Auditors have a complicated job to do. They are required to collect, analyze, evaluate information about a company and then express their opinion on whether the financial statements comply with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). To make their jobs a little easier, there have been people and organizations that have set standards to provide them with guidelines to direct them in what they should do. These standards are established to provide auditors with a set of rules, regulations and procedures to follow and enable them to carry out their work efficiently and professionally. There are a few different organizations, each with their own individual mission and task, however each has established standards for auditing. These standards are available to auditors to give them an overview of the work they should be doing. Each of these sets of standards varies from one another, and there are positives and negatives to each. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) is a membership organization of more than 300,000 Certified Public Accountants. Members of the AICPA have established ethical standards for auditing. They also evaluate the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) test and provides special credentials for accountants. The established standards are of great importance to the audit profession and are followed by thousands of people. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) is an organization established by Congress to oversee audits of public companies. Their goal is to protect investors and the public by encouraging audit reports for companies that will provide quality information and accurate results. They ensure that audits are performed and that the results are within requirements... half of the document ......ner. The AICPA, PCAOB, and GAO are all organizations that have compiled a list of standards for auditors. Each organization has its own goals and reasons for writing its own list of standards, and each has a slightly different style and method for composing its standards. The standards sets are all well written, informative and credible. There is a lot of overlapping material between the standards, but there is also significant information included in some and not others. In evaluating the differences between the AICPA, PCAOB, and GAO standards regarding audit documentation and audit evidence, I have found that the GAO has a more valuable, informative, and comprehensive set of audit standards. Each of these organizations has done an excellent job of enabling auditors to follow a competent set of standards and therefore perform a professional and qualified audit.