{"id":6579,"date":"2025-12-31T20:19:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T19:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/?p=6579"},"modified":"2026-02-16T09:24:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T08:24:19","slug":"are-we-good-or-do-we-need-to-keep-going-unraveling-auditors-comfort-with-evidence-sufficiency-determinations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/blog\/2025\/12\/31\/are-we-good-or-do-we-need-to-keep-going-unraveling-auditors-comfort-with-evidence-sufficiency-determinations\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Are we good? or do we need to keep going?\u2019: unraveling auditors\u2019 comfort with evidence sufficiency determinations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Suppose you think of auditors\u2019 work as completing a puzzle. Auditors can\u2019t form a complete picture to conclude<\/span> that the financial statements are \u201cfree from material misstatement\u201d when evide<\/span>nce is missing or incorrect.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Audit evide<\/span>nce, then, is the information the auditors rely on to form a sound judgment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But not all evide<\/span>nce is created equal. The standards emphasize two key qualities. First, the evide<\/span>nce must be appropriate, meaning it must be both relevant and reliable. Evide<\/span>nce must also be sufficient, referring to the quantity of evide<\/span>nce conside<\/span>red enough to convincingly support the auditor\u2019s opinion.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While audit standards state that evide<\/span>nce must be \u201csufficient and appropriate,\u201d in practice, those standards rarely specify precisely how much evide<\/span>nce is enough.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Drawing on interviews with 45 auditors from firms of varying sizes, we ana<\/span>lyzed how professionals de<\/span>termine that they have collected sufficient appropriate evide<\/span>nce to conclude<\/span>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We found that auditors typically begin with established guidance: prede<\/span>fined document lists, criteria, and clear sampling and testing thresholds. These structured tools offer initial certainty, but they often fall short in complex or ambiguous situations, where risk, estimation, or unusual transactions challenge expectations. In such cases, auditors de<\/span>scribed a shift from checklist-based reasoning to a more adaptive, fluid process of interpreting and contextualizing evide<\/span>nce.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A central finding is that comfort drives many sufficiency de<\/span>cisions. Comfort reflects a provisional state that emerges through iterative judgment. When discomfort arises, auditors adjust expectations by revising thresholds, gathering incremental evide<\/span>nce, or forming new mental mode<\/span>ls. They also draw on prior experience, client history, and peer consultation to recalibrate what counts as enough evide<\/span>nce.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This suggests that evide<\/span>nce sufficiency is not a one-time de<\/span>termination, but a recursive feedback loop between structured procedures, interpersonal interactions, and auditors\u2019 affective sense of when evide<\/span>nce sufficiency has been achieved. In practice, the process is shaped by interpersonal interactions as much as technical standards: discussions with clients, specialists, and reviewers often tip the balance toward either \u201cwe\u2019re good\u201d or \u201cwe need to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Overall, the study contributes to a more realistic unde<\/span>rstanding of how sufficiency judgments are made<\/span>. By uncovering how auditors blend procedural rules with evolving discomfort\/comfort cues, our findings offer insights for standard setters, regulators, and practitioners seeking clearer guidance on evide<\/span>nce expectations, especially in complex areas involving estimates and uncertainty.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The reference for this article can be found below:<\/p>\n

Altiero, E. C., Baudot, L., & Hazgui, M. (2025). \u2018Are we good? or do we need to keep going?\u2019: unraveling auditors\u2019 comfort with evide<\/span>nce sufficiency de<\/span>terminations. European Accounting Review<\/i>, 1\u201327. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/09638180.2025.2589183<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Suppose you think of auditors\u2019 work as completing a puzzle. Auditors can\u2019t form a complete picture to conclude that the financial statements are \u201cfree from material misstatement\u201d when evidence is missing or incorrect.   Audit evidence, then, is the information the auditors rely on to form a sound judgment.   But not all evidence is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1585,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[260],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Are we good? or do we need to keep going?\u2019: unraveling auditors\u2019 comfort with evidence sufficiency determinations - ARC<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Are we good? or do we need to keep going?\u2019: unraveling auditors\u2019 comfort with evidence sufficiency determinations - ARC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Suppose you think of auditors\u2019 work as completing a puzzle. Auditors can\u2019t form a complete picture to conclude that the financial statements are \u201cfree from material misstatement\u201d when evidence is missing or incorrect.   Audit evidence, then, is the information the auditors rely on to form a sound judgment.   But not all evidence is […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/blog\/2025\/12\/31\/are-we-good-or-do-we-need-to-keep-going-unraveling-auditors-comfort-with-evidence-sufficiency-determinations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ARC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-31T19:19:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-16T08:24:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ELICA KRASTEVA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ELICA KRASTEVA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/blog\/2025\/12\/31\/are-we-good-or-do-we-need-to-keep-going-unraveling-auditors-comfort-with-evidence-sufficiency-determinations\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/blog\/2025\/12\/31\/are-we-good-or-do-we-need-to-keep-going-unraveling-auditors-comfort-with-evidence-sufficiency-determinations\/\",\"name\":\"\u2018Are we good? or do we need to keep going?\u2019: unraveling auditors\u2019 comfort with evidence sufficiency determinations - ARC\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-31T19:19:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-16T08:24:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/#\/schema\/person\/4d419d69aac5b96e0f5cf971e24caf57\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/blog\/2025\/12\/31\/are-we-good-or-do-we-need-to-keep-going-unraveling-auditors-comfort-with-evidence-sufficiency-determinations\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/\",\"name\":\"ARC\",\"description\":\"Advanced Resources Center\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/#\/schema\/person\/4d419d69aac5b96e0f5cf971e24caf57\",\"name\":\"ELICA KRASTEVA\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/blog\/members\/1585\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\u2018Are we good? or do we need to keep going?\u2019: unraveling auditors\u2019 comfort with evidence sufficiency determinations - ARC","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\u2018Are we good? or do we need to keep going?\u2019: unraveling auditors\u2019 comfort with evidence sufficiency determinations - ARC","og_description":"Suppose you think of auditors\u2019 work as completing a puzzle. 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