Using ACL in a Financial Statement Audit

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Using ACL in a Financial Statement Audit

• FAE/NYSSCPA
• March 4, 2003
• Tom McDermott
• Cohn Consulting Group
• A division of J. H. Cohn, LLP
• [phone]
• tmcdermott_at_jhcohn.com

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Topics of discussion

• What is ACL
• Identifying financial data files
• Extracting financial data files
• Using ACL to analyze financial data
• Statistical sampling procedures
• Statistical testing for substantive audit
  procedures

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Identifying accounting data files

• Determine what application the client is using.
• Is it a packaged software application
• Is it a custom application
• Identify which files you will need to use.
• What information is contained in each file
• You will want to test the data directly used to
  generate financial information
• Determine the format of the files.
• What type of files are used by the financial
  application
• What is the record / filed layout of each file
• What are the key fields in each files
• How are the files to be related to each other

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Extracting accounting data files

• Extracting the files to a PC yourself
• If possible copy or download the necessary files
  yourself.
• Place the files in a specific folder on your PC
  for this data
• Obtaining copies of the files from IT
• Ask for the files on read-only media, such as
  CD-ROM
• Request record counts and control totals for each
  file
• Place the files in a specific folder on your PC
  for this data
• Importing various data types into ACL.
• Excel
• AS/400
• DB4
• ASCII

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Using ACL to analyze financial data

• Isolating (extracting) desired data
• Relating files
• Joining files
• Using ACL functions
• Using ACL commands

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Statistical sampling procedures

• Random sampling function
• Monetary unit sampling (MUS) function
• What is the difference between the two.

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Statistical testing for substantive audit
procedures

• Identifying your population
• Selecting your sample
• Verifying the sample is representative of the
  population.
• Using statistical analysis to identify unusual
  transactions

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Questions?
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Thank You
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About the presenter

• Thomas McDermott is a consultant for The Cohn
  Consulting Group, a division of J. H. Cohn LLP,
  Roseland, NJ. His experience includes financial
  auditing, e-commerce (WebtrustTM), IT auditing
  and audit technical support, network security, as
  well as general and application controls. He
  holds a Bachelors degree in Accounting from the
  Rutgers University- School of Business in New
  Brunswick, NJ (1996).
• Thomas McDermott
• J.H. Cohn, LLP
• 75 Eisenhower Parkway
• Roseland, NJ 07068
• [phone]
• tmcdermott_at_jhcohn.com.