Auditing & Assurance › ISA Standards
What is the difference between reasonable assurance and absolute assurance?
BeginnerAnswer
Reasonable assurance is a high, but not absolute, level of assurance—an audit reduces risk to an acceptably low level but cannot guarantee the statements are error-free. Absolute assurance is unattainable due to inherent limitations: use of judgment, testing/sampling, inherent control limitations, and the nature of audit evidence being persuasive rather than conclusive.
Real-world example An auditor gives reasonable, not absolute, assurance because they test samples and rely on persuasive evidence, not certainty.