SIA 5 covers designing and selecting an audit sample, whether statistical or not, and evaluating the results, so that the internal auditor has sufficient appropriate evidence. It is the standard SIA 320 points to for sampling, because SIA 320 para 1.3 leaves sampling technique out of its own scope.
This page covers SIA 5 as it stands in ICAI’s October 2022 compendium. ICAI’s February 2026 compendium, applicable from 1 April 2026, renumbers the standards, so check the current number and text in that compendium before citing it in a report.
The file checklist and the mistakes above are practice points drawn from the requirements of the standard. They are not text from the standard.
This standard is described here as it stands in the October 2022 compendium, which is the earlier set. ICAI's Internal Audit Standards Board lists its Compendium of Standards on Internal Audit (as on February 2026) as applicable from 1 April 2026 (source: the Board's compendium page, checked on 1 October 2026). That compendium renumbers the standards, so check the current number and text there before citing this standard in a report. ICAI's compendium page does not say whether the standards are mandatory or recommendatory, so we do not describe any standard as mandatory. In the October 2022 compendium this standard is still headed as recommendatory in the initial period and mandatory from a date to be notified by the Council of ICAI, and that date is left blank.
These pages summarise each standard as it stands in ICAI's Compendium of Standards on Internal Audit (as on 1 October 2022), working from an extract of that document. They are summaries and close paraphrases, not the text of the standards. ICAI's Internal Audit Standards Board lists its Compendium of Standards on Internal Audit (as on February 2026) as applicable from 1 April 2026 (source: the Board's compendium page, checked on 1 October 2026). For that current set we have only the titles, taken from the Board's 2025-26 annual report; its text is available from ICAI through a registration form on the compendium page and is not summarised here. ICAI's compendium page does not say whether the standards are mandatory or recommendatory, so we do not describe any standard as mandatory. Before you cite a number, a paragraph or a status in a report, check the February 2026 compendium. internalaudit.icai.org
Editable formats and tools from CORAA’s internal audit library that put SIA 5 into practice. Free to use.
SIA 5, Sampling, is a Standard on Internal Audit issued by the Internal Audit Standards Board of ICAI. SIA 5 covers designing and selecting an audit sample, whether statistical or not, and evaluating the results, so that the internal auditor has sufficient appropriate evidence. It is the standard SIA 320 points to for sampling, because SIA 320 para 1.3 leaves sampling technique out of its own scope. It was published in October 2008 and kept its original number.
SIA 5, Sampling, published in October 2008. It kept its old number and still sits in ICAI's October 2022 compendium alongside the 2019 standards. SIA 320, Internal Audit Evidence, says in para 1.3 that sampling technique is outside its scope.
ICAI's compendium page does not say whether the Standards on Internal Audit are mandatory or recommendatory, so we do not describe SIA 5 as mandatory. ICAI's Internal Audit Standards Board lists its Compendium of Standards on Internal Audit (as on February 2026) as applicable from 1 April 2026 (source: the Board's compendium page, checked on 1 October 2026). SIA 5 as described on this page is from the earlier October 2022 compendium. The February 2026 compendium renumbers the standards, so check the current number and text there before citing it in a report.
For each test, the population, how the sample was designed and how the items were selected. The evaluation of the results and what was concluded from them.
