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COPYRIGHT

© Commonwealth of Australia 2006. The text, graphics and layout of this Auditing Standard are protected by Australian copyright law and the comparable law of other countries. Reproduction within Australia in unaltered form (retaining this notice) is permitted for personal and non-commercial use subject to the inclusion of an acknowledgment of the source. Requests and enquiries concerning reproduction and rights for commercial purposes within Australia should be addressed to the Principal Executive, Auditing and Assurance Standards Board, PO Box 204, Collins Street West, Melbourne Victoria 8007. Otherwise, no part of the Auditing Standard may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the AUASB except as permitted by law.

ISSN 1833-4393

CONTENTS

PREFACE

AUTHORITY STATEMENT

Paragraphs

Application.................................. 1-2

Operative Date................................ 3

Introduction.................................. 4-9

Relationship of External Confirmation Procedures to the Auditor’s Assessments of the Risks of Material Misstatement 10-14

Assertions Addressed by External Confirmations......... 15-19

Design of the External Confirmation Request............ 20-23

Use of Positive and Negative Confirmations............ 24-28

Requests by Those Charged with Governance and Management 29-31

Characteristics of Respondents..................... 32-33

The External Confirmation Process .................. 34-35

No Response to a Positive Confirmation Request......... 36-37

Reliability of Responses Received................... 38

Causes and Frequency of Exceptions................. 39-41

Evaluating the Results of the Confirmation Process........ 42-43