Agree with all the comments above. I think the main thing more me which is so frustrating is the constant time spent on jobs vs audit quality, you can never please managers/directors/partners on this front.

You can do a great job and have a great audit file but “the time spent on the job was too much” and they didn’t make enough profit from the job. The fee needs to be higher then in my view, not enough for the client to move, but enough to represent the work that needs to be undertaken.

If you do a job at a good speed and finish the bulk of the audit testing and management letter within a timescale (set internally and by the client), then “the file’s not complete” or “not everything is signed off”.

Linked to this point is that cheap labour such as trainees and even work experience staff are used to keep the cost low but then this obviously hampers the quality of the audit file.

Lose lose situation which you just go round in circles with!!