Auditors – The Sound of Hooves Approaching

The sound of hooves approaching on the road meant a king was traveling…or soldiers were coming.

Open your ears and you can hear the slow, steady rumblings of discontent. Don”t let me bore you with only the sound of my voice. There’s Prem Sikka, Richard Murphy, Jim Peterson, Dennis Howlett, George The Skeptical Texas CPA, Jonathan Weil…

And now Anthony Hilton of the Evening Standard. I agree 150%. I try to get out as often as possible.

Although no one is yet ready to admit it, the conventional audit is probably no longer worth paying for. It would be a relatively simple matter for systems of real-time monitoring to be created, allowing a virtual real-time audit that monitors performance and alerts regulators or analysts to serious departures from the norm.

Intelligent computers could analyse, check and deliver an opinion with just as much confidence as a human does, given that human auditors are now far too scared to do the one thing which could add value – exercise a judgment.

Accountants tend to be far too busy making money – at least £750,000 a year average for a London Big Four partner – to think much about the future, and besides a desire to look ahead was not why most of them became accountants. They would be well-advised, however, to get out more and note how the world is changing.