...with a letter introducing him as an auditor and asking the store manager to count the cash. Manager is polite and asks man to help himself to a salad, then slips back and alertly calls the police....
The man in the story was me. I was 21 in my first year as an auditor with Price Waterhouse. The restaurant was a Bonanza Steak House. The letter was signed by the CFO of the franchiser Metromedia in Dallas, TX.
The story ends this way. The cops asked me to finish my salad and leave. I was allowed no access to the cash till. From what I heard the CFO came down hard on the franchisee for the incident. I actually was sympathetic to the manager for his caution I was not just mugging his store
Why do I tell this story? First year auditors spend (or at least used to) a lot of time counting cash at their clients, sending confirmation letters to banks to verify amounts reported on balance sheets, reconciling bank statements to ledgers, checking copies of checks for appropriate signatures. Mind-numbing stuff, really. One of the reasons I got out of audit as a career.
But I am scratching my head - how did Satyam manage to conceal a $ 1 billion shortfall in something as easy to audit as cash from their external auditors (my alma mater, by the way).
And as is being speculated, did Merrill Lynch smell in a few days what the auditors missed for years?
BTW - Thinking back, I recall being thankful I got a free salad that evening. Not spending the night in jail was just a bonus. At 21, you sure have your priorities right :)
...which also might explain why we booked the surprise petty cash count 5 days in advance
Posted by: Dennis Howlett | January 08, 2009 at 05:15 PM
Are you sure you were that well dressed and were not looking like a robber ?
Just Kidding! Interesting Story.
Posted by: Vijay S | January 08, 2009 at 05:33 PM
Vijay, I was many pounds lighter and I had much more hair - does that not qualify as well-dressed? :)
Dennis, the CFO had previously sent every store a letter saying a random sample of stores would be visited for the cash count. the store manager obviously did not get it from the franchise owner..
Posted by: vinnie mirchandani | January 08, 2009 at 05:33 PM
Moral of the story...
If one wants they can do real accounting else they can be creative accountants...
Posted by: Anil Kurnool | January 09, 2009 at 02:13 PM
I too am a PW alumnus and have similar recollections, but none top the story from a friend of mine spent his first assignment in a sub-zero commercial freezer counting frozen chicken parts in Moorefield, WV. Ah, the glamour of life in what was then the Big Eight.
Posted by: Brian McNeill | January 12, 2009 at 01:54 PM
Brian, I too did a couple of freezers - though a bit more pleasant - Dannon Yogurt
some of the other fun stuff - climbed a grain silo in IL, counted tires at a General Tires factory, counted inventories of odd bits of paper rolls at a Moore Business Forms factory
The last one, though was in God's country - Logan, Utah - stunning place for a factory :)
Posted by: vinnie mirchandani | January 12, 2009 at 02:22 PM