CASE 6.4
TOMMY O’CONNELL, AUDIT SENIOR
Synopsis
A few weeks after being promoted to audit senior, Tommy O’Connell is assigned to supervise the
fieldwork on a difficult engagement, the annual audit of Altamesa Manufacturing Company. At
first, Tommy is pleased. His new assignment demonstrates that Tommy‘s superiors have confidence
in his ability to handle a tough audit engagement although he’s only a “light” senior. On the other
hand, the out-of-town assignment creates problems in Tommy’s personal life. His wife of less than
one year has already expressed dissatisfaction with the amount of overtime he works and now he has
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Tommy O’Connell, Audit Senior—Key Facts
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1. Tommy O’Connell had been a senior for only a short time before being assigned to the Altamesa
audit engagement.
2. Tommy wanted to impress his superiors and advance as rapidly as possible within his firm.
4. The Altamesa audit was a difficult engagement in part because the company’s management took
aggressive positions on key accounting issues.
6. Tommy apparently did not like Carl Wilmeth and, as a result, was upset when he learned that
Carl would be his subordinate on the Altamesa engagement.
8. During the course of the Altamesa engagement, Tommy suspected that Carl was not completing
all of his assigned tasks.
Instructional Objectives
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1. To illustrate the nature of the audit senior’s work role, including frustrating and problematic
facets of that role.
performance of audits.
Suggestions for Use
The work roles assumed by independent auditors are very important and challenging; however,
these roles also pose frustrations and disappointments for the individuals who occupy them. I
believe that it is important to make students aware of the challenges and opportunities they will
encounter in an auditing career but also to expose them to the difficult aspects of such a career.
Suggested Solutions to Case Questions
1. One could easily argue that audit seniors occupy the most critical role on an audit engagement.
On most audit engagements, audit seniors personally oversee the fieldwork. In this role, seniors
supervise, monitor, and review the work of staff accountants, who typically collect most of the audit
evidence on an engagement. In addition, seniors are usually required to complete the audit
procedures for the most important and/or complex financial statement items of a client. In carrying
out their responsibilities, seniors interact almost daily with key client executives and employees.
Seniors must often gently persuade, cajole, or otherwise convince client personnel to provide
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2. Recognize that Tommy is not in a powerful position in this situation. As a newly-promoted audit
senior, Tommy probably feels reluctant to express his wishes regarding the staffing of the Altamesa
engagement. A “heavy” senior, on the other hand, might simply tell Jack Morrison, “I don’t think I
want to work with that guy, Jack. If you want to know why, then we can talk about it in your
3. What would you do? Again, in reality, I would suggest that many people—audit seniors, in this
context—would traipse down that path of least resistance. Recognize that Tommy has many
problems to cope with, the least important of which may be Carl’s malfeasance or suspected
4. I believe most audit professionals would maintain that Tommy has a responsibility to raise this
matter with Morrison.
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discuss the matter with other audit partners in the office or to seek the advice of a close colleague in
another office or in the national office. For example, a human resources partner or a member of the