Audit specialists are responsible for examining and auditing an organization's financial records to ensure that the financial transactions are truthful and balanced. They work to show that a company is free of fraud and transparent in maintaining its financial records. They are in charge of handling complex and challenging audit projects.

Audit specialists perform these duties to arrive at an ultimate goal: to enhance the organization's growth in a bid to achieve its goals and objectives. Part of their duties includes designing and implementing different audit strategies, procedures, programs for complex assignments. They formulate other policies and procedures for complex tasks and make recommendations to improve a particular project's efficiency.

Audit specialists mostly hold a bachelor's degree in finance, management, audit, or other relevant fields and a certificate in public accounting or a certified management accounting certification. Some years of auditing experience may also prove advantageous in this field. Audit specialists earn an average salary of approximately $59,000 annually, or $28 per hour.

What Does an Audit Specialist Do

There are certain skills that many audit specialists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed organizational skills, detail oriented and math skills.

Learn more about what an Audit Specialist does

How To Become an Audit Specialist

If you're interested in becoming an audit specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 55.4% of audit specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 9.6% of audit specialists have master's degrees. Even though most audit specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become an Audit Specialist

Audit Specialist Career Paths

Average Salary for an Audit Specialist

Audit Specialists in America make an average salary of $58,291 per year or $28 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $99,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $34,000 per year.
Average Audit Specialist Salary
$58,291 Yearly
$28.02 hourly

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Roles and Types of Audit Specialist

The role of an audit specialist includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general audit specialist responsibilities:

  • 1. Leads critical risk assessments as well as the evaluation of controls
  • Review and cancel orders held in payment review while abiding by all internal fraud rules. Responsible for reviewing risk reports
  • Act as liaison between exception processing

There are several types of audit specialist, including:

Auditor

Role:

Auditors are high-level accountants who investigate accounting processes and cash-flow records of firms, corporations, or other organizations to make sure the books are not cooked and everything corresponds to regulations and legal standards.

An auditor does not necessarily work for the IRS. They might be internal auditors of a company or experts conducting external audits, employed by public or private accounting firms.

As auditors are usually associated with revealing fraud, they might trigger people's guilt complex, which can make it a bit hard for them to make new friends. Contrary to popular belief, though, auditors are much less the lone wolves we make them out to be. They work in teams and meet a lot of interesting people through their work, such as leaders of different industries. Sometimes, they even crack a joke. They are just accountants who control other accountants, really.

Auditing is a stable career option with the possibility to earn above average income. So what if people think you are boring?

  • Average Salary: $54,853
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Internal Auditor

Role:

The main goal of the internal auditing department of any organization is to gather information that can be analyzed and converted into valuable insights to determine how the company can be run more efficiently. There are four common techniques that are used in the practice of internal auditing to achieve this end. They include observing the target business environment; inspecting the specific risk management, financial reporting, and productivity strategies that are currently in place; inquiring or asking questions of management personnel related to the effectiveness of the current internal controls; and confirming whether the goals and objectives of the business are being met.

If you are interested in working in the area of internal auditing, while in college you might want to choose the electives, federal and state corporate income tax, accounting principals and financial management, and auditing. You will need at least a bachelor's degree in accounting or business administration.

An internal auditor makes an average of $63,273 a year, which translates to $30.42 an hour. Acording to the United States Bureau of Labour Statistics, the career is expected to grow by 6% between the years 2018 and 2028, producing 90,700 new jobs.

  • Average Salary: $63,013
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Staff Auditor

Role:

A staff auditor is responsible for analyzing an organization's financial activities, ensuring compliance with regulations, and auditing accounts as needed. Staff auditors work under senior auditors' supervision, and they perform similar roles, albeit at a lower level.

A staff auditor may examine and verify an organization's finances or focus on hiring practices and procedures. Staff auditors focus on identifying risks in a company like financial mismanagement, fraud, and other questionable practices. To do this, they often comb through large spreadsheets to dig up information.

Some staff auditors may also review communications and staff actions during an audit. After the review, they create reports containing their findings and recommendations and submit them to upper management staff.

To become a staff auditor, you need a bachelor's degree in accounting or finance. You may also need to become a Certified Public Accountant, even though it's not a requisite for many employers.

  • Average Salary: $55,431
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Audit Specialist Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active audit specialist jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where audit specialists earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Audit Specialist Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California2,105$73,002
2Texas1,383$61,115
3Florida1,376$38,380
4New York1,180$71,841
5Illinois954$64,223
6North Carolina862$49,196
7Pennsylvania791$51,914
8Georgia758$49,394
9Virginia712$63,848
10Massachusetts691$51,185
11Ohio617$47,847
12Michigan541$53,969
13New Jersey536$71,047
14Arizona525$49,084
15Indiana450$53,726
16Minnesota447$48,188
17Maryland439$52,803
18Missouri435$49,494
19Washington406$68,951
20Colorado375$58,138
21Iowa363$45,916
22Wisconsin360$51,819
23Tennessee339$44,726
24Oregon279$72,002
25Connecticut251$55,158
26Alabama238$42,641
27Louisiana227$42,637
28Utah226$49,235
29South Carolina226$47,689
30Nebraska207$48,435
31Kentucky203$43,667
32Kansas194$49,375
33Oklahoma182$48,680
34Arkansas181$50,190
35Nevada173$49,996
36Delaware113$58,719
37New Mexico109$47,065
38New Hampshire107$40,567
39Idaho105$64,737
40Hawaii104$40,600
41Mississippi98$52,686
42Montana96$50,848
43Maine94$35,358
44West Virginia79$40,262
45North Dakota77$46,180
46Rhode Island73$48,942
47Alaska62$61,124
48Vermont61$40,454
49Wyoming58$47,325
50South Dakota57$46,738

Audit Specialist Education

Audit Specialist Majors

31.8 %
6.4 %

Audit Specialist Degrees

Bachelors

55.4 %

Associate

19.0 %

Masters

9.6 %

Top Colleges for Audit Specialists

1. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,584

Enrollment

10,764

2. Northwestern University

Evanston, IL • Private

In-State Tuition

$54,568

Enrollment

8,451

3. University of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$56,225

Enrollment

19,548

4. SUNY at Binghamton

Vestal, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$9,808

Enrollment

13,990

5. Villanova University

Villanova, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$53,308

Enrollment

6,819

6. San Diego State University

San Diego, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$7,488

Enrollment

30,018

7. Bentley University

Waltham, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$49,880

Enrollment

4,177

8. SUNY Farmingdale

Farmingdale, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$8,306

Enrollment

9,394

9. Boston University

Boston, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$53,948

Enrollment

17,238

10. SUNY Stony Brook

Stony Brook, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$9,625

Enrollment

17,407

Top Skills For an Audit Specialist

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 10.7% of audit specialists listed audit reports on their resume, but soft skills such as organizational skills and detail oriented are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Audit Specialist Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Audit Specialist templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Audit Specialist resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Audit Specialist diversity

Audit Specialist Gender Distribution

Female
Female
66%
Male
Male
34%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among audit specialists, 66.3% of them are women, while 33.7% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among audit specialists is White, which makes up 63.6% of all audit specialists.

  • The most common foreign language among audit specialists is Spanish at 43.4%.

Online Courses For Audit Specialist That You May Like

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1. Auditing I: Conceptual Foundations of Auditing

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This course provides an intensive conceptual and applied introduction to auditing in society. It focuses on concepts and applications related to financial-statement auditors’ professional responsibilities as well as major facets of the audit process including risk assessment and audit reporting. In the U.S. financial-statement audits and related services generally are provided by Certified Public Accountants (CPAs). To succeed in this course, you should anticipate engaging in critical thinking...

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Internal Audit, Risk Management, Compliance, Governance, Internal Controls, CIA, Audit Report, Audit Charter, IIA...

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Best States For an Audit Specialist

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an audit specialist. The best states for people in this position are California, Oregon, New York, and New Jersey. Audit specialists make the most in California with an average salary of $73,002. Whereas in Oregon and New York, they would average $72,002 and $71,841, respectively. While audit specialists would only make an average of $71,047 in New Jersey, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. New York

Total Audit Specialist Jobs: 1,180
Highest 10% Earn:
$135,000
Location Quotient:
1.27

2. District of Columbia

Total Audit Specialist Jobs: 193
Highest 10% Earn:
$128,000
Location Quotient:
1.59

3. California

Total Audit Specialist Jobs: 2,105
Highest 10% Earn:
$127,000
Location Quotient:
0.99
Full List Of Best States For Audit Specialists

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Top Audit Specialist Employers

Most Common Employers For Audit Specialist

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Pwc$89,775$43.1623
2JPMorgan Chase & Co.$85,465$41.0912
3Medtronic$78,352$37.6718
4Accenture$76,109$36.5911
5KPMG LLP$71,204$34.2313
6Freedom Mortgage$64,684$31.1010
7Humana$59,580$28.6445
8Kaiser Permanente$58,801$28.279
9UPS$56,365$27.109
10Frontier Airlines$51,437$24.739

Audit Specialist Videos