After peanut ingredients, my next audit was for one of our larger US corporate entities. The audit would take me to Fresno, CA, NYC, outside Chicago, and to Providence, RI over three weeks of work. One week for each of dairy trading, cocoa, and specialty coffee.
Week 1 – Fresno, CA
Day 1
Being in Fresno feels like being behind enemy lines. For a time, the company wanted me based in Fresno, but I pushed back. As a frequent traveler, Fresno would not be an ideal situation. Slightly before heading to Fresno I was informed that I was not being transferred there. To have to go there so soon afterwards and have to face what I had slyly avoided felt a bit odd.
Fresno itself is fine. It’s flat. Dry, but it doesn’t seem as dry as Utah or Colorado where I am constantly scrunching my nose because it’s so dried out. There wasn’t any traffic to speak of from the airport to the hotel. There were barely any people at the airport. Even my Lyft driver said that he barely makes pickups at the airport. He pointed out the Chilis and IHOP near the hotel I was staying at. It would probably be very easy to live in Fresno.
I spent nearly all of Monday in a conference room. In fact, I spent most of the whole week in the same conference room without any windows. It gets monotonous, but what is cool is that I get to learn all about a new business. The company I work for does not have any dairy-producing assets in the US (we do own dairy cows in other countries). However, we do trade dairy products between producers and food companies.
Day 2
We spent the morning in the conference room verifying documents. We have to make sure that the traders are doing what they say they are doing (and that what they say they are doing doesn’t expose the company to any outsized risks). To me, they seemed like a good group of co-workers doing good work.
I got to go on a field trip in the afternoon. My co-worker and I went to Visalia, CA to visit a warehouse that stores some of our stocks. It smelled like milk. Given the various warehouses I have visited over the last year and change, this was a welcome aroma.
There are actually a whole lot of different milk products and derivatives. Besides for fluids like milk and cream, there are solids like butter and cheese, which come in various types, both standard and non-standard (it’s easier to trade the standard types). Dehydrated milk powders are very common around the world, and then there are a number of dairy-derivative products, like whey protein and casein.
Day 3
Hump day was reserved for finance and accounting. My colleagues leading the review are both CPA’s, so I felt they were a bit ahead of me. They also had the benefit of 15 years between them of finance work at our company, so they had a much better handle on the systems and policies that we use. However, this was my first time doing a finance and accounting review so I soaked in a lot and will probably improve with every audit. My South African colleague, one of the CPA’s (I think they are known as CA’s in South Africa), did say that when she began with audit the operational bits were uphill for her. I suppose that’s the relevant experience I bring to the big audit table.
After work, we drove down the freeway to the airport to pick up an audit colleague from Dubai. He was coming in for an audit of some other businesses in Fresno. He is Indian and leads the audit team in Dubai. We were then a Mexican, a Brit-Pakistani, a South African, an Indian, and a New Yorker in Fresno, CA. Strangers in a strange land. We went to a lively seafood restaurant for dinner. It was good.
Day 4
Thursday was a continuation of Wednesday, for the most part, with a focus on finance controls. Internal Audit at the company I work for definitely has the mandate to help prevent fraud and investigate if and when it occurs. Nefarious actors are always hatching schemes to steal money from reputable companies and individuals.
Internal audit makes sure that controls are in place to mitigate the likelihood of fraud taking place. These include segregation of duties (you don’t want any one person to be the judge, jury, and executioner on multi-million dollar purchases or sales), system matches (making sure the invoice does not exceed the agreed-upon purchase price), and reconciliations (does our bank account contain as much money as we believe it should, according to our separate records). Every audit is an education for me in controls and their relative effectiveness.
Day 5
Our last day in Fresno was reserved for a closing meeting with the auditees. If it sounds squeamish, that’s because it is. Here is what you are doing wrong. Oh, and we are going to write it into a report and send it to all of your bosses. In our meeting, there were certainly some red faces and disagreements, but we are trying to reach consensus on the issues, all for the benefit of the company. I believe we accomplished that today because in the end there were cordial handshakes and appreciation expressed for our work. Happy cows make happy milk, but you definitely don’t want sour auditors.