Concise Accountancy

Accountants and Registered Auditors

Auditing

Audit tests samples characteristics

Before your Auditor could express their opinions on whether your company accounts give a true and fair view, they will perform a number of audit tests.

Your Auditor do not verify every single transaction booked on your company accounts. They used sampling methods when come to their audit tests. The sample selection process is structured and with defined objectives of the audit tests.

Generally, the samples chosen have the following characteristics:

Random

A random sample is one where each item of the population has an equal (or specified) chance of being selected. Statistical inferences may not be valid unless the sample is random.

Representative

The sample should be representative of the differing items in the whole population. For example, it should contain a similar proportion of high and low value items to the population such as all the debtors.

Protective

Protective, that is, of the auditor. More intensive auditing should occur on high value items known to be high risk.

Unpredictable

The client should not be able to know or guess which items will be examined.

Even though your Auditor perform their audit tests on sample basis they still have equal chances of identifying unusual transactions and fraudulent business dealing. Consequently, should your Auditor is of the opinion that the financial statements are misleading, they may issue a qualified audit report.

Generally, the bank, investors and creditors prefer to see your unqualified audit report. In short, an unqualified audit report means your financial statements and company accounts overall give a true and fair view.

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