ACL launches new Microsoft® Excel add-in designed for auditors
ACL Acerno™ makes Excel 40% more efficient for audit work

ACL Services Ltd. has introduced ACL Acerno™, the newest addition to the company’s suite of audit solutions. Acerno is an add-in for Microsoft^® Excel that is specially designed for working with data analyzed in ACL^™ Desktop or AuditExchange^™.

Typically, auditors take the results of their ACL analytic work and use Excel to perform basic analysis and review exceptions – because an exception in a data set is often just the first step. When follow-up is needed by the actual business unit from where the exception came, one of the easiest ways to review findings is in Excel – a product that comes standard on almost every desktop computer in business today.

Purpose-built for audit, ACL Acerno makes Excel more efficient for investigating audit findings and seamlessly integrating these results into working papers.

As easy as Excel is to use, it is also easy to inadvertently change or compromise the data in it. Between 30-90% of all spreadsheets suffer from at least one significant user error.1 ACL Acerno not only bridges the gap between ACL technology and Excel, it also addresses some of the key risks of relying on spreadsheets alone in financially material applications.

“We know that many customers use Excel to perform investigative tasks and present their findings. ACL wanted to provide auditors a purpose-built, easy-to-use tool to mitigate the risks of using Excel,” says John Verver, Vice President of Services and Product Strategy.

What does Acerno help auditors do better?

• Safeguard: Protect your data so you don’t lose valuable analytic results

• Document: Track the investigation’s progress and document evidence for potential findings

• Review: Generate top line statistics, categorize data and make calculations

• Record: With one click, move findings into working paper packages and efficiently share your findings

 On the job: How ACL Acerno supports better investigations

The ACL Acerno^™ tab in Microsoft^® Excel’s Ribbon is organized into four main groups that coincide with the typical steps an auditor goes through when investigating data. The first three groups support investigating results produced by ACL, and the fourth involves integrating the findings into working papers.

1. Identify the data

Auditors working in Microsoft Excel need to be assured of the integrity of their data, which includes safeguarding it from accidental changes.

The Define Data feature of ACL Acerno does exactly that and more. In a few clicks, you can automatically format and protect your data from changes, and generate valuable statistics. This not only gives you a head start on your investigation but it also increases your confidence in the integrity of the data and improves your productivity by reducing repetitive formatting tasks.

2. Understand the data

Summarize, Age, Stratify

Once an auditor is ready to start investigating the results of their ACL data, Acerno features easy commands for Summarize, Age and Stratify. This provides an easy way to categorize and look for trends in the data in an Acerno table, or a Microsoft Excel PivotTable® or PivotChart®.

For example, if you want to view results in a PivotChart – one way to do so is to use the Summarize feature to produce a PivotChart from your selected data. The summary stats are easy to see in the Acerno panel.

Computed Column

As part of their investigation, an auditor can also add a new column with a custom computation to their protected range by using Acerno’s Computed Column feature. Although protected from changes, this column’s custom computation formula can be edited and investigated further. This improves productivity and reduces time and effort needed to add computed and custom formulas.

3. Research the data

Sample

When faced with a really large dataset and/or a shortage of time or resources, sampling may be the first thing an auditor considers. While selecting a random sample of data in Excel is cumbersome, complicated and time consuming, Acerno’s Sample feature allows auditors to quickly draw a random sample of their entire dataset in just a couple of clicks. This feature also allows the auditor to re-perform the sample in the future using the same random seed.

Row Status

As part of their investigation, auditors need to keep track of the status of each transaction or row. The Row Status feature in ACL Acerno allows you to apply statuses to rows, one at a time or all at once, and greatly reduces the effort of tracking the progress of your investigation. This feature comes with default status options or it is customizable depending on your needs.

Notes

During investigation, auditors also need to gather and document evidence. The Notes feature in ACL Acerno allows auditors to attach notes to entire rows one at a time or all at once, hence reducing the effort of documenting evidence of potential findings. In Excel, the comment feature is tied to specific cells – if you need to add a comment for 50 rows, you have to type it 50 times.

4. Integrate results

Work Paper Insert

Once their investigation is complete, auditors need the ability to copy and integrate their findings into a working paper application. The Work Paper Insert feature in Acerno allows an auditor to do this in one click by creating an insert of the findings with the relevant table history appended to it.

For more information, including a demo and a video interview answering FAQs, visit www.acl.com/acerno