The Standards on Auditing (SAs) issued by ICAI are grouped below by what they actually govern, not by number: the overall framework, planning and risk assessment, audit evidence, specific items that need their own standard, using someone else's work, and forming and reporting the opinion. Each one links to a full explainer; this page exists to answer "which standard covers this" and "what's near the one I'm looking at" faster than scrolling a bare numbered list.
This list reflects Standards on Auditing currently issued by ICAI. Standards are periodically revised, withdrawn or added — this page is a navigation aid to Lekhya's own explainers, not a substitute for checking the current ICAI text before relying on anything in an audit file.
The overall framework
What an audit is, and the quality control around it
- SA 200 — the overall objectives of an independent auditor
- SA 210 — what has to be agreed before an audit starts
- SA 220 — quality control on an individual engagement
- SA 230 — what actually has to be in the audit file
- SA 240 — the auditor's responsibilities relating to fraud
- SA 250 — consideration of laws and regulations
Communication, planning and risk assessment
Before and during fieldwork
- SA 260 — communicating with those charged with governance
- SA 265 — communicating internal control deficiencies
- SA 299 — how responsibility divides between joint auditors
- SA 300 — planning an audit
- SA 315 — identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement
- SA 320 — materiality in planning and performing an audit
- SA 330 — the auditor's responses to assessed risks
- SA 402 — auditing an entity that uses a service organisation
- SA 450 — evaluating misstatements identified during the audit
Audit evidence
What counts as evidence, and how to gather it
Specific items that get their own standard
Because some balances need more than a general evidence rule
Using someone else's work
Group audits, internal audit, and outside experts
Forming the opinion and reporting
What goes in the report, and when it changes
Special purpose and summary engagements
Less common, but each a real standard with its own rules
Common practice, not a requirement
Knowing which standard applies is rarely the hard part once you have a list like this in front of you — the harder part, in practice, is remembering which standard's requirement actually drove a specific step in a working paper six months later. That's a documentation habit, not a memorisation problem: cite the standard in the working paper at the time, not after the fact.
This is practical guidance written for audit teams, not an authoritative statement of any standard or statute. Standards, forms and timelines change. Check the current text issued by the ICAI and the relevant authority before relying on anything here in an audit file.
Related resources
- Audit workflow & automationSA 200: the overall objectives of an independent auditorSA 200 is where "reasonable assurance, not absolute assurance" and the inherent limitations of an audit actually come from — not a footnote, the foundation.
- Audit documentationSA 230: what actually has to be in the fileThe experienced-auditor test explained in plain terms, what documentation has to demonstrate, when the file has to be assembled, and the gaps that most often draw comment on review.
- Audit workflow & automationSA 315: identifying and assessing the risks of material misstatementA risk assessment that doesn't name a specific assertion isn't a risk assessment under SA 315 — it's a general impression written down.
- Audit workflow & automationSA 700: forming an opinion, and what "true and fair" actually requires concluding onFinishing every planned procedure isn't the same as forming an opinion. SA 700 is the step that happens after the checklist, not instead of it.
Free tools, no signup
Each one reads a file entirely in your browser — or, for two of them, just answers a few questions — and nothing is ever uploaded.
- Purchase register checkDuplicate payments, round-sum amounts, weekend-dated invoices, incomplete records.
- GSTR-2B reconcilerMatches your purchase register against GSTR-2B — missing invoices either side, amount mismatches.
- Bank reconciliation checkerMatches your cash book against a bank statement — what's outstanding on each side.
- Fixed asset register checkDuplicate asset codes, missing location or useful life, negative net book value.
- Payroll red-flag scannerBank accounts shared across employees, and records missing an ID, PAN or salary.
- CARO applicability checkerAnswer a few questions about the company and see which CARO 2020 clauses likely apply.
- MSME payment delay checkerMSME-flagged invoices paid — or still unpaid — beyond the 45-day Section 22 limit.
- Related-party transaction screenerTransactions above a threshold you set with no approval reference, grouped by counterparty.
- Depreciation useful life checkerCompares a useful life in use against the Schedule II, Part C indicative figure.
- Materiality calculatorOverall and performance materiality against PBT, revenue, assets or equity, with reasoning shown.
- Sample size calculatorStatistical sample size for a test of controls or a substantive test of detail.