ACL Software is a powerful product yet many users are concerned it is difficult to start and therefore, may never effectively maximize the product. If you fall into this category or just want to learn from one of the top industry experts in ACL Software (over 20 years experience), this course will provide the key learning blocks to get started quickly auditing three top audit areas for data analytics. Using a live/video training library approach, we help companies of all sizes use audit and assurance software to improve business intelligence, increase efficiencies, identify fraud, test controls, and bottom line savings. AuditNet and Cash Recovery Partners Webinar recording available at auditsoftwarevideos.com and AuditNet.tv (registration required) Recording free to view. Sample Data Files for All Courses are available for $49 To purchase access to all sample data files, Excel macros and ACL scripts associated with the free training visit AuditSoftwareVideos.

1. Getting Started with ACL- Top
Basic & Intermediate
Techniques
(2 CPE Credits)
April 24, 2014
AuditNet and AuditSoftware.Net
Collaboration
Brought to you by AuditSoftware.net and
AuditNet®, working together to provide
 Practical audit software training
 Resource links
 Independent analysis
 Tools to improve audit software usage
Today focused on providing practical data
analysis training
Page 1

2. About Jim Kaplan, CIA, CFE
 President and Founder of AuditNet®,
the global resource for auditors (now
available on Apple and Android
devices)
 Auditor, Web Site Guru,
 Internet for Auditors Pioneer
 Recipient of the IIA’s 2007 Bradford
Cadmus Memorial Award.
 Author of “The Auditor’s Guide to
Internet Resources” 2nd Edition
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About AuditNet® LLC
• AuditNet®, the global resource for auditors, is available on the
Web, iPad, iPhone and Android devices and features:
• Over 2,000 Reusable Templates, Audit Programs,
Questionnaires, and Control Matrices
• Training without Travel Webinars focusing on fraud, audit
software (ACL, IDEA, Excel), IT audit, and internal audit
• Audit guides, manuals, and books on audit basics and using
audit technology
• LinkedIn Networking Groups
• Monthly Newsletters with Expert Guest Columnists
• Book Reviews
• Surveys on timely topics for internal auditors
Introductions
Page 3

3. Webinar Housekeeping
Page 4
This webinar and its material are the
property of Cash Recovery Partners.
Unauthorized usage or recording of this
webinar or any of its material is strictly
forbidden. We are recording the webinar
and you will be provided with a link to that
recording as detailed below. Downloading or
otherwise duplicating the webinar recording
is expressly prohibited.
Webinar recording link will be sent via email
within 5‐7 business days.
NASBA rules require us to ask polling
questions during the Webinar and CPE
certificates will be sent via email to those
who answer ALL the polling questions
The CPE certificates and link to the recording
will be sent to the email address you
registered with in GTW. We are not
responsible for delivery problems due to
spam filters, attachment restrictions or other
controls in place for your email client.
Submit questions via the chat box on your
screen and we will answer them either
during or at the conclusion.
After the Webinar is over you will have an
opportunity to provide feedback. Please
complete the feedback questionnaire to help
us continuously improve our Webinars
If GTW stops working you may need to close
and restart. You can always dial in and listen
and follow along with the handout.
Disclaimers
5
The views expressed by the presenters do not necessarily represent the
views, positions, or opinions of AuditNet® or the presenters’ respective
organizations. These materials, and the oral presentation accompanying them,
are for educational purposes only and do not constitute accounting or legal
advice or create an accountant‐client relationship.
While AuditNet® makes every effort to ensure information is accurate and
complete, AuditNet® makes no representations, guarantees, or warranties as
to the accuracy or completeness of the information provided via this
presentation. AuditNet® specifically disclaims all liability for any claims or
damages that may result from the information contained in this presentation,
including any websites maintained by third parties and linked to the AuditNet®
website
Any mention of commercial products is for information only; it does not imply
recommendation or endorsement by AuditNet®

4. AuditNet and AuditSoftware.Net
Collaboration
Brought to you by AuditSoftware.net and
AuditNet, working together to provide
 Practical audit software training
 Resource links
 Independent analysis
 Tools to improve audit software usage
Today focused on providing practical data
analysis training
Page 6
Richard B. Lanza, CPA, CFE, CGMA
• Over two decades of ACL and Excel software usage
• Wrote the first practical ACL publication on how to use the
product in 101 ways (101 ACL Applications)
• Has written and spoken on the use of audit data analytics for
over 15 years.
• Received the Outstanding Achievement in Business Award by
the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners for developing
the publication Proactively Detecting Fraud Using Computer
Audit Reports as a research project for the IIA
• Recently was a contributing author of:
• Global Technology Audit Guide (GTAG #13) Fraud in an
Automated World – Institute of Internal Auditors.
• Data Analytics – A Practical Approach - research whitepaper
for the Information System Accountability Control
Association.
• Cost Recovery – Turning Your Accounts Payable Department
into a Profit Center – Wiley and Sons.
Please see full bio at www.richlanza.com

5. Learning Objectives
 Be able to map audit objectives in accounts payable, as an example audit area,
to the specific test scripts to perform the task (sampling of these scripts are
provided with the course).
 Learn how to request data for your next review that will meet your reporting
requirements.
 See how to define Fixed field, Variable length, Excel, Delimited, Report files, and
more in ACL.
 Learn to use Statistics, Count and Total in your reporting results.
 Be able to utilize the Classify, Stratify, Age, Summarize, and Crosstab function
 Learn to complete gap and duplicate sequence tests and, more specifically, how
to complete a same, same, different duplication test in ACL.
 Understand how to Verify and Search databases for information, as well as,
extract needed information to a new file for analysis.
 Learn to Merge and Relate multiple tables, including steps to fixing data files
prior to merging them together.
 See how to use the JOIN function including effective many to many JOINs using
key words.
 Understand how to translate sampling theories to ACL commands.
 See record sampling in action (Random, Fixed Interval) and how to perform
Monetary Unit and stratified samples in ACL.
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Quick Process to Running
Data
1. Know your audit objectives
2. Align reports to the objectives
3. Use past reports to model /refine reports
4. Set data requirements based on reports
5. Obtain, validate, and normalize data
6. Edit scripts for data needs
7. Run reports and document results
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6. Clear Data Request
Accounts Payable Data Request.doc
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Sample Data Validation – Accounts
Payable Other Questions
Validation analysis can be programmed into the data
normalization script to answer the below questions:
Statistical analysis should also be completed as part of the
validation analysis
Agreement to batch totals and sample data are critical
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7. Polling Question #1
What comes first in the data extraction
process?
 Request data
 Set objectives for the audit
 Set report objectives
 Validate data
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Data Import Exercise
Using 101 ACL Application Data
Fixed Length File (Best for ACL)
Tab / CSV (Variable)
Excel (Variable)
Report (Multiple Record Fixed)
PDF Files
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8. Data Field Definition Flowchart for
ACL
Is it a
date?
Do you add or
subtract the
field?
Define as a
date format
Define as a
numeric format
Yes
Yes
Define as a
character format
Define as a
Print format
Are there any
decimal places?
Yes
No
No No
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Data Definition Wizard
It is not always right but can be easily fixed
Defining field lengths with a reasonable length
Defining overlapping fields
Set Date options
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9. Polling Question #2
What data table type is the easiest to define
and use in ACL?
 Fixed length
 Tab / CSV / Other Delimited
 Excel
 Access
 Other
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The Basic Analyzers
Count
Total
Statistics
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10. Stratify Types
Stratify
Stratify Using a Break
Stratify to a Table
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Summarizing Data
Summarize
Use of Presort / Sort
Maximizing the
Other Fields
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11. Crosstab Data
Gain a column perspective
Similar to Pivots
Use Presort
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Polling Question #3
Which command should be preceded by a
Sort or use a Presort command?
 Statistics
 Stratify
 Cross-tab
 Age
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12. Gaps and Duplicates - Basics
Gap ranges and lists
Duplicate
 Use of the Sort/Presort
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The Data Menu
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13. Verify Command
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• Checks for data validity errors between the
data type and the actual data in the table
• Useful to quickly identify data format issues
• Will consider blank spaces in dates to be
issues
Search (Locate) and Seek
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• Search (LOCATE)
• Can get to a record number quickly
• Can search files without them being indexed
• Known as the LOCATE command in ACL’s
command language
• Seek
• Only works on indexed record sets

14. Extract (Append) and Merge
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• Extract IF
• To obtain a reduced data set
• Extract Append
• Combines files
• Resulting data file will not be sorted
• Merge
Resulting file will be sorted
Relate and Join Commands
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• Relate (DEFINE RELATION)
• Fast to produce / Slower for later commands
• Great to quickly organize various tables into a
data model
• 18 tables can be related at once
• Join
• Produces a physically sorted/joined table
• Quick for later commands to execute on joined
table

15. Primary and Secondary Joins
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• Join This to Last Year Summarized Tables
• Use Primary AND Secondary
• Calculate the new Vendor Number Field
using the Primary and Secondary table
results
Seg_Duty Flow
Segregation of Duties Test
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1. Join paid table to vendor table on vendor
number
 Obtain the vendor create user name
2. Extract if vendor create user name is the
same as the invoice create user name

16. Polling Question #4
Which file technique leads to a physical file
that is sorted?
 INDEX
 RELATE
 STRATIFY
 JOIN
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When Items Don’t Match
Unmatched Join
 Searches tables for unmatched situations
 Primary records NOT in secondary table are
exported
 Useful to test for employees not on payroll or
vendors not in payables tables
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17. Ven_Payr Flow –
Vendor to Employee Match
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Create vendor and employee fields for
matching
 Only address numbers – first 30
 First 8 characters in address
Join files on calculated fields
Many to Many
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Primary Join Does Not Stop At First Join
Secondary Join Does Not Stop At First Join
All records of one table are matched to all
records in other table….and vice versa

18. Sampling Theories
Translating into ACL Commands
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What is Sampling?
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The practice of selecting individual
items from a population to estimate
properties of that population….
given confidence levels around top
error patterns and expected errors.
This is statistical sampling vs.
judgmental (nonstatistical)

19. Steps in Sampling
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1. Set Audit Procedure Objective
2. Define the Attribute for Testing
 Yes / No
 Value over / under statement
3. Set the Population
4. Select a Sampling Method
5. Calculate Sample Size
6. Audit the Sample
7. Evaluate the Sample
Types of Sampling
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Attribute (Random, Fixed Interval, & Cell)
Monetary Unit / PPS
Stratified
 By amount
 By transactional score

20. Software Input Types
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Term Record / Attribute MUS / PPS
Population Number of Records Dollars in a Field
Confidence Confidence %
Inverse is beta risk or risk of
incorrect acceptance
Confidence %
Inverse is beta risk or risk
of incorrect acceptance
Upper Error Limit Upper Error Rate %
Tolerable Deviation Rate
Materiality / Tolerable
Misstatement
Expected Total
Errors
Error Rate % Error Value
Interval Record Interval Dollar Interval
Tolerable Errors # of Errors Maximum Tainting %
Inputs in ACL
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21. Sampling Size Example
and Expectations
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We are 90% confident that the population
error rate does not exceed the upper error
limit of 5% with an expected error rate of 2%.
We need a sample
size of 134 with 3
errors possible in the
population of 4,999
to 500,000
Reducing Sample Sizes
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Increase Upper Error Limits
Reduce Confidence
Reduce Expected Error Rate / Number
Remove items that can’t or should not be
tested (voids, canceled, no support)

22. Size and Evaluation
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Sampling Books / Links
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ACL User Guide
Sampling: A Guide for Internal Auditors
 Barbara Apostolou, Ph.D., CPA
AU Section 350
http://www.aicpa.org/Research/Standards/AuditAttest/Do
wnloadableDocuments/AU-0035theiia.org0.pdf
NYSSCPA
http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2005/505/essentials/p
36.htm

23. Polling Question #5
What is the name of the upper error limit in a
monetary unit sample?
 Population
 Materiality
 Upper Error %
 Confidence
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Record Sampling
Random and Fixed interval Sampling
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24. ACL Random
Sampling Thoughts
Cell is the combination of fixed interval and
random sampling
Best to extract data prior to sampling to
ensure population is properly set prior to
sampling
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Polling Question #6
What sampling technique combines random
and interval testing?
 Cell
 Fixed Interval
 Random
 Portioned
Page 47

25. Questions?
Any Questions?
Don’t be Shy!
Page 48
In the Queue
Using ACL Scripting in Your Next Audit
(Basic/Intermediate Techniques) – May 15
Excel Pivot Tables and Graphing for
Auditors – June 25
Building Simple Continuous Monitoring in
ACL – July 2

26. AuditSoftwareVideos.com
Videos accessible for FREE subscriptions
Repeat video and text instruction as much as
you need
Sample files, scripts, and macros in ACL™,
Excel™, etc. available for purchase
Bite-size video format (3 to 10 minutes)
Page 50
>> Professionally
produced videos by
instructors with over 20
years experience in
ACL™, Excel™ , and
more
Thank You!
Jim Kaplan
AuditNet LLC®
1-800-385-1625
Email:info@auditnet.org
http://www.auditnet.org
Richard B. Lanza, CPA, CFE, CGMA
Cash Recovery Partners, LLC
Phone: 973-729-3944
Cell: 201-650-4150
Fax: 973-270-2428
Email: rich@richlanza.com
http://www.richlanza.com
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