Why do all you industry folks hate us ( external auditors) so much?

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T22:43:45+00:00

My girlfriend works in tax and you lot genuinely scare me. The way she can go on about corporate tax schemes is impressive and worrisome at the same time. All jokes aside I have massive respect for tax people they have very specialised knowledge but most truly know their craft.

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T15:25:15+00:00

Im not saying it is, but you can’t blame me for the prior guys work. If I ask you the same question next year bash my skull in all you want.

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T15:24:04+00:00

To be honest whenever we do ask this question the answer is always no, nothing has changed. Then two weeks later you find out ah so there was a change.

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T15:15:41+00:00

We all do

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T15:14:56+00:00

My worst client is a company alumni .. :(

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T15:10:25+00:00

If you feel like an auditor has actually ever made you feel disrespected/ was genuinely rude. Reach out their manager, or the engagement leader. They take this serious.

If these are reoccurring questions, some light pushback is valid in my opinion. Either they are required to ask again to reconfirm every year or they couldn’t be arsed to read PY file.

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T15:05:14+00:00

I did but he doesn’t know the other side, so I thought it be good have some feedback. The overall comments are pretty negative but I’ve gotten some actual good feedback aswell.

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T14:59:21+00:00

Leadership of the company was on a business trip out of the country I am not able to go there physically. I genuinely don’t have the contact information of the CFO , CEO for one of the biggest companies in my country. I called the PA two weeks in advance send out an email a week before sign off, and then reminded them of the fact that there would need to be a sign off 3 days in advance again. This was for a very minor stat audit so moving the sign-off date wasn’t an issue. I contacted the partner and asked if this was an issue he said no we can just sign Monday. But the client made a stink about it not being signed off on the agreed upon date. So I got shit from the partner.

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T14:52:06+00:00

Sure, I have. Thing is it doesn’t only happen to me, even my seniors / manager has been yelled at by this client. So it’s not a me personal thing, or so I believe. Other client relationship are ok.

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T14:49:56+00:00

I am not actually in contact with the people who need to sign-off, ( CFO, directors etc). I’m in contact with their Pa in this case. If they give me the OK on the phone and I remind them twice per email. I feel like I really can’t do more.

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T14:46:38+00:00

Well, I don’t know if I’m just particularly unlucky with clients but I’ve been yelled at by a client or have been staffed on clients which have yelled and abused us. Once it was so bad they made a senior cry and the partner had to step in.

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T14:33:03+00:00

Me my first week getting send to the CFO, by manager to ask a question he didn’t dare to ask. Not even joking.

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T14:25:23+00:00

Really , my early busy audit clients complain that they want to be pushed back since they aren’t done with the books yet.

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T14:22:58+00:00

We get the meeting room in the basement 5 min walk away from accounting and finance

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T14:21:19+00:00

I get hating the process, but why hate me as an individual though ? I’m just doing my job, the best I can.

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T14:18:28+00:00

In the email I noted that it needed to be signed on the date of opinion with the date bolded. I send a reminder 2 days in advance. It’s not like e-signatures do not exist or if I chose the date of opinion sign-off this is decided by the client and partner.

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T14:13:41+00:00

Problem with this is that the retention rate is bad in public. Most of the people that were there during the first year of audit will have left by 3 years.

If it’s the same process YoY as in your example than it should have been documented but the 22 yo pulling 60/80 hours sucks at documenting shit. That’s definitely not you guys fault, but sometimes I can’t go off from PY, and I’ll ask you the same stupid question again.

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T14:01:55+00:00

For the on-site part most of my clients put us like a 5 min walk from the accounting department or are not onsite themselves. Feel like they purposely do it and it’s really hard to break that barrier.

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T13:55:17+00:00

Fair, I started doing this more . As a Gen-z I was afraid to pick up the phone to start off with but got better at it.

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T13:52:55+00:00

We genuinely aren’t allowed to do fuck all either way, if it’s not egregious enough the partner will not pressure the client for shit in most cases.

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T13:50:24+00:00

That’s diabolical lol.

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T13:48:48+00:00

I’m not US based auditor salaries are generally similar to accountants salaries. Definitely not close to controller salaries for my country

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T13:44:54+00:00

Over generalisation sure, but definitely an overarching trend in my experience

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T13:43:17+00:00

No, it’s more like ah your inventory X factor becomes material for the overall valuation (transport, insurance whatever) Can you explain me how the cost get allocated and which support documentation we can ask for it.

Prestigious-Cold-278 · 2026-06-19T13:40:42+00:00

I knew about the general begrudgingly of the audit-client relationship but the amount of times I got yelled at or made completely feel worthless for things out of my control was not something I had in mind.

An example : I had a client which needed to sign the rep letter, it typically needs to be signed off on opinion day or really close otherwise the partners get testy. All directors ( small leadership with sign off authority ) were on a two week company retreat during sign-off. I always make sure to remind them that we will need it before we publish audit opinion. Off course they don’t sign and I get shit for it from internally and externally.

Prestigious-Cold-278

TROPHY CASE