For the purposes of this Auditing Standard, the following terms have the meanings attributed below:

Accounting records means the records of initial accounting entries and supporting records, such as cheques and records of electronic fund transfers; invoices; contracts; the general and subsidiary ledgers, journal entries and other adjustments to the financial report that are not reflected in journal entries; and records such as work sheets and spreadsheets supporting cost allocations, computations, reconciliations and disclosures.

Appropriateness (of audit evidence) means the measure of the quality of audit evidence; that is, its relevance and its reliability in providing support for the conclusions on which the auditor’s opinion is based.

Audit evidence means information used by the auditor in arriving at the conclusions on which the auditor’s opinion is based. Audit evidence includes both information contained in the accounting records underlying the financial report and information obtained from other sources.

External information source means an external individual or organisation that provides information that has been used by the entity in preparing the financial report, or that has been obtained by the auditor as audit evidence, when such information is suitable for use by a broad range of users. When information has been provided by an individual or organisation acting in the capacity of a management’s expert, service organisation^[6] , or auditor’s expert^[7] the individual or organisation is not considered an external information source with respect to that particular information. (Ref: Para. A1-A4)

Management’s expert means an individual or organisation possessing expertise in a field other than accounting or auditing, whose work in that field is used by the entity to assist the entity in preparing the financial report.

Sufficiency (of audit evidence) means the measure of the quantity of audit evidence. The quantity of the audit evidence needed is affected by the auditor’s assessment of the risks of material misstatement and also by the quality of such audit evidence.