Therefore, the suggestion which the author makes to the business man who is about to employ an auditor, is this : if he, himself, knows of no one who is com petent to undertake the work, he will undoubtedly find that his bankers or business acquaintances will be glad to suggest the names of one or more reliable practi tioners. He may employ these men on a per diem basis, trusting to their professional honor to accom plish the work as speedily as may be consistent with thoroness and safety. Or, he may invite them to his place of business to examine the work to be accom plished, and to make recommendations as to the exact work which should be performed. After such exami nation and survey, the auditor will be in a position to estimate approximately the time it will take to exam ine the accounts. Based upon the estimate thus ob tained from several careful practitioners, the business man may award the engagement to the one making the lowest and mast reasonable estimate. But the mere fact that the price quoted by one is considerably lower than that of others should warn the business man of the possibility that the low bidder may not complete all the work which he agrees to do, or he may not do it as thoroly as those submitting the higher estimates.
14. Incompetents are gradually being eliminated.— Fortunately the business man is becoming more dis criminating in his employment of auditors. The time will soon arrive when the incompetent will be auto matically eliminated from the field and the properly qualified practitioner alone employed. The experi ence which was related by Mr. Frank W. Main, C. P.
A., in the Saturday Evening Post indicates very clearly the situation which has existed. Mr. Main says: That there is much confusion in the popular mind as to the real work of the accountant and as to the very important service which he is rendering in the business world is not at all surprising.
Jobless bookkeepers without number, auditors of indi vidual companies—seeing other fields of advancement closed, —and cost clerks, certain that their grasp of the one partic ular business with which they are familiar has given them a grasp of all businesses and a knowledge of all manufactur ing problems, have started out in the professional field as full-fledged auditors, accountants, systematizers, and busi ness experts, when, if experienced at all, their experience is confined to but one limited business. In some cases, at least, these auditors have about the same right to be known as professional accountants as a hospital orderly would have to palm himself off as a skilled physician.
The initial work which usually falls to the lot of the self styled accountant on his first incursion into the professional field is usually in a line of business somewhat of the same nature as the one he has recently left. With the nerve which
was necessary to start out for himself, and with his practical experience in that particular line, he is often able to render valuable service to his client. As time goes on, however, and as his business is extended into other lines, his difficulties increase; for unconsciously the effort is made to conform all business to the methods and the systems of the one concern with which he is most familiar. As a result, ludicrous situa tions usually arise and the usual experience is that after heroic efforts of a few years he is glad to accept some per manent position at an assured salary with an established con cern.
In his trail, however, are usually left scores of business men with the well-grounded belief that their own bookkeepers know all that any professional accountant does, and with the conviction that the paying to the accountant of the fees which he demands is only foolishness, as they are certain that the same services can be as well rendered by their own employes.
If the business man would realize the fact that the qualifications of the professional auditor of the right type are something worth paying for, he will more wisely expend his money. Perhaps the following quotation from Mr. A. Lowes Dickinson, a well known leader in the accounting profession in this country, will express the attitude of the truly profes sional man: The moral qualities called for are so high that it should place the profession at the head of all which come into con tact with business affairs. The lawyer's duty is first of all to his client, and that duty frequently compels him to avail himself of technicalities, and other means of enabling that client to evade the law and its penalties ; but the public accountant has only one duty to his client and to the public, and that is to disclose to him or for him, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so far as his abilities and special training to that end enable him to ascertain it. No legal quibble will save him from moral condemnation if he fails in this duty ; no juggling with words and phrases will absolve him from responsibility, moral and often legal, for results which he has reason to know are not what they seem to be, or which, having regard to his special training in busi ness affairs and accounts relating thereto, he ought to have known did not represent the facts. Whereas there may be and must be errors, and for errors made after full and proper precaution taken and due care exercised, no responsibility will lie, yet there is no profession in which the results of care less errors or misstatements will more certainly bring retribu tion.