Auditors not expected to look at every single invoice, transaction: ICAI

Amid the auditors' role coming under scrutiny, ICAI's newly elected President Aniket Talati on Thursday said auditors are not expected to look at every single invoice and transaction but are required to obtain reasonable assurance that the financial statement of a firm is free of material misstatement.

The role of the auditors came under scrutiny, especially in the post-IL&FS crisis.

"Our auditing standard is today largely in line with international accounting standards. You cannot expect that when a listed company is giving quarterly financial results in 45 days and 60 days for the year-end, it can never be intended that you are going to look at each and every single transaction. It has never been the expectation of an audit," Talati said.

According to him, the expectation from a statutory auditor to look at 100 per cent invoices and 100 per cent transactions has never been there and an auditor is expected to exercise the highest level of integrity. The auditing entity needs to ..