A Day In My Life (this was long overdue)

Mornings

As the first rays of sunlight peek through Hyderabad’s skyline, I’m already at my desk, armed with my essential tools: Python and a steaming cup of coffee. My morning begins with checking overnight emails from our US colleagues, who are wrapping up their day as ours begins. This temporal dance between time zones is a unique aspect of our role, creating a seamless 24-hour audit cycle - at least in theory.

The reality? My inbox is often flooded with urgent requests from multiple engagement teams, each convinced their deadline is the most critical. Today, I’m juggling three different client datasets, each using different ERP systems with their own quirks. The SAP extract is missing crucial fields, the Oracle data has inconsistent date formats, and the client’s custom ERP system seems to have exported everything in a format that makes our standard scripts crash.

The first task of the day involves running our automated testing scripts on fresh client data. However, the client’s network is experiencing issues, making data transfer painfully slow. Meanwhile, a senior manager in the US is waiting for results from yesterday’s analysis, and the sample size calculations aren’t matching the methodology documented in our workpapers. Welcome to Monday!

Afternoons

By midday, I’m deep into what we call “data storytelling,” though sometimes it feels more like data wrestling. This isn’t just about finding irregularities; it’s about understanding what they mean in the broader context of our client’s business while fighting with system limitations. My laptop fans are whirring at full speed as I try to process a 2GB Excel file that keeps crashing Power BI.

A particularly challenging situation arises when I discover that the accounts payable data shows unusual patterns, but the client insists their processes are normal. Now I need to diplomatically navigate between the engagement team’s concerns and the client’s explanations while ensuring our analysis remains objective and thorough.

Evenings

The evenings often brings virtual meetings with our US counterparts. We discuss complex cases, share new analytical approaches, and brainstorm solutions to challenging audit scenarios. These conversations are a highlight of my day – they’re opportunities to learn from different perspectives and contribute to global audit methodologies. However, explaining nuanced data patterns through a laggy screen-sharing session while dealing with occasional language barriers and technical jargon differences adds another layer of complexity to our work.

I spend significant time mentoring junior team members, helping them understand not just the technical aspects of our tools but also the critical thinking required in audit analytics. There’s something incredibly rewarding about watching a colleague grasp a complex concept and apply it successfully to their work.

End of Day

As the day winds down, I try to focus on innovation time, but reality often interferes. Today, a client’s urgent request means postponing my machine learning project yet again. The prototype I’ve been developing for better risk prediction keeps getting pushed back due to immediate deliverable demands and resource constraints.

The challenge of balancing innovation with daily operations is constant. While I’m excited about exploring new technologies, I must also ensure our current processes remain robust and reliable. Tonight, I’m troubleshooting why our JET testing script suddenly started timing out on larger datasets – not exactly the cutting-edge work I had planned, but crucial nonetheless.

As I pack up for the day, reviewing tomorrow’s scheduled client calls and pending analyses, I remain excited about the future of audit analytics despite its challenges. Yes, there are days when nothing seems to work as planned – when scripts fail, clients are difficult, and deadlines loom impossibly close. But there are also moments of triumph when our analysis uncovers significant insights or when a junior team member successfully completes their first complex analysis. With the rapid advancement of technology and the increasing complexity of business transactions, our role continues to evolve. Whether it’s implementing artificial intelligence in audit procedures or developing new ways to analyze blockchain transactions, there’s always something new to learn and explore.