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More About This Title Fraud Analysis Techniques using ACL + WS
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—Porter Broyles, President and founder of the Texas ACL User Group, Keynote Speaker at ACL's 2009 San Francisco Conference, Official ACL Super User
"For individuals interested in learning about fraud analysis techniques or the art of ACL scripting, this book is a must-read. For those individuals interested in learning both, this book is a treasure."
—Jim Hess, Principal, Hess Group, LLC
Your very own ACL Fraud Toolkit—at your fingertips
Fraud Analysis Techniques Using ACL offers auditors and investigators:
- Authoritative guidance from David Coderre, renowned expert on the use of computer-assisted audit tools and techniques in fraud detection
- A website containing an educational version of ACL from the world leader in fraud detection software
- An accompanying website containing a thorough Fraud Toolkit with two sets of customizable scripts to serve your specific audit needs
- Case studies and sample data files that you can use to try out the tests
- Step-by-step instructions on how to run the tests
- A self-study course on ACL script development with exercises, data files, and suggested answers
The toolkit also contains 12 'utility scripts' and a self-study course on ACL scripting which includes exercises, data files, and proposed answers.
Filled with screen shots, flow charts, example data files, and descriptive commentary highlighting and explaining each step, as well as case studies offering real-world examples of how the scripts can be used to search for fraud, Fraud Analysis Techniques Using ACL is the only toolkit you will need to harness the power of ACL to spot fraud.
English
English
Prefaceix
About This Toolkit ix
Who Should Use This Toolkit? ix
What Is Included in This Toolkit? ix
System Requirements ix
How to Use This Toolkit ix
Install the Fraud Toolkit Application x
How This Book Is Structured x
Script Code Conventions xi
Flowcharts xi
Modifications/Updates xii
Contacting the Author xii
Acknowledgments xii
Introduction 2
Using Data Analysis to Detect Fraud 2
Fraud: Risks and Costs 2
Why Do People Commit Fraud? 2
Why Use Data Analysis Software? 3
Identifying Fraud 4
Proactive Fraud Investigation 5
Benefits ofData Analysis with CAATTs 6
About Scripts 6
What Is a Script? 6
Benefits of Scripts 6
Preparing Scripts for Use 7
Copying Scripts 7
Copying Table Layouts 7
Working with Scripts 8
Launching the Fraud Toolkit Application 8
Running the Scripts 9
Filtering 10
Customizing Scripts 11
Customizing: An Example 12
Creating YourOwn Fraud Application 13
Further Reading 14
Chapter 1: Start and Menu 16
Launching the Fraud Toolkit Tests 16
Starting the Fraud Toolkit Application 16
Placement of Start and Fraud Menu Scripts 17
How the ScriptsWork 17
Start 17
Fraud Menu 18
Log Files 18
Exiting a Script 20
Working without the Fraud Menu 20
Chapter 2: Completeness andIntegrity 22
Checking for Blanks and Data Type Mismatches 22
Running Completeness and Integrity 23
How the ScriptsWork 24
Carriage Returns 24
Understanding the Verify Command 24
Understanding the Group Command 25
Deleting Temporary Variables, Fields, and Files 26
Variables for Complete 27
Review and Analysis 27
Case Study: General Ledger AccountsUnaccounted For 29
Chapter 3: Cross-Tabulation 30
Organizing Your Data to Find Trends 30
Running Cross-Tabulation 30
Benefits of Cross-Tabulation 32
How the Scripts Work 33
Challenges of Cross-Tabulation 34
X-Axis Labels 34
Workspaces 35
Deleting Temporary Variables, Fields, and Files 36
Variables for Cross Tabs 36
Review and Analysis 36
Case Study: Not Enough Clients 37
Case Study: Calling Cards 37
Chapter 4: Duplicates 38
Finding Higher-Risk Items 38
Payroll 38
Accounts Payable 38
Running Duplicates 38
How the Scripts Work 40
The Role of Subscripts 40
Case Study: Duplicate Payments 42
Dup Dialog Script 43
If Statements 43
Dup Multiple Keys1 44
Macro Substitution 44
Key Change 45
Define Field 46
LENGTH() andHEX() 46
Deleting Temporary Variables, Fields, and Files 46
Review and Analysis 47
Checking for Duplicates 47
Payroll Example 48
Accounts Payable Example 50
Chapter 5: Gaps 52
Identifying Transactions Missing from a Sequence 52
Running Gaps 52
How the Scripts Work 53
Deleting Temporary Variables, Fields, and Files 54
Review and Analysis 54
Case Study: Free Calls 55
Chapter 6:Data Profile 56
Establishing Normal Values and Investigating Exceptions 56
Running Data Profile 56
How the Scripts Work 57
Flow of Data in Data Profile 59
Data Profile Test Parameters 59
Deleting Temporary Variables, Fields, and Files 61
Review and Analysis 62
Statistics 62
Stratify 63
Round Amounts, Exact Multiples, and Frequent Values 65
Round Amounts: Multiples of 5, 10, 25, or 100 65
Exact Multiples of 66
Frequently Used Values 66
Profiling with Character Fields 67
Items with the Most Exact Multiples 67
Least/Most Used Items 68
Case Study: Receipt of Inventory 69
Case Study: Exact Multiples 71
Filtering and Drilling Down 71
Filtering before Profiling 71
Filtering after Profiling 72
Chapter 7: Ratio Analysis 74
Pinpointing Suspect Transactions and Trends 74
Running Ratio Analysis 74
How the Scripts Work 78
Max/Max2 and Max/Min Ratios 78
Two Fields: Num field1 / Num field2 Ratio 80
Deleting Temporary Variables, Fields, and Files 80
Review and Analysis 81
Case Study: Dormant but Not Forgotten 84
Case Study: Doctored Bills 85
Chapter 8: Benford’s Law 88
Identifying Anomalous Data 88
Understanding Benford’s Law 88
Identifying Irregularities 88
Running Benford Analysis 89
Running Benford Custom Analysis 90
Creating the Custom Distribution 90
Division by Zero 91
Testing against the Custom Distribution 92
How the Benford Scripts Work 93
Standard Benford Analysis 93
Benford Custom Analysis 95
Deleting Temporary Variables, Fields, and Files 96
Review and Analysis 96
Case Study: Signing Authority 98
Further Reading 98
Chapter 9: Developing ACL Scripts 100
Introduction 100
Data Analysis: Generic Approach 100
ACL Commands 102
DISPLAY Command 102
SET Command 102
DELETE Command 103
OPEN Command 103
Commands for Defining Relationships 103
Basic ACL Commands 103
IF Command 104
Variables 104
User-Defined Variables 106
Using System and User-Defined Variables 106
DEFINE Field/Expression 106
Workspaces 107
Sharing Workspaces 109
Scripts 109
What Is a Script? 109
Creating Scripts 109
Commenting Scripts 113
COMMENT 113
END 113
Editing Scripts 113
Running Scripts 114
RUN ACL Script from DOS 115
Saving a Script to a BAT file 115
Interactive Scripts 117
ACCEPT Command 117
Dialog Boxes 118
Adding Selections to Drop-Down and Project
ItemLists 119
Macro Substitution 120
Editing Dialog Boxes 120
Subscripts 122
Special Uses for Subscripts 122
Repeating a Script 123
Error Trapping 123
Consolidation Exercise 124
Advanced ACL Scripting Techniques 125
GROUP Command 125
Simple GROUP 126
Conditional GROUP 126
Nested GROUP 128
LOOP and OFFSET() 132
Applications Menu 135
Building an Application Menu 137
Creating Submenus 137
Chapter 10: Utility Scripts 138
Auto Execute 138
Extract Values 139
Ending Balance Verification 140
Running Total 142
Maximum and Minimum Values 143
Appendix: ACL Installation Process145
Glossary149
Index155
