Audit Manager Series: #02 The Week She Stopped Recognising Herself Wen Qi had four clients on her plate that quarter, each at a different stage of audit. Falcon Textiles' audit was ongoing. Northgate Pharma had a long list of outstanding review points not yet cleared. Brightfield Tyres was racing toward its reporting deadline. Summit Realty, her first-year client, was still getting used to working with her team. None of that, on its own, was unusual for a manager at her level. Then, over about ten days, everything seemed to happen at once. Her partner pulled her senior off Falcon Textiles to help cover another higher-risk audit, promising he'd sort out extra support by the end of the week. The week passed. Each time she asked, the answer was some version of still working on it. With Falcon short-staffed, Wen Qi absorbed the gap herself, on top of Brightfield's looming deadline and Northgate's outstanding review points. She was in the office past midnight most days...

Audit Senior Series: #02 The Weekend Wei Ling Lost Marcus was midway through fieldwork on Denton Retail Group when Grace called on Thursday afternoon. Grace: The CFO needs finalised numbers ready for the board meeting this coming Monday morning instead of next Wednesday. Marcus: That's tough. Too short a notice. Can we get anyone else to help us cover this? Grace: I already tried. Nobody's free. Can the team work through the weekend? Marcus didn't answer straight away. He was thinking about Wei Ling, who'd asked for this exact weekend off three weeks ago. Her sister was flying in from Perth, first visit in two years. Marcus: Let me see what I can do. He sat with it after the call. Grace wasn't being unreasonable. She'd already tried to get help and come up empty. Marcus knew whichever conversation came next would disappoint someone. He caught himself wondering whether saying yes so quickly had made him part of the problem. That evening, Marcus foun...

Junior Auditor Series: #03 Three Rounds on Kelvin Bakeries Priya was testing trade receivables for Kelvin Bakeries, her first time doing this section on her own. She checked last year's working papers to see how the confirmations had been selected. The file just said, "per our audit approach," with no criteria explained. Rather than guessing, she walked over to Marcus. Priya: How should I approach the receivable confirmations for Kelvin Bakeries? Last year's file didn't explain how the customers were selected. Marcus: Start with those balances above PM, then include a few overdue accounts as well. The smaller balances can be covered through other audit procedures, such as testing subsequent receipts. Priya prepared the confirmation letters and sent them out. A few days later, several replies came back with balances that didn't agree with the client's ledger. She could already see that some looked like timing differences, but she wasn't sure t...

Junior Auditor Series: #02 The Birthday Party She Almost Missed Nurul had promised her best friend weeks ago that she would be at her birthday dinner on Thursday evening. The reservation was for 6:30pm, and everyone else had already confirmed they were coming. That week she was covering three sections on the Rosemont Trading file: bank reconciliations, prepayments, and accrued expenses. None of it was due until Friday. She still had some working paper documentation to complete, but it wasn't much, and she was confident she would finish it well before Friday. At quarter to six, she started packing up her laptop. Then she looked around. Most of the team were still at their desks. She slowly sat back down and picked up her phone. For a moment, she wondered whether she should message her friend to say she might be late, or perhaps not come at all. Wei Ling noticed. Wei Ling: You okay? You've been staring at your phone for five minutes. Nurul: My best friend's birthda...

Audit Manager Series: #01 Four Fires Daniel was managing four engagements that quarter: Meridian Retail, two weeks from signoff; Straits Components, midway through fieldwork; Horizon Logistics, only a week into fieldwork; and Cedar Manufacturing, awaiting the partner's final review. He had spent the past few weeks working late most nights, dealing with one problem after another. Just as he thought the following week might finally ease up, his phone rang at 8:40pm on a Sunday. Partner: Daniel, I know it's late, but I need to move Reena onto a new listing engagement. It came in earlier than expected, and she's the only available senior with the right experience. Daniel: She's my senior on Horizon. We only started fieldwork there last week, and it's just her and a new junior, Ken, on the job. Partner: I know the timing is bad, but this client is the priority right now. Can Ken take over some of Reena's sections? Daniel: Not really. He only just joined us...

Audit Senior Series: #01 The Walkthrough That Never Happened Farid was reviewing the inventory file for a manufacturing client. He was looking for the team's notes on obsolete and slow-moving stock identified during last Friday's year-end stocktake. There weren't any. He called Ravi, the second-year junior on the job, over to his desk. Farid: Where's your note on the physical identification of obsolete and slow-moving inventory from the stocktake? Ravi: We didn't get to it. The warehouse team wanted to finish early, so once the counts were done, we packed up and left. Farid: You know we always do that walkthrough, right? Especially for this client where the obsolescence risk is high. Ravi: I know. I just, we were the last team still there, and they kept asking if we were done. I didn't want to hold everyone up. Farid: So you knew, and you skipped it anyway. Ravi: Yes. I'm sorry. But the client said they'd compiled the list and would give ...

Junior Auditor Series: #01 The Message That Confused Her Mandy was in her second year of audit and had recently been assigned to audit a software company. Her senior told her to test 15 contracts for appropriate revenue recognition in line with IFRS 15. Mandy completed the testing, documented her results, and moved on to the next section. Three days later, her senior called her while she was at the client's office. Senior: Hi Mandy, we need you to test 40 contracts instead of the planned 15. Mandy: Sure, I can do that. Can I ask why the number went up so much? Senior: Robin found out from the client that some of the terms in certain contracts with customers were revised, so let's just play it safe and cover more ground this time. Remember to scrutinise the terms for the delivery of the software and all other services that come with it. Mandy: Oh, okay. I'll get started. Mandy had tried asking, but she hadn't really got an answer. 'Play it safe' and ...