audit planning

The "audit plan" is the "overarching" audit documentation - everything else is related to to it. So, for example, the audit plan documents that there is a high risk of misstatement in trade receivables because the credit controller is on long-term sick leave. So final audit procedures are planned to include external confirmation ("circularisation") and other tests of details (e.g. on after-date cash receipts). Think of the audit programme as an audit checklist - do this - do that. I would say most if not all audit documentation ("working papers") are cross-referenced "from both ends" - i.e. why they are there/where they go to. This is certainly going to help the next level of review - audit manager/audit partner/EQCR to navigate their way through the audit documentation to the things that are most important to their review.