Audit sampling is a technique that allows auditors to test a subset of transactions or account balances to draw conclusions about the entire population. It's an investigative tool that involves selecting less than 100% of the total items within the population of items to be audited. The sample is the portion of the population that the auditor actually examines. This process helps to minimize the risk for users of financial statements who make business and investment decisions based on the company's financial ability and profit-gaining capacity.  Audit sampling is used to conduct tests of... Show more

Audit sampling is a technique that allows auditors to test a subset of transactions or account balances to draw conclusions about the entire population. It's an investigative tool that involves selecting less than 100% of the total items within the population of items to be audited. The sample is the portion of the population that the auditor actually examines. This process helps to minimize the risk for users of financial statements who make business and investment decisions based on the company's financial ability and profit-gaining capacity. 

Audit sampling is used to conduct tests of controls and substantive tests, and helps auditors on doing their audit work at a given period of time. For example, monetary unit sampling (MUS) is used to determine the accuracy of financial accounts. 

The steps involved in MUS are to:
Determine a sample size
Select the sample
Perform the audit procedures
Evaluate the results 

Systematic sample selection has the advantage of being easy to use, limited possibility of being biased, and automatically selecting items material to the financial statements.

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