All Episodes

The More We Automate Auditing, The More Judgment Matters

Photo by Şeyda Nur Uğur The more we automate auditing, the more we are forced to confront a problem that technology cannot solve for us:…
Shielding the Powerful, Abandoning the Weak: Auditing in the Age of Bailouts

We are told, often with great confidence, that capitalism is nothing if not fair. Markets always reward good business ideas, punish dispassionately bad ones. Success,…
WH Smith’s £30m Accounting Error: Lessons from supplier rebates, IFRS 15 and ISA 240.

We do not usually expect great corporate drama from WH Smith. It is the shop of crisps, glossy magazines, and the forlorn rack of Sudoku…
Understanding Pervasiveness in Audit Opinions.

We are trained to think of misstatements in terms of size, i.e percentages of profit, net assets, benchmarks and other thresholds. Then along comes this…
NRV vs Cost: The Fashion industry’s open secret.

Have you ever walked past a shop window in mid-July and seen a rail of winter coats and other garments shoved into the corner, next…
Mastering Professional Exams: Less is More

There’s something quietly satisfying about completing what we start, about giving each task our full attention, seeing it through to the very end. It feels…
The Greater Fool Theory: why even the smartest keep falling for financial Bubbles.

The most dangerous kind of foolishness rarely arrives in a funny and obvious costume. It slips in quietly, often dressed like due diligence. “Act now,”…
Certifying the unknowable: Why auditing AI might be the biggest risk yet

It’s easy to forget what auditors used to do? Ticking boxes, making sure a company’s version of reality wasn’t drifting too far from the truth,…
The great blind spot: How accounting still fails to see intangible value.

Part Two: Too Little, Too Late? The Trouble with Reforming IAS 38 In Part One, we traced how accounting, in its devotion to reliability, taught…
The great blind spot: How accounting still fails to see intangible value

We live in a time when a company’s worth no longer lives in its trucks or tools, its contracts or cash. It lives elsewhere now,…
Too Late to Learn? The Quiet Cruelty of Cutting Apprenticeship Funding at 21

Somewhere in a government office, someone mistook a spreadsheet for a strategy. With all the certainty that only a pie chart can inspire, they drew…
EY, NMC Health, and the Anatomy of a Collapsing Group Audit (Part 2)

In Part 1, we traced the rise and collapse of NMC Health, a healthcare empire unravelled by hidden debt and opaque structures. We examined the…
EY, NMC Health, and the Anatomy of a Collapsing Group Audit (Part 1)

It was, at one point, a rising star. NMC Health, born in the oil-lit prosperity of the Gulf, headquartered in Abu Dhabi and listed on…
From Shannon to Shenzhen: What duty-free tells us about the trade wars ahead

For all its bright lighting and lacquered surfaces, there is something oddly comforting about a duty-free shop. The perfume counters, the oversized Toblerones, the rows…
When Markets Crash and Controls Falter: Audit Lessons from the M&S Cyberattack

It wasn’t a profit warning or a scandal over supplier practices that triggered the latest crisis at Marks & Spencer. It was a cyberattack, faceless,…
Everest was never about the mountain

There are few things as oddly moving as watching a grand idea die quietly, not with scandal or rage, but with fatigue. Ernst & Young’s…
Adam Smith and the Fast Fashion Paradox.

“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in…
More Than What’s on Paper: The Rolls-Royce Mistake.

Due diligence sounds like one of those dry, procedural terms that accountants mutter while reviewing paperwork. But in practice, it’s the most powerful tool to…
What’s a Bitcoin Worth, and Who Gets to Say? A Brief Wandering Through Tesla’s Ledger

Bitcoin is hard to pin down as it behaves like cash, but it isn’t. You can trade it like a stock, but there’s no underlying…
The Afterlife of Ambition: How Goodwill Haunts the Balance Sheet

When companies acquire more than assets, when they buy stories, promises, and projections, they call the excess ‘goodwill.’ But what happens when that promise fades?…
How Carillion Collapsed Beneath Its Own Estimates.

In accounting, as in life, what undoes us is rarely the outright lie. It is the softly spoken optimism, the revenue not yet earned but…
Between Maths and Myth: Accounting’s Uncomfortable Place in STEM

Once, the world seemed neatly divided: physics belonged to the sciences, engineering to its own proud tradition, mathematics to its eternal certainties and accounting, quietly,…
Trust, Familiarity, and the Quiet Necessity of Moving On: A Tale of EY and PwC

There are rules we resent not because they are foolish, but because they remind us of something uncomfortable: that even the noblest human intentions decay…
The Evergrande Audit Scandal: Lessons in Revenue Overstatement

You’ll encounter a familiar story in every accounting class: There’s always a listed client eager to overstate revenue. The trick is to impress shareholders, or…
Goodwill, EY, and the Fall of Thomas Cook: Why It’s Time to Rethink IFRS 3

In April 2025, the UK’s Financial Reporting Council fined Ernst & Young £4.9 million for its work on Thomas Cook’s audits. The firm had signed…
The Billionaire, the Banks, & the Balance Sheet Breakdown

Why You Need to Hear This Story? Picture this: You’re a high-flying banker, who just handed over billions to a man interested in buying Twitter…
£1.68 Billion Conjured from Nothing: The Dark Art of Corporate Deception.

What really makes a business a business? We accounting tutors talk so much about a business not just being identified with the mere name on…
The Illusion of Loss: Why Accounting Rules Are Killing Innovation

For years, accountants, investors, and regulators have stared at red ink and declared defeat, with a bias to treat all financial losses as if created equal. Spoiler alert: they’re not. Not all losses are…
EOM vs KAM: Breaking Down Audit Report Insights

We come across these terms from time to time at work. We often wonder, what’s the difference between an Emphasis of Matter paragraph and a…
Why the Questions We Don’t Ask Could Sink Us!

In the Classroom: “If previous auditors resigned, investigate why and understand the issues before accepting the engagement.” You’re an auditor and you just landed a…
Understanding Risk in Auditing: Lessons from HBOS and Thomas Cook

FIFTH TRIMROT FACTOR | RISK What we Teach: “Assess the client’s risk profile and reputation thoroughly.” Reality Check | HBOS and KPMG, Thomas Cook and…
Auditors or Enablers? How the Big Four Profit from Playing Both Sides

Just imagine that fox guarding the henhouse. It also designs its locks, paints it, and distributes recipes for roast chicken. That, dear reader, is the…
FOURTH TRIMROT FACTOR : Money Laundering

What we teach | The Lesson: “Actively monitor for any questionable transactions.” Reality Check: Kaloti Jewellery International, Wirecard, London Capital & Finance, PwC, and EY …
Third TRIMROT FACTOR: Independence.

Why Independence is Vital in Auditing and the High Costs of Conflict of Interest What we teach | The Lesson: “Guard against conflicts of interest.…
Audit Firms Under Pressure: The Resource Tug-of-War in Balancing Growth with Quality.

What we teach | The Lesson: “Does the firm have enough staff available before accepting a client? Ensure adequate staffing and support for client projects.” …
TRIMROT vs. Reality: Are UK Auditors Simply Checking Boxes?

The TRIMROT checklist is familiar to every accounting student. It stands for: Technical Competence, Resources, Independence, Money Laundering, Risk, Outgoing Auditors, and Terms of Engagement.…
Mastering Professional Scepticism in Corporate Reporting Exams

Professional scepticism is your best friend in corporate reporting exams. It’s a skill that brings in crucial marks and keeps your thinking sharp. It is…
PwC Audit Failure: Lessons Learned from LCF Case

Just imagine…you are an auditor. You are going over the books of accounts and other records of the client. Then out of nowhere, a red…
Teaching Accounting: My Sisyphean Adventure

Picture a Greek king, condemned by the gods, who pushes a boulder up a steep mountain, only to see it tumble back down, time and…