What is an Audit Specialist?

An audit specialist is someone trained extensively to conduct specialized tasks within an audit. For example, a person might have particular skills in evaluating inventory levels in oil storage tanks, or in conducting risk assessments in audits of insurance companies. These people are typically brought into an audit to deal with specific tasks, after which they move on to other audits. Because of the comparatively narrow scope of their work, audit specialists tend to work on more audits than general auditors. In addition, because of their high level of expertise, audit specialists are more likely to have very high billing rates.

The use of a specialist is especially recommended when the topic is not simply an audit, but also the delivery of recommendations for improvement. Since the specialist has deep knowledge of the subject area, any recommendations made may result in savings that greatly exceed the cost of the audit.