Counting the days: How do we prepare?
“JUST hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring tingle tingling too (ring-a-ling-a ding-dong-ding!) Come on, it’s lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you
(ring-a-ling-a ding-dong-ding!),” I merrily sing along with my coworker’s Christmas playlist while I make my audit planning meeting agenda.
This is the time of the year when everyone is busy preparing for the Christmas season, playing Christmas carols everywhere, putting up parols, setting and lighting up Christmas trees, displaying life-sized Belen, finalizing their wishlists and rushing to mall sales to buy
Christmas gifts. Auditors, on the other hand, are setting and establishing their best audit strategy for the upcoming 2020 audit season. For some people, audit season—which runs from December to April—may just be an ordinary span of time with New Year celebrations, Valentine’s Day, and summer vacations. For auditors, however, this is the period of seemingly never-ending working hours, rushing and beating deadlines. With a view of what the coming audit season will hold, the question is, how do we, as auditors and as a firm, prepare for busy season?
Just like Christmas in the Philippines, the preparation for audit busy season starts in September with strategic planning that includes an evaluation of the previous busy season: a discussion of what went well and what went wrong; an identification of which strategies will be continued, need to be improved, or have to be addressed differently; an assignment of tasks and responsibilities; and a deliberation on the expected timeline and the much-awaited teambuilding activities.
Keeping ourselves up-to-date on accounting standards, as well as regulatory updates from the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the Securities and Exchange Com
mission, and other government agencies. As preferred business advisors to dynamic organizations, it pays to be always abreast of the latest in government regulations, industry developments, and business opportunities so that we can continuously unlock the potential for growth of our clients, people, and communities.
Discussions with clients on the planned scope, expected deliverables, and timeline of the audit. The discussion will also include knowing the audit team and client’s expectations, as well as their respective responsibilities for efficiency and effectiveness. Teamwork and communication speeds up the audit procedures and make it easier to produce the agreed audit deliverables. As Steve Jobs says, ““Great things in business are never done by one person; they are done by a team of people.” This team of professionals includes not just the audit team, but also the client’s accounting team—a collaborative effort between two teams.
Having a resilient mindset. According to Robert Brooks’ book, entitled “The Power of Resilience: Achieving Balance, Confidence, and Personal Strength in Your Life,” a resilient mindset is composed of several main features, some of which are: feeling in control of one’s life, knowing how to fortify one’s “stress hardiness,” being empathic, displaying effective communication and other interpersonal capabilities, possessing solid problem-solving and decision-making skills, establishing realistic goals and expectations, learning from both success and failure, and living a responsible life based on a set of thoughtful values. Possessing a resilient mindset does not imply that one is free from stress, pressure, and conflict, but rather that one can successfully cope with problems as they arise.
Preparation through careful planning, keeping up to date with standards, setting expectations with clients, having a resilient mindset, and other personal ways of preparation may take time and effort and does not even guarantee success. However, it is far more effective to take action than to do nothing at all. In the famous words of Benjamin Franklin: “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
Everyone’s availability, a spacious venue, a sumptuous menu, a high-tech sound system, a creative theme, a comfortable outfit, and the perfect gift to our manita—that is my checklist for this year’s simple, yet meaningful Christmas partg. Putting in our best efforts to have it all done. This is something we just do not want to fail for now.
“It’s the hap-happiest season of all With those holiday greetings and gay happy meetings When friends come to call It’s the hap-happiest season of all”
Who knows? Perhaps we auditors will be joyfully singing again these lines after five months. Ms. Limalina is an in-charge of Audit & Assurance at P&A Grant Thornton in Cebu. P&A Grant Thornton is a leading audit, tax, advisory, and outsourcing firm in the Philippines with 21 partners and about 900 staff members in its offices in Makati, Cavite, Cebu and Davao. For comments on this article, please email mae.limalima@ph.gt.com or PAGrantThornton.marketscomm@ph.gt.com.