Is a client-prepared schedule enough audit evidence by itself?

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AcadiFi · Accepted Answer

A client-prepared schedule is usually not enough by itself unless the engagement objective is very limited and the schedule's completenes...

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At fictional Pine River Labs, management gives internal audit a spreadsheet of equipment purchases for the year. If the audit objective is to test whether purchases were approved and properly recorded, the auditor should not simply agree one spreadsheet column to another. The team should reconcile the schedule to the general ledger or system population, select samples, and inspect purchase orders, approvals, receiving records, invoices, and payment evidence.

Sufficiency means enough evidence; reliability means trustworthy evidence; relevance means the evidence addresses the objective. A spreadsheet may be relevant, but its reliability depends on who prepared it, how it was generated, whether it can be altered, and whether it ties to source records.

A good procedure might say: obtain the purchase population from the system, reconcile total spend to the ledger, select 30 items, and verify each item to approval, invoice, receipt, and payment support. That creates a defensible chain.

For CIA questions, avoid answers that accept management-prepared information without validation when risk is meaningful. Trust is not an audit procedure. Practice more in our CIA question bank.

Is a client-prepared schedule enough audit evidence by itself?

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