Finding Your Feet in Audit: Why the First Few Weeks Matter

My son recently started school, so these past few weeks have brought new routines, unfamiliar faces and plenty of first-day nerves. Watching him find his feet has made me think about the newest members of our audit teams — and how much there is to take in when you’re starting something new.

A few weeks on, the school uniform doesn’t look quite so new and the morning routine is becoming more familiar. But settling in takes more than learning where to hang your coat. There are new expectations to understand, confidence to build and lots of questions along the way.

It’s much the same for those starting out in audit.

A few weeks into a new role, that initial “first day” feeling may have faded, but the learning curve can still feel steep. New joiners are suddenly surrounded by unfamiliar terminology, audit evidence, assertions testing and documentation - all while trying to understand how their individual tasks fit into the bigger picture.

And if you’ve worked in audit for a while, it can be easy to forget just how much there is to take in at the beginning!

Something that feels straightforward to an experienced auditor can be puzzling to someone doing it for the first time. Being shown how to complete a working paper is helpful, but understanding what the work is intended to achieve is what starts to make it click.

So, a few weeks in, it’s worth checking in with your newest team members. Do they understand why they’re carrying out a particular test? Can they explain what the evidence tells them? And do they feel comfortable asking when something doesn’t make sense?

A little time spent explaining the purpose of a task, talking through an example or giving constructive feedback can make a real difference. It helps new starters build their understanding and gives them the confidence to think about what they’re finding, rather than simply follow the steps.

That thinking also shapes our Real World Audit: A Practical Introduction course. We start with the fundamentals:

What is an audit?

Why do we perform one?

What are we actually trying to achieve?

From there we work through practical tasks, based on a case study scenario that trainees are likely to work on for their first few assignments.

Along the way, we explore what good audit evidence looks like, why documentation matters and how individual pieces of work contribute to the audit as a whole. This gives new joiners a safe environment to try out some auditing techniques and ask the questions they might otherwise be reluctant to ask when they’re sitting with a new team or working on their first client.

Because technical knowledge is only part of starting a career in audit. Building confidence, understanding the bigger picture and knowing why your work matters can make those first few assignments feel far less daunting.

So perhaps now is a good time to check in with the newest members of our audit teams. The first-day nerves may have settled, but where could a little more guidance help?

If you’d like to find out more about Real World Audit: A Practical Introduction and whether it would suit your team, please email us — we’re happy to talk it through.