I work for a medium sized company whose year end is the end of December. After the preparation of the accounts for the company, I experienced for the first time the stress of being audited. As part of my studies I have studied audit and know all about how it works and why auditors have to ask the questions they do. However this does not prepare you for the stress involved in having your own financial statements audited.
I am in no way criticising the auditors who undertook the audit, but the whole process was stressful and very demanding on the finance staffs' time. Suddenly in addition to the every day work, staff had to make time available to deal with the auditor's questions and requests for information. In particular some junior finance staff who are not accountants, found it hard to understand what information the auditors wanted. Overall the process took a lot of the staff's time and on occasions tried their patience.
Many of you out there will be hard at work training to be an auditor. While you will be learning the techniques of how to audit financial statements, its worth remembering you also need people skills and not just the financial skills. Making appointments with staff is helpful rather than disturbing them every time you have a query. It helps to take into account that finance staff have other priorities and can not always be immediately available, we are not avoiding you, honestly. It also helps to remember that people may not use the same technical jargon as qualified auditors and may need requests for information explained more fully.
As a trainee accountant the increased work pressure of the preparation of the financial statements and then the audit, both which had very tight deadlines, meant I had less time available to study. The stress also meant I was more tired in the evening when I was studying. The pressure of work can affect your ability to study effectively, something that many accountant trainees must encounter, especially as they become more senior towards the end of their training. What's the answer? In my case I took some time off to catch up when things quieten down in the office. It's also worth making sure your boss does not give you unnecessary workloads close to the exams when stress levels are already very high and revision has to take a priority. Anyone got any other suggestions?
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