Met with the Engagement Manager for the first time, his name was Tony. I offered to help him so he asked me to extract the minutes of meeting.
Tuesday
I learned that attention to detail was an important quality for an auditor to have because my task for that day involved testing a sample of unpaid liabilities. I had to check when the transaction was recorded as revenue and whether or not it was recorded in the appropriate year end in the system. This was the infamous way for fraudulent clients to tamper with their revenues. I took a slightly longer time than I had expected to finish my work because all the dates were quite confusing after awhile. Being the stubborn person that I am, most of the time I prefer figuring things out on my own but Ming Ju advised me that I should not be shy to ask for help. So here the key challenge was myself and how to slowly change my ways. I learned that I should adapt to PwC's work culture where there is a balance between asking for guidance and being independent. Learning how to ask for help was hard for me at first because I have always been a timid person but the more I tried the more my confidence grew. Looking back now, I think that with IPDecor I developed my soft skills the most which was a great achievement for me.
Wednesday - Friday
I used this newfound confidence of mine and applied it when dealing with the client to request for files. I did a lot of running around for this because at the moment the client was busy closing their accounts so it was hard for me to get my files back in time. This definitely taught me how to be more patient and understanding because I am not the only one with a deadline to beat. This goes hand in hand with one of PwC's values that it always important to understand and maintain a good relationship with the client. A better bond will not only encourage them to recur us for next year's audit job but it also facilitates the current job by creating a more conducive work environment for all.
I also got to improve on my decision making skills when Li Shan entrusted me with the whole physical asset sighting task. First, I would choose which assets to sight to from the asset listing to the floor for example, the company car and a laser printer. Then, the client would show me if the asset truly exists and if it was in working condition. Afterwards, I would do a floor to list sighting which is basically just the opposite. The importance of this task was that, again fraudulent clients could overstate their balance sheet to impress shareholders even when in actuality they do own any of the assets. This did made me quite anxious since I will be the one to blame for any mistakes. Nevertheless, I decided to look at it on a positive note as a chance to be more responsible and be more wary when making decisions.
Monday - Friday
Workload piling up
A new Associate named Ming Ju joined the team and she taught me all about the materiality levels that I should base my testing on. On one of the days in this week I vouched 200 invoices and it helped me master vouching the sales side. However, vouching the overseas shipping documents was hands down the most difficult task I had to do throughout the whole internship and it was making me really frustrated. I assumed I would be able to do it quite easily because I had already learned about incoterms in Semester 4 for Credit Management but boy, was I wrong. I soon realized that I had only memorized the definitions of each incoterm but I did not understand it enough to apply to the real transactions. I tried figuring it out over and over again on my own but it was too time consuming hence I accepted defeat and asked Ming Ju to write me simpler notes on how to recognize the correct date of revenue recognition. At the end of the week, I did understand it better but I still had to refer to my notes once in awhile. This definitely tested my persistence in learning.
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