Abstract: The purpose of the present study is substantiation of theoretical concepts and practical recommendations for social audit development on the basis of benchmarking. The research objective: benchmarking economic essence study and specification, substantiation of theoretical concepts and methodological approaches of social audit development with application of benchmarking tools. The essence and the content of benchmarking are studied in the research work using such general scientific methods as systematic approach, comparison, economic statistical method, systematization and generalization of data. The article offers methodological approaches to application of benchmarking in social audit. The work represents algorithm of benchmarking process, offers methodological approaches to application of benchmarking, develops working documents of benchmarking enabling to determine competitive benefits and backlog from the benchmark values.