From a young age I dreamt of setting up my own business or managing one. I chose an accountancy and finance degree in order to understand how businesses run and, most importantly, how the numbers and figures work. I understand that having accountancy and finance knowledge is not essential to running a business, but it will definitely be a plus point in helping me manage and understand one – through cashflow forecasts or analysing the financial position.
I began my career as a financial auditor in the Penang office of PwC Malaysia back in 2018. Currently, I’m serving as an auditor with the risk services division in PwC Singapore, which mainly involves assessing the IT environment, IT general controls and automated controls of a client’s information systems. I’m also involved in control attestation engagements, which assess whether a client’s internal controls are effective in design and operation throughout the review period.
Organisational culture and tone from the top are becoming more important in motivating employees
I’ve been exposed to both financial audit and IT audit. I’ve also been involved in interesting engagements, such as reporting accountant engagements for business clients going public with an IPO, or secondments for SOX compliance testing. What I enjoy most about being an auditor is the opportunity to talk to clients from various industries and to understand how different companies run. As part of the audit process, we are required to perform walkthroughs of each of a company’s business processes, which allows us to understand the flow of the entire business.
I have to admit that audit is never an easy job. It’s more than just vouching for a bunch of documents without understanding the purpose of doing so. Audit procedures need to be tailored according to different client environments based on applicable risks. There are a lot of judgments involved in evaluating test results, largely due to these differing circumstances.
With the pandemic and the ‘great resignation’, the biggest trends and changes in industry – not only in Malaysia and Singapore but also globally – are ways of working and the evolving requirement for dynamic skillsets. Most employees currently work in hybrid mode, so there are fewer human interactions and chances to bond with colleagues and peers. The organisational culture and tone from the top are becoming more important to retain and motivate employees.
On the evolving needs to possess different skillsets, it is crucial that accounting practitioners really start developing digital skillsets. With the digital transformation under way and increasing use of technology such as blockchain, RPA and AI, we must explore how to make use of such technologies in streamlining routine tasks to promote efficiency so that we can shift our focus to areas that require more judgment.
