We intend to analyze the conceptual structures, basic normative instructions and theoretical postulates on which auditing is based. Thus, we present the bases of auditing established by Mautz and Sharaf, Flint and Lee. First, we study these conceptual structures and emphasize the most critical points, most of them related to the audit expectation gap. Next, we analyze common and distinctive aspects. The comparison between the basic postulates gives rise to new boundaries, related to auditing theory and particularly to the aspect of social responsibility. As a matter of fact, after the emergence of the company's social responsibility and the social value of financial information, the social function of auditing appears with a view to monitoring and giving credit to the financial information reported by the company's administrations, thus assuming a major role in today's social context.
Normative Instructions; Social Responsibility; Auditing; Philosophy
