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Home > Standards > Archived Standards and Guidance > Pre-Reorganized Auditing Standards and
Interpretations > Auditing Standard No. 15

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AS No. 1: References in
Auditors’ Reports to the
Standards of the Public Company
Accounting Oversight Board

AS No. 3: Audit Documentation

AS No. 4: Reporting on Whether

a Previously Reported Material
Weakness Continues to Exist

AS No. 5: An Audit of Internal

Control Over Financial Reporting
That Is Integrated with An Audit
of Financial Statements

AS No. 6: Evaluating
Consistency of Financial
Statements

AS No. 7: Engagement Quality

Review

AS No. 8: Audit Risk

 AS No. 9: Audit Planning

AS No. 10: Supervision of the

Audit Engagement

AS No. 11: Consideration of

Materiality in Planning and
Performing an Audit

AS No. 12: Identifying and

Assessing Risks of Material
Misstatement

AS No. 13: The Auditor's

Responses to the Risks of
Material Misstatement

AS No. 14: Evaluating Audit

Results

AS No. 15: Audit Evidence

Auditing Standard No. 15

AS No. 16: Communications with Audit

Committees

AS No. 17: Auditing

Supplemental Information
Accompanying Audited Financial
Statements

AS No. 18: Related Parties

AU Section 100 - Statements on

Auditing Standards --
Introduction

AU Section 200 - The General

 Standards

AU Section 300 - The Standards

of Field Work

AU Section 400 - The First,

Second, and Third Standards of
Reporting

AU Section 500 - The Fourth

Standard of Reporting

AU Section 600 - Other Types of

Reports

AU Section 700 - Special Topics

AU Section 800 - Compliance

Auditing

AU Section 900 - Special Reports

of the Committee on Auditing
Procedures

The following auditing standard is not the current version and does not reflect any
amendments effective on or after December 31, 2016. The current version of the
auditing standards can be found here.

Auditing Standard No. 15

Audit Evidence
Effective Date: For audits of fiscal years beginning on or after Dec. 15, 2010
Final Rule: PCAOB Release No. 2010-004
Summary Table of Contents +

Introduction
1.     This standard explains what constitutes audit evidence and establishes
requirements regarding designing and performing audit procedures to obtain sufficient
appropriate audit evidence.

2.     Audit evidence is all the information, whether obtained from audit procedures or
other sources, that is used by the auditor in arriving at the conclusions on which the
auditor's opinion is based. Audit evidence consists of both information that supports and
corroborates management's assertions regarding the financial statements or internal
control over financial reporting and information that contradicts such assertions.

Objective
3.     The objective of the auditor is to plan and perform the audit to obtain appropriate
audit evidence that is sufficient to support the opinion expressed in the auditor's report. 1/ 
Sufficient Appropriate Audit Evidence
4.     The auditor must plan and perform audit procedures to obtain sufficient appropriate
audit evidence to provide a reasonable basis for his or her opinion.

5.     Sufficiency is the measure of the quantity of audit evidence. The quantity of audit
evidence needed is affected by the following:

 Risk of material misstatement (in the audit of financial statements) or the risk associated with the
control (in the audit of internal control over financial reporting). As the risk increases, the
amount of evidence that the auditor should obtain also increases. For example,
ordinarily more evidence is needed to respond to significant risks.2/
 Quality of the audit evidence obtained. As the quality of the evidence increases, the need
for additional corroborating evidence decreases. Obtaining more of the same type of
audit evidence, however, cannot compensate for the poor quality of that evidence.

6.     Appropriateness is the measure of the quality of audit evidence, i.e., its relevance
and reliability. To be appropriate, audit evidence must be both relevant and reliable in
providing support for the conclusions on which the auditor's opinion is based.

Relevance and R