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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Audit Clerk

💰 $35,000 - $55,000

AccountingAuditFinanceClerical

🎯 Role Definition

An Audit Clerk provides essential operational support to internal and external audit teams by preparing audit schedules, maintaining accurate working papers, performing transaction-level testing, and ensuring timely follow-up on audit recommendations. This role focuses on data integrity, account reconciliations, compliance testing, documentation, and coordination across finance and operational teams to support risk management and regulatory compliance programs.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Accounts Payable / Accounts Receivable Clerk
  • Junior Accountant or Bookkeeper
  • Finance or Administrative Assistant

Advancement To:

  • Senior Audit Clerk / Audit Analyst
  • Internal Auditor / Staff Auditor
  • Accounting Analyst or General Ledger Accountant

Lateral Moves:

  • Compliance Analyst
  • Financial Reporting Associate

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Prepare and maintain comprehensive audit working papers, schedules, and supporting documentation that clearly trace audit findings to source documents and comply with internal audit standards.
  • Perform detailed account reconciliations for balance sheet accounts (cash, receivables, payables, accruals, and clearing accounts) on a monthly or quarterly basis and document variances with clear explanations.
  • Execute transaction testing and vouching procedures, including selecting samples, verifying supporting invoices and approvals, and documenting results in the team’s audit repository.
  • Conduct control testing of key financial processes (e.g., segregation of duties, authorization controls, access controls) and prepare clear test matrices and exception logs for auditor review.
  • Support SOX/ICFR compliance activities by preparing control narratives, flowcharts, evidence packages, and remediation tracking for assigned processes.
  • Assist external auditors during fieldwork by coordinating documentation requests, preparing confirmations, and ensuring timely delivery of required information.
  • Examine vendor invoices, payment runs, and expense reports to verify accuracy, proper coding, and compliance with company policies and contract terms.
  • Reconcile bank statements, process and document bank confirmations, investigate unusual transactions, and prepare adjusting journal entries where necessary.
  • Prepare schedules and analyses for fixed assets, depreciation, and capital expenditure roll-forwards, and support physical asset verification or inventory count observations.
  • Run and validate automated audit reports and exception lists from ERP systems (e.g., SAP, Oracle, NetSuite) and escalate system-based exceptions to auditors or process owners.
  • Perform data extraction and cleansing using Excel, ACL, IDEA, or SQL to produce audit samples, exception reports, and trend analyses that support audit conclusions.
  • Track and monitor open audit findings and remediation action plans, including regular follow-up with process owners and documenting closure evidence.
  • Prepare month-end and quarter-end support schedules such as bank reconciliations, intercompany reconciliations, prepaid and accrued schedules, and other ad hoc supporting schedules.
  • Assist in the preparation of regulatory and statutory audit workpapers by ensuring supporting documentation meets external auditor standards and deadlines.
  • Provide administrative and logistical support for audit planning and execution, including scheduling interviews, distributing questionnaires, and maintaining the audit timeline.
  • Validate reconciliations for expense reports, payroll related accounts, and benefits accounts to ensure appropriate cut-offs and accurate accounting periods.
  • Maintain centralized audit filing systems (electronic and/or paper) ensuring proper versioning, retention, and ready retrieval for both internal and external reviews.
  • Document and escalate control deficiencies, policy deviations, and non-compliance issues with detailed descriptions, potential impacts, and recommended corrective actions.
  • Prepare routine audit memos and draft sections of audit reports summarizing procedures performed, evidence obtained, and results to support senior auditor conclusions.
  • Coordinate confirmations for accounts receivable, cash, and other third-party balances, follow up with external parties and document responses or exceptions.
  • Support continuous improvement projects by identifying recurring data-quality issues, inefficiencies in documentation, and opportunities for automation or standardization.
  • Participate in and support inventory or cash counts, including pre-count testing, count procedures, discrepancy reconciliation, and post-count reporting.
  • Assist with payroll and benefits audit testing by obtaining wage and time records, reconciling payroll registers, and validating payroll-related deductions and withholdings.
  • Maintain confidentiality and security of audit documentation, ensuring sensitive financial data is handled according to company policies and applicable regulations.
  • Provide ad-hoc financial analysis and variance explanations to support audit queries, month-end close activities, and management requests.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc audit data requests and prepare tailored analysis to assist auditors and finance stakeholders in rapid decision-making.
  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams (procurement, HR, operations) to obtain documentation, reconcile discrepancies, and validate control evidence.
  • Contribute to the development and maintenance of audit templates, checklists, and standard operating procedures to improve consistency and efficiency.
  • Assist in SOX remediation efforts by tracking corrective actions, gathering evidence of control improvements, and updating remediation logs.
  • Participate in user acceptance testing for finance system upgrades that affect audit evidence, controls, or reporting outputs.
  • Help maintain and optimize audit management systems (e.g., TeamMate, AuditBoard) by uploading workpapers, tagging issues, and ensuring proper workflow routing.
  • Support training sessions for process owners on audit evidence requirements, documentation standards, and control self-assessment procedures.
  • Assist finance and audit leadership with monthly reporting on open findings, control effectiveness metrics, and remediation progress.
  • Facilitate smooth handoffs between audit phases by preparing pre-audit briefs, scoping documents, and closing packages for fieldwork teams.
  • Monitor regulatory changes and help translate impacts to audit procedures or documentation needs under the guidance of senior audit staff.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Advanced Microsoft Excel (VLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, PivotTables, data cleansing, and macros) for extraction and analysis of large datasets.
  • Account reconciliation and general ledger accounting experience, including preparing and documenting variance analyses and adjustments.
  • Familiarity with internal control frameworks and SOX/ICFR testing methodologies, including control design and operating effectiveness testing.
  • Experience with audit and data-analysis tools such as ACL, IDEA, TeamMate, AuditBoard, or similar audit workpaper software.
  • Hands-on experience with ERP systems (SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, QuickBooks) to extract reports, run exception lists, and validate transactional data.
  • Bank reconciliation, confirmation procedures, and cash audit techniques.
  • Basic SQL or data-querying skills to extract and filter data from transactional databases for testing purposes.
  • Knowledge of GAAP or applicable accounting standards relevant to recording and presentation of financial transactions.
  • Experience preparing schedules for fixed assets, prepaid expenses, accruals, intercompany reconciliations, and inventory.
  • Document management and version control for audit files, including electronic file structures and audit repository best practices.
  • Sampling techniques, vouching, tracing, and substantive testing methods used in financial and compliance audits.
  • Ability to draft clear audit memos, findings, and procedural narratives suitable for inclusion in senior auditor reports.

Soft Skills

  • Meticulous attention to detail with a strong orientation toward accuracy and documentation completeness.
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills for preparing workpapers, explaining exceptions, and interacting with stakeholders.
  • Analytical mindset with the ability to interpret financial data and identify anomalies, trends, and root causes.
  • Time management and organizational skills to prioritize competing deadlines during busy audit cycles.
  • Professional integrity and discretion when handling confidential financial information and audit findings.
  • Collaborative team player who can engage with cross-functional partners to secure evidence and resolve issues.
  • Problem-solving aptitude with an emphasis on constructive follow-up and remediation tracking.
  • Adaptability to shifting priorities, tight timelines, and audit scope changes.
  • Customer-service orientation toward internal clients and external auditors to facilitate timely and effective audits.
  • Initiative to suggest process improvements and automation opportunities that reduce manual effort and increase accuracy.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • High school diploma or GED with relevant accounting/finance experience.

Preferred Education:

  • Associate degree or Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or a related field.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Accounting
  • Finance
  • Business Administration
  • Auditing
  • Information Systems (with accounting focus)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 1–4 years of accounting, bookkeeping, audit support, or related finance experience.

Preferred:

  • 2–5 years supporting internal or external audit teams, experience with SOX testing, ERP systems, and audit software.
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