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According to international standards of auditing (ISA), audit records must be "sufficient" and "adequate". Being Sufficient refers to the quantity as well as the quality of audit documents. The appropriateness of audit documents is related to the type and timing of audit procedures. Appropriateness (quality documents) is achieved if the documents are relevant and reliable. Also the documents the auditor should be adequately documented so that they should be available before the issuance of the auditor's report. The auditor's documents should support the auditors' comments in the audit report and the audit case should lead to the ways by which the auditor developed his audit comments. According to this aspect, the audited companies (such as Arthur Anderson in the Enron scandal) are charged by the public and regulatory bodies because of their lack of audit documents and were not appropriate to justify its auditor's comments. Auditors must ensure that when planning and performing audit procedures, they believe that these methods are sufficient and appropriate to obtain enough audit evidence (because the audit methods and auditor's documents are not the same - the auditor use different methods for preparation of documents). Another aspect that auditors should consider is the relevance and reliability of the information that is used as audit evidence. In an audit, the more of an auditor's work, is to obtain and evaluate evidence, using different methods (inspection, observation, evaluation, confirmation, recalculation, etc.) in order to reach to the audit comment. To obtain sufficient and appropriate audit evidence is one of the key steps the auditors must do that are very important to shape the standard audit documents in general. The auditor documents should be properly documented so that the purpose of the audit is to be achieved. If goals are not achieved, worksheets must contain the documentation of failure. Also, experts with more expertise can be used to gather audit evidence
Evidence based audit it is widely accepted because of its transparency. An audit process is to verify the system which enhances the customers to understand which point they are standing on the way to the set goal. Evidences are mutually benefited for auditor as well as auditee. So an auditor should try to perform his audit based on evidences that will support his audit report.
Audit evidence is very important because it forms the basis for the report.
reliability of the audit evidence (whether as regards the design and operating effectiveness of control) would affect the concreteness of an audit finding. if the audit evidence backing a control weakness is not reliable or in itself spells out the control weakness as depicted in the report, it erodes the quality of the audit work conducted.
