I work in industry (banking). We are audited almost year-round by big 4, the FDIC, the FRB, etc. They never stop coming!!!
Mostly I view auditors as an annoyance. They are totally nice, but they make my life hell while they are here because they totally inturrupt my work schedule (and they always seem to come out right after quarter-end, when I'm already having to work late because I have so much to do). Most of them have NO clue what they are doing. In any given group of auditors, there is usually only One person that actually knows that he or she is talking about (that being the manager, sometimes maybe a senior). Most of the time I am stuck having to re-explain everything to new auditors who have no idea what I'm talking about. They ask for things that don't even make sense. They don't even understand banking at all (for example, on our books a loan is an ASSET and deposits are LIABILITIES). I feel like the audit firm should explain things like that to them before they come out, instead of making me do it! And every year, I explain it to the auditors only to have them send out a new batch of kids fresh out of college the next year, who I then have to explain everything to again!
And the sad thing is, I was one of those poor souls right when I got out of college too. I actually feel more pity for them than anything. Except for when they get all pompous and act like they have found a "mistake" of mine when really they just don't understand what they are talking about... then I let them have it. >:-) I actually usually get along better with the female auditors than I do with the male auditors. The guys are the ones who tend to get cocky.
It's funny to be on the other side of things now. I used to hate it when clients got annoyed with me when I audited, but now I totally get why they were acting the way that they were. I am always super nice to our auditors, but it's hard to not get frustrated with them. Sometimes I'll try to explain something to one of them and they just will NOT get it.. after they leave all of us in the accounting department just look at eachother and shake our heads.. like, really, THESE people are supposed to be finding discrepancies in our work? THESE people?
Oh the other hand, we have an internal auditor who is totally awesome. He never approaches me with "you did this and it doesn't match my report, so you must be wrong!" It's more like "Hey, I was looking for X report but it looks like your department changed the process a little bit. Can you help me to re-write the SOX controls so that it's correct?"
FAR: 71, 77
BEC: 70, 82
AUD: 62, 78
REG: 71, 68, 85
CA Licensed 11/2011
