Marketing & Sales Promotion Spend Audit Checklist

Tests spend authorisation, ROI/effectiveness tracking, related-party agency relationships, and GST input credit eligibility on marketing and sales promotion expenditure.

Free · CORAA original — SA-aligned

Updated 28 Jul 2026

Key risk

Unmeasured ROI, related-party agency spend, ITC on gifts

Tax cross-check

Sec 17(5)(h) — no ITC on gifts/free samples

Cross-reference

Related-party agencies → Sec 188 process

Format

Microsoft Word (.docx)

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Your firm — letterhead

Appears at the top of the document as the audit firm letterhead.

Audit firm name

Audit firm address

Used as the letterhead block.

Engagement partner

ICAI membership no.

Firm registration no.(optional)

Engagement details

The client and period this document is for.

Entity name

Audit period

Functional area / process covered(optional)

Report addressed to

Date of report

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Marketing & Sales Promotion Spend Audit Checklist

31 July 2026

MARKETING & SALES PROMOTION SPEND — INTERNAL AUDIT CHECKLIST

Entity: {{client_name}} · Period: {{audit_period}}

Scope: tests controls over marketing, advertising and sales-promotion expenditure — authorisation, effectiveness measurement, agency relationships, and the related tax positions.

Control area	Test procedure	Result
Budget & authorisation	Confirm marketing spend is approved against an approved budget/campaign plan, with variance from budget requiring a defined escalation level
Agency empanelment & related parties	Confirm advertising/marketing agencies are empanelled through a documented selection process, and flag any agency that is a related party for Sec 188 routing
ROI / effectiveness tracking	Confirm campaign performance (reach, conversion, sales uplift) is tracked against the spend, and material campaigns without a measurable return are escalated for review, not renewed by default
Sales promotion / trade scheme accruals	Test that trade-scheme accruals (discounts, rebates, cash-backs to distributors) are computed on a consistent, supportable basis and are not understated or held open beyond the scheme period
GST input tax credit eligibility	Confirm ITC is claimed only on marketing spend that meets Section 16/17 eligibility — free-sample and gift-related spend under Section 17(5)(h) is correctly excluded from ITC claims
Sponsorship / CSR-adjacent spend	Confirm sponsorship spend that could be misclassified as CSR (or vice versa) is correctly categorised, since the two carry different tax and disclosure treatment

Conclusion

Overall conclusion on the design and operating effectiveness of marketing-spend controls: ____________________________________________

Prepared by: __________ Reviewed by: __________ Date: 31 July 2026

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What’s inside

An excerpt from the template.

MARKETING & SALES PROMOTION SPEND — INTERNAL AUDIT CHECKLIST

Entity: ___ · Period: ___

Scope: tests controls over marketing, advertising and sales-promotion expenditure — authorisation, effectiveness measurement, agency relationships, and the related tax positions.

Conclusion

↑ Excerpt only — the full template is what you download as Word

About this template

What you’re downloading, and when to use it.

This template follows the format published by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) in the AASB Audit Working Paper Templates (June 2023), the authoritative reference for Indian statutory-audit documentation. Fill in your firm’s letterhead and the engagement details on the form above, click Download Word file, and you’ll get a fully formatted .docx ready to use.

Everything is generated in your browser and on a stateless API endpoint — no account, nothing stored on our servers. We’ll ask for a work email once before your first download so we can send you the file and the occasional relevant update; after that, downloads on this device are instant. Edit freely in Word, Google Docs or Pages before sending to your client.

Common questions

FAQs.

Why test GST input tax credit eligibility as part of a marketing audit, not just the tax team's work?

Marketing spend frequently includes free samples, gifts and giveaways as part of a promotional campaign — and Section 17(5)(h) of the CGST Act specifically blocks ITC on goods disposed of by way of gift or free sample. Because these transactions originate in the marketing function's own spend, not a central tax process, an internal audit of marketing spend is often where this ITC leakage or over-claim is actually caught.

What is a "trade scheme accrual" and why does it need separate testing?

A trade scheme is a promotional arrangement with distributors or retailers — like a volume rebate or a cash-back — where the cost is incurred over a scheme period but the actual payout may lag. If the accrual for amounts owed isn't computed consistently, expenses can be understated in one period and overstated in another, distorting both the marketing P&L and, if material, the financial statements.

How should an agency relationship be tested for related-party risk?

Check whether any equity, directorship, or family relationship connects the entity's decision-makers to the agency's ownership — a related-party agency relationship isn't always disclosed as such if agency selection sits with an individual manager rather than a formal empanelment committee. Cross-reference the agency master against the entity's own related-party master maintained for Sec 188/AS 18 purposes.

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