MS Office Tools an Aid to SOX Compliance

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MS Office Tools - an Aid to SOX Compliance

• Presented by Sheri Evans, Manager, Fluor Hanford
  Disbursements Accounting

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Agenda

• Financial reporting
• Using Microsoft Access/Excel to improve internal
  controls and accurate reporting
• Expanding the use of MS Access within an
  organization
• Additional benefits to using Access
• Getting started in your organization
• Questions

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Financial Reporting

• SOX requires accurate financial information and
  effective internal controls
• How do you translate financial transactions into
  accurate financial reports?
• Ensure transactions are accurate, timely and
  complete
• Ensure business processes operate as designed and
  controls are working
• Ensure transactions are reported accurately
• Canned Reports vs. Ad Hoc Reports

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Canned or System-Generated Reports

• Do they meet your needs?
• Circumstances unique to your company
• Special requirements imposed by DCAA/DOE/Auditors
• Do you understand the underlying assumptions upon
  which the report is based?
• How do you know if a report is accurate?

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Ad Hoc Reporting

• Performed by anyone with access to the data and
  the tools needed to create a report
• Can modify reports to focus on specific needs
• Sources for ad hoc reporting
• Specialized reporting software
• Query capability within applications such as
  PeopleSoft
• Microsoft Office tools such as Access

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MS Office Tools and Internal Controls

• Use of MS Excel and Access for continuous
  monitoring has been hailed as a Best Practice
  by Fraud Magazine
• Well designed Access queries can validate not
  only your data, but your processes as well
• Access queries can highlight trends before they
  become a problem

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Using MS Access

• Advantages to using Microsoft Access
• Easy to learn
• Data is accessible to many users
• Access is flexible and can meet multiple users
  needs
• In general, no additional costs for using Access

• Disadvantages to using Microsoft Access
• Are users sufficiently skilled to generate
  accurate reports?
• Control of information can be difficult
• Are users sufficiently knowledgeable to identify
  report weaknesses?

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Using Access With Multiple Users

• One to two people can write the query or report
• Multiple people can run the query or report
• Push the data down to as low a level as possible
• Create Macros to allow multiple queries to be run
  at one time

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What is a Macro

• A macro is a series of queries, reports, or other
  actions carried out sequentially
• Specific macros can be written for specific
  purposes. Examples
• SOX Macro
• Accounts Payable Macro
• Payroll Macro
• By enlisting the entire department in the review
  of the data, errors are found quickly

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Beyond the Numbers

• Training employees to use Access and Excel has
  other benefits
• Allows employees to develop marketable skill
• Increases awareness of data structure
• Empowers each employee to take responsibility for
  accuracy
• Strengthens the Internal Control culture

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How to Get Started

• Determine whether you need real-time data or can
  use back-up data
• Determine how you will control access to the data
• Have system personnel provide you with the ODBC
  instructions to connect to the data
• Train one or two people to become the
  Access/Excel experts for your department
• Create the queries or reports and validate the
  data

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Wrap Up

• Accurate financial information is critical to SOX
  compliance
• Access allows you to verify that your controls
  are working and your data is accurate
• Human error is natural the best controls catch
  the errors and allow corrective action to be
  taken before the SOX auditors knock on your door.
• Questions?