30 May 2012
When planning the audit, auditors consider what would make the financial statements materially misstated. The auditors' assessment of materiality, related to specific account balances and classes of transactions, helps them decide such questions as what items to examine and whether to use sampling and analytical procedures. This enables auditors to select audit procedures that, in combination, can be expected to reduce audit risk to an acceptably low level. It also enables auditors to adopt an efficient and effective audit approach.
There is an inverse relationship between materiality and the level of audit risk, that is the higher the materiality level, the lower the audit risk and vice versa. Auditors take into account the inverse relationship between materiality and audit risk when determining the nature, timing and extent of audit procedures.
refer icai modules for detailed understanding of the concept