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The Good Audit
The Good Audit – a true-to-life satire poking fun at the work, life, and culture inside today’s largest public accounting firms.
EMERGENCY!!! Auditors don’t actually deal with REAL emergencies, but they firmly believe that every nit deserves picking. Well, most auditors do.
Manager’s jovial and laid-back personality makes him different from his peers - he does not care about all the fuss. People actually enjoy working with him and clients see him as far more practical and pragmatic than any other auditor they know.
However, the team’s new client, Widget Maker, will become a bane in Manager's life. Hitting all the artificial deadlines while meeting everyone's unrealistic expectations mean that making it through this audit will take a minor miracle. After all, the Widget Maker finance team consists of the most incompetent group of accounting professionals ever.
Will Manager’s easy-going attitude and laid-back style be enough to accomplish the impossible as the audit nears an end?
Find out now as you journey straight through the unexpected twists and turns in this seriously funny office comedy!
Meet the teams
The Accounting Firm
Intern – the sharp and spirited college student
Staff 1 – the overly enthusiastic first-year staff
Staff 2 – the highly ambitious and somewhat temperamental second-year staff
Backup Staff – the extra help who is a few fries short of a Happy Meal
Senior 1 – the professional mom
Senior 3 – the guy who gives everyone the benefit of the doubt
Manager – the family man and balancing force on the team
Director – the single workaholic
Partner – the arrogant and clueless one at the top
The Widget Maker Finance
Senior Accountant – persistently absent, unless she needs to get away from her four kids under five at home
Assistant Controller – the awkward and quirky one who never makes any sense, married to Legal Assistant which also doesn’t make sense
Legal Assistant – the cranky, bossy one
Financial Reporting Manager (FRM) – the clueless one who doesn’t do anything
Inventory Manager – the conceited and egotistical jerk who hates auditors (and everyone else)
Finance Manager – the former auditor turned inept accountant
CFO – the fearless leader of the finance team and arch-nemesis of the legal department
EMERGENCY!!! Auditors don’t actually deal with REAL emergencies, but they firmly believe that every nit deserves picking. Well, most auditors do.
Manager’s jovial and laid-back personality makes him different from his peers - he does not care about all the fuss. People actually enjoy working with him and clients see him as far more practical and pragmatic than any other auditor they know.
However, the team’s new client, Widget Maker, will become a bane in Manager's life. Hitting all the artificial deadlines while meeting everyone's unrealistic expectations mean that making it through this audit will take a minor miracle. After all, the Widget Maker finance team consists of the most incompetent group of accounting professionals ever.
Will Manager’s easy-going attitude and laid-back style be enough to accomplish the impossible as the audit nears an end?
Find out now as you journey straight through the unexpected twists and turns in this seriously funny office comedy!
Meet the teams
The Accounting Firm
Intern – the sharp and spirited college student
Staff 1 – the overly enthusiastic first-year staff
Staff 2 – the highly ambitious and somewhat temperamental second-year staff
Backup Staff – the extra help who is a few fries short of a Happy Meal
Senior 1 – the professional mom
Senior 3 – the guy who gives everyone the benefit of the doubt
Manager – the family man and balancing force on the team
Director – the single workaholic
Partner – the arrogant and clueless one at the top
The Widget Maker Finance
Senior Accountant – persistently absent, unless she needs to get away from her four kids under five at home
Assistant Controller – the awkward and quirky one who never makes any sense, married to Legal Assistant which also doesn’t make sense
Legal Assistant – the cranky, bossy one
Financial Reporting Manager (FRM) – the clueless one who doesn’t do anything
Inventory Manager – the conceited and egotistical jerk who hates auditors (and everyone else)
Finance Manager – the former auditor turned inept accountant
CFO – the fearless leader of the finance team and arch-nemesis of the legal department
- GenresFiction
265 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 5, 2019
34 people are currently reading
46 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 22, 2019
The Good Audit is one of the funniest, wittiest satires I have read in recent years, with humour and social criticism. A must for anyone who ever worked in the corporate world!
What to Expect
A story about a team of accountants auditing a manufacturer's financial records. Sounds boring? It's anything but!
In a brilliant move, Aiden does name or describe the characters. They are all called based on their positions or salary bands - from Intern and Staff 2, to Manager and Partner. This does a wonderful job of mimicking the corporate view of nameless, faceless human "resources", but Aiden keeps each character distinct. It's no bother to follow who's who and get a deep sense of individuality from each character.
The story takes place from the frenzy of the original audit planning meeting to the final, post-audit anti-climax. In addition to the prose, the story includes the constant messaging chats between the characters, and those private conversations add so much flavour to both the character and the story.
What I liked
Usually when I say I laughed out loud reading a book, I mean I had a quiet chuckle to myself (which still qualifies as aloud). Reading The Good Audit I laughed so hard I made the dog run to the other room and hide under the bed. Aiden ha sharp, biting humour that will resonate deeply with anyone who's been exposed to the corporate world - accounting, consultancy, or otherwise.
More than that, like any good satire The Good Audit also includes sharp observations and social criticism. It holds a mirror to the ugly faces of corporate culture, with its meaningless language and empty promises, with the power imbalance between the ones who do the work and the ones who reap the rewards, and the cynical approach to exploiting employees.
What to be aware of
While you don't have to be an accountant to appreciate the jokes (I'm not), there are certainly a lot of accounting terms. I didn't find that detracting or distracting from enjoying the story. You should, however, have had some exposure to the corporate world to appreciate why some of it is painfully funny and not all that removed from reality.
Summary
Highly recommended novel all around. If you've ever been in the corporate world, ever dealt with finances, audits, standard compliance and the like you'll get a lot of out - but even if you just enjoy literary contemporary satire I'd have to say you should read this.
--
Assaph Mehr, author of Murder In Absentia: A story of Togas, Daggers, and Magic - for lovers of Ancient Rome, Murder Mysteries, and Urban Fantasy.
What to Expect
A story about a team of accountants auditing a manufacturer's financial records. Sounds boring? It's anything but!
In a brilliant move, Aiden does name or describe the characters. They are all called based on their positions or salary bands - from Intern and Staff 2, to Manager and Partner. This does a wonderful job of mimicking the corporate view of nameless, faceless human "resources", but Aiden keeps each character distinct. It's no bother to follow who's who and get a deep sense of individuality from each character.
The story takes place from the frenzy of the original audit planning meeting to the final, post-audit anti-climax. In addition to the prose, the story includes the constant messaging chats between the characters, and those private conversations add so much flavour to both the character and the story.
What I liked
Usually when I say I laughed out loud reading a book, I mean I had a quiet chuckle to myself (which still qualifies as aloud). Reading The Good Audit I laughed so hard I made the dog run to the other room and hide under the bed. Aiden ha sharp, biting humour that will resonate deeply with anyone who's been exposed to the corporate world - accounting, consultancy, or otherwise.
More than that, like any good satire The Good Audit also includes sharp observations and social criticism. It holds a mirror to the ugly faces of corporate culture, with its meaningless language and empty promises, with the power imbalance between the ones who do the work and the ones who reap the rewards, and the cynical approach to exploiting employees.
What to be aware of
While you don't have to be an accountant to appreciate the jokes (I'm not), there are certainly a lot of accounting terms. I didn't find that detracting or distracting from enjoying the story. You should, however, have had some exposure to the corporate world to appreciate why some of it is painfully funny and not all that removed from reality.
Summary
Highly recommended novel all around. If you've ever been in the corporate world, ever dealt with finances, audits, standard compliance and the like you'll get a lot of out - but even if you just enjoy literary contemporary satire I'd have to say you should read this.
--
Assaph Mehr, author of Murder In Absentia: A story of Togas, Daggers, and Magic - for lovers of Ancient Rome, Murder Mysteries, and Urban Fantasy.
July 16, 2019
Enjoyable, clever and original
C.P Aiden has put together a story that on the surface appears to be about the trials of auditing and finance but in fact it’s about everything else that comes with the territory. This book is so well written and concise you could argue it’s use as a teaching aid for the profession and I mean that in the highest regard even though I am layman to all things finance I found myself able to follow and enjoy everything that was happening.
It reads and flows like a series of case studies that follow a team as they journey in putting together a financial audit for a company (Widget Maker) with some fun and sometimes absurd moments. The characters are stripped down to their job titles as names; an original concept that pays off and even makes it easier to follow. – of course this choice may be to protect anyone they are based upon giving the book a sense of possible reality.
The ‘everything else’ concept of this story is probably what makes it such an enjoyable read from discussing lunch drinks policies to office sleeping arrangements or being given the gift of finishing early at 7:30pm with a $25 dinner allowance for two . This is without mentioning ‘the fortuitous leak in the audit cave’ after someone eats day old sushi or even finding out how much others earn. All of these goings on convey the pressure and treatment the employees face when putting together an audit.
The Good Audit is a unique account (no pun intended) written in an original accessible way that I guarantee any reader will enjoy.
C.P Aiden has put together a story that on the surface appears to be about the trials of auditing and finance but in fact it’s about everything else that comes with the territory. This book is so well written and concise you could argue it’s use as a teaching aid for the profession and I mean that in the highest regard even though I am layman to all things finance I found myself able to follow and enjoy everything that was happening.
It reads and flows like a series of case studies that follow a team as they journey in putting together a financial audit for a company (Widget Maker) with some fun and sometimes absurd moments. The characters are stripped down to their job titles as names; an original concept that pays off and even makes it easier to follow. – of course this choice may be to protect anyone they are based upon giving the book a sense of possible reality.
The ‘everything else’ concept of this story is probably what makes it such an enjoyable read from discussing lunch drinks policies to office sleeping arrangements or being given the gift of finishing early at 7:30pm with a $25 dinner allowance for two . This is without mentioning ‘the fortuitous leak in the audit cave’ after someone eats day old sushi or even finding out how much others earn. All of these goings on convey the pressure and treatment the employees face when putting together an audit.
The Good Audit is a unique account (no pun intended) written in an original accessible way that I guarantee any reader will enjoy.
June 16, 2019
This is a fun, cleverly-written book. A unique thing about the writing is that none of the characters are named. Rather, they are called as Staff 1, Senior 1, Manager, and so on. This made me think that to companies (or audit firms), the names and individual lives of employees aren't of any importance. What they truly value is what kind of input they can bring to the company (a sad, but harsh truth of the corporate world).
The book was an easy, fun read, with life lessons sprinkled all throughout. It takes a nice dig on the importance of work-life balance and ends on a happy note. I would definitely recommend the book if you're looking for a fun-filled satire on corporate life.
The book was an easy, fun read, with life lessons sprinkled all throughout. It takes a nice dig on the importance of work-life balance and ends on a happy note. I would definitely recommend the book if you're looking for a fun-filled satire on corporate life.
March 7, 2019
Very quick and easy read. I laughed a lot - it gets funnier as you go. Having characters be called titles threw me at first, but I got used to it and then it was just another funny element of the book. Different than anything I've read recently - fresh. The book is about an accounting team at a client, but you don't have to know anything about accounting or auditing for this book - mostly situational humor. Really funny how the author uses instant messages so there are often two (very different) conversations going on at the same time.
May 25, 2019
Cleverly written, reminded me of work 😉
Really well written story, I read this in one sitting and found many of the situations reminiscent of my own experiences (though I'm not an accountant).
Struggled at first with the names but figured it was a case of "names changed to protect the identities of those involved" kind of thing. Will admit this did kind of spoil the book for me as I didn't realise how important names were to me.
Felt like the telling of actual events and if you like realism with a sprinkling of humour then this is for you.
Really well written story, I read this in one sitting and found many of the situations reminiscent of my own experiences (though I'm not an accountant).
Struggled at first with the names but figured it was a case of "names changed to protect the identities of those involved" kind of thing. Will admit this did kind of spoil the book for me as I didn't realise how important names were to me.
Felt like the telling of actual events and if you like realism with a sprinkling of humour then this is for you.
June 5, 2019
Hilarious and So Real!
The Good Audit brought back for me all my good (and bad) memories of the days I worked in public accounting. While the technology has changed, the work hasn’t. This story is much more than long hours, crazy clients and even crazier people in the firm. It’s a very funny story that at the same time goes deep into the often dysfunctional public accounting world. The author questions many sacred public accounting beliefs, including the almost cultish devotion to “The Firm.” A must read and highly recommended!
The Good Audit brought back for me all my good (and bad) memories of the days I worked in public accounting. While the technology has changed, the work hasn’t. This story is much more than long hours, crazy clients and even crazier people in the firm. It’s a very funny story that at the same time goes deep into the often dysfunctional public accounting world. The author questions many sacred public accounting beliefs, including the almost cultish devotion to “The Firm.” A must read and highly recommended!
August 6, 2019
I never thought a novel about an accounting audit would leave me breathless. How wrong I was.
This is a modern times, true to life, office horror story, populated by lifelike, anonymous denizens of the outer office.
I read it in just a smidgen over one sitting. I'd read another! Some folk say it's a satire. Those would be the folk who've never worked for large corporations
This is a modern times, true to life, office horror story, populated by lifelike, anonymous denizens of the outer office.
I read it in just a smidgen over one sitting. I'd read another! Some folk say it's a satire. Those would be the folk who've never worked for large corporations
September 16, 2019
Amazing inside look
The use of descriptive titles for the names of the characters was refreshing. The dialogue of instant messages was fun and irreverent. An inside, slightly sarcastic, window into what most people consider a dry, sober subject, made for good entertainment!
The use of descriptive titles for the names of the characters was refreshing. The dialogue of instant messages was fun and irreverent. An inside, slightly sarcastic, window into what most people consider a dry, sober subject, made for good entertainment!
August 11, 2019
I had fun reading this. Good laughs and a nice way to escape for a short while!
November 12, 2020
I really tried with this book, but no, I couldn't get into it. Why do some accountants try to make their profession zany and interesting? I'm one, I know it has it's challenges and interest but it's a profession not a life. Maybe the ridiculous hours and pressures described in here mislead them.
I actually couldn't get past the appalling work practices, lack of holidays, flexi-time etc. Move to a civilised country please. Or civilise your own.
I actually couldn't get past the appalling work practices, lack of holidays, flexi-time etc. Move to a civilised country please. Or civilise your own.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews