“The beauty of this film is that it brings to life scenarios that we, as auditors, may encounter in our work,” says John Talbot, Audit Partner at Bishop Fleming. “It enables people to think about key issues in a way that you can't model in a classroom setting.”

This ability to provoke emotional responses, encourage discussion and challenge established mindsets is what makes ICAEW’s training films such powerful learning tools. Written by Duncan Wiggetts, ICAEW’s Chief Officer Professional Standards, the films are designed to support the development of professional scepticism, ethical judgement, and the practical skills needed to navigate everyday business challenges.

"Crossing  the Line allows us to explore challenging situations in as close to a live context as we can get without it being a problematic situation with a real client,” says John. “This creates a safe space to explore some of the themes, professional challenges and moral dilemmas that we’ll potentially come across. It provides us with the opportunity to ask: ‘What would I do? How would I respond?’”

“You invest in the characters,” adds Caroline Smale, Deputy President of ICAEW and Regulation and Compliance Partner at Bishop Fleming. “You empathise with them, which makes you think, ‘I don't want to be in this position, or I don’t want my team to be in this position’. By evoking these emotions, the training becomes more powerful. That’s one of the brilliant aspects of the film; it makes the issues feel tangible and real.”

Encouraging active engagement

Crossing the Line is the fourth film in ICAEW’s award-winning series. It focuses on two audit teams working on the accounts of fast-growing listed software company Xoltic and struggling football club Scarbridge FC, which Xoltic’s CEO has recently acquired. As the audit teams navigate the complexities of signing off the accounts, the film covers topics such as integrity, audit independence, and professionalism under pressure.

Bishop Fleming, which has used all of ICAEW’s previous films in its training programmes, designed a two-hour online training session using Crossing the Line, involving around 70 people across all the firm’s offices. “There is so much material in the film, you could run a two-day training course, never mind two hours,” acknowledges John. “But for us, this approach made sense in terms of availability of people and getting the most out of the resource.”

In some offices, teams watched the film together in shared spaces, while other colleagues dialled in remotely. “By delivering the training in this hybrid format, we got the best of both worlds,” says John. “It allowed us to integrate the film into our training programme quickly by scheduling it during a quieter time of the month, plus we could ensure it was interactive and engaging.”

Active engagement was encouraged through a series of interactive poll questions, plus a longer breakout session at one of the section breaks in the film. “We paused every five, 10 to 15 minutes and shared a poll question,” explains John. “That was a mechanism to get everyone to interact with the material, and to overcome the risk that people's attention may fade.”

After each poll question, the facilitators reviewed the results and shared their perspective on the responses. Around three-quarters of the way through the film, participants then moved into breakout rooms to discuss a pre-prepared question.

Taking a poll

The poll and breakout questions were drawn from the film’s comprehensive facilitator guide provided by ICAEW, with Bishop Fleming tailoring the material to the specific training objectives for the session. “We used AI tools to generate suggested poll and breakout questions,” explains Joanne Parker, Audit Technical Director at Bishop Fleming. “We then reviewed these ourselves to select and adapt the questions we felt best covered the range of the topics.”

“The learning materials are so carefully put together and cover such a wide array of development topics,” says John. “So, we wanted to zoom in on the areas relevant to us."

The poll questions chosen focused on key audit quality and accounting issues, anti-money laundering and wider ethical considerations. “There was no single right answer to most of the questions,” emphasises Joanne. “We wanted participants to reflect on what they had seen, demonstrate their understanding, and share their views. We could see the numbers responding and were pleased to see that people did stay engaged throughout.”

For the breakout session, people were divided into eight teams to discuss four key questions. “We asked people to reflect on what they’d seen so far before they watched the film’s conclusion,” says Joanne. Questions included which character crossed the line most clearly, and what was the most damaging failure across both audits.

Feedback from attendees was overwhelmingly positive. “People felt it was a highly effective way of delivering the material,” says Joanne. “They found it both engaging and thought-provoking. And, from our perspective, the poll questions gave us immediate feedback and confirmed the key messages were hitting home.”

All about the people

“What’s great about the film is that it offers so many learning points on the importance of engaging more broadly with clients, applying common sense and connecting the dots,” says John. “Having an interested, inquiring mind is so important for audit quality. It's not just about validating pieces of documentation; it's about understanding the business context, what's happening in practice, and then challenging that scenario to make sure it all makes sense.”

“Where audits fail, it’s usually because of people,” stresses Caroline. “You can have the best knowledge of the auditing standards or the accounting standards, but unless you know how to ask the right questions at the right time, when to dig that little bit further and have that sceptical mind, you will not be an effective auditor.”

Bishop Fleming plans to continue using the film in its training programmes. “One of the great things about all the films is how you can watch them a second, or third, time and you'll spot something new,” says Caroline. “Given the many learning points, you can use them in training again and again if there's a particular aspect you want to pull out.”

“ICAEW has done all the hard work,” adds Joanne. “The film is a great training tool; you can pick and choose the bits that resonate most with your teams, so it would be beneficial to every single firm.”

When asked if she would recommend the film to other firms, Caroline is unequivocal. “Why  wouldn't all firms use these films?” she says. “They are a genuinely high-quality training resource, the production standards are really high, they cover so many relevant issues, and there is also a compelling human interest element that really resonates. Yes, I would recommend the film whole-heartedly!”

• More about Bishop Fleming

Resources

• Find out more about Crossing the Line and watch the trailer
• Take a look behind the scenes with the film’s writer Duncan Wiggetts
• Check out more ICAEW films in our award-winning series
• How Crossing the Line is being used