Job description

External Auditors are employed by companies that are legally required to have their financial reports and accounts reviewed and verified by an independent financial specialist in order to ensure that their financial reports are an accurate reflection of their financial status.

External Auditors work closely with their clients to review financial reporting systems and processes as well as analysing actual results before issuing final reports containing professional opinion on the accuracy of their clients' annual reports and financial statements.

Typical duties include:

• Maintaining expert knowledge of statutory financial regulation, including reporting requirements and taxation rules.
• Working closely with clients to gain a detailed understanding of their organisation, systems and processes.
• Analysing clients' financial accounts, profit and loss and balance sheet reports.
• Investigating any problems or issues resulting from reviews of clients' reports.
• Highlighting risk and suggesting solutions to avoid or manage risk.
• Producing detailed reports for clients and for public consumption.

External Auditors spend a significant amount of their working lives on client sites, so must be comfortable with extensive travel and time spent away from home. Auditors must have excellent verbal and written communication skills due to frequent interaction with clients and also the need to produce formal reports.

Qualifications

To become an Auditor you must be a qualified accountant, having completed the examinations from bodies such as the ACCA, ICAEW, ICAS or ICAI. You must retain your membership of your accounting body to work as an Auditor.

Salary snapshot

Recent salaries advertised on TopFinancialJobs (November 2009) include:

• £55-65,000 per annum for a qualified (ACA) External Auditor working as a Banking Capital Markets Audit Manager for a Big 4 firm in London.
• £55-65,000 per annum for a qualified Financial Services Audit Manager working for a Big 4 firm in London.
• Excellent tax free package for a qualified Auditor working with manufacturing or oil and gas clients for a global accountancy firm in Abu Dhabi.
• £45-50,000 per annum for a qualified (ACA, ACCA) Auditor working for a niche business services group in London.

Are you an External Auditor? Would you like to contribute to our "Day in the Life of..." series? Email us at info@topfinancialjobs.co.uk for more details.