auditor’s luck

A semi-ironic term that refers to the inclusion in an auditor’s *sample of an awkward or discomforting item. For example, an auditor may select a judgmental sample of twenty sales invoices taken from an *accounts receivable ledger and discover a sale that exceeds a customer’s *credit limit without appropriate internal authorization. The *auditee may claim that the auditor has stumbled by chance across a rare exception, and dismiss the finding as the auditor’s allegedly uncanny ability to hit on unrepresentative items that cause *auditee discomfiture.