A/N: This is my first fic, so go easy on me please! Hope you enjoy it!
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction and is not for profit. I don't own Tony, Pepper, Obadiah Stane, or Stark Industries. I have also used a certain amount of artistic licence with regards to the audit in case any one was checking!
Accounts and Accountability
Chapter 1
Virginia Potts was looking forward to her first day working on the audit of Stark Industries as she drove into work that morning. It was the first audit of a listed company she had taken in charge of and she was looking forward to the challenge. There was the slight issue that the company had been missing a financial controller for the past few months, but she was hopeful that wouldn't cause too much of a problem as the finance director should still be able to provide the information they needed for the audit.
Virginia had been working as an accountant for the five years since she left college and had qualified two years ago. She wasn't sure she would always want to be an auditor, but for now that was what she was happy doing. She liked the satisfaction of inspecting a company's accounts to make sure they were accurate and she enjoyed meeting all the different people involved in the audit too.
There was something exciting about finally getting to work on the audit of Stark Industries. Not only was it her first listed company, but she couldn't deny that the fact that Tony Stark was the CEO was kind of alluring. Not that she'd actually get to meet him. He'd probably be flying off in his private jet, going to parties and taking part in other similar activities. He was well known for his playboy lifestyle.
Virginia pulled up in the parking lot and walked into the Stradbroke & Co's offices, greeting the receptionist as she went in. Virginia had joined Stradbroke & Co's graduate scheme when she left college and had worked there ever since. Their offices were a spacious modern open-plan building on the edge of Malibu, close enough to walk to the beach at lunch time.
As Virginia headed over to her desk, Arthur Stradbroke himself stepped out of his office and came over to talk to her.
"Virginia, I'm glad you're here. I've just had a call from Stark Industries and we've got a slight problem: their finance director has just left without notice. Apparently he decided to leave his wife and run away with another employee, so he won't be coming back."
"Oh wow," replied Virginia, a little stunned for a moment. "I didn't realise things like that still happened. It's like something out of a novel."
"Yes, I know. Best keep it quiet though as they don't want it getting to the press."
Virginia agreed and Mr Stradbroke continued, "Anyway it was Obadiah Stane who phoned to tell me this, he's the chief operations officer, and he says that Tony Stark himself has agreed to be our main contact for the audit."
Virginia was even more stunned at that. Maybe she would get to meet the famous Tony Stark after all.
"Oh, okay-" she began.
"Yes, I know. I was surprised too, but I suppose as CEO he must know the most about the company overall. Let's just hope he understands what the finance director and financial controller have been up to with the figures. Anyway, I'll leave you to get on now and I'll forward you the information Mr Stane has given me. Oh, and I've arranged the planning meeting for next Monday and Mr Stane assured me Mr Stark would be there."
As a result of this it was with something more like trepidation that Virginia sat down to begin working through the planning section of the audit file.
Around ten o'clock Miles Terling, the manager of the Stark Industries audit, arrived in the office. Virginia had quite a low opinion of Miles's ability as a manager as he was disorganised and delegated most of his work to junior members of staff. But on the other hand this did mean she was free to get on with her work in the way she wanted without him bothering her and as long as she got it done it wasn't a problem.
Virginia soon went over to speak to Miles to arrange a briefing with him. Although she was fairly sure she already knew a lot more about Stark Industries than him, it was worth confirming the team and timings of the audit with him.
"So, Virginia. Glad to see you've already started the planning on Stark Industries."
Virginia suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. The audits would never get done if she waited for him to tell her what to do.
"Yes. I thought we could just have a quick briefing to confirm the arrangements for the audit. Oh and I don't know if Mr Stradbroke has told you yet, but the finance director has left, so Tony Stark is going to be our main contact."
"Oh really? Well I'm sure you'll deal with that just fine, Virginia. Just make sure he doesn't get too friendly with you if you know what I mean. You're an attractive young woman."
"Yes, sir." Virginia cringed inwardly, but sometimes it was just best to agree with Miles. "Mr Stradbroke has also arranged the planning meeting for Monday, so I'll get an agenda ready for that and email a copy across to Mr Stark."
"Excellent."
"We then have two days on-site planning on Wednesday and Thursday and two weeks fieldwork from the 20th. For the team I have Warren for on-site planning and then Warren, Zia and Jason for the fieldwork. I'm not sure if that's going to be enough if we overrun, so I've booked Zia for the next week as well as she was free. I hope that's okay with you."
"Fine."
"I think that's everything. Is there anything else I should know?"
"Sound's like you've got it all covered, Virginia."
Virginia had nothing against her name, but she wished Miles would not use it quite so often. Sometimes it just got creepy.
Somewhat pointless briefing over, Virginia returned to her desk and continued to work through the audit file.
"Virginia!"
Virginia looked up to see Zia rushing over to her.
"Is it true that Tony Stark is going to be our main contact for Stark Industries?"
"Yes, the finance director has left, so Mr Stark has agreed to step in."
Zia was almost jumping up and down with excitement.
"I can't believe we actually get to meet him. I mean being on the audit is one thing, but actually meeting Tony Stark! Did you see him on the cover of Rolling Stone last week? He looked so hot." She paused. "You will let me speak to him won't you?" Zia asked, suddenly worried.
Virginia laughed. "Just as long as you don't act like that around him."
"Don't worry," Zia said, putting on a serious face. "I will be one hundred percent professional." She grinned and as she ran off to tell the rest of the audit team the good news, Virginia was sure she could hear her muttering "Tony Stark, Tony Stark, Tony Stark," under her breath.
Zia could be a bit excitable at times, but she worked hard and Virginia was looking forward to having her on the audit team.
The rest of the week passed quickly with Virginia planning the Stark Industries audit and also finishing off the previous audit she was working on. Luckily her workload wasn't too bad so she was able to enjoy her weekend visiting a friend from college in Santa Barbara without feeling guilty about not doing any work.
As always Monday came round again too quickly and Virginia headed into the office early to prepare for the planning meeting. The meeting was at eleven and she wanted to run through the agenda with Miles before they travelled over to the Stark Industries head office in Malibu. After being sidetracked by a couple of people wanting her to help out with problems on other audits, Virginia finally managed to print out the agenda and talk through it with Miles.
"Right, so first I was going to ask for a general update on the company and find out if there's been any major changes we should be aware of. Other than the fact that they don't have an finance director or financial controller at the moment of course, but I've looked at last year's file and we didn't have any major issues then, so I'm hoping we won't have a problem figuring out what's been going on this year. I am still slightly concerned however; it's such a large company to go with out a financial controller for so long."
"I'm sure you'll work it out, Virginia."
Yes, she thought, I'm sure I will, but it might take up all my evenings to do so! Out loud she said, "Yes, so next I was going to cover the standard questions about fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, etcetera, and then just run through the arrangements for the audit. Is there anything you want to add?"
"No, that sounds like everything."
"I've drafted an arrangement letter to take with us listing all the information we will need to see for the audit if you want to just check you're happy with that."
Virginia handed him the letter and went back to her desk to check the route they were going to take to Stark Industries.