The term ,,audit” is related to the development of entities with the delimitation of the competencies and responsibilities of managers from that of owners, as well as the complexity of transactions, performed by entities and the development of the economic business environment. The emergence and development of auditing has been and is a normal necessity, as a result of international and European trends and practices in this field.

The motivation that led the authors to address this topic is the timeliness and importance given to audit in the audit legislation, which was found during the doctoral research process, as well as providing readers with the opportunity to know the development of auditing over the years.

Through the scientific approach, we intend to continue the existing research in the field of auditing financial statements by emphasizing the evolution of the audit both globally and in the Republic of Moldova and Romania, by expressing the opinion regarding the fundamental stages of audit development.

To achieve the objectives set out in this article, the approach is a deductive one, because the starting point is theoretically necessary to study the evolution of the audit, the elements that define it, but also an inductive approach, because we relied on the method of observation and induction. The descriptive method was used to present the changes that took place in the historical development of the audit.

The results of the research expressed a clear picture by highlighting the stages of development of the audit and its efficiency, as the businesses grew in complexity. The research objectives were achieved based on the study of existing bibliographic sources and the provisions of the legislation in the field.