| Detail | For this role |
|---|---|
| Department | CA and Consulting |
| Level | Manager |
| Reports to | Partner (CA Firm) |
| Direct reports | Audit Senior, Audit Associate, CA Article Assistant |
| Experience | 3 to 6 years post qualification in audit, including two years leading engagements |
Audit Manager job description template
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Job title: Audit Manager
Department: CA and Consulting
Reports to: Partner (CA Firm)
Location: [City], [office, branch or site]
About the role
An Audit Manager runs statutory and internal audit engagements from planning to signed report. They build the audit plan, set the team of seniors and articles, review working papers, and take the file to the partner for sign off. The role is the client's day to day contact during the audit and the bridge between fieldwork and the partner's opinion. A good Audit Manager finishes audits on time and on budget, catches the issues that matter before the partner does, and keeps the working papers strong enough to survive a peer review.
Key responsibilities
- Plan each audit engagement: understand the client's business, assess risk, decide materiality and design the audit approach.
- Staff the engagement with seniors, associates and articles, and set the timeline and budget for the fieldwork.
- Brief the team on the audit plan, allocate sections, and set the standard for documentation and evidence.
- Review working papers section by section, challenge conclusions, and make sure evidence supports every assertion.
- Resolve accounting and disclosure issues with the client's finance team, and escalate the tough ones to the partner.
- Draft the financial statements and audit report, and take the completed file to the partner for review and sign off.
- Track engagement economics: budgeted hours against actual, and recover the time from the client where scope grew.
- Manage the client relationship during the audit, handling requests, queries and delays without losing the timeline.
- Prepare management letters that set out control weaknesses and practical recommendations for the client.
- Coach seniors and articles on the standards on auditing and on how to think about audit evidence.
Requirements
- Chartered Accountant (CA)
- Working knowledge of the applicable financial reporting framework
- A DISA or internal audit certification is an advantage
- 3 to 6 years post qualification in audit, including two years leading engagements
KRAs and KPIs for a Audit Manager
Key result areas for the appraisal form, each with a KPI you can measure every month or quarter.
| Key result area | How to measure it |
|---|---|
| On time completion | Audits completed and signed within the agreed timeline for at least 90 percent of engagements |
| Budget control | Engagement hours kept within budget, with overruns recovered or explained |
| File quality | Working papers pass partner and peer review with no major documentation gaps |
| Issue detection | Material issues raised during fieldwork, not after the partner review |
| Client management | Audit queries and data requests closed within the agreed turnaround each week |
| Team development | Every senior and article receives a rated review on the engagement |
Skills and tools
Tools used day to day: Audit software, Tally Prime, MS Excel, Income tax and MCA portals, CaseWare or similar documentation tools.
Reporting line and career path
Next roles: Senior Audit Manager, Director (Consulting), Partner (CA Firm)
Interview questions for a Audit Manager
- How do you plan an audit for a new manufacturing client you have never audited before?
- You find a related party transaction that management did not disclose. How do you handle it?
- How do you decide materiality, and how does it change the depth of your testing?
- An audit is running over budget with a week to the deadline. What do you do?
- Walk me through how you review a working paper prepared by a senior. What do you look for?
- How do you keep a client cooperative when you must report control weaknesses to their board?
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What does an audit manager do?
An audit manager runs audit engagements from planning to the signed report. They build the audit plan, staff and budget the team, review working papers, resolve issues with the client and take the file to the partner for sign off. They are the client's main contact during the audit and are responsible for finishing it on time and to standard.
What is the difference between an audit manager and an audit senior?
An audit senior leads the fieldwork on the ground, prepares sections and supervises associates and articles. An audit manager owns the whole engagement: the plan, the budget, the team, the client relationship and the review that goes to the partner. The senior executes the plan; the manager sets it and answers for the result.
How many years does it take to become an audit manager?
Most audit managers are chartered accountants with about three to six years of post qualification experience, having worked as an audit senior and then led a few engagements. Firms promote based on the ability to plan an audit, review a file to peer review standard and manage both the client and the team.