Tag: Auditors

Matt Gardiner recently climbed a series of 90-foot grain bins to measure millions of bushels of corn.

He and his team got so covered in thick dust that they had to be sprayed down with air hoses before returning to their cars. It’s one of the hazards of the job, along with fertilizer-soaked boots, ripped pants from ladder cages, and encounters with pigeons, mice and sleeping bats.

Gardiner isn’t a farmer. He’s an accountant.

The third-generation Iowa-based auditor has to review and verify the financials compiled by his clients, largely agricultural businesses. He uses a laser to measure grain, but there’s no tool inside the bins that can save him from having to climb.

“There’s so much dust in the process of getting grain into a bin that it would have to have a little windshield wiper on the sensors to constantly clear it,” Gardiner said. “I think that’d be great.”

Accounting firms and their clients are increasingly using artificial intelligence and drones to do work long handled by humans. But so far, there’s been no technological solution to what is often the dirtiest part of an audit: counting inventory. That means the messy, bizarre field trips remain a rite of passage for young professionals in an otherwise deskbound field.

Source: The Dirty Job That Accountants Desperately Wish AI Would Take Over – WSJ