Career Profiles and Job Descriptions of Auditor

Auditors check accounts to find out whether they are accurate and whether there are any perceivable mistakes in them. They have to find out whether all the entries made in the accounts registers and especially the cash books.

Basic Objectives

Basic objectives of the work of auditor are to find out discrepancies in the accounts maintained in the office or organization.

Their tasks basically revolve round anything related to finance and financial transactions in the organization.
All entries should be perfectly legal and correct.
Accounts should be complete in all respects showing receipts, expenses, and balance.
Finding out mistakes, discover irregularities and even frauds and embezzlements.
Types of Auditors

Auditors can be internal or external. Some of the organizations deploy both types of auditors. Even government organizations use internal auditors of their own department and external auditors from the finance department or the office of the accountant general. External auditors basically work to provide additional safeguards for the organization. They are neutral parties who would check all the works objectively and impartially.

Job Description

Auditor’s job could be highly sensitive in nature. Sometimes management uses external audit to find out discrepancies that were not revealed by internal auditors. Usually it will involve-

Complete checking and scrutiny of accounts for a given period, usually a financial year.
Verification of each individual account entries during the period under audit.
Identification of issues with accounting figures.
Following up to find transactions that created problems.
Massive and Complex Job

Sometimes the auditor’s job could be massive and lead to verification of hundreds and thousands of transactions in larger enterprises. The work is highly complex and requires substantially advanced knowledge of accounting and procedures related to it.

Knowledge of the Field

Education and training that is required for the job of auditor are –

Academic course in accounting and book keeping;
In job training on legal aspects and financial rules and regulations;
Job experience with initial couple of years working under senior auditors.
Having a thorough knowledge of the prices and market trends in the field in which they are conducting audits.
Employment Prospects

Thousands of jobs for auditors are available in the public sector as well as private sector since all the departments and enterprises require audit to be conducted for financial transparency and safety. A lot of jobs are available in the chartered accountant firms as well.


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