From audit to consulting

Moving from auditing to consulting: three different professions

The Enron scandal, involving Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, led to the separation of external auditing and consulting. This event anchored the requirement for company accounts to be certified by externally commissioned bodies. These bodies must not be involved in any way in the operational affairs of the companies concerned. These firms are appointed for a period of 6 years. This does not prevent them from carrying out consulting assignments simultaneously. On the other hand, the scope of their work must be very clearly defined to guarantee their independence.

Corporate advisory services are not subject to mandates. It is not a legal obligation, except in specific cases. The aim is to help customers successfully transform their businesses. This requires method, expertise if necessary, but above all the distance and perspective needed to stay focused on the objective.

Finally, the internal audit department, independent of the operational functions, ensures that internal control systems are effective. (In terms of processes, procedures, control points, documentation, communication, etc.). It generally reports to an Audit Committee appointed by the Board of Directors. The internal auditor shares an opinion on the level of control with the company’s management. It makes its findings available to the external auditors for certification of the accounts.

Similar skills…

Starting your career in auditing, whether internal or external, is a great way of acquiring the skills you need to move on to consulting assignments. It enables you to understand the customer context. This experience enables you to adapt to all types of interlocutor, to interview, research, analyze and synthesize information in order to find the root causes of malfunctions. A first experience of auditing therefore enables you to develop your listening, interpersonal and writing skills.

These skills and methodological reflexes developed over the course of audit assignments have enabled former auditors to join PALMER as consultants, senior consultants or managers.

… but switching to consulting allows you to go further than auditing

The difference between auditing and consulting lies essentially in the objectives pursued.

In an audit, the aim is to verify that the company complies with a standard: to understand how it operates in order to identify deviations from this standard, and then to propose actions for adjustment. In a consulting assignment, even if “best practices”, benchmarks and other reference systems are valuable, it is more often than not the ability to think outside the box that will make the difference. After all, it’s all about transformation, breaking new ground and getting ahead of the game!

The aim of a consulting assignment is often to support the customer from start to finish: from identifying the issue to be addressed, to formulating action plans and implementing them. This requires the consultant to be pragmatic and concrete in his recommendations, and to have a constant vision of the course to follow.

In auditing, you can sometimes be left wanting if you identify dysfunctions that you’d like to correct, but are unable to do so in the end. In consulting, you won’t have this frustration, but on the other hand, you’ll be even more demanding. In consulting, you don’t control the customer, you accompany him. You have to empathize with them from start to finish. You have to listen, put yourself in his shoes, tell him things he doesn’t want to hear, help him, stand up for him. To do this, you need to build a strong relationship, which is less necessary in an audit assignment.

PALMER offers you this opportunity

PALMER will give you access to a highly varied range of assignments, and the typologies of the missions will enable you to deal with subjects from A to Z. Most of the time, you’ll experience projects with a 360° vision, and have a front-row seat to see the concrete results of your analyses. At the same time, you’ll be accompanying your customers as they challenge themselves on a daily basis and, where necessary, redirect their trajectories.

Examples of consulting assignments?

One of our missions was to define a new Lean deployment method for a management tool. We began with a diagnosis of the existing system, then conducted workshops with our customer to come up with recommendations. The final and most crucial stage is to support the implementation of this new method.

From auditing to consulting, when should you take the plunge?

Generally speaking, 2 to 3 years of auditing is enough to acquire the right reflexes. After that, motivation and intellectual curiosity can make all the difference.

Our audit consultants

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