To help plan the nature, timing, and extent of substantive procedures, preliminary analytical procedures should focus on

a. Enhancing the auditor’s understanding of the client’s business and of events that have occurred since the last audit date.

b. Develop plausible relationships that corroborate anticipated results with a measurable amount of precision.

c. Applying ratio analysis to externally generated data such as published industry statistics or price indexes.

d. Comparing recorded financial information to the results of other tests of transactions and balances.