Posted by Cedric Joshua Martinez
Aug 24, 2018
Share
The audit season is coming fast. Your audit managers are now setting up their plans to prepare the entire firm for the days ahead.
As an audit professional, it is also part of your job to make your own preparations.
In this article, we will discuss some survival tips for the audit busy season.
Read: 6 Must-Have Skills for Starting an Internal Audit Career
How to Survive the Audit Busy Period
Here are some tips to help you and your team members survive the busy audit season:
Take care of your well-being
Once the papers and figures come to your desk, you can expect extended hours working in the office. This means that you might get less time for sleep, exercise, or even a healthy meal.
While you cannot reap the benefits of your health and fitness activities in advance, you can get your body to top-shape in preparation for the tremendous workload ahead.
Getting the recommended 7-8 hours of sleep per day and maintaining a balanced diet are just some of the habits that can get you started.
Meanwhile, it is also important to exercise for at least 30 minutes every day to help get your body in shape. Ultimately, having a healthy work life balance will improve your focus, give you more energy, and increase your productivity altogether during the fiscal year.
Fix your calendar and plan for the days ahead
One of the most important activities to help you prepare for the season is working on your calendar. While it is hard to predict how your work schedule will turn out, your routine activities can easily be planned.
Doing laundry, buying groceries, grooming your pet, and house cleaning are just some of the activities you can plot in your calendar and even do ahead of your usual schedule.
Taking time to accomplish these repetitive tasks ahead of the busy audit season will give you more time to rest during the height of your work, catch up with your family and friends, and focus on more important things.
Keep up with auditing trends and techniques
Audit is an ever-changing discipline due to the latest trends in technology and the business landscape. As companies adapt to these developments, auditors must catch up and familiarize themselves with these trends to obtain the proper background in executing their audit tasks.
Some of the topics you might want to study are cybersecurity and the impact of the GDPR, the adoption of artificial intelligence in business processes, and the future of blockchain in finance and accounting.
Read Next: Comprehensive Guide on Outsourcing Audit Support Services
Sharpen your soft skills
While it is important to keep up with the audit trends and sharpen your technological skills, it is also equally important to improve your soft skills, especially those that will help you succeed in your audit tasks. Soft skills will help you work around other people, establish professional relationships, and conduct interviews and other data-gathering efforts efficiently.
These are just some points to get you started in preparing for the audit season. You should also check what other habits or tips you can improve and work on them as early as now. With the right preparations, habits, and outlook, the audit season can be transformed from an auditor’s feared season to an amazing learning experience.
Need help in managing your audit clients?
Consider D&V Philippines. We offer scalable and cost-effective audit support solutions to help you get the job done without sacrificing the quality of your work. Schedule a free consultation with us today!
You can also download our whitepaper Seasonal Audit Support for US Audit Firms to learn how our globally competitive talents can help you grow your audit firm!
This post was first published on 24 August 2018 and edited 28 August 2024. Edited by: Angelica Garcia
