The purpose of an audit is to give assurance of an organisation's financial statements to the shareholders of an entity, or in the case of non-commercial entities, it’s governing body. This means that an audit firm will express an opinion on the truth and fairness of the financial statements. This opinion adds credibility to the organisation’s assertion of their financial performance and position. 

The function of audit underpins the role of capital markets as it allows investors to act upon the financial performance of an organisation with confidence. As professionals, auditors maintain an independence from the entities they audit and at all times must act for the good of the public. 

Our clients do not view an audit as a formality and neither do we >more

As a trainee working within the audit department you will be with clients from day one.  You will be given the training and support to use your skills and intelligence in real life business situations in a variety of sectors.

Quick links:

• Graduate Recruitment: Where are you headed?
• Training with CIPFA & Scott-Moncrieff
• Our audit and assurance services

Audits are performed by teams of accountants from partners to first year CA/CIPFA students, with trainees making up a vital part of that team.  A first year trainee will assist more senior colleagues, usually part or fully qualified staff, in the performance of the audit fieldwork where they will usually visit clients’ premises to examine and test the financial statements.

From the outset, trainees will need to communicate with client personnel to examine, challenge and gather financial information.  This information must be understood within the context of the business and what it means to the financial position and future performance of the organisation.

As trainees gain more experience with different clients and progress with their ICAS/CIPFA studies they will undertake work on larger clients and more technically demanding areas of the financial statements.

Second year trainees can expect to work on larger audit clients and begin to lead the fieldwork on smaller audit engagements and report directly to the audit manager as their competence dictates. 

Quick links:

• What do our recent graduate recruits think about working for Scott-Moncrieff >more
• What we do, why we do it, how we work and how we develop our people. Read our Transparency Report 2009. 

They will usually become more involved in understanding the various strands of an audit from planning to completion.  A third year trainee can expect to head the client-facing team which undertakes the audit fieldwork and will be involved in managing the more junior members of staff and liaising with the audit manager and partner.  They will also become more involved with the planning of audits and communicating with clients. 

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