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Monetary Unit Sampling

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Summary

Learn about Monetary Unit Sampling (MUS) and how it can be leveraged to help detect anomalies and support audit quality.

MindBridge now offers built-in support for MUS, enabling auditors to perform sampling directly within the platform, without the need for external tools or spreadsheets. This capability helps auditors comply with firm-specific methodologies and professional standards, while improving audit documentation and traceability.

What is MUS

MUS, also known as Probability-Proportional-to-Size (PPS) sampling, is a statistical audit sampling technique where each dollar in a population is considered a separate sampling unit. Larger-value transactions have a higher probability of selection, which makes MUS highly effective for detecting overstatements.

MUS Sampling process

  1. Define the population and determine its total monetary value.
  2. Determine the sample size or sampling interval.
  3. Select a random starting point, then apply fixed intervals across the population.
  4. Identify the transaction that contains the selected dollar and test said transaction.
  5. Project any identified misstatements to the entire population.

It is important that you consider your own firm specific methodologies when considering the items above. For any questions on this process, please contact your dedicated CSM.

Handling high-value items in MUS

When dealing with high-value items, auditors can include them in the MUS selection process.

High-value items can remain in the population. Because MUS assigns selection probability based on monetary value, these items have a higher chance of being selected and may be selected more than once.

The threshold for defining high-value items is defined by each user/firm’s methodology and should be considered when applying the handling of high value items above. These thresholds help ensure that individual material transactions are fully tested.

MUS workflow

  1. Ensure you have a defined population value (total dollar amount of the audit area, e.g. revenue, expenses) to sample from using this article: Create a population from analysis results.
  2. Navigate to the Data table.
  3. Open the Actions drop down and select Create sample.Entries Data Table interface in MindBridge showing GL analysis with filter options and Actions menu expanded to reveal Create sample,Create population, and Add from saved filters
  4. On the Create sample page, complete the required fields in the Sample details box:
    1. In Sampling method, use the drop down to choose Monetary unit sampling (MUS).
    2. In Sample name, enter a unique name for the sample.
    3. In Audit area, enter or use the drop down to choose the financial statement area.
  5. In the Population summary box, select one of the available options related to the account being sampled.MindBridge
  6. In the Sampling interval calculator, you can input Tolerable misstatement (the maximum error that can be accepted without impacting the audit opinion), Expected misstatement (estimate of likely error in the population, used to determine required sample size) and Risk of incorrect acceptance (confidence level for relying on the sample, usually 5% = 95% confidence) percentages, which will produce a set of results that will be drawn from to fill the Sample interval box below.
  7. Click Generate statistics in the top-right of the screen to finish creating your sample.
  8. If the Sampling interval calculator is not turned on, fill in Sample interval.
  9. To generate the sample, select Add to audit plan or Export and add to audit plan at the bottom right of the screen, should you want to export the sample.

 

Note: The Sampling interval calculator is optional and can be turned on at the library level by your System Administrator as an Analysis profile option.

 

Consideration of duplicate selections in MUS

In MUS, high-value transactions can span multiple sampling intervals. Because each dollar is treated as a sampling unit, a single large transaction may contain more than one interval marker, leading it to be selected multiple times in the sample.

For example, if a $150,000 loan falls across three intervals (e.g., at $50,000, $100,000, $150,000), it could be selected more than once during sampling. This is not an error but a reflection of the probability-proportional-to-size (PPS) nature of MUS.

Any item that has been selected twice or more will be indicated with a badge and a number inside it indicated how many times it has been selected on the Sample Details page.

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Auditor considerations for duplicate selections

Transactions selected more than once are usually tested only once. Follow your firm’s specific methodology guidance when testing and documenting items that have been selected twice or when misstatements have been noted on these items.   

Auditor considerations for identified misstatements

Any guidance on the projection of misstatements is to be addressed by each firm’s methodology.

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