Working as an auditor – what are the pros and cons of the profession of an auditor

Auditors are people who demonstrate the highest level of professionalism on a daily basis. They check the financial and economic activities of organizations and help to minimize financial risks in legal ways. This profession appeared in Russia recently, 25 years ago. And in tsarist Russia, military secretaries and lawyers were considered auditors.

What is the work of an auditor – what do auditors do during the working day

There are no identical clients, therefore, while working on each new project, the auditor must show all his professionalism. Most often, the check is carried out at the location of the client. Depending on the scale of the company’s activities work on a project can last from several weeks to three months. On large projects, auditors often work in dedicated teams.

As a rule, an enterprise audit includes: research and consulting work, information exchange, verification, analysis of reports.

1. The auditor begins any project with the formation of a complete picture of the client’s business. During meetings with company management, operational aspects of the audit and aspects of strategy are discussed.
2. Then a direct check of the company’s activities begins:
   • To fully understand the essence of the company’s activities, the auditor gets acquainted with the results of previous audits, if any.
   • The balances of funds in the accounting of the company are compared with the data of the bank.
   • The company checks the presence of the company’s assets on a specific date and the correctness of their value in the accounting records.
   • Examination the correctness of the tax and financial records of the company.
   • Compilation and confirmation of an accurate list of the client’s suppliers.
   • Examining the inventory methods that the client uses.
   • Testing existing controls and client processes.
3. The last stage of the audit is the preparation of the report. about the work done. In it, the auditor describes all problematic issues and his recommendations for their solution.

Professional skills and personal qualities required to work as an auditor – is the profession of an auditor right for you?

Insofar as an auditor is a very responsible job, the person involved in this activity must have many professional skills:

• Excellent knowledge of finance, economics and accounting.
• Ideal knowledge of financial and tax legislation.
• Ability to prepare financial documents.
• Ability to identify violations and errors (in this case, it is necessary to distinguish when it was done intentionally and when it was not).
• Ability to quickly delve into the essence of the audited company.
• It is desirable to know foreign languages.
• Ability to work in all programs required for a full-fledged audit.

In addition to professional skills, a good auditor must have the following personal qualities:

• Attentiveness.
• A responsibility.
• Integrity.
• Accuracy.
• Sociability.
• Analytical mind.
• Emotional resilience.
• Good memory.

Pros and cons of the profession of an auditor

Like any other job, the profession of an auditor has advantages and disadvantages.

Pros of the profession:

• High demand in the labor market.
• High profit payment.

Cons of the profession:

• Irregular working hours.
• Frequent and long business trips.
• Auditors cannot be wrong (if a client pays a fine for a missed violation during a tax audit, the audit company will lose its reputation).
• In a short time, the auditor must process a huge amount of information.
• Fuzzy formation of laws and their frequent correction.
• Without work experience it is almost impossible to get a job as an auditor.

Prospects for working as an auditor – earnings, career growth (average earnings in Russia, where they get more and why, is there an opportunity for career growth)

In Russia only a person with a qualified certificate can work as an auditor, issued by the Moscow Audit Chamber. According to

legislation, a person applying for it must meet the following requirements:

• Passing a qualified exam.
• During the announcement of the exam results, the applicant must have experience work related to accounting or auditing at least three years, while two of them must be in the audit company.
• From the day the decision of the Unified Attestation Commission is made on passing the qualification exam by the applicant until the day of receipt of the application for the issuance of the certificate by the Moscow Audit Chamber, no more than a year should pass.

Usually before obtaining a professional certificate, specialists work as an assistant auditor. Every year, the largest audit companies in the country recruit graduates for internships, based on the results of which they recruit employees. Newbie salary the average is about 20-25 thousand rubles.

For young professionals, the most attractive audit companies on the Russian market are:

• Delloite
• KPMG
• PrisewaterhouseCoopers
• Ernst & Young

Young specialists have relatively low salaries, but with increasing experience, after a few years, the auditor can receive from 60 to 90 thousand rubles monthly.

The auditor has career growth both vertically: assistant auditor, auditor, senior auditor, audit manager, and horizontally: transition from a Russian audit company to an international one.

Where and how to get the profession of an auditor – advice to those interested

A certified auditor must have a higher education in economics, preferably with a degree in Accounting and Auditing. Today in Russia such specialists are trained by a fairly large number of universities.

Depending on the level of qualifications (bachelor, specialist, master), mastering this profession takes from 3.5 to 5.5 years. Cost of education depending on the educational institution, qualification level and form of training varies from 70 to 200 thousand rubles. in year.

In addition to completed higher education, to become a professional auditor, it is necessary to complete special courses, and regularly improve their qualifications.

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