Auditor Resume – Skills Necessary To Have A Great Auditor Resume

What do you need in order to have the best auditor resume possible? Well you need to make sure that your skills fit the auditor job description. We’ve included a list of the most common skills that accounting firms look for below.

auditor resume

auditor resume

Auditor Resume Skills –  Technical Accounting Skills

In order to be a successful auditor you must have technical accounting knowledge. Some examples of the technical knowledge that the largest auditing firms in the world look for are included below:

  • Working knowledge of US GAAP
  • Execute the day-to-day activities of audit engagements of various clients including Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registrants
  • Applied working knowledge of U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and accounting procedures
  • Review SEC filings and research technical accounting issues as well as understand and utilize KPMG’s Audit Methodology
  • Applied working knowledge of U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), U.S. Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS), and Public Company Oversight Board (PCAOB) Auditing Standards
  • Advanced working knowledge of technical literature
  • Performing audits under Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS), Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), Public Company Oversight Board (PCAOB), American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) auditing standards, and Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX);
  • Leveraging know-how of globalization and how it impacts local and global business considerations;
  • Applying a global lens to business issues, identifying potential opportunities for global convergences and divergence in analytics.

Auditor Resume Skills –  Basic Skills

There are some basic skills that you will need to have in order to be a strong auditor. We’ve compiled some important skills that the big accounting firms look for from their auditors. In order to apply for many auditor jobs you must be able to

  • use your knowledge and analytical mind-set to audit client financials, transactions and internal control processes.
  • perform substantive testing on complex areas of clients’ balance sheets and income statements and auditing financial statement balances and disclosures pursuant to FASB Accounting Standards Codification requirements
  • perform audit walkthrough interview meetings with business control owners to understand control processes,
  • identify and test key controls based on their respective financial statement impact;
  • Design, implement, test and assess deficiencies of internal controls;
  • Review your clients’ financial statements under SEC regulations for material errors and inconsistencies;
  • Participating in the review of 10-Q, performing analytical review of audit documents, and preparing documentation supporting audit opinions;
  • Utilizing audit software, including engagement management software to perform tracking and forecasting for audit engagements, and utilizing advanced Excel tools, including Excel Analytics, Pivot Tables, VLookup, and macros;
  • Performing risk assessment procedures, including analysis of both qualitative and quantitative factors to identify account balances in financial statements that require further audit procedures;
  • Completing audit processes and documenting higher-risk areas to increase your technical and business skills
  • working on the design of the approach to audits
  • performing audit procedures related to clients’ financial statements
  • communicate and negotiate with a collaborative approach to management
  • Identify and communicate accounting and auditing matters to managers and partners
  • Identify performance improvement opportunities
  • meet challenging client requirements and to provide services while possessing strong communication, interpersonal, analytical, and research abilities
  • learn and adapt in a fast-paced environment
  • Communicate confidently and effectively using a variety of communication styles across different contexts;
  • Play a role in discussions, proactively ask questions and share an informed point of view;
  • Recognize the value of multiple and diverse perspectives and be comfortable challenging an established point of view.
  • Assess and enhance the controls around system implementations and other change events through a clearly defined project management methodology

Auditor Resume Skills –  Supervisory & Team Skills

If you are going into a management role as an auditor then you will need supervisory skills and the ability to manage a team.

You need to be able to:

  • Lead plan, execute and report on audits in the [your specialized] sector
  • Demonstrate supervisory experience
  • mentor and coach junior staff.
  • Lead audit fieldwork, manage performance and keep engagement leaders updated on audit engagements
  • Supervise Audit associates and interns on engagements
  • Adjust to shifting priorities and challenges and ability to juggle new and multiple tasks;
  • Delegate tasks and provide direction and support to more junior team members;
  • Develop others by creating and supporting appropriate work assignments; and,
  • Provide coaching and feedback candidly and constructively and receive feedback openly.
  • Work effectively as part of a diverse delivery team; and,
  • Utilize extensive know-how of business financials, reporting processes, and management of engagement economics;
  • Assist clients in optimizing their risk and internal control activities, including control effectiveness and optimization activities
  • Constantly develop your understanding of current market trends and processes and sharing your knowledge to develop junior colleagues

Auditor Client skills

  • Interact with clients to help ensure the information flow from the client to the audit team is efficient
  • Manage client accounts including billing, fee analysis and new service development
  • Aid in the identification of business development as well as help expand the client base by identifying and growing current client portfolio
  • Ability to meet challenging client requirements and provide exceptional service as well
  • Interacting directly with senior management of the audit team and audit clients to discuss auditing findings, issues, and resolution and with accounting and auditing specialists within complex accounting areas, including pricing, tax, and information technology specialists;
  • Engaging clients and providing authoritative advice and professionalism throughout transactions
  • Preparing for team and client interactions by anticipating others’ needs and tailoring content appropriately;
  • Collaborating directly with clients, identifying and addressing client needs by understanding the client’s business; communicating the value propositions of a broad range of Firm services to the client in an organized and knowledgeable;
  • Understanding our clients’ unique ambitions and needs and referring them to colleagues in other teams and areas to broaden our business relationships where possible

Auditor Technology skills

Below is a common list of auditor technology skills that large accounting firms require from their staff. You have to be able to:

  • leverage artificial intelligence, advanced analytics, data visualizations
  • process flow automation to perform data interrogation and analysis of client data
  • Leverage tools and techniques for research, analysis, and problem solving including interpreting data/research, drawing conclusions, and sharing derived perspectives on major economic trends, current industry or sector trends, issues and opportunities with clients.
  • develop and execute IT risk assessments; IT audit standards and frameworks e.g. COBIT, ISO 17799, ISO/IEC 27002, ITIL, etc.; data security and privacy regulations e.g. PCI, CPNI, HIPAA; extranet and third party connections, infrastructure and related technologies
  • have knowledge of SAP, ORACLE and MS SQL databases, Windows and UNIX/LINUX platforms, voice and data networks; web applications; ecommerce; and, wireless and/or mobile technology devices
  • Assisting clients in leveraging their technology investments to help establish, optimize, and sustain a real-time controls environment at an enterprise level

These are few of the common technology skills that will be required by the largest accounting firms in the world. SAP and Oracle are common ERP platforms which means that is where the clients will house their accounting ledgers.

Travel Skills

  • Ability and willingness to travel

A key part of being an auditor is the willingness to travel. That is what many auditors are known for. Either you have to drive to your client everyday or you will have to travel out of town to reach your client. Many times large clients are in the middle of nowhere, so you have to be ready to travel long distances as well. Another common thing that happens is that an audit client has a restatement and needs a large number of out of town resources. Because of this you have to be willing to travel at anytime.