Trainee auditor's blogs

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

5 March 2009

“Hello everyone. I’m back and its time for a catch up blog. It’s been an exciting time – well ‘ish’. Just to let you know I PASSED MY EXAMS!!!!!

One of the more stressful parts of being a trainee is getting your exam results and knowing you’ve passed. I scraped through – got 50% on one exam (the pass mark is 50 marks out of 100) so no margin for error there. My London area (South West) had a 100% pass rate for this sitting of exams – if I’m not mistaken we are the only area to do so. (So for any prospective graduate who wants to come to the patch which guarantees examination passes ... only kidding).

I was very relieved – and now – I’m back at college.

It’s a little weird going back – but it’s a welcome distraction from the office. At the Commission we go on day release rather then block release. What this means is that as opposed to taking a month out to go on an intensive course you take 1 or 2 days out a week to go to college. The course is spread out over the course of 4 months and it gives you the opportunity to consolidate your knowledge. I can safely say that I prefer studying this way as I’m not a good ‘crammer’ – and I’m pretty grateful that the Commission has maintained this policy to date. I also had valentines day - can’t say too much – apart from the credit card getting pounded and left me wondering when payday was coming up.

Work wise I am still at my Primary Care Trust – and have started looking at the capital accounting. For all you accounting bods there – I’m assessing the long term assets of the organisation – everything from buildings, to medical equipment, to vehicles, to plant and machinery, and I am responsible for verifying that these items actually belong to the organisation.

Sound Boring?

Perhaps, but this does mean that when you are at some large charities, when you view their assets, you are often taken to art galleries, viewing sculptures, antiques, paintings…..I kid you not. Its probably one of the highlights of my time so far.

It's also one of the most technical areas you will ever cover as an auditor. As I’m still a trainee you are learning the ropes, but you test and assess how the organisation records any new additions to their assets, any sales, and any revaluations of their assets (prices can go up and down after-all). It’s a pretty steep learning curve but it’s a lot of fun.

As Trainees on SW London we get the opportunity to meet with our main training manager (one of the senior audit managers) where we get to discuss how life is treating us and also provides us the opportunity to feed back any issues with college and work.

A lot of Trainees are getting the opportunity to lead their own audits in our area to aid them with their development, and one of the themes was discussing how they could be supported better (I’m one of them), as the learning curve is very steep. We had the opportunity to convey our views to our district auditor (equivalent of partner in a firm) and we even got treated to coffee and had a chance to chat to her individually. It is always great to chat to the senior members of staff, and its without doubt a real plus that regardless of whether you are just starting out or an experience pro, you always get the chance to chat to the guys at the top.

Coming up – I start work back at my local government client, I start work on performance audit work (very different to financial audit work) and we have a big area day out (staff day out of the office for South West London)

On that note – take care everyone.”

Posted by: LW