Audit evidence: definition (ISO/UNDP 53001)
Audit evidence (French: preuve d'audit) is verifiable information, whether records, statements of fact or other material, relevant to the audit criteria. In an ISO 53001 audit, no finding, favourable or not, can be established without it.
Updated: · edition covered: ISO/UNDP 53001:2026
In an ISO/UNDP 53001 audit
Evidence is gathered by reading documents and records, interviewing people, observing activities and examining data. The auditor cross-checks these sources: something heard in an interview carries more weight once a record confirms it.
Evidence is noted precisely: document reference, date, person interviewed, location. That precision is what allows a finding to stand up if it is challenged. The auditor does not take confidential documents away, only notes the relevant details. ISO 19011 sets out the principles of this collection. See the ISO/UNDP 53001 standard.
What makes evidence sufficient
Evidence is weighed on two scales: is there enough of it, and is it appropriate to the criterion? A single meeting record may prove that a management review took place, yet says nothing about whether its decisions were applied; that needs further records drawn from later in the year. For SDG indicators the auditor favours source data over summaries: a payroll extract carries more weight than a slide quoting a gender pay gap. Evidence the organisation cannot produce during the audit is treated as absent, not assumed.
See also
- Audit criteria: definition (ISO/UNDP 53001)Audit criteria (French: *critères d'audit*) are the set of requirements used as the reference against which evidence is compared.
- Audit finding: definition (ISO/UNDP 53001)An audit finding (French: *constat d'audit*) is the result of comparing the evidence collected with the audit criteria.
- Sampling: definition (ISO/UNDP 53001)Sampling (French: *échantillonnage*) means that the auditor examines only part of the available items, whether records, sites, suppliers or people, in order to draw a conclusion about the whole.
- Documented information: definition (ISO/UNDP 53001)Documented information (French: *information documentée*) is information an organisation must control and keep up to date, whatever the medium: text, database, dashboard, video.