Remote audit: the challenges of re-creating the audit room during the Covid 19 pandemic

As in many other countries, the UK Government responded to the spread of the Covid 19 virus by announcing a stay-at-home policy that came into effect on 23rd March, 2020. The disruption caused by the pandemic and the sudden requirement for auditors to work from home presented some significant challenges as audit teams set about re-creating a virtual audit room. Drawing on data gathered through online interviews with audit team members and leaders at various levels within the firm hierarchy, this study examines how they continued to deliver professional services whilst negotiating challenges such as communication in the absence of face-to-face engagement, gathering audit evidence remotely and coaching/interaction in a virtual setting. The study finds that the enforced move to remote working has demonstrated that the traditional audit work model and the expectation of “being present” is not as entrenched as the literature suggests. Through identifying and understanding the challenges of remote audit work, the study also raises questions regarding the transformative power and potential of this episode for future work patterns within audit firms. This is important because research shows that employees are, on the whole, keen to work from home more often in the future and there is evidence that audit firms anticipate and recognise that the future of the audit work model is likely to take a more hybrid form.