7.00 AM
Rise and shine!
This week I’m in Toowoomba with my team working on the local council audit. No day at QAO is the same. Some days I’m working from our head office in the Brisbane CBD, I’m at our client sites, and some from home.
Travel jobs are a nice way to break up the routine at home. Most mornings I’ll be up at 6:00 am to walk my dog before taking a bus into the city. This week I’m enjoying the sleep-in as we can walk to the council office in a matter of minutes.
8.30 AM
I’m meeting up with the team this morning for a coffee and walk before we head over to the client’s office.
9.00 AM
Once we arrive at the council, it’s nice to say a quick hello to our clients and check-in. This is an opportunity to build up some rapport with them and better understand their day-to-day operations. I always like to ask for recommendations for cafes, restaurants, and any fun events happening during our trip as well.
9.30 AM
Now we’ve settled in, I’ll plan out my day. I’ll start with checking my calendar and emails, and then writing out a to-do list for what I want to achieve.
This week we are working on the planning phase of the audit. I will be spending a lot of time with different people in the council to get an understanding of their processes. We generally call this a ‘walkthrough’, which means the client will walk us through a transaction from start to finish in their area.
10.00 AM
Next up, we have a quick team check-in. Although we’re given our work, it’s important to support each other and keep the managers aware of our progress, delays, and any potential issues. This week I’ll be working on the areas of cash, payroll, and expenses.
10.30 AM
I have a walkthrough meeting scheduled with the council’s payroll manager at 11:00 am. To make sure I’m properly prepared, I review our documentation in advance and plan out any questions I have. I’m new to the audit this year so I also have a quick chat with my team to get some more context on how the council manages its payroll. This is also a good way of identifying how we can be as efficient as possible and where I will need to focus my attention.
11.00 AM
Time for my payroll walkthrough! I’ve done my preparation and feel confident to ‘run’ the engagement. This means I’ll be steering the conversation and asking lots of questions. A senior auditor comes with me for support – she will take notes and ask any other questions I might miss. No matter how experienced you are, it’s always great to do a walkthrough with a colleague to share knowledge and have support if you get stuck.
During planning, I’ve learned a lot by attending walkthroughs with different colleagues. Everyone has a different approach and it’s interesting to see how people tailor this to each client. Councils in particular can vary in complexity.
12.00 PM
Now is about the time we start talking about lunch cravings. We decide on sushi and eat together in the park.
If I’m working at the head office, I like to take a walk in the botanical gardens to warm up and eat my lunch. Working in the CBD also has other perks too. Our ‘foodie group’ enjoys going out to lunch to try new restaurants/cafes and find cheap lunch deals. It’s a great way to get to meet people you wouldn’t normally work with and try food from different cultures as well!
1.00 PM
Now we’re back from lunch, I’ll look at finishing off my work from the morning. We need to document what was discussed, including the processes and what controls were in place. I have another question that I missed earlier, so I went and talked to the payroll manager. It’s nice to be able to engage with the clients in person.
2.00 PM
Now I have some work to prioritise for another job I’ve also been on recently. Although I mostly do financial audits, we have opportunities to work in other areas of the business. There are performance audits, information systems audits, and data analytics work as well.
This year I have been working on QAO’s Health 2023 report to parliament. These reports are a great way to see the ‘big picture’ of the audits we’ve been working on during the year and how our work contributes to improving public services. Being involved in this work has been a great way to improve skills I wouldn’t normally use on financial audits, such as report writing. I also really enjoyed researching, gathering data, and making interesting graphs and graphics using PowerBI. When the report is a few weeks away from being tabled in parliament, we verify that all the information in it is accurate.
5.00 PM
We’re finished for the day and I’ve ticked everything off my to-do list! Now we’ll head back to the hotel and I’m going to wind down with a book for a few hours. We’ve planned a team dinner tonight with our managers then might get some ice cream afterwards. Travel jobs are a great way to get to know people and make friends.
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