Related Parties is rebuilt from scratch around one rule: no register is not a free pass. If the auditee has not uploaded a related-party register, CORAA does not silently skip SA 550 procedures, it raises a HIGH finding for the missing register itself and still runs its candidate search against whatever data it has, ledger names, common directors, PAN, or address where the data holds them, and transaction patterns that resemble related-party dealing. Every match produced this way is a candidate, CORAA never asserts that a party is related, only that it looks like one worth the auditor's judgment call. The auditor reviews each candidate and confirms it into the register, or dismisses it with a documented reason; only confirmed entries feed the Schedule III related-party note and Form 3CD Clause 23.
Two paths to the same audit conclusion. One leaves traces; the other doesn't.
CORAA checks for an uploaded related-party register before anything else. If none exists, it raises a HIGH finding for the gap and proceeds with candidate search regardless, SA 550 procedures don't wait on management's paperwork.
Ledger names, shared directors, PAN, or address where the data holds them, and transactions with unusual terms are compared against the register, or its absence, to produce a candidate list. Each candidate carries the evidence that raised it. CORAA never marks a party related, only a candidate.
The auditor reviews each candidate, confirms it into the related-party register or dismisses it with a documented reason. Only confirmed parties feed the Schedule III related-party note and Form 3CD Clause 23; the full candidate list, including dismissed ones, stays in the working paper.
An empty or missing related-party register doesn't quietly waive SA 550, it becomes the working paper's own HIGH-severity finding, with the candidate search still run alongside it.
Ledger names, director/PAN/address overlap where the data holds them, and unusual transaction terms produce a candidate list. Every candidate carries the specific evidence that raised it.
The auditor works the candidate list one entry at a time, confirming into the register or dismissing with a reason. Both outcomes are logged; nothing is silently discarded.
Only confirmed related parties, never candidates, populate the Schedule III related-party note and Form 3CD Clause 23, so the statutory disclosure reflects the auditor's confirmed judgment, not a machine guess.
