The relevance and reliability of audit evidence — the bedrock standard for substantive testing.
To design and perform audit procedures in such a way as to enable the auditor to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to draw reasonable conclusions.
SA 500 sits in the Audit Evidence phase of the audit. The Standards on Auditing are issued by the ICAI Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (AASB) and deemed to be prescribed by the Central Government under Section 143(10) of the Companies Act 2013. Compliance with SAs is mandatory for every audit conducted by a Chartered Accountant in India.
For authoritative text, refer to the ICAI AASB Compendium of Standards on Auditing at icai.org.
Editable, letterhead-ready formats that put SA 500 into practice — built from the ICAI working-paper set, free to download.
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SA 500 — Audit Evidence — is a Standard on Auditing issued by the ICAI Auditing and Assurance Standards Board. The relevance and reliability of audit evidence — the bedrock standard for substantive testing. To design and perform audit procedures in such a way as to enable the auditor to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to draw reasonable conclusions.
Yes. Standards on Auditing are deemed to be prescribed under Section 143(10) of the Companies Act 2013, and ICAI members must comply with them in every audit of historical financial information. Non-compliance must be justified and can attract professional consequences in peer review, NFRA inspection, and disciplinary proceedings.
Documentation sufficient for an experienced auditor with no previous connection to the audit to understand what was done and why (SA 230). For SA 500 in the audit evidence phase, that means evidencing: Sufficient (quantity) and appropriate (relevance + reliability) evidence; Reliability hierarchy: external > internal generated with strong controls > internal; Procedures: inspection, observation, external confirmation, recalculation, reperformance, analytical, inquiry.
