H Ltd audits show ₹120 Cr consolidated turnover: H (your client) plus subsidiaries S1 and S2, each audited by different firms
You audit the consolidated financial statements while component auditors audit S1 and S2. SA 600 governs your use of their work: communicate scope and timing, evaluate their findings, and consider component materiality. Under the current SA 600 you may rely with due procedures; under the proposed revision you would bear ultimate responsibility for the group opinion.
A bank with 400 branches — central statutory auditor signs, branch auditors audit allotted branches
Branch auditors appointed under Sec 143(8) are "other auditors" for the principal auditor. The principal auditor evaluates branch returns and LFARs, and states the division of responsibility. This is the highest-volume SA 600 situation in Indian practice.
P Ltd holds 30% in an associate A Ltd, equity-accounted in the consolidated statements; A Ltd has its own auditor
The associate’s results enter the consolidated statements through equity accounting, so its auditor is a component auditor whose work you use for the share-of-profit figure. Materiality of the investment and the share of profits decides the depth of your procedures.
A company with three factories and a head office, all books in one Tally company, one audit firm appointed
Divisions of a single legal entity audited by one firm involve no "other auditor" and no consolidation — SA 600 is not attracted. It becomes SA 600 territory only if separate auditors are appointed for divisions/branches, or separate legal entities consolidate.
An Indian parent consolidates a foreign subsidiary audited under its local GAAP and ISAs by a local firm
The component auditor exists and the component consolidates, so SA 600 applies — plus conversion questions: GAAP differences adjusted on consolidation, and evaluation of the component auditor’s professional competence and the equivalence of the auditing framework applied.
The strategy memorandum sets group scope and component materiality; the engagement letter fixes the division of work; the full guide covers procedures and the report wording.
Auditing the parent’s books themselves? CORAA reads the full ledger population and drafts the working papers — start free: your first audit is on us.
SA 600 is "Using the Work of Another Auditor". The revised standard approved by the ICAI Council follows the ISA 600 framing — special considerations for audits of group financial statements, including the work of component auditors — but until notification, the extant SA 600 name and text apply.
Any situation where the financial statements you report on include financial information audited by another auditor: holding-subsidiary consolidation with different firms, equity-accounted associates and joint ventures with their own auditors, bank branch audits under Sec 143(8), and foreign components consolidated into an Indian parent. A multi-division single entity with one auditor is not a group audit.
Start from the consolidating schedule — every line consolidated is a candidate component. Corroborate from the group structure chart, the investment register and Sec 186 disclosures, minutes of board meetings (new acquisitions and disposals), related-party listings, and prior-year consolidation workings. The test: does its financial information flow into the group statements, and who audits it?
The ICAI Council approved revisions to SA 600 in December 2025, to be sent to NFRA and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. As proposed, the revised standard would apply to audits of public interest entities (excluding public-sector banks and PSUs, per the NFRA proposal) with an intended effective date of 1 April 2026 — but the government has not yet notified it, so the extant SA 600 continues to apply until notification. Verify the current status before citing it in a report.
The centre of gravity moves: the group auditor becomes ultimately responsible for the group audit opinion, including work performed by component auditors — with duties to evaluate component-auditor communications, assess the adequacy of their work, and obtain access to their working papers. Under the extant SA 600, the principal auditor may divide responsibility and say so in the report; that division is what the revision removes for covered entities.
The classic pack: the components and periods covered, group and component materiality, the group accounting framework and GAAP-conversion requirements, identified group-level risks, related-party lists, reporting deadlines and formats (reporting pack plus clearance memo), independence confirmations, and the requirement to communicate findings, uncorrected misstatements and limitations promptly. Put dates against every deliverable.
