AUDIT STRATEGY

AUDIT STRATEGY

The auditor shall establish an overall audit strategy that sets the scope, timing and direction of the audit, and that guides the development of the audit plan.

The process of establishing the overall audit strategy assists the auditor to determine, subject to the completion of the auditor’s risk assessment procedures, such matters as:

1. The resources to deploy for specific audit areas, such as the use of appropriately experienced team members for high risk areas or the involvement of experts on complex matters;

2. The amount of resources to allocate to specific audit areas, such as the number of team members assigned to observe the inventory count at material locations, the extent of review of other auditors’ work in the case of group audits, or the audit budget in hours to allocate to high risk areas;

3. When these resources are to be deployed, such as whether at an interim audit stage or at key cut-off dates; and

4. How such resources are managed, directed and supervised, such as when team briefing and debriefing meetings are expected to be held, how engagement partner and manager reviews are expected to take place (for example, on-site or off-site), and whether to complete engagement quality control reviews.