Within the international standards, the criteria in the development of an audit, the planning of the work, in addition to complying with an audit standard, is of vital importance to guide the conduct of the examination and to channel the joint work of the components of the audit team towards the same end.
In order to proceed with planning, it is essential to define the scope of the audit. This refers to the procedures that are considered necessary to achieve the programmed objective, in the audit planning the following phases must be fulfilled: "(a) determination of the audit objective, (b) knowledge of the company or area to be audited, (c) preparation of work programs, (d) distribution of the work, (e) design of work papers and (f) review of the planning.
The first phase of planning should consist of establishing the objective of the examination to be performed, which is directly related to the requirements of the engagement, i.e., the reason for which the audit was contracted. The second stage is the knowledge of the company or area to be audited.
At this point, the auditor must specify the study to the knowledge of the client, its organization, its purposes, the development of operations and its regulations based on the documentation obtained in the preliminary visit If no preliminary visit was made, it is up to this phase to obtain all the information concerning the structure of the entity or area, its organization and the legal and regulatory standards that regulate it.
The last phase of planning is the review of the planning. Before authorizing the start of the field work, the audit professional or the head of the audit department should have reviewed in detail the fulfillment of each of the planning phases, emphasizing during the review the content of the work programs, the scope of the procedures, the correct assignment of personnel and the time to be spent according to the objectives of the examination entrusted.