Bob received his CPA designation five years ago and had been providing accounting and assurance services to small clients as a proprietorship. Last year, he sold his practice to AXE & Partners LLP and joined the company, hoping to become more knowledgeable in auditing by associating with a larger firm. One of Bob’s former clients, now a client of AXE, contacted him to complain that the AXE auditor simply makes adjusting journal entries for changes to the year-end statements without any discussion with the client. Bob promised to look into the matter.
When Bob mentioned this to AXE’s managing partner, he was told that “sometimes we have to think of reducing costs, and we always try our best to deliver an unmodified opinion. A satisfied client at the end of the audit is our quality-control measure.” The managing partner asked Bob why he was interfering in the audit when it was no longer his client.
Another staff who was recently hired by AXE had been assigned an assistant. As a co-op accounting student. As a new hire, he was tasked with developing test of controls for the work-in-process inventory. The audit team performed these procedures and found no issues to report.