Working hours of Big 4 Auditors in ASEAN Countries

This post intends to give everyone a general idea of the working hours of Big 4 auditors in ASEAN.

Based on our talks and discussion with auditors in ASEAN.

During peak season, generally it falls on January- February of every year in ASEAN countries, auditors would stay up till at least 10.00p.m. till beyond midnight to complete the engagement. They are quite a number of Big 4 auditors have the experience of working overnight in office during peak season.

During off-peak season, auditors may leave the office earlier, generally at approximately 8.00pm till 10.00p.m.

However, the hours mentioned above is based on the average hours of the Big 4 auditors we have surveyed. We, genuinely believe that the working hours largely depends on the engagement been allocated.

If you have any ideas / comments on the working hours or you would like to share with us of your working hours as an auditor, kindly leave a comment and / or drop us an email at myauditing@gmail.com

Ernst & Young Australia sacked nearly 100 staffs

The Big 4 accounting firms, once considered resilient to global economy slow down and credit crunch, have started to laid off its staffs. Apparently, it's not only the bankers are affected, but also the auditors/ consultants.

It's reported that Ersnt & Young Australia has sacked nearly 100 staffs recently.

Just yesterday, Treasuer of Australia Wayne Swan reported that Australia economy fell in to a recession trap, as evidenced by GDP shrank by 0.5 percent in 4th Quarter 2008. The economy is contracting for the first time in 8 years.

What about other Big 4 ( namely: Pricewaterhouse Coopers, KPMG, Deloitte & Touche)? Are they retrenching ?

Please feel free to comment on the blog, or drop us an email at myauditing@gmail.com.

Work life balance in Big 4

Let's define what's big 4?

Big 4 was defined as 4 largest accounting firms in the accounting profession worldwide. The Big 4 consist of the following entities: Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ernst & Young and KPMG.

Auditors in Big 4, in general, have long working hours. Working till midnight and over the weekend is a norm in the industry. We've heard about the heavy work load, stressful life and long working hours of auditors who work in Big 4 audit firms. However, what are the factors cause the long working hours in Big 4?

It is due to the portfolio of the clients that Big 4 have. Majority of the listed companies would engage one of the Big 4 audit firms as their auditors. Having high volume of transactions and relatively more complicated business, listed company has tigther dateline to meet. As such, the audit team work on a listed company have to struggling between the dateline and the complexity of the transactions. This has resulted in the increase in hours required to spend.

Listed parent company would normally requires its oversea subsidiary to engage the same auditor as the parent company or at least a big 4 auditor. The Multinational Company located in oversea has tight reporting dateline too. Due to the fact that the parent might be a listed company in United States/ Europe, and subsidiary is required to report to the parent company on time, in order to meet the regulatory dateline.

The above analysis tell you why auditors in Big 4 needs to work so late.

Sex in Auditing & Accounting Industry

Let's make a guess on which is the majority sex group ( male / female) in auditing industry?

From an overall perspective, the majority of sex group tends to be female. This is consistent with the circumstances of more females are studying accounting degree.

However, examination of sex group at executive level ( in the auditing / accounting industry) reveals that the % of male start increasing. Probably, due to family commitments/ hectic working style, the female decided to left the industry.

Singapore Job Market

After enjoying years of economy europhia, the financial market collapse of Lehman Brother, Merrill Lynch and Bear Sterns are spilled-over and affecting the current Singapore job market.

The labour supply is definitedly more than the labour demand, and the job market turn to be extermely competitive. Some of the foreign banks are retrenching their staffs, and resulted in the increase number of people in labour supply pool.

Hence, it is extremely not easy to land a job immediately. Will accountant job be affected ? Definitely. There are accoutants in the bank too. If they got retrenched from the bank, they might join the commercial line.

#41 Recap of roles of different people in Accounting

Bookkeepers keep the Accounting Book (day-to-day normal Account Receivable/ Account Payable entries)
Accountant review the work done by bookkeepers and prepare non-recurring journal (e.g. provision for doubtful debt)
Financial controller reviews the work done by Accountant and oversees the financial statement.
CFO oversees and monitors the finance function and ensures the smooth flow of company’s financing.