Head of Audit and Assurance

Erik Lie

Partner/Head of Audit and Assurance

AUDITING IS ABOUT BUILDING TRUST

Trust is the foundation for the entire audit profession, and as auditors, we want to contribute to increased trust. The last decade has resulted in major changes for the audit profession, but our role as society’s trustee has not changed. Instead, we see that the work auditors do has become ever more strongly embedded in society. We treat the trust we have gained with the utmost seriousness, and we are obliged at all times to deliver services of the highest possible quality in order to preserve this trust.

As for the rest of society, the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the audit profession and the way we work. At BDO, we have come up with new ideas and have used the opportunity to utilise new solutions to meet the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. This has enabled us to respond quickly and effectively to changes in our surroundings. At a time when the demand for auditing is strong, we have continued to deliver high quality. We take pride in this.

THE DIGITAL BDO

The pace of technological change in the society has accelerated as a result of the pandemic. Some may view digitalisation and automation of processes as threats to our profession, but for us at BDO, they are opportunities to become even better than before. It also allows us to ensure higher quality of services. Each day, we strive to become better, which is why we are pleased with the progress we have made in recent years with respect to innovation and digitalisation in auditing. The development of our data and analysis platform, Heartbeat, has contributed to improvements in efficiency and automation in audit processes. The implementation and further development of our own client portal has ensured more efficient and secure interaction with our clients.

TRANSPARENCY IS THE KEY

As auditors, we want to be transparent to the users of our services. Transparency is critical in building and maintaining trust between us as auditors and the rest of society. This Transparency Report highlights how we at BDO make a difference to society, and how we work to develop our audit processes and our skills, methodology and the tools that contribute to ensuring quality in the services we provide.

Transparency also involves being transparent in areas where we see a potential for improvement. This is why we present important and essential observations from our own and external quality inspections. We do not merely report on where we will become better, but also how we will become better. We hope, therefore, that this report provides a good understanding of how we work on quality every single day and our constant obligation to improve and maintain the trust you have given us as society’s trustee.

This is a challenging time, but it is under such circumstances that the most impressive accomplishments and contributions emerge. We are confident that the auditing profession will continue to be an important contributor to Norwegian business and society and that together we will continue to find new and better ways of solving tomorrow’s challenges.