Auditors versus accountants

There are a few things auditors and accountants would agree on.
They include: -
- accountancy-trained people have a poor image among members of the public (boring, rigid, poor communicators, just to name a few)
- for the amount of manual labour performed, the pay is actually very low.

I'm attending my CPA pre-admission course. Upon passing this course, and with a testimonial from my employer stating my 3-year experience, i will become a non-practising certified accountant. Not very exciting, i know. But can la. heh.

Unexpectedly, we had a discussion in class today. And it struck me how much accountants (we call them people in "commercial" firms) dislike auditors (typically from "professional" firms). This is a general comment, i know there are exceptions. And the reasons are not invalid. They include: -
- auditors who come on-site to perform audit procedures typically comprise fresh graduates with no commercial/ operational experience, and they are expected to "audit" the company;
- more experienced seniors may not necessarily have gained more experience simply by more years of service in the professional firm. They are known to be booksmart, eager to apply standards without displaying an understanding of the business needs;
- managers who typically know more are not present at field audits;
- everytime there's a change of staff on the audit team, the 'new' member comes along asking the same questions. And this happens very often.

So, to add to the misery of earning not so much, auditors are under-appreciated, even hated.

I'm not ruling out the possibility of commercial people being envious of the people in professional firms, who have annual promotions and can look forward to becoming managers by their 5th or 6th year of service. When u (accountants) think u know more about a company, but auditors are those with an almost iron rice bowl (albeit small one) and receiving the promotions and bonuses in a timely manner, i think it's not impossible to believe that accountants might feel a bit of sour grapes. But i'm not entirely sure of course. Afterall, some commercial firms pay very well.

I don't think this problem can be solved. Auditors as a profession, in my most humble opinion, should be eliminated or taken under the arm of the government (something like IRAS tax audits, only it's the accounting one), perhaps a section of SGX. So that those in professional firms who decide to perform "audits" may do it from a consulting, performance improvement angle and seek to add value to the client's business, and not merely to police them. And those really doing the audit for say SGX (in my imagination) don't have to be graduates. They just need a technical understanding of the processes and simple accounting standards. (See, more jobs for those who choose not to study so much!) Afterall, standards may always be referred to. And when that fails, there's always "prior year" to follow.

This way, accountants and "auditor-consultants" (in my imaginary world, again) will have aligned goals, like improving efficiency, tightening controls, improving business, costing for better profits, etc. And hopefully, the accounts department will also become a more valued part of any profit-driven organisation.