Audit Sampling

Question 1

What is audit sampling?

Answer 1

The application of audit procedures is less than 100% of the items within a population of audit relevance such that all sampling units have an equal chance of selection

Question 2

What are the two types of sampling?

Answer 2

Statistical and non-statistical sampling

Question 3

What does non-statistical sampling not use?

Answer 3

Any mathematical basis for selecting a sample

Question 4

Examples of non-statistical sampling?

Answer 4

Haphazard selection
Block selection

Question 5

What is haphazard selection?

Answer 5

Auditor selectis the item to be included in the sample without following a structured technique but whicha voids any concious bias or predictability

Question 6

What is block section used for?

Answer 6

To check whether certain items have particular characteristics

Question 7

What is an example of a block selection?

Answer 7

An auditor may use a sample of 50 consecutive cheques to test whether cheques are signed by authorised signatories rather than picking 50 single cheques throughout the year

Question 8

What are issues with block sampling?

Answer 8

May produce samples that are not representative of population as a whole, particularly if errors only occurred during a certain part of the period, and therefore errors found cannot be projected onto rest of the population