Chapter 2 Organization and Structure of the Auditing Profess(10)

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responsibilities of audit personnel on each level. While these responsibilities vary from one firm to another, the typical functions and duties of each classification can be described generally.

(i) Partner. The partner has primary responsibility for accounting and auditing services and is usually the direct contact with the client. The partner is responsible for all decisions made in the course of the engagement, including those about the scope of services, the audit strategy, and the resolution of significant accounting and auditing issues. In short, the partner is responsible for ensuring that the audit has been planned, conducted, and reported on in accordance with the firm's policies and professional standards. As noted in Chapter 3, firms that are members of the SEC Practice Section of the AICPA's Division for CPA Firms are required to assign a second, or concurring review, partner on SEC engagements to provide additional assurance that those objectives are achieved. Because of the perceived benefits of such additional partner review, many firms assign a concurring review partner to other engagements as well. The concurring review partner on an engagement generally assesses the audit strategy, including auditing procedures to be performed in sensitive or high-risk areas, and may suggest additional matters to be addressed or recommend ways of enhancing audit efficiency. He or she reviews the draft audit report, related financial information and disclosures, and, where applicable, published reports and filings to be made with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other regulatory bodies. In some circumstances, the review may be more detailed and include inquiring of members of the engagement team and reviewing working papers to determine that the scope of auditing procedures and related documentation comply with the firm's policies and professional standards.

(ii) Manager. Under the direction of a partner, a manager is responsible for administering all aspects of an engagement, including planning and coordinating activities with the entity's personnel, delegating duties to team members, coaching them, supervising and reviewing

their work, controlling engagement time and expenses, and overseeing billings and collections.

A manager is expected to have attained a degree of technical competence in accounting and auditing sufficient to ensure that an audit complies with all applicable professional standards and firm policies. The manager is also responsible for keeping the partner informed of all significant developments throughout the audit. Among other things, the manager often is

delegated the responsibility for reviewing proposed changes in the audit program, the report to management covering internal control related matters, the financial statements first in draft form and then in final form, and the working papers documenting the engagement.

(iii) Other Personnel. An experienced accountant, sometimes called the field team leader or in-charge accountant, is responsible, under the manager's direction, for the overall quality, timeliness, and efficiency of the fieldwork in an audit. This involves assisting the manager with administrative matters during the planning phase of the engagement as well as during and after the fieldwork. During the fieldwork, this individual is responsible for understanding the entity's business, industry, and internal control; identifying inherent risks; assessing control risk; reviewing working papers prepared by other engagement team personnel; drafting the report on internal control related matters and the proposed audit report; and preparing a summary of