Staff auditors examine and verify a company’s financial activities and ensure compliance with regulations. They identify potential risks and create reports for senior management. They work in various industries and typically have a degree in finance, accounting, or auditing. Professional licenses can lead to promotions.
Working under the supervision of a senior auditor, staff auditors are accounting professionals employed in a wide variety of industries and companies. An auditor’s primary responsibilities include examining, analyzing and verifying a company’s operating and financial activities, as well as ensuring adherence to regulations and compliance guidelines. These professionals may perform audits for clients or within their own organizations and are often referred to as “internal editors”. They can focus only on financial aspects or they can also investigate hiring practices and procedures.
The main objective of the staff auditor is to identify areas of potential risk to a company such as mismanagement, fraud and other types of discrepancies. Companies hire these types of professionals to avoid legal and financial problems. Other functions include reviewing books, financial statements, receipts, financial and employment applications, and employee files. The audit may also include reviewing all types of communication such as emails, memos and letters, as well as interviewing other team members. Following the audit, the auditor typically creates a report for the senior management team, including suggestions and solutions to identified issues.
Staff auditors work in a variety of fields and industries. Industries that have a lot of regulations, such as financial institutions, non-profit organizations, human resources companies, and medical research companies, typically employ professionals of this type. A staff auditor can work independently or in a team with others. If the auditor works on a team, each team member is usually responsible for a specific area of the audit. He or she must have strong ethics and must be able to expose fraudulent occurrences without fail.
The staff auditor generally works traditional business hours Monday through Friday. When a company has busy seasonal periods or is about to go through a regulatory process, the auditor may be asked to work longer hours and over the weekend. Some work overtime to meet month-end closing targets, and others travel to work at external client locations.
Most people in this position typically have four-year college degrees in finance, accounting, or auditing. This position is typically held within the first one to three years of an accounting career. If the auditor obtains a professional license, such as a certified public accountant (CPA), chartered accountant (CA) or chartered accountant (CIA) license, he or she may be eligible for promotions and raises. After mastering the staff auditor role, the accounting professional may pursue a senior auditor position.
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