When it comes to planning your career, Rachel Davis, Managing Director, Just Audit, firmly believes you need to take many things into consideration. “What I say when I’m interviewing people is that it’s important for me to find the right person, but it’s probably more important for the person to find the right firm. Take any opportunity to meet the team; to meet the people you’ll be working with; to understand the culture and make sure it’s a good fit for you because that will help you get your wings and fly.”

Davis also believes that firms of all sizes can offer different benefits. “I think a smaller practice can offer progression. You may also have more flexibility. You’ll be stretched and will probably be responsible for the whole audit a lot quicker. But it’s really important to find out where you want to work. It’s not just the right role you’re looking for, it’s the right place.”

Making the step up to being a Responsible Individual is a vital stage in the career progression of an auditor, but it can seem daunting to the newly qualified. Davis acknowledges this, but advises that as long as you are doing everything correctly and have good quality control reviews done, there’s nothing to fear. “I’m extremely risk averse,” she admits, “and if I come across a potential issue I will always get it hot-file reviewed and do lots of consultations.”

So, how did she get into audit in the first place? “I did a combined degree, part business, part food, and did two work placements. The first was at a glamorous magazine in London, the second was in internal audit at the old nationalised British Gas in Leeds. Of the two, of course the first one sounds far more glamorous. But the second was the one I preferred: far more friendly people, I enjoyed the job, enjoyed the variety, so I decided to follow the accountancy route.”

Her first role was as an account/audit junior at Duncan & Toplis, a medium-sized practice in Grantham. Once qualified, Davis moved on to the “bright lights” of KPMG and eventually became an audit manager. While at KPMG, she undertook a 14-week secondment to New Zealand and a year’s work placement in personnel and training at KPMG in Nottingham and Derby, where she was responsible for recruiting graduates and delivering the graduate recruitment and training programme. 

“I knew I wanted to be an accountant and I knew that when I eventually had children, I’d want a career where I could combine the two. When I did eventually have kids, I went very part time and then worked my way back up to very full time. Post-kids, I went to a small practice where I became responsible for the audit role, then in 2006 I decided to set up my own practice, Just Audit.

Specialist approach

Just Audit is an incredibly accurate description of Davis’s practice, and there’s a strong rationale behind the way she set it up. As audit thresholds were rising, it reached a point where some small practitioners would have just one audit client left, but as this was their biggest client, they didn’t want to lose their audit registration and therefore lose that client. That was Davis’s light-bulb moment: “I thought, if I provide a pure audit service, I’m not a competitor. Therefore it’s no risk to them to ask my firm to do it. So we deliver an audit service to their clients, they’re our client and it’s like a little triangle. We’re delivering audit service directly to the ultimate client and the accountant manages to keep their client.”

This set-up can have advantages: “Our complete independence gives assurance to both accountants and their clients that we are impartial and neutral,” says Davis. “There’s no conflict of interest – we don’t offer accountancy services, our accountant colleagues don’t offer audit, so our clients benefit from two sets of experienced, interested parties, each bringing their skills to benefit their business.” 

She initially thought her clientele would be made up mainly of large companies, but this has not proved to be the case. “Probably half my practice is made up of small UK subsidiaries that need an audit because of the size of the group. So I’ve got small companies, solicitors, CASS 5 and ATOL – all things you need to be a registered auditor to do.”

Working with a varied group of clients is key to Davis’s enjoyment of her work: “What gets me up in the morning is the social interaction, meeting people, people I work with, my clients. And it’s such a varied job. I get to see all sorts of shapes, sizes of clients and industries you never even knew existed and how they work and operate.” 

Home office

The other thing that’s different about Just Audit is the way it operates. From the very beginning, it has been a fully work-from-home business, with the team spread around the country. “It’s always been totally and utterly remote. But we do get together periodically for team-building.”

All of which meant Just Audit was in a strong position when COVID-19 hit. “The pandemic didn’t really change anything,” says Davis. “Initially it slowed the workflow down because the accountants who supplied us the finished accounts and the accounts prep files, ready for the audit, were busy helping clients with furlough claims and cash-flow forecasts to keep them afloat. That only really lasted a month. The only other impact really was not being able to go on site for our larger clients and the stocktakes.” 

And what of the future? “I think what I’m doing now is really exciting. Developing the practice, developing the people, developing the team, the clients, winning new work. What I’ve learned from my career is that it’s a job where you never, ever stop learning, and the variety just keeps on getting better.”