If you belong to the field of finance and accounting, then Audit Manager might be the right career move for you. In this article, we have added the top 25 Interview questions with answers for the given role. Surely, it will help you in getting prepared for the role.
1. Any Reason For Applying For This Role At Our Organization?
I have been part of this industry for several years and have worked with several firms. I believe my skills and experience align with the job requirement for this role. I applied for your firm because I have known your firm for providing great learning opportunities for your employees and I would like to polish my skills further in this role. I have researched your company before applying, and I am looking forward to extended exposure in this role.
2. What Are The Roles Of An Audit Manager?
Like any employee, is important to have a welcoming attitude toward colleagues, assisting when necessary. While the roles can be like:
- To plan and perform operational and financial audits.
- Identifying business process risks.
- To develop and test methodologies to evaluate the adequacy of controls.
- Documenting the results of the evaluations.
3. What Qualities Does an Audit Manager Need To Be Successful?
Organizations need skilled, experienced professionals in key roles like audit managers to help support the audit function. An organization’s ability to meet compliance requirements and identify potential risks needs employees’ coordination, cooperation, and vigilance. Through the audit process, the team ensures everyone in the organization is doing what’s required to help avoid risk and meet compliance demands. However, because audit projects are often complex and time-intensive, it’s easy for even experienced auditors to lose sight of key details and miss red flags.
4. What Major Challenges Did You Face During Your Last Role? How Did You Manage Them?
It starts with non-cooperation from the management and employees as they feel we are not their friends but should understand the audit’s importance and scope to complete the audit processes. There can be a failure to define the scope of the audit too. Sometimes audit conversations can spill outside the scope, and the audit can become vague. The auditors’ responsibility also lies in determining whether the defined requirements are met. Instead of looking for whom to accuse, the focus should be on remediation. However, it does not challenge that the auditor has disallowed finding of blatant fraud. The auditor and the management are responsible for ignoring a fraud unless proven otherwise.
5. What Is Your Typical Day At Work Like?
I start my shift at 9 am from my desk, and I check my emails from the previous working day to know if there are any pending tasks. Once aligned on the tasks, I supervise the independent audits and assist my team if required. In reporting, I add my recommendations for the businesses that are getting their audit services done from the firm. This helps them in the next fiscal year. Reporting highlights the recommendations and also errors that have been found in the system. My team members complete a few reports so I propose they create analysis reports on their findings. The work schedule is different and difficult during the end of the fiscal year and requires long working hours.
6. Elaborate On Your Past Career Experience.
I started my career in 2001 as Accounting Manager at the government’s commerce ministry. I had basic responsibilities, including auditing several businesses enrolled with us. It helped the businesses to identify the business risks. The Audit Lead supervised me at the firm where we conducted risk assessments. Once the reports were ready, I communicated with the stakeholders regarding progress and identified issues. I also got a chance to be trained by the audit team under this role. Later, I joined another firm at XYZ city where I assisted in developing audit plans as per the state laws. I also added recommendations for the businesses in the reporting where improvements were recommended.
I also did my internship in an international firm in the audit department after graduation. It was a learning experience for me as I got a chance to learn from the international markets and standards.
7. To Perform Well In This Role, What Are The Key Strategies Required?
To have value in your services, one must have complete knowledge of the audit features and an understanding of the objectives. Several team members mostly do the audit on board, so good communication skills and internal alignment with everyone are required to provide a perfect audit report on the day of the end. The attitude of the manager is important because you are leading a whole team on every project, and your positive behavior is essential. The role requires a lot of patience because your responsibility relies upon a set of documents that may be lost in piles of paper.
8. Do You Think There Will Be Various Challenges In This Role? What Will Be Your Line Of Action?
One of the biggest challenges I foresee in this role is to have a proper team working with me. Communication is the key as information needs to be processed by everyone on board, and then actions are taken. Once the audit begins, there is high pressure on everyone so one needs to act as a team to prepare a report for the stakeholders involved. I do not hesitate from challenges and believe that my skills are polished every time I encounter new challenges. It is my chance to learn and grow.
9. How Do You Motivate Yourself To Perform Better In This Role?
My performance is my reason for staying motivated. I give myself goals to achieve on every project and motivate myself to perform better every time. I always had great teams on board with me who understood the complexity of the task and perform well under pressure too. I ensure that I am not mentally exhausted at work so that I am not distracted by anything that may cause a hindrance in my work.
10. Describe An Event When You Failed And The Lesson You Learned?
There was a fire incident last year where following up actions from earlier audits might have prevented disaster. An area audit recommended that firefighting pumps be left in automatic mode when there was no staff nearby. The next year, an accident prevented staff from getting to the controls to operate the firefighting pumps. The audit action hadn’t been implemented – the pumps were on manual, the fire spread, and the area was gutted. Later we made sure that as the staff finished the day, the pumps were to be switched over to automatic mode and it was physically verified by security staff.
11. Why Should We Hire You?
As you can see, I have worked in this field for several years, so I have complete knowledge of my duties and responsibilities. I have gotten a chance to work with local firms and one international firm in my experience. I am also trained to use several audit software that gives me an edge to perform well. I am also tech-savvy when it comes to using basic software including Microsoft Office and many more.
12. Share With Us Your Greatest Achievements
In my career, I have gotten a chance to manage a complete portfolio of the fastest growing technology firm that also had Media House under its umbrella. It was a unique project due to its different business lines. I performed my duties in planning and risk assessment for the entire portfolio and did their audit reporting
13. Are You A Team Player Or do You Like Working On Solo Projects?
I do not have any preference when it comes to a work setting. I have gotten a chance to work in teams and sometimes solo too. There are few projects on my name for solo, but I have had experience. In my opinion, everyone should experience both sides of the project because it gives you a chance to learn more. My focus in both settings is to deliver quality work and manage project timelines.
14. We All Feel Demotivated Sometimes. How Do You Handle Such Emotions At Work?
It’s human nature, but in the profession, we must know how to handle such lows. I also feel drained and low occasionally due to pressure. I immediately retract myself from work and take a quick break. Sometimes good 10 minutes in the fresh air helps a lot and sometimes weekend relaxation helps. Completing projects is my top priority, so I know that I should have a sufficient timeline to manage any such low at work. Demotivation can cause issues in the quality of my work.
15. What You Would Do If A Company Director Were Dissatisfied With Your Work?
If I am in a position to find another job, this might be a good reason to head for the door. I could even try one last staunch refusal as an ultimatum. I think I have just to say no if it’s against my moral values. I can’t be forced to do something, the worst thing that could happen to me is I’ll be fired, but I can’t stay at a job that will ask me to transgress my morals anyway.
16. For This Role, Share Your Strength.
I believe that I have several abilities to fulfill this role, but my mathematics skills are my major skill. This has made me develop a great interest in this field, and I am always trying to learn more. I have seen several people in this field who lack this ability and face problems in their work. I have great communication and problem-solving skills that have developed over the years. I am sure your company can polish my strengths with different projects from time to time.
17. Do You Think Audit Can Assist In Improvement Required At Any Organization?
With the help of a performance audit, such analysis can be carried out to assist the organizations. I have performed several audits based on resource utilization and how efficiently simple changes can assist in improvement. With the ever-changing organizational landscape, I believe it’s a need of the hour! Audit reports can help stakeholders understand the inside of the business and assist in making further decisions based on the data.
18. How Do You Ensure That Your Knowledge Is Updated Regarding Audit Guidelines?
With the help of ISA 610 and INTOSAI, I can stay updated regarding the audit guidelines. Mostly they give out their guidelines and even provide training after every 6 months if there are any changes. To perform well in the auditing field, you must be certified in both. I have also taken several certifications in the past two years due to COVID, where a lot was changed in the business dynamics.
19. During Any Project, Do You Hesitate In Asking For Help From Your Supervisor Or Teammates?
If I am facing any difficulty, I will first try my best to solve it. I might use the internet to look for possible solutions. If I find a solution online, I would discuss the research and finding with my supervisor to take him in confidence. On the other hand, If I don’t have any solution, I will easily discuss the issue with my supervisor. I am not ashamed if I need help because learning and failure are synced together. I have gotten a chance to work with great teams till now that have assisted me throughout.
20. Share Your Plan Of Action For Doing An Internal Audit.
It’ consists of basic requirements that include financial records. The records include detailed expenses, bank statements, checkbooks, and deposit slips. All bill receipts are required too to complete the internal audit.
21. Do You Think Internal Audit Is Important For Any Business?
All business even if it is online needs internal audit to understand risk management. With the help of an internal audit, the businesses can perform as per the compliance rules and gives a chance to control and manage the future plans of the company. With the help of an internal audit, stakeholders of the company are protected as well.
22. In Your Opinion, How Should Companies Maintain The Compliance Documents?
The compliance documents are essential for any audit to take place. Without proper receipts, auditors can put the transactions to be taxable based on history. To maintain the documents, the following is a must:
- Invoices –Both Sale and purchase invoices are required.
- Sales Tax- Ideally, it should have a separate General Ledger account number and be stated in the Sales Tax.
- Exemption Certificates, if any- All such documents should be accurate and up to date for any case of exemption.
- Returns- Gross invoices should match with income tax and sales along with returns and
- Miscellaneous Adjustments- Supporting documents are required for every case.
23. Can You Perform Under Pressure?
Pressure is part of this job, and I understand that pressure can be exhausting for any person on duty. I believe that I can perform under pressure as I take it as a challenge, and my experience has taught me to focus on the result rather than having burnout in the process. Usually year-end is a pressure time but I have gotten used to it. I maintain the documents from time to time so that it’s not a problem later for me.
24. If You Have To Perform An Audit And Employees Are Resisting- What Will Be Your Plan?
I have once encountered this issue in my previous role where employees were not helping me in providing the required data and kept delaying for unnecessary reasons. I discussed the need with their supervisor and requested to assign a relevant person to assist in internal documents. With communication and friendly nature, I sorted out the issue. All employees should understand why the audit is taking place and how the law ensures safety.
25. Under Which Circumstances, Irs Audit Takes Place?
For any income that does not exceed the minimum 20 to 25% of the total, IRS can perform an audit on the firm if returns are not filed. The common circumstances are:
- Any business claiming to be at a loss for more than one year,
- Electronic return filing when the company has been doing it manually and
- Expenses are high when it’s self-employment.
Conclusion
With these top 25 questions for an interview as Audit Manager, You will be able to ace the interview easily. As a general tip, carry your updated resume with you on the day of the interview and make sure you have mentioned all recent and relevant projects on it. It will help the interviewer to assess your knowledge and skills in different situations. Dress professionally and be confident. Good luck with Team Project Practical!
