Audit Evidence

A nice article by Ookeditse Kamau, CISA, CIA regarding Audit Evidence. Below is the excerpt:

Different types of audit evidence are gathered during audit process i.e.

1. Inquiry
The lease creditable audit evidence. If it is the only way to get evidence it is advisable to corroborate with the independence source.

2. Confirmation
Audit evidence that is from an external independent source is more credible than evidence from internal source.

3. Inspection of Records
Reliability of the records depend on the source. Information obtained directly from the system is more reliable than information obtained from the system and then costumized by the auditee.

4. Inspection of Tangible Assets
This type of evidence involves verifying the existence of an asset and the condition of the asset.

5. Observation
Observation is the key in establishing segegration of duties. When auditing, whenever possible, the auditor should spend some time with the auditee. This will afford the auditor to see what happening, not what should happen.

6. Reperform
Verifying an activity by reperforming the procedures carried on.

7. Recalculation
This form of audit evidence is reliable because auditor reaches the same conclusion as the auditee by independently carrying out the calculation.

8.Scanning
Searching for large unusual item to detect error.

(Kamau, Ookeditse, Audit Evidence Refresher, Isaca Journal, Vol. 3 2012)