Hello all,

Much has happened in the past three weeks since my last blog. Mike Kerwin was promoted to partner and Kim Brewer became a CPA, surely great news for both. Like I said before, there are a lot of great things happening at this firm as it makes the proper moves as it continues to grow.

Since my last blog I was put on an audit team where I saw my first audit work as an intern. Most of my time thus far has been spent in the office working on various assignments but this would be my first time venturing out to a client. The client I would be working on is a large company located in center city that meant taking the train instead of the ordinary drive through traffic. I was pretty fond of the morning train ride; it was a change of pace that allowed me to see the hustle and bustle of the big city. It also confirmed the rumors of the unreliability SEPTA could offer at times. But that’s beside the point. I was finally on an audit team getting an opportunity at something I haven’t yet put to use outside of the classroom.

Mike Kerwin went out to the client with us for the first day in the field and assisted me in getting familiar with the operations. My first assignment was to read through the disclosures checklist and answer the questions accordingly. Financial statement disclosures are intended to assist investors or other financial statement users with certain financial information. Being my first time working with this client, working through the disclosures checklist gave me a good understating of the company.

My next line of work on the audit was on cash confirmations and bank reconciliations. This piece of the audit is essential in order to issue financial statements. As auditors, we receive a set of books from the clients with numbers the client prepares, where we step in is to make sure the figures given to us agree with the figures the banks have on record. During this part of the audit, we also have to trace checks that were written and or outstanding to make sure they exist and agree with what we have on file. After these steps mentioned in addition to other audit program requirements, we either come to agree with the cash figures or detect variations; which would lead to further investigation.

Over the past three weeks I worked through the cash accounts, fixed assets and a couple of other income statement items including rent, leases, guaranteed future payments, and interest. After this was completed I was responsible for preparing the financial statements to be reviewed. I have to say I enjoyed my time in the field greatly and I’m excited for my next opportunity to visit a client. It’s a different side of accounting that I’m sure not too many interns get to experience; working hand in hand with the clients accountants, spending the work day in a conference room or office set aside for the auditors, collaborating with your colleagues, stepping outside of the familiar office routine.

 Until next time…

Kevin

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