- 20 Marks
AAA – Nov 2022 – L3 – SB – Q4 – Audit Planning and Strategy
Discuss audit sampling rationale, key decisions, advantages, sampling methods, and auditor actions in sample testing.
Question
wo accountancy students from a University have been asked to write a term paper on “the reasons why external auditors resort to sampling when conducting the audit of a large entity.” The students are of the opinion that they do not understand why this should be the case, if auditors focus on their work.
They believe statistical sampling is not always good for auditing, especially when a population consists of a small number of large items. It may be appropriate to apply audit tests to the entire population as all the items in the population may not share common characteristics. Added to this, they do not agree that samples could be representative of the population and also reflect the characteristics of the population. There is therefore the risk that the auditors may not reach a correct decision as against when the entire population is tested.
Furthermore, they said that they were confused on how the auditors will work on samples in such a way that all items in the population will be given equal chance of being selected and the key decisions that need to be made for effective sample design.
As an ICAN Professional examination candidate who has just finished reading Audit Sampling (ISA 530), you now saw it as an opportunity to recall and explain what you have read. You are excited to explain the above to the students.
Required:
a. Highlight key decisions to be made to influence the sample size. (4 Marks)
b. Outline the advantages and disadvantages of using statistical sampling. (8 Marks)
c. Explain the sample selection methods that will give equal chance to all the items in the population. (3 Marks)
d. Illustrate what the auditors should do when performing procedures on the samples. (5 Marks)
Find Related Questions by Tags, levels, etc.
- Tags: Audit Sampling, ISA 530, Population Testing, Sample Size, Sampling Methods, Statistical Sampling
- Level: Level 3
- Topic: Audit Planning and Strategy
- Series: NOV 2022