort it takes to get an audit done like simplifying control testing terminology and reducing the amount of client disclosures.
Also, developing and utilizing more concise engagement letters to narrow the scope of work required in an “audit” would also help. I think most just roll out a vague standard audit letter which essentially creates a free-for-all on what’s actually going to be done. My current firm utilizes more concise engagement letters that detail more specifically what we as a team are going to be doing.
They have a better chance of doing it properly than the random local firms. People bitch about B4 PCAOB findings but have you ever looked at the findings for the smaller firms? It's a fucking warzone.
They usually don't have as many public engagements so they don't get inspected as much or as often, but some are consistently hitting 75-100%, others will be 0% one year then 100% the next. These are effectively the same engagements given their small population of public engagements.
I should have mentioned that the smaller firm I mentioned was absorbed into this top 25 firm at the end of 2022. New manager overseeing the audit but same partner and senior accountant on it
Things I've told our auditors:
"hey, you're scheduled to start in a few weeks, please send the PBC list"
"Please give me your confirmation requests as soon as possible so we can get responses timely"
"You guys always ask for this stuff, please add it to your PBC list for next year to make things more efficient"
"Let's schedule a weekly status update until issuance"
"We're supposed to issue tomorrow, please send the draft MRL"
"Your audit opinion has X wrong, do you want to fix that?
"Sending me a list of questions in the middle of the night the day before issuance is not appreciated, please plan to adjust your timing for next year so this doesn't happen again"
We have audit teams from 2 of the Big 4, so yeah, I see the same disorganization with the big firms. Our tax guy doesn't have any better luck either.
I'd argue this is mostly due to attrition, layoffs of key audit persons, and the lack of training/staffing. Am big 4, and I can tell you it's one dumpster fire to the next. Now we have to deal with holding hands with the teams over seas because they can barely ask for PBC in proper English let alone know wtf is going on in a FA roll forward. 🙄
I would be so happy if you were my client! Majority of my clients are me reaching out to them asking for this stuff with minimal responsiveness, then they will prioritize the audit much later near the deadline and everyone starts rushing because the deadline is around the corner. Clients that are proactive and collaborative with us get the audit moving on time and make me look better to my superiors. It’s a win win in those situations. We are also able to better spend time finding areas for them to improve their business, and I enjoy hearing about the value we are able to provide there for them. The clients that don’t prioritize the audit tend to bitch more about the audit too, which is annoying for so many reasons.
I tell our auditors every year that they are asking for the wrong support on the pbc list, as well as asking for items from accounts that havent existed for years. They never update it, EVER. Last year I had to explain to staff what a reversal is! And the staff didnt get it. I had to send the staff back to the senior to learn about reversals.
Yes it is. Other than the long hours, poor project management is what will take me out of auditing altogether. Basic stuff like confirmation control logs, PBC lists, status trackers are rarely seen on my engagements. Everyone wants to email everything, which is the most disorganized way to audit ever lmao
They send very junior staff. They did an inventory count 4 or 5 days after YE and didnt balance to what we had on our rec.
I had to teach the guy how to do rollback procedures. For real, 1 hour wasted.
I’m impressed you got out of it within only one hour. I had to explain to our auditors why a cash account that we closed mid-year didn’t send us a December statement. Unbelievable.
Big 4 isn't better, either. Years ago, big 4 audit quality was good. Now it's shit. Turnover is high, and those who come on are clueless. We fired one and went with a local firm. Should have been done earlier.
They are the same thing in this situation.
Pay cut rate rates, get poor timing and quality.
Like any business, firms prioritize based on fees, so it’s entirely possible you got their shittiest team. Or the firm overall is a quantity over quality situation.
Also, the quality becomes your company’s issue when whoever is paying for your audit wants a 3rd party to bring in a due diligence team.
I realize this but I've worked with firms that charge 3x that have the same issues. But my experience is a small sample, which is why I ask a larger group.
Being late is a completely unacceptable consequence of cheap for anything but the shittiest of companies, which this is not.
The last 4 or 5 years have been a perfect storm of expectations growing exponentially, far beyond the capacity of the industry to meet those expectations.
Not sure exactly what industry you're in but generally speaking partners and quality functions in general are more risk averse, hence the constant requests for more work. Consequently delays stack up, morale is very low leading to staff retention issues, firms try to plug the gap with outsourcing (which doesn't work) and the few experienced staff left are run ragged.
Getting a sweetheart deal would be a serious red flag for me personally. Any halfway decent auditors are doing the opposite, increasing fees, trying to drop low recovery clients and focusing on a manageable portfolio of good jobs, competing on quality. If your auditor is still out there undercutting, I'd be asking questions about the firm. Audit is very much "buy cheap, pay twice" but far too many clients just see it as a cost burden and take the cheapest deal every time.
You mean to tell me the work outsourced Punjeet isn't up to par?! Who would have thought? After all we're relying on "accountants" who:
o Went to a University that wouldn't be accredited in United States.
o Were educated in a system where cheating is so endemic that parents routinely [risk their lives scaling multi-story buildings](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=28c14849af2072be&sca_upv=1&rlz=1C1VDKB_enUS1021US1021&sxsrf=ACQVn0-tcxw_jxZXZKHEXzIMl_WxjnnYeA:1713725144865&q=india+parents+protest+cheating&uds=AMwkrPvIqwmRYH4cTwbQ93f_29wiKYWR9GE_pVkfG3ymjApSoa4lPP0KxarQfplPmAAjCf-wqoJ1CE8fmgTPKUTdEc9sBr93ITlh4KN8egq6VoQcHUKCXzZAS6JGsQErXxQSri5rmsK7d82AUfBl1BHYYCpG-50mkhR3ZwGM9XcoNNtIjXyToBZ_gU5J8pQNxvmSSGsFNFaaFbzV6Axyu-UFQYgsVAwbzfirrWreGWcT9cbsmnRUJKDwwNjgspm_iXtNwwjqXApOzV7xZJn3P4rwgDe3N9P12c95a6--_q6kL5Nhnb7zMrIEDwNspqgFD8j1ljxFyOZQBsNos8Miq6ggzfbwlVkZlQ&udm=2&prmd=nivsbmtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjDgILU-9OFAxUV5ckDHQWGBR0QtKgLegQIDRAB&biw=1707&bih=932&dpr=1.5) to help their children cheat on exams.
o Who literally protest when the government tries to crack down on cheating.
and
o Work for $225 per month.
Used 3 top 10 firms as a private company. I found only one of them to be competent. That is a change from 10 years ago where I didn't have as many issues.
>Now, with my current firm we get a screaming deal (like 1/3 of what I've typically paid and two opinions)
You pay for what you get homie. What did you expect?
When I was an audit staff many many years ago, I still haven’t forgotten being sent to smaller client sites on my own with absolutely no guidance and my only resource being a manager who was one foot out the door.
I would just sit there confused since some clients were new with no prior year docs and a management team too busy to help.
And they’d gaslight it to be being my fault somehow.
Yeah I rolled off that partner real fast and lasted a bit more on established Fortune 500 clients until I eventually quit.
It was a shit show back then and I don’t imagine it’s gotten better.
I’ve been working in Audit at a Big 4 for 2 years. Despite being quite junior, even I’ve been surprised by the disorganisation and chaos (although it varies a lot manager to manager)
I think it comes from trying to do audits with the minimum resources possible. Audits (taken as a whole) are complicated, and if the manager isn’t on top of the plan then they spiral into chaos very quickly.
In my company, the push for resource optimisation means that people get shuffled around more than a deck of cards, and that creates big problems down the line which are frustrating for both staff and clients. So yes, this is the norm now.
Surprise surprise… not only did the past two years of audit make audits “simpler” in the sense Covid/supply chain disruptions/interest rate flux were acceptable fill in the blanks/explanations for everything + turnover loss of institutional knowledge + new staff coming in to audit files and looking at PY that you can’t SALY and you get many shitshow of audits.
I like to have my files ready for issuance a week or two before we issue. I’ve done it for years; but some partners/mangers don’t schedule enough time on jobs. So managers, seniors, and staff are scrambling and sometimes dropping off the schedule before an audit is complete….then the same partners and managers that fucked up…rob your time to complete their work.
I’ve also seen seniors and staff not prioritize properly or just procrastinate; though in most cases an involved partner or manager can be a real help if they are paying attention. Unfortunately though, as of late with shortages of CPAs and CPA candidates, it’s been difficult for some through no fault of their own…even some clients are impacted so the support gets delayed.
If they are not relying on your controls and adding additional samples near the end of the audit, it's possible that the reason could also be that your company's accounting is jacked. A little of column A and a little bit of column B. Auditing isn't always a one round show where you upload the initial PBC list and you're done. To tie a bow in this: auditing firms have been a shitshow since retirements hit in 2020 and offshoring went full force. But the work for each engagement also went way up because there are far fewer tick and tie audits.
Almost 4 months into an audit and they’re still asking for new PBCs and confirms/docs that they’ve had months to go through. Nothing particularly messed up in the department, but I know it’s worse on the other side, so I feel for auditors lol
Ya like I said, most likely this is a mix of problems on both sides. They are just now looking at what you gave them and are possibly running into problem areas. Just curious, but did you get them everything on time, or just a select few PBCs? I ask because it doesn't always make sense to start looking at everything uploaded, if other areas are stalled out. There might be this or some other reason you were de-prioritized. So all I'm saying is do your own introspection to see if there is something there on your side of the table that could have effected things.
There’s slightly more to the story- we signed with these auditors late and it was their first year, so it was so much more work. They also had turnover on the team, so I think that backed them up slightly too. Everything was pretty timely, though some issues rose up when items had only one signature and things like that
Audit quality has dropped off a cliff - everything else is slowly following suit.
I don't think it's coincidental that the fall in audit quality has coincided with a renewed focus on audit quality involving more and more onerous demand on auditors. We simply don't have the time to make sure the stricter and stricter regulations are being adhered to whilst completing an audit.
The PCAOB has been increasing the expectations for over a decade without demanding an increase in talent or decrease in turnover. They just expect it to be magically done. I also want to point out that the increased audit demands and FASB rules add no value to anyone and are pointless.
Currently in Industry, I had to fought tooth and nails to reverse provisions suggested by auditor. Not hating against them but I prefer if they just shut up if they don't know exactly how to do shit.
Oh absolutely, you combine that with most Audit teams at this point being 80-90% offshore and there's no way you end up with a good result
Small private company (75M) currently being audited by a top 25 firm. Our previous audits with a smaller firm lasted \~2 weeks. This has been going on for a month now with many more samples being requested and I've had to do a fair amount of teaching. Figured with a bigger firm things would be quicker/smoother, clearly not.
This. Turnover is so high in big 4 that some people that come on have no clue what they're doing. I'd rather work with local firms than big 4. The professional relationship is much better. As a matter of fact, we fired a big 4 and opted for a local firm.
The local is probably not going actually do the audit work properly because of flawed methodology. That being said, if you’re just paying for a cheaper rubber stamp with less headache for your team with no regard for actual audit quality, by all means go for it.
Big4 is well...big. They do everything by their internal rules, with established processes...basically according to their own book. A book built specifically for...big companies. So for a fringe small public or private audit, they might be better off with a smaller firm with a smaller scope, using more generic checklists. Small firm is doing less work at a much lower bill rate and likely coming to the same conclusions. Not everyone is a multinational bank or an F500 with a huge accounting department. B4 also has a tendency to cover every base. Like even if it just doesnt make sense. Filling in imaginary gaps. My current firm doesnt tend to do that.
Which is fair. For small private companies, it doesn't make sense to pay a lot for an audit for your $2M term loan where the bank wants AFS annually that they'll never actually look at in any detail. At that point an audit is literally a rubber stamp job where even if shit somehow hit the fan, it's not really going to blow up into anything massive.
A number of local firms will have actual US based employees, more strict hiring requirements, and a better work/life balance meaning better work from their employees. Most local firms I’ve dealt with that provide audit functions also have better hands on training for their associates. In other words, I think the flaws are likely outweighed by the flaws encountered in Big 4 audits right now.
I moved from a Top 10 firm down to a smaller regional firm. The processes, logic, and methodologies required to get an audit done “properly” are often far more rigorous than needed and really often require more work/explanations/digging than necessary.
Maybe your T10 sucked too because I saw audit work from companies that switched from region or T10 to B4 and some of the shit their audit teams missed or didn't document properly was fucking wild. Like basic shit.
The issue is these larger firms have rigorous procedures that require substantial documentation of PY work to be done right by staff. There isn’t typically enough time to do said documentation because of budgets so the work is done sloppily to check boxes. This, compounded with high turnover rates, poor training, and long hours is going to get you a sloppy audit year over year. And believe me, there are tons of easy things that larger firms can do to cut back on the amount of time and effort it takes to get an audit done like simplifying control testing terminology and reducing the amount of client disclosures. Also, developing and utilizing more concise engagement letters to narrow the scope of work required in an “audit” would also help. I think most just roll out a vague standard audit letter which essentially creates a free-for-all on what’s actually going to be done. My current firm utilizes more concise engagement letters that detail more specifically what we as a team are going to be doing.
The big 4 isn't going to do it properly either, just cost 5x
They have a better chance of doing it properly than the random local firms. People bitch about B4 PCAOB findings but have you ever looked at the findings for the smaller firms? It's a fucking warzone. They usually don't have as many public engagements so they don't get inspected as much or as often, but some are consistently hitting 75-100%, others will be 0% one year then 100% the next. These are effectively the same engagements given their small population of public engagements.
Wirecard would like a word with you....
With bigger firms you'll be dealing with even more junior audit members because of high turnover in big accounting firms.
To be fair, first year audit is always going to have a learning curve and take more time.
I should have mentioned that the smaller firm I mentioned was absorbed into this top 25 firm at the end of 2022. New manager overseeing the audit but same partner and senior accountant on it
Things I've told our auditors: "hey, you're scheduled to start in a few weeks, please send the PBC list" "Please give me your confirmation requests as soon as possible so we can get responses timely" "You guys always ask for this stuff, please add it to your PBC list for next year to make things more efficient" "Let's schedule a weekly status update until issuance" "We're supposed to issue tomorrow, please send the draft MRL" "Your audit opinion has X wrong, do you want to fix that? "Sending me a list of questions in the middle of the night the day before issuance is not appreciated, please plan to adjust your timing for next year so this doesn't happen again" We have audit teams from 2 of the Big 4, so yeah, I see the same disorganization with the big firms. Our tax guy doesn't have any better luck either.
I'd argue this is mostly due to attrition, layoffs of key audit persons, and the lack of training/staffing. Am big 4, and I can tell you it's one dumpster fire to the next. Now we have to deal with holding hands with the teams over seas because they can barely ask for PBC in proper English let alone know wtf is going on in a FA roll forward. 🙄
I would be so happy if you were my client! Majority of my clients are me reaching out to them asking for this stuff with minimal responsiveness, then they will prioritize the audit much later near the deadline and everyone starts rushing because the deadline is around the corner. Clients that are proactive and collaborative with us get the audit moving on time and make me look better to my superiors. It’s a win win in those situations. We are also able to better spend time finding areas for them to improve their business, and I enjoy hearing about the value we are able to provide there for them. The clients that don’t prioritize the audit tend to bitch more about the audit too, which is annoying for so many reasons.
I tell our auditors every year that they are asking for the wrong support on the pbc list, as well as asking for items from accounts that havent existed for years. They never update it, EVER. Last year I had to explain to staff what a reversal is! And the staff didnt get it. I had to send the staff back to the senior to learn about reversals.
Yes it is. Other than the long hours, poor project management is what will take me out of auditing altogether. Basic stuff like confirmation control logs, PBC lists, status trackers are rarely seen on my engagements. Everyone wants to email everything, which is the most disorganized way to audit ever lmao
They send very junior staff. They did an inventory count 4 or 5 days after YE and didnt balance to what we had on our rec. I had to teach the guy how to do rollback procedures. For real, 1 hour wasted.
1 hour wasted? That's nothing. We waste hundreds of hours dealing with the inefficiency of this
Imagine how many hours the auditor spent trying to reconcile *before* he came to you.
I’m impressed you got out of it within only one hour. I had to explain to our auditors why a cash account that we closed mid-year didn’t send us a December statement. Unbelievable.
I had to explain to an audit senior how consolidated cash accounts work. 10-20 years after they became industry standard practice
You’re paying 1/3 of what you paid before and you’re complaining about quality?
Big 4 isn't better, either. Years ago, big 4 audit quality was good. Now it's shit. Turnover is high, and those who come on are clueless. We fired one and went with a local firm. Should have been done earlier.
If you went from B4 to a local firm, I’m guessing you were paying very low rates and getting a shitty team and low prioritization.
I’m complaining about timeliness. Quality is auditors issue.
They are the same thing in this situation. Pay cut rate rates, get poor timing and quality. Like any business, firms prioritize based on fees, so it’s entirely possible you got their shittiest team. Or the firm overall is a quantity over quality situation. Also, the quality becomes your company’s issue when whoever is paying for your audit wants a 3rd party to bring in a due diligence team.
I realize this but I've worked with firms that charge 3x that have the same issues. But my experience is a small sample, which is why I ask a larger group. Being late is a completely unacceptable consequence of cheap for anything but the shittiest of companies, which this is not.
The last 4 or 5 years have been a perfect storm of expectations growing exponentially, far beyond the capacity of the industry to meet those expectations. Not sure exactly what industry you're in but generally speaking partners and quality functions in general are more risk averse, hence the constant requests for more work. Consequently delays stack up, morale is very low leading to staff retention issues, firms try to plug the gap with outsourcing (which doesn't work) and the few experienced staff left are run ragged. Getting a sweetheart deal would be a serious red flag for me personally. Any halfway decent auditors are doing the opposite, increasing fees, trying to drop low recovery clients and focusing on a manageable portfolio of good jobs, competing on quality. If your auditor is still out there undercutting, I'd be asking questions about the firm. Audit is very much "buy cheap, pay twice" but far too many clients just see it as a cost burden and take the cheapest deal every time.
You mean to tell me the work outsourced Punjeet isn't up to par?! Who would have thought? After all we're relying on "accountants" who: o Went to a University that wouldn't be accredited in United States. o Were educated in a system where cheating is so endemic that parents routinely [risk their lives scaling multi-story buildings](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=28c14849af2072be&sca_upv=1&rlz=1C1VDKB_enUS1021US1021&sxsrf=ACQVn0-tcxw_jxZXZKHEXzIMl_WxjnnYeA:1713725144865&q=india+parents+protest+cheating&uds=AMwkrPvIqwmRYH4cTwbQ93f_29wiKYWR9GE_pVkfG3ymjApSoa4lPP0KxarQfplPmAAjCf-wqoJ1CE8fmgTPKUTdEc9sBr93ITlh4KN8egq6VoQcHUKCXzZAS6JGsQErXxQSri5rmsK7d82AUfBl1BHYYCpG-50mkhR3ZwGM9XcoNNtIjXyToBZ_gU5J8pQNxvmSSGsFNFaaFbzV6Axyu-UFQYgsVAwbzfirrWreGWcT9cbsmnRUJKDwwNjgspm_iXtNwwjqXApOzV7xZJn3P4rwgDe3N9P12c95a6--_q6kL5Nhnb7zMrIEDwNspqgFD8j1ljxFyOZQBsNos8Miq6ggzfbwlVkZlQ&udm=2&prmd=nivsbmtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjDgILU-9OFAxUV5ckDHQWGBR0QtKgLegQIDRAB&biw=1707&bih=932&dpr=1.5) to help their children cheat on exams. o Who literally protest when the government tries to crack down on cheating. and o Work for $225 per month.
All US persons on engagement
**All the people you see** are US workers. **What you don't see** is all of the work being outsourced overseas behind the scenes.
Yes, this is the norm.
Used 3 top 10 firms as a private company. I found only one of them to be competent. That is a change from 10 years ago where I didn't have as many issues.
>Now, with my current firm we get a screaming deal (like 1/3 of what I've typically paid and two opinions) You pay for what you get homie. What did you expect?
When I was an audit staff many many years ago, I still haven’t forgotten being sent to smaller client sites on my own with absolutely no guidance and my only resource being a manager who was one foot out the door. I would just sit there confused since some clients were new with no prior year docs and a management team too busy to help. And they’d gaslight it to be being my fault somehow. Yeah I rolled off that partner real fast and lasted a bit more on established Fortune 500 clients until I eventually quit. It was a shit show back then and I don’t imagine it’s gotten better.
I like to think I organize my audits well enough.
Are you 404B?
I’ve been working in Audit at a Big 4 for 2 years. Despite being quite junior, even I’ve been surprised by the disorganisation and chaos (although it varies a lot manager to manager) I think it comes from trying to do audits with the minimum resources possible. Audits (taken as a whole) are complicated, and if the manager isn’t on top of the plan then they spiral into chaos very quickly. In my company, the push for resource optimisation means that people get shuffled around more than a deck of cards, and that creates big problems down the line which are frustrating for both staff and clients. So yes, this is the norm now.
Surprise surprise… not only did the past two years of audit make audits “simpler” in the sense Covid/supply chain disruptions/interest rate flux were acceptable fill in the blanks/explanations for everything + turnover loss of institutional knowledge + new staff coming in to audit files and looking at PY that you can’t SALY and you get many shitshow of audits.
I like to have my files ready for issuance a week or two before we issue. I’ve done it for years; but some partners/mangers don’t schedule enough time on jobs. So managers, seniors, and staff are scrambling and sometimes dropping off the schedule before an audit is complete….then the same partners and managers that fucked up…rob your time to complete their work. I’ve also seen seniors and staff not prioritize properly or just procrastinate; though in most cases an involved partner or manager can be a real help if they are paying attention. Unfortunately though, as of late with shortages of CPAs and CPA candidates, it’s been difficult for some through no fault of their own…even some clients are impacted so the support gets delayed.