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Chapter 6 3 4

Sampling

5.1 Selecting items for testing

1 Select all items to test (100% testing)

2 Selecting specific items for testing

Items with specific characteristics may be chosen for testing such as:

 High value items within a population

 All items over a certain amount

 Items to obtain information

Although less than 100% of the population is being tested, this does not constitute
sampling. As explained below, sampling requires all items in the population to have a
chance of selection. In the categories above, only the items with the specific
characteristics have a chance of selection.

3 Sampling

Sampling: The application of audit procedures to less than 100% of
items within a population of audit relevance such that all sampling units
have a chance of selection in order to provide the auditor with a
reasonable basis on which to draw conclusions about the entire
population.

When sampling, the auditor must choose a representative sample.

If a sample is representative, the same conclusion will be drawn from that sample as
would have been drawn had the whole population been tested.

For a sample to be representative, it must have the same characteristics as the other
items in the population from which it was chosen.

In order to reduce sampling risk and ensure the sample is representative, the auditor
can increase the size of the sample selected or use stratification.

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