Job Descriptions: Auditor

Auditors are tasked with ensuring that financial companies, commercial business and organisations are legally and financially in order.

The role of an Auditor is to ensure that a company is operating in a financially sound way and that all assets and accounts are in order. This could be checking official finance records, stock levels and assets. Auditors either operate in house or as part of an outsourced company. Some Audit work can relate particularly to Tax issues or business decisions being made which require an expert opinion.

Graduates looking to pursue a career as an Auditor need to be extremely good with maths and figures. Much of the work conducted by Auditors revolves around things as checking a company's books and accounts ensuring everything is correct and the way it should be. This means that would-be Auditors need to be extremely accurate and precise in what they do, especially with so much at stake. Knowledge of business practices and functions would also be a benefit for graduates looking for a career in Auditory.

Auditor Salaries

The average starting salary for a graduate Auditor is £24,480,. This is a great starting salary for graduates to begin an Audit career on and they can expect this to grow as their experience and seniority increases. This is usually after graduates have undertaken a professional qualification like the Audit Qualification (AQ) awarded by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) or the Association of Chartered Accountants (ACA).

Like with many fields that graduates start their careers in, working their way to the top end of the industry graduates can go on to earn some serious money, getting on to £100,000 plus.

The Daily Duties of an Auditor

A lot of the work conducted by Auditors is done on a project basis. This means Auditors will work through a process as they go about their daily tasks. Graduates can expect, especially on a traineeship or Graduate Scheme, to be taught the ropes across the whole process of investigation and reporting and presenting. Here are a few of the tasks that are involved in this process:

• Accounts and Assets - A key function to the purpose of the Auditor's role is examining and understanding accounts and assets of companies and organisations. This is to check legality and validity of the accounts and assets in question and to ensure the company has everything above board.
• Analysing Data - Much of the work undertaken by Auditors is scrutinising data and spreadsheets. This is one of the elementary functions of an Auditor and requires high levels of attention to detail and numeracy skills.
• Legal understanding - Auditors are required to be up to date and clued up on changes to regulations, the law and directives that might affect the investigative work they undertake.
• Preparing and writing reports - The Auditory process follows an investigation and reporting on their findings from analysis or investigations into accounts, assets and companies as a whole.
• Risk - Another string to the bow of Auditors is assessing and measuring risk. This is to see if companies are planning on making decisions that could be potentially hazardous and it is the duty of the Audit team to see whether it would be wise to pursue particular moves.

A career in Audit is for graduates who have a keen eye for details and are great with figures. Auditors are looked upon to make sure everything is in order and everything is accounted for. Graduates should look to embark on a career on Audit if they are highly organised and able to comprehend large and difficult data and analyse for anomalies and misleading figures.