Get a Glimpse | Auditors
Part adviser, part examiner, and the bane of fraudsters, these professionals are the backbone of any well-run organization
Staying accountable
They are dedicated to making sure that a company follows the rules. They travel to obscure locations, branches and back offices, scanning receipts and vouchers, looking at inventory and poring over payment trails to ensure that all is in order with a business.
In fact, The Companies Act, 2013, has highlighted the need for good auditing, advocating rotation of external auditors by limiting terms to a maximum of 10 years, and increasing the scope of internal audits. It’s a challenge as well as an opportunity for auditors, who now need to be more versatile and add other qualifications like accounts advisory or risk management to their skill sets. We spoke to two chartered accountants (CA) and a certified management accountant to understand how the business works.
Jenul Sanghani, 27
Manager, accounting advisory services, KPMG, Mumbai
“The two options before me as a CA were to work in tax, which involves advising corporates on taxation matters and litigation, or the audit department, where you do statutory audit of the companies’ statements of accounts,” says Jenul Sanghani. He picked audit, because taxation mostly comprises handling queries—on the phone or on paper—but “audit involves going out into the field at the client’s office. The kind of people you interact with and the exposure you get helps set you up for your career,” he says.
How he got here: After a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Mumbai’s RA Podar College of Commerce and Economics, Sanghani did his chartered accountancy. An all-India rank of 40 in the intermediate exam helped him obtain an articleship at the accounting firm KPMG in 2007, and he has been there since.
Daily duty: Sanghani is working with three firms these days—one in education, one in media, and one in private equity. He spends four-six days a month at each client site, working on accounts advisory issues, helping clients improve their accounting, or with Indian subsidiaries of foreign multinational firms, preparing their financial statements. On the other days he is in the KPMG office at Parel, studying policies, researching how firms can best comply with controls and financial reporting requirements. For example, there was a query on accounting policies recently from the firm in the education sector. “They (client) had reworked their franchise agreements with universities and wanted to know how the revenue would be recognized. So I spent some time reading the set of accounting rules as well as the guidance notes issued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India to prepare an interpretation,” says Sanghani.
What he loves about his profession: “Working in different teams with different people in the organization, as well as different clients and industries.” Also, that he has several options, including moving back to audit from his present accounts advisory role as well as an option to pursue a career in forensics. “This is the fraud management team that moves into position after a fraud to investigate it, or even before a fraud, to set up rules and regulations to avoid the fraud,” says Sanghani.
The big high: Sanghani, who used to be diffident with presentations, now helps conduct workshops to train clients. He says this is a big achievement for him.
Money matters: Annual salaries can be in the range of ₹ 10-12 lakh.
Jayesh Shah, 48
Additional general manager, internal controls and compliance, Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Ltd, Mumbai
Shah, who graduated in commerce from Mumbai’s Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics, is the head of internal audit at the country’s 139-year-old stock exchange and says he is enjoying the challenge of working in an organization whose transactions are watched by millions of people around the world.
How he got here: In his 25-year career, Shah has spent 18 years in audit, and seven years on the other side of the table, in accounts and finance. He began his career in 1989 with Mumbai-based footwear manufacturer CSC Corona, had a brief stint in Johannesburg, South Africa, with a cosmetics company in 2000 and after a few other stops, joined the BSE in 2011.
Daily duty: Among the first things Shah does every day is to look at pending issues or payments from the day before. Some 80-100 payments every day are large enough to warrant pre-audit (examining vouchers, contracts, etc., before they are paid for and recorded), and Shah is responsible for signing off on these. Shah then turns his attention to the departmental audits. The BSE has 22 departments and each is audited twice a year. Much of this is handled by an outside auditor, but Shah must liaise with them and resolve issues, if any.
Later in the day, Shah sits with his team to study recommendations on issues and discuss the action taken.
What he loves about his profession: “It’s like a hobby. It teaches you to read between the lines,” he says.
The big high: Being able to set up processes in such a way that it takes care of financial risk and also caters to business efficiency. “At BSE, we were able to introduce better processes for payments, making the system for payments more system-driven and less prone to subjectivity,” says Shah.
Money matters:Annual salaries can be in the range of ₹ 20-25 lakh.
N. Venkatram, 56
Managing partner, audit, Deloitte Haskins and Sells LLP, Mumbai
How he got here: After a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Mumbai’s Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics, Venkatram did his chartered accountancy in 1979, and articleship at the Mumbai-based audit and accounting firm SB Billimoria and Co. The firm posted him to his hometown Jamshedpur (now in Jharkhand), where he handled the audit of Tata Steel and Tata Motors. After a stint in Bahrain with KPMG from 1985-93, Venkatram rejoined SB Billimoria in 1993 in Jamshedpur. In 1999, SB Billimoria became a member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. After the merger, Venkatram moved to Mumbai, where he has been since.
Daily duty: As head of Deloitte’s audit practice, which has 3,000 employees and 13 offices across the country, Venkatram has to travel two-three days a week. Besides working with clients at their offices, or at their sites, a lot of time is spent on issues like audit transformation, which involves making the audit process more efficient. Venkatram works closely with his national head of risk, whose department helps assess whether Deloitte should continue with existing clients or accept new ones based on the clients’ risk profiles.
What he loves about his profession: The opportunity to sit in some of the most powerful boardrooms in this country, listening to some of the finest minds, seeing how they work. “Always being in the know, whether it’s deals or acquisitions or other news,” he says.
Skills set: “Skill, personality and a reputation for being reasonable,” says Venkatram.
Money matters:Annual salaries can be in the range of ₹ 2.5-6 crore.
Every month, we explore a profession through the lives of three executives at different stages in their careers.
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First Published:27 Apr 2014, 12:26 PM IST
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