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Governance, Risk, Audit & Privacy · Foundational

Audit Evidence

Information used by auditors to arrive at conclusions on which opinions are based.

Definition

Evidence must be sufficient (enough) and appropriate (relevant and reliable). Reliability increases when evidence is from independent external sources, obtained directly by the auditor, documentary rather than oral, and original rather than copies. Types include observation, inspection, inquiry, confirmation, reperformance, and analytics.

Example

An auditor's own system-generated query of active accounts is more reliable than a list provided by the administrator.

Exam tip

Evidence obtained directly by the auditor from an independent source is most reliable.

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