Many FDs who voted in the 2007 RealFD/CBI FDs’ Excellence Awards told us the quality of junior staff at the nation’s audit firms wasn't up to scratch.

KPMG won the award for best Big Four auditor this year and the firm’s Richard Bennison, who is head of audit, says the practice is trying to address your concerns.

“We’ve put a lot of effort into better upfront training on two fronts – the technical side of things and industry knowledge,” he says.

“We want to make sure that when our people go out to the client, they have a better grounding in both accounting and auditing matters but we’ve also put a lot more emphasis on specific industry training.

“If they’re going to audit a retailer, then they will have been briefed and trained as to what a retailer’s business model would look like and the typical controls they would expect to see.

“We’re putting a lot of effort into making sure our junior people understand the technical accounting better but also understand the client’s business better before they’re, as it were, let loose on the client.”

Bennison tells us the firm is also focusing on the feedback it gets from FDs. “They want quick, practical advice,” he says. “They want it from the front-line partners and directors. They don’t want it all being referred back to a back office."

Another thing the firm has done this year has been to try to make the audit a value-added service and not just a compliance exercise.

“We say to clients: 'From what we’ve seen, this is what we think about your systems, your accounting practices, how you benchmark on prudence in the balance sheet.'"

Click here to vote in next year’s RealFD/CBI FDs’ Excellence Awards. As well giving you the satisfaction of having your say, voting could also bag you a bottle of bubbly.

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