CONSIDERATIONS UPON SAMPLING IN THE FIELD OF FINANCIAL AUDIT

In view of complexity and extent, the development of companies changed in time the procedure of exhaustive examination of all registrations of the audited company into a procedure void of economic efficacy. Auditors deemed it necessary that the opinion upon the accuracy of financial statements should be expressed based on the examination of a part of the registrations and transactions – registrations and transactions selected by specific procedures. Not all audit tests are performed based on a sample and the decision whether to take samples or not should be a clear decision. The acceptance of certain uncertainties was justified by the disproportion between the costs related to the examination of all transactions and the significantly more reduced registrations and costs generated by the examination of one part of the transactions and book registrations. ISA 530 “Audit sampling and other test methods” establishes and offers recommendations upon the use of audit sampling and of other methods of selecting testing elements in order to plan the audit procedures and to collect audit samples. Within audit procedures, sampling is the procedure applied by the auditor further to carrying out: • the risk assessment procedures using ISA 315 “Understanding the entity and its environment and the assessment of material misstatements risks” • tests upon contracts by using ISA 330 “Procedures of the auditor as a response to assessed risks”. • the professional reasoning of the auditor incorporating the accumulated experience. The fulfillment of the previous stages enables the auditor to choose the suitable methods of selecting the test elements that shall supply proper and sufficient audit samples to issue the opinion.