accountants vs auditor what are the differences?

On 10 February 2023, I moderate a webinar with Ms Punethawaty Munian, our assistant manager, on her story from ex-company Big 8 and a listed company.

It is part of an ongoing Get-Connected session in the firm whereby we discussed a lot of anything with my boys and girls.

Today Ms Punethawaty Munian talk about her previous role in BDO (especially on AOB audit) and a listed company as a financial accountant.

In my words the differences between #accountant and #auditor are :

✔ Materiality

Since the auditor is to form an opinion on the truth and fairness of financial statements. One of the auditor's favour mottos is "It is below the materiality!"

In the commercial world, I don't believe accountants dare to make a bold statement on materiality to the boss/board of directors on any financial/business issues.

✔ Refer to last year's working papers

Trust me, most auditors use this technique to survive during the early stage of auditing careers. Time crunch? resources constraints? clueless about work?

Is there any template in the commercial world for accountants? Correct me if I am wrong as I have limited experience as a commercial accountant.

✔ Stakeholders

Generally, you only deal with a handful of living creatures from the earth except for AOB auditing as highlighted by Ms Punethawaty Munian.

Sadly commercial accountants face a lot of monsters (creditors, debtors, regulators, bankers, auditors) from all universes. Sometimes monsters talk in different languages.

✔ Working environment

The auditors are maintenance guys. They do rinse and repeat activities. They follow checklists, audit programs and software.

Commercial accountants are sales and marketing guys. They are employed to create something.

Do I miss anything materially on the difference?

Watch the full interview with Ms Punethawaty Munian on our YouTube http://bit.ly/3IqIvnK

Authored by Mr Koh Teck Peng, our principal, in his personal LinkedIn posting. https://bit.ly/3EATzh4

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