Assurance

Our Audit professionals examine a company's financial statements and attest their reliability. This includes getting to know the business and assessing processes/controls used to produce the financial statement. It also involves understanding business drivers, associated risks and their potential effect on financial statement accounts. Our audit professionals also contribute to advisory projects. For example, they help clients convert from local GAAP to IFRS, and assist with due diligence on transactions.

You might:

• Work on a variety of clients from small business to multinational corporations
• Contribute to the understanding of the business and its associated risks
• Learn about the key financial processes
• Contribute to reports and schedules the team will deliver to clients and third parties
• Attend meetings with key contacts at the clients where we share our main findings
• Liaise with clients to obtain the information and explanations needed to support your team's audit opinion
• Receive on-the-job coaching and mentoring from experienced members of the firm
• Shadow and assist partners in high level client meetings such as Audit Committees
• Help a start-up company navigate the reporting requirements of the initial public offering (IPO) process
• Help clients implement new accounting and regulatory standards
• Help clients improve their financial communications

Our audit professionals work within various industry sectors. These sectors include banks, insurance and wealth management, property, construction, public sector, manufacturers, hospitality, communication and not-for-profit organisations.

Our Climate Change and Sustainability professionals help clients with environmental issues and corporate responsibility reporting. This includes providing climate change services such as assurance on greenhouse inventories and carbon credits, and providing sustainability risk and market services such as product accreditations.

You might:

• Perform benchmarking against current leading practice and emerging global trends
• Review the processes put in place by the client regarding climate change and sustainability
• Contribute to assurance over integrity of corporate responsibility data
• Assist with financial modelling and structuring for renewable energy clients
• Perform tests to provide sustainability assurance and contribute to client reports
• Gain an understanding of the political, regulatory, market and community drivers related to sustainability and identify how they might impact on a client

Our Financial Accounting Advisory professionals apply their skills on a range of advisory projects. For example, they help organisations to convert from GAAP reporting to IFRS and assist with due diligence on transactions. They also help clients to improve their financial reporting.

You might:

• Participate in major advisory projects where accounting or financial reporting skills are needed
• Participate in due diligence or integration projects, working alongside transaction professionals to support clients who wish to buy, sell or integrate companies
• Contribute to a team that helps clients prepare for IPOs and other public offerings
• Work as part of a team that develops new approaches to help clients comply with new accounting or financial reporting regulations

Our Fraud Investigation and Dispute professionals help clients deal with the complex issues of fraud, regulatory compliance and business disputes that could otherwise detract from client efforts to achieve their company’s potential. They draw on knowledge of fraud assessment, monitoring and prevention to identify issues that need addressing. This service is about helping organisations manage fraud risk more effectively and treat it as a critical business priority.

You might:

• Meet with company executives to understand their process around identifying and mitigating fraud-related risks
• Review policies and procedures and perform and document risk assessments
• Contribute to forensic due diligence and audit support
• Contribute to expert witness reports, including the review, analysis and verification of evidence
• Liaise with litigation teams and other legal professionals
• Learn about complex statistical analysis and modelling tools
• Use social network analysis and complex data-matching technology to de-construct a financial fraud or theft of intellectual property
• Review financial data and other documents, including emails, in the context of an internal investigation or corruption-related matter
   

Our Financial Services Office professionals are a provider of assurance, tax and advisory services to the banking and capital markets, asset management and insurance industry within financial services.
Regardless of the practice you join, you’ll also gain experience and exposure across our various industry segments. In our Banking & Capital Markets segment, you may work with some of the world’s largest banking institutions, regional and community banks, or serve investment banks, broker-dealers or other market participants. In Asset Management, you could be involved with one of our many global pooled investment clients, including hedge funds, private equity funds and mutual funds. In Insurance, you might work with life/health insurers, property/casualty insurers, reinsurers, brokers or managed care organisations.

You might:

• Gain extensive knowledge of regulatory reporting requirements in order to assess your client's documentation of complex technical issues, such as share-based compensation, pension accounting and business combinations
• Assist a major investment bank with improving its processes for assessing and managing enterprise risks
• Work with a major insurer to evaluate the profitability and cross-marketing potential of its offerings across a range of customer segments
• Recommend product pricing for a managed care provider

You’ll acquire general skills and knowledge such as:

• Client relationship skills
• Organisational and self-management skills
• Teamworking and coaching skills
• Communication skills, including report writing, questioning and basic presentation skills
• Research and analysis skills, including how to verify, challenge and interpret inforation used to create financial statements or other business data
  provider

You’ll acquire the following assurance-specific skills and knowledge:

• Familiarity with IFRS and local GAAP and local regulatory requirements
• An in-depth understanding of auditing and internal controls, including how to document processes and test controls that are in place
• Understanding of how IT impacts processes and the ability to identify when to involve colleagues from IT Risk and Assurance
• Comprehension of the significance of the Financial Statement Close Process on assurance engagements
• Knowledge of financial performance and measurement concepts relating to reviewing business plans, analytical reviews and the valuation and testing of financial instruments
• The ability to determine when to involve advisors from other service lines in the team, and the skill to interpret their findings and conclusions in order to deliver value to the client
• Familiarity with fraud risks and methods for preventing them
• Familiarity with local requirements regarding climate change and sustainability

You could:

• Pursue a particular industry within Assurance Services and develop your reputation as a key advisor in that field
• Take responsibility for supervising a team
• Take a leadership role on our largest accounts, acting as a point of contact between our client and the wider global organisation of EY
• Work with a variety of audit clients and non-audit clients across different industries
• Explore opportunities to work on overseas with our network of firms worldwide
• Develop niche advisory skills in accounting and financial reporting, fraud investigation or climate change and sustainability
• Make a major contribution to the development of our people through training, coaching or recruitment