Graham Gibbs - Reflective Cycle
Description
For this task, I was part of the audit team for a listed company. As I joined the team midway during the peak period, I had little time to adapt to the new environment and to learn the fundamentals in detail. Moreover, I was assigned audit working papers that I had not attempted on before. The objective for this task was for the team to complete the audit working papers before the deadline for the Singapore Exchange (SGX) announcement and the publishing of the annual report.
What sense can you make of the situation?
One of the challenges I faced was difficulty in completing the audit working papers assigned to me. As I had not attempted on the assigned audit working papers before, such as the ‘consolidation working papers’ and the ‘notes to financial statements’ audit working papers, I had to spend extra time understanding and completing them. To resolve this, I had to refer to previous years audit working papers to understand the source and flow of the figures.
One of the consolidation working papers I was assigned to was “Joint Ventures and Associates”. In this financial year, the client had liquidated a joint venture which result in a different methodology required when completing this joint venture as compared to other active joint ventures. Another challenge I faced would be the differing methodology required in completing this section of the consolidation working paper. To resolve this, I researched for past year audit working papers for examples. During the process, I consulted my colleagues to ensure that I was on the right track before proceeding to complete the audit working paper.
Conclusion
Personally, I gained hard skills as I understood the technicality involved in completing the audit working papers. I also gained a better understanding of the purpose and importance of the various types of audit working papers. As the audit working papers are interlinked with each other, understanding the flow between the audit working papers was meaningful and interesting.
The soft skills I learnt was interacting professionally with my colleagues especially when clarifying my doubts. It was important to grasp the timing when clarifying one’s doubts, so as not to disrupt their work flow by asking questions on numerous occasions. Another soft skill I acquired was adaptability. Having joined the audit team midway, I had to adapt to the new environment, team dynamics and the senior’s supervision style quickly. Lastly, I also learnt to be more independent and gained problem solving skills as I had to complete the audit working papers under minimal supervision.
What will you do differently in the future?
For this task, my weakness was difficulty in completing the working paper due to my lack of knowledge and experience. One of my strengths that allowed me to overcome this was being independent. I was able to study and understand the audit working papers with minimal help from my colleagues. Another strength would be being able to adapt to a new environment quickly, as elaborated above.
Reflection
Being able to be part of the team for a listed company was a rare opportunity and an important learning experience. Through this experience, I was able to understand and be part of the whole process of preparing for the SGX announcement and publishing an annual report and from scratch. As larger companies tend to be listed companies, I believe that this experience would value add to my self-development and would be beneficial in enhancing my job market readiness when I graduate.