Regulatory Framework Governing Audit Activities: A Comparison among Select Counties

Abstract

The study identifies that the major portion of audit process can be segregated into a few major segments, such as audit engagement, audit planning, audit evidences, audit sampling, audit documentation and audit report. Responsibilities of a statutory auditor towards each of these issues are governed by particular Auditing Standards. The study considers three countries including the United States of America, the United Kingdom and India which have significant contribution towards world Gross Domestic Product. Auditing Standards governing aforesaid issues in these three countries have been identified and a comparative analysis of their requirements has been made to some extent. The analysis points towards a successful convergence of county specific Auditing Standards and International Standards on Auditing (ISAs). However, the requirements of the standards in UK and India are different from that of USA in few cases.

Keywords: Audit Engagement, Audit Planning, Audit Evidence, Audit Sampling, Audit Documentation, Audit Report, USA, UK, India