I’ve been involved in financial reporting for over 25 years. I’ve been a regulator. I’ve done standard setting. I’ve testified at trials and in depositions and in front of Congress. I’ve consulted with companies on the most complicated transactions. But the most difficult job I had was my first one right out of college, as an auditor. And that was long before Sarbanes-Oxley and the PCAOB.
While I’m not an auditor now, I do hear a lot about auditors from the companies I work with. And they aren’t always happy with their auditor. Sometimes I agree with the complaints I hear, but even when I do, I often feel like the auditor is in a no-win situation. And I always wish that I could somehow get auditor and client on the same page. So, this column covers a few of the most common complaints about auditors, along with a few thoughts on why these things happen. The summary: Your auditors are trying to help, even if it doesn’t always sound that way.
