A Day in the Life of an Auditor: Lauren

 

A Day in the Life of an Auditor: Lauren

City: Iselin, NJ

Title: Assurance Staff

Company: EY

 

An Auditor’s Schedule:

7:45 AM – I check my emails on my phone and I find a US firm email initiating a mandatory move to working from home. I immediately begin to think how this will impact our continued progress toward completing the year-end audit for our client.

8:00 AM – I take the extra hour saved from not commuting to the client site and go for a run outside. I really enjoy being able to find time to exercise during the busy times at work.

10:00 AM –  It’s time for our daily status call. We discuss the progress of the different audit areas that are assigned to each member of the team. The meeting helps the team, specifically managers and above, to understand the status of tasks/processes to ensure they are completed in a timely manner. This also helps team members to understand the tasks that need to be prioritized for the day. Now that we are working remotely, these status calls have changed quite a bit. We went from going around the table and engaging in a face-to-face discussion over the status of our audit areas, to video conferencing via Microsoft Teams. This technology has enabled us to clearly communicate our goals for the day and seamlessly continue the progress of the audit.

12:00 PM – Lunch at home. I mix together a quick salad while working through the payroll walkthrough and test of controls. With the help of internal audit, we are able to document and test selections for the payroll process efficiently and effectively. 

2:00 PM – The doorbell rings and it’s a delivery of the monitor that I ordered so I could have an additional screen while working from home. I went from working with my team in a conference room to working on the kitchen island counter in my house. While there are additional distractions at home, we have worked through this challenge by having daily meetings scheduled at a set time and carving out a few minutes at the start of each meeting to talk about whatever is going on with everyone, just like we used to do in the audit room. This reminds me how fortunate I am to work in a profession where our technology and innovative mindset allows us to be adaptable and resilient.

2:30 PM – I take the afternoon to tie up any open tick-marks in my accrual lead sheets and supporting workpapers. I cross-check my request list with the support I have received to ensure there are no open items. 

5:30 PM – Dinner at home. We usually ordered dinner together as a team at the client site, but now while working from home, I decide to make a home-cooked meal — a nice change! I take a break and have dinner with my family before coming back to my laptop to finish up a few things for the night. 

7:00 PM – I worked through comments left by my manager and went through some Independence-related documents for the year-end audit. As a team, we signed off for the night shortly thereafter and I was able to enjoy some TV time before bed! 

Questions & Answers with Lauren: 

What was your major in college? 

Accounting

What has a career in audit done for you?

A career in audit has been very rewarding for numerous reasons:

• Exposure to various parts of each company
• Education on the important processes within a private or public company through walkthroughs
• Interaction with different people at the client site, as well as all members on the audit team
• Advancement of my knowledge of technology and automation tools used to accompany the firm’s approach toward the digital audit

What is one thing that you do with your career in audit that surprised you? 

One thing that surprised me about my career in audit is the vast opportunities available to grow my IT and data analytic skills as the firm continues to move toward the digital audit. These data analytic tools synthesize large data as part of our audit procedures.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

In five years, I see myself having passed the CPA exam and having grown exponentially in my technical acumen and managerial skills. I hope to pass along the knowledge and experiences I’ve learned from EY to others who are looking to join the accounting profession.