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 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 technology used to generate 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

At its July 2021 meeting, the Board considered the Audit Evidence Task Force’s further proposals on the principles-based requirement in evaluating the relevance and reliability of information intended to be used as audit evidence, and in particular, the auditor’s required work effort. The Board also provided direction on the proposals of the Audit Evidence Task Force on the core requirements that ISA 500 should address to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence. Such requirements were based on the proposal that ISA 500 provides a reference framework for the auditor throughout the audit when making judgments in relation to audit evidence, including information intended to be used as audit evidence (the input) and the sufficiency and appropriateness of audit evidence (the output). In discussing the core requirements of ISA 500, the Board also provided direction on the Audit Evidence Task Force’s initial proposals on targeted requirements to reinforce the exercise of professional skepticism with respect to audit evidence in ISA 500.

The Audit Evidence Task Force intends to present a first full draft of proposed ISA 500 (Revised) to the March 2022 IAASB meeting.

Task Force Information

IAASB Staff Contact

• Natalie Klonaridis

Task Force Members

• Sue Almond (Chair)
• Sachiko Kai
• Kai-Uwe Marten
• Eric Turner
• Jamie Shannon
• Susan Jones
• Barb Vanich (PCAOB Observer)

Project Stages