Chapter 6: Q89E (page 367)
Question: Auditing sampling methods. Traditionally, auditors have relied to a great extent on sampling techniques, rather than 100% audits, to help them test and evaluate the financial records of a client firm. When sampling is used to obtain an estimate of the total dollar value of an account鈥攖he account balance鈥攖he examination is known as a substantive test (Audit Sampling鈥擜ICPA Audit Guide, 2015). In order to evaluate the reasonableness of a firm鈥檚 stated total value of its parts inventory, an auditor randomly samples 100 of the total of 500 parts in stock, prices each part, and reports the results shown in the table.
a. Give a point estimate of the mean value of the parts inventory.
b. Find the estimated standard error of the point estimate of part a.
c. Construct an approximate 95% confidence interval for the mean value of the parts inventory.
d. The firm reported a mean parts inventory value of $300. What does your confidence interval of part c suggest about the reasonableness of the firm鈥檚 reported figure?
Short Answer
Answer
- The mean value of the parts inventory is 156.46.
- The standard error for the calculated point estimate is 18.7020.
- The 95% confidence interval is (119.0558, 193.8642).
It is observed that the mean parts inventory value of $300 is not included in the confidence interval. So the mean parts inventory value of $300 is not reasonable

