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LEARNING RESOURCES

New Staff: Core Concepts: Key Character Traits
and Interpersonal Skills for Auditors or unproductive. In a physical audit room,
among others, this is not difficult. Many spoke of
This CPE course discusses behavioral concepts and knowing through observation when an ECA is
other nontechnical skills that are beneficial to new struggling and should have questions. In a remote
staff to achieve success in public accounting.
setting, this observational avenue is unavailable, as
CPE SELF-STUDY noted by an audit senior from a top 10 firm:

“One of the biggest things was not knowing when
Remote Auditing: Lessons Learned
to reach out, not knowing how often to ask ques-
Remoting auditing is a new tool for auditors. tions, not being able to interact with your senior,
Safeguard the quality of your services and learn not being able to interact with managers and
more techniques for effective remote auditing. partners. It was a challenge from the senior level
CPE SELF-STUDY to know when staff had questions. We had so much
stuff going on that you assign a first year work and
you don’t hear from them for two hours. You’ve just
For more information or to make a purchase, go to aicpa.org/cpe-learning been head down the whole time. You look up and
or call the Institute at 888-777-7077. you go, ‘Oh, no. It’s been two hours, they probably
should have questions by now.’”

WAYS REMOTE WORK CAN IMPROVE
EARLY-CAREER AUDITORS’ EXPERIENCE
AICPA RESOURCES Though our interviews highlighted several chal-

Articles lenges to ECAs’ professional development in a
remote setting, we also learned of some benefits to
“What Everyone Can Do to Strengthen the Next Generation of this environment, as noted below.
CPAs,” JofA, Sept. 2022
Opportunities to observe client meetings
“Tips for Managing Remote Workers,” JofA, June 30, 2022
The virtual environment can allow ECAs more
“A Needed Push Into Remote Auditing,” JofA, May 26, 2022 opportunities to participate in client meetings.
When they were working in person before the
pandemic, ECAs typically did not attend meet-
ings with client management led by experienced
to obtain audit evidence in the future, and lower auditors for a variety of reasons. These reasons
relationship capital with co-workers may delay included a lack of experience, a perceived lack of
career progression in the firm. The following quote relevance of the topic to the ECA, that it was an
highlights the loss of personal communications in inefficient use of the ECA’s time, or simply that
a virtual environment: there was not enough physical space for the ECA
to attend meetings that were deemed unessential
“You think of a natural audit room and environ- to their tasks. We found that ECAs had the
ment, you start talking about something, then opportunity to attend more client meetings in the
it spirals from that until it can go in any direc- virtual environment in a “listen-only mode,” as
tion, but when you’re on a [Teams/Zoom] call, noted by a Big Four audit manager:
it doesn’t. It’s one direction. When you reach the
finish point it’s, ‘OK, let’s go.’ Then you break, and “What the virtual environment allowed us and
you do your work. You lose that flow of … getting afforded us was allowing them to attend more
to know people.” — Audit senior manager, Big client meetings. You’re not trying to find a space
Four firm that fits everyone from both the firm side or the
client side to be in that office or that conference
Decreased supervisory effectiveness room. They were able to join virtually. Not neces-
An unexpected theme of our discussions was the sarily participate as much, but hear what is being
impact of ECAs’ remote work on supervisory discussed, seeing how certain executives interact
effectiveness. The interviewees mentioned chal- with client executives or vice versa … they were
lenges with knowing when staff was struggling able to learn through observation. They would

24 | Journal of Accountancy April 2023