Micro-entity audit June 30

Anatomy of a 12-Hour ISA Audit: An Assurance Specialty Service Phil Cowperthwaite FCA Toronto Canada June 2010 Anatomy of a 12-Hour ISA Audit: An Assurance Specialty Service From bruised ego to trusted adviser The culture shock was instantaneous. Literally overnight I went from managing the audits of two of Canada’s largest companies to auditing some of Canada’s smallest organizations. I switched, by choice, from an office of over 1,400 professionals to one with 2½. Talk about a fish out of water. I will never forget my embarrassment in that first week when a colleague dropped by unexpectedly at my new office and found me pouring over bank statements, certainly not the work of a professional accountant with 12 years’ experience. It took a while, but I slowly started to appreciate the change in professional environment. After the first few months the phone started ringing regularly (no Internet or e-mail back in those days): clients asking how to interpret financial statements, how to control transactions and inventory, how to handle board or management relations. Somehow I had transitioned from professional manager to trusted adviser. I loved my new role. And it didn’t hurt that my income doubled in my first year. 1That transition was 25 years ago. I have since come to understand that auditing a micro-entity efficiently and effectively is truly a specialty in its own right. Many auditors could no more deliver the ...