How not to become Checklist Auditors

[Alkit Jain]

Don’t become a Checklist auditor:

Whenever you are about to start an audit, you will surely get some checklist- either from last year’s audit working papers or from your Managers/Seniors. Most of the freshers, especially in consultancy, stick to that checklist only and do not invest time in developing new checkpoints.
There could be many reasons behind this viz. shortage of time, lack of experience , work pressure etc.
They forget that if same checkpoints are performed last year, then the possibility of finding substantial observation from them is very limited( I am not saying ignore them, do your testing on previous years checkpoints also)

But, keep looking for new checkpoints after going through the complete process, while testing old checkpoints, engaging in conversation regarding processes with auditee etc.
But don’t just follow 10-20 pointer checklist, do your value-addition to it.

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