The Job of An Auditor: Responsibilities, Job Description, Necessary Knowledge and Employment Prospects
By: Bimol Bee
Submitted: 2011-12-20 04:39:55 | Word Count: 606
The job of an auditor is rather popular and highly needed nowadays. If you're at a loss what job to choose for you in future, you can consider the profession of an auditor. At first, it's necessary to mention that this profession is the most suitable for people who have a mathematic turn of mind, possess good attentiveness and analysis abilities, be interested in economy and law. So, what is this job like? Generally speaking the major responsibility of a auditor is to check accounts with the intention of checking if they are accurate enough and if they don't have inadmissible mistakes. In addition, these specialists have check up whether all the necessary entries are made in the accounts registers and in the cash books.
Basic Objectives of an Auditor
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Basic objectives of the profession of an auditor include looking for discrepancies in the accounts which are kept in the office or definite organizations.
The major responsibilities of an auditor are greatly connected with finances and financial transactions in the certain company or organization. Besides, their task is to check up whether all entries are perfectly legal and correct. Another responsibility of an auditor is to check up whether the accounts are complete in terms of expenses, receipts, and balance. Looking for possible mistakes, discovering irregularities as well as embezzlements and frauds also belong to job responsibilities of an auditor.
Types of Auditors
Major types of auditors are internal or external. Usually, most of companies employ one type of an auditor, while some organizations employ both internal and external auditors. Nowadays, government organizations also have internal auditors who are employed at their own department, and external auditors employed at the finance department or the office of the accountant general. Speaking about external auditors it's important to mention that they mostly work to offer additional safeguards for the company or organization they're working for. The external auditors are neutral parties who always check the accounts impartially and objectively.
Job Description of an Auditor
Auditor's job can be rather sensitive in character. It may happen that management needs the service of external audit in order to find out possible mistakes and discrepancies which were not found by internal auditors. The job of an external auditor usually involves:
* Thorough checking and examination of accounts for a definite period of time, as a rule a financial year.
* Checking up and verification of every personal account entries made during the period under audit.
* Finding out the issues connected with accounting figures.
* Checking up the made transactions that could cause certain problems.
Massive and Thorough Job of an Auditor
Very often the job of the auditor is extremely massive and requires the verification of hundreds and even thousands of transactions in great enterprises. In this situation, the work requires great attentiveness and certainly thorough knowledge of accounting and everything connected with it.
Knowledge Required For The Future Auditor
The job of an auditor requires certain education and training including the following steps:
* Academic course in book keeping and accounting;
* Auditor job training on financial rules, legal aspects and regulations;
* Good job experience plus several years of working under senior auditors.
* Good knowledge of the prices and market trends in the sphere or field in which they're going to conduct audit.
Employment Prospects of an Auditor
Nowadays, there's a great number of jobs for auditors in the public sector, as well as private sector due to the fact that all departments and enterprises need the conduction of audit for safety and financial transparency. A future auditor can also find many job employments in the chartered accountant firms.
