Discussion 2

Hello Class - I was very interested in the discussion forum this week. My boss worked in a big auditing firm before taking his position with our company and I've always wanted to know a little more about his experience prior to where he is now. 1.What do you think about the growth of automation, business intelligence, and data analytics in the field of auditing? When auditing a large organization there can be hundreds of thousands or millions of transactions in a year. Traditional audit testing only allows a small sample of transactions to be looked at. Using data analytics allows auditors to look for outliers or patterns in the data. For instance, if there is a large spike in a particular expense account one month, or if the auditor saw a lot of transactions ending in $0 or $.99. Those situations could warrant a deeper dive to make sure the expenses are legitimate. Traditional auditing practices still have a very important role in audit procedures but adding in new methods and using new technology allows for a more in-depth analysis of a business' transactions. 3.What did you like most about your career as an auditor? I really enjoyed getting to learn so much about a business and how their accounting/finance functions worked in a short about of time. When you get the chance to be on multiple clients in different industries it allows you to compare best practices and begin to build a tool built of your own processes and procedures to carry with you. 5.What internal controls have you found to be the most effective? Preventive controls always seem to be the most effective to me. One, in particular, is the segregation of duties. When an organization has a clear outline of who should be doing what tasks and there is always another person reviewing it before performing their portion of the task, it decreases the likelihood of fraud and mistakes dramatically. One pro to being an auditor would be getting a well-rounded view of different companies, and their procedures, across multiple industries. I have only ever worked in accounting in my current role, and I have always wanted to gain more professional experience. From what we discussed, auditors have job security but also strong exit options. He only worked in his auditing firm for three years before contacting a recruiting agency. Before accepting his current role, he said he had at least a dozen companies interested due to his auditing background. There are also cons to being an auditor. One reason he wanted to leave auditing was the stress of the job, which also sent him away from home for long periods of time. That leads to a poor work/life balance.I enjoy the company I work for, and I would not want to lose the work/life balance I have now.