I hope to take steps to address this issue. We auditors are always told to have a professional skepticism, but it’s a quality that degrades as I know the person over a long period of time. One way to keep professional skepticism always intact is to realize that clients, even if they were telling the truth in the past, may not be truthful today.
I have to look at the facts and figures of the bill and not rely on what the customer told me. Yes, it’s good to be loyal and trusting in the eyes of the client, because the skill of building relationships is important for an auditor. However, this means that I completely ignore the search for supporting evidence.
It may seem strange to compare the steps auditors take to verify an account to the scientific method, but that’s what I have to do. I have to start by asking a question, doing research, making a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, analyzing the data, and drawing a conclusion. This aspect of my personality may prove to be a challenge in my career as an auditor, especially when upholding the independence principle in the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct.
Auditors must remain independent in fact and externally from the client they are auditing. However, as I develop a relationship with my client and get to know them, I can do whatever I can to try and help them. My sense of loyalty to the client may impair my judgment and my ability to remain independent. I can knowingly or unknowingly approve or even skip an account during a review to prevent harm.
Loyalty to me goes hand in hand with trust. If I’ve built trust with them, I usually extrapolate that they’ll always tell me the truth, which isn’t always the case. I am a very loyal person, which makes me overly trusting.
While this characteristic is great, it can also be my downfall sometimes. I stay true to a person and see the best in them, even when it seems they are doing something wrong. I always choose to defend them because I am a very biased person when it comes to my friends and family. This is more true for people I’ve had long-term relationships with. I trust so easily that I have been called gullible.
