Audit Evidence

What the Project Aims to Achieve

The IAASB is currently working on a project to revise ISA 500, Audit Evidence. In revising this standard, the IAASB aims to:

• Clarify the purpose of ISA 500 and how it relates to the other ISAs.
• Modernize how the standard deals with the variety of information available to an auditor, and the various sources of such information.
• Recognize the use of technology, both in the context of:
• An entity’s use of technology in preparing the financial statements and in generating other underlying information; and
• The auditor’s use of technology in performing audit procedures.
• Clarify the concept of sufficient appropriate audit evidence.
• Emphasize the auditor’s responsibility to exercise professional skepticism.

 Project Timeline

The following table sets out the project timeline. Please note that these are current targeted milestones and may change as the work in this area progresses.

Current Status of the Project

September 2022 meeting: After making amendments in response to the IAASB’s comments received during the meeting, the IAASB approved the Exposure Draft (ED) of proposed ISA 500 (Revised) and related conforming and consequential amendments for public exposure with 18 affirmative votes out of the 18 IAASB members present. The ED is expected to be issued later in October with a comment period of 180 days (as also explained in Section D of  the Issues Paper – Agenda Item 2).  In finalizing the ED, the IAASB continued to discuss clarifications to the principles-based requirement to evaluate the relevance and reliability of information intended to be used as audit evidence, and the separate requirement to obtain audit evidence about the accuracy and completeness attributes if they are applicable in the circumstances. The IAASB agreed to explain in the application material that the attributes of accuracy and completeness ordinarily will be applicable for information generated internally from the entity’s information system. The IAASB also discussed guidance in the application material regarding the use of technology, including clarifying that audit procedures can be performed manually or using automated tools and techniques. 

Task Force Information

IAASB Staff Contact

• Phil Minnaar
• Dan Montgomery

Task Force Members

• Sue Almond (Chair)
• Sachiko Kai
• Edo Kienhuis
• Kai-Uwe Marten
• Eric Turner
• Dominika Taraszkiewicz (PCAOB Observer)

Project Stages