Time Pressure

ezypzy

Can anyone offer me any advice on how to deal with time budgets. I find them so unrealistic and im starting to get extremely stressed trying to meet them. With every budget I go over I'm feeling more worthless and demotivated. I consider myself fairly bright as I have passed my Cap 1 & Cap 2 exams first time around but just struggle with getting things done quick...I like to think when I am doing something and make sure that I am doing it correctly to prevent errors.

But now I'm starting to regret ever joining a practice coz its all about the money to them I dont think they care about our training

Pisco Sour

ezypzy wrote: »

Can anyone offer me any advice on how to deal with time budgets. I find them so unrealistic and im starting to get extremely stressed trying to meet them. With every budget I go over I'm feeling more worthless and demotivated. I consider myself fairly bright as I have passed my Cap 1 & Cap 2 exams first time around but just struggle with getting things done quick...I like to think when I am doing something and make sure that I am doing it correctly to prevent errors.

But now I'm starting to regret ever joining a practice coz its all about the money to them I dont think they care about our training

A carbon copy of my experience!

dbran

Hi

My advise is you need to work SMARTER and not necessarily faster!!!

This may be just simply thinking about what you need to achieve at the end point. Think before hand if you actually need to do all of the steps? Or is it just an unnecessary over complication? Make a point of looking at last years file to see how it was done last year. Also make sure you know the budget before you start and make a effort to keep within it.

I have heard of situations for example, where the person wrote up the entire cheques payments just because the client had not written up all the direct debits. An extreme example I know but it happens.

When the client gives you a trial balance do you waste time doing control accounts and over audit the assignment?

Kind Regards

dbran

ezypzy

Ye I suppose I do spend too much time on certain things which could be unecessary but then i'm afraid if I don't do something I will be accused of cutting corners...you just can't win.

I did some research and many studies have found that many qualified accountants cut corners to keep within the budget...they often accept weak explanations from the Client or sign off prematurely on the Accounts or if they come across something which cannot easily be traced they might pick a different item in a sample to test - these results were found through anonymous surveys of Big Four Staff - I feel this research backs me up that Auditing is a bit of a joke really ok I might be a perfectionist but what's the point in doing something if your not going to do it right? And worst case scenario get sued by the Client.

spongeman

ezypzy wrote: »

Can anyone offer me any advice on how to deal with time budgets. I find them so unrealistic and im starting to get extremely stressed trying to meet them. With every budget I go over I'm feeling more worthless and demotivated. I consider myself fairly bright as I have passed my Cap 1 & Cap 2 exams first time around but just struggle with getting things done quick...I like to think when I am doing something and make sure that I am doing it correctly to prevent errors.

But now I'm starting to regret ever joining a practice coz its all about the money to them I dont think they care about our training

Passing exams and doing jobs in practice are two completely different things.

Training in practice ? Ive been doing it for 12 years and the only help I got is from colleagues. So use them.

You are thinking too much...get the balance sheet items done first and make sure the working papers tie into your balance sheet. Then check your profit and loss items to see you have catagorised everything correctly and they do not vary wildly from comparative years. If they do find out why.

Ive gone over countless budgets but as long as the job is done right nobody cares, the fee is probably already set.

spongeman

ezypzy wrote: »

Ye I suppose I do spend too much time on certain things which could be unecessary but then i'm afraid if I don't do something I will be accused of cutting corners...you just can't win.

I did some research and many studies have found that many qualified accountants cut corners to keep within the budget...they often accept weak explanations from the Client or sign off prematurely on the Accounts or if they come across something which cannot easily be traced they might pick a different item in a sample to test - these results were found through anonymous surveys of Big Four Staff - I feel this research backs me up that Auditing is a bit of a joke really ok I might be a perfectionist but what's the point in doing something if your not going to do it right? And worst case scenario get sued by the Client.

Ive been in practice for a long time and never did this research. If you think Auditing is a joke then why did you choose it ?

The only thing that matters is the job gets done, it will not always be perfect but clients need accounts done and practices have to send out bills, so they need to be signed off.

How do the staff get paid otherwise ?

dbran

Hi

As previous posters said, its not just about getting the last possible answer and explanation from the client. Its about being able to form an opinion on the financial statements of the company that they are not materially misstated.

This also needs to be done with an eye to the commerciality and the ability to adhere to deadlines and budgets.

This is to say that you are not supposed to be looking to find all the errors in the accounts and every piece of audit evidence needs to be taken in the context of materiality.

Kind Regards


dbran

spongeman

Sensible advice there from dbran.