Fraud Audit Techniques Using Excel - v11 (Course Id 1869)

• Who is this course for?
  This course is for CPAs, accountants, and other professionals needing Continuing Professional Education (CPE), especially those seeking to satisfy the California Board of Accountancy (CBA) fraud requirement.

• What is this course about or what problem does this course solve?
  This course teaches how to use specific Excel tools and functions, along with Benford’s Law, to efficiently identify and investigate potential fraud in financial data.

• How can the knowledge from this course be used?
  Learners can apply Excel techniques such as Auto Filter, conditional formatting, array formulas, and functions like IFERROR and MATCH to audit data for anomalies and signs of fraud.

• Why is this course important to a CPA, Accountant, or IRS Enrolled Agent?
  It equips professionals with practical, spreadsheet-based fraud detection methods that can enhance the efficiency and accuracy of their audit work.

• When is this course relevant or timely?
  This course is relevant anytime there is a need for fraud detection in financial datasets, and it remains current as of its latest revision in March 2024.

• How is a course like this consumed or used?
  The course is delivered through a QAS self-study format, using a downloadable text and accompanying Excel file for hands-on exercises, with a final exam to earn CPE credit.

Microsoft Excel provides some easy to use tools that can greatly enhance and expedite the fraud audit process. With all detective work, you want to be able to sift through a large volume of data and utilize a tool that is adequately flexible for you to perform immediate investigations of anything questionable. Excel provides a number of different tools however we are going to focus on a couple of extremely useful ones: Auto filter, Arrays as well as a couple of extremely useful functions that include TEXT(),WEEKDAY(), IFERROR(), IFNA(), MATCH() and MOD().
Another tool used in fraud audits that does not necessarily require Excel, but can be used in conjunction with Excel, is Benford’s Law.  Benford’s law is based on an observation that in certain large data sets, certain digits appear more frequently than others.  By comparing the distribution of first digits in some accounting data, this tool can assist you in determining where more investigation is necessary by helping to pinpoint where data may have been contrived through fraud.
There is an accompanying Excel file so that you can walk through all the exercises. Answer sheets immediately follow.

2 Hours. 1 Hr Audit/1 Hr Computer Science 

Please Note: These Fraud CPE credits satisfy the California Board of Accountancy (CBA) fraud requirement.

NASBA QAS - Text - NASBA Registry - 1869

Course Learning Objectives

• Recognize and identify when Auto Filter and conditional formatting may be utilized to highlight exceptions
• Recognize how to use VLOOKUP and IFERROR/IFNA functions when comparing lists
• Recognize different array formulas, lookup functions as well as a few other functions that are useful for comparing lists and displaying data
• Identify and eliminate duplicate items
• Identify gaps in a sequence using Excel
• Recognize Benford’s Law and how it to use it

Chapter 1 - Fraud Audit Techniques Using Excel

Getting Started With AutoFilter

Searching for P.O. Boxes

Text Filters

Checking EIN Numbers

Missing EIN or Telephone Number

Review Questions

Reviewing Items Below a Review Threshold

Dates

Rounding

Using Arrays

Comparing Lists Using Arrays

TEXT FUNCTIONS

Range Names

Identifying Duplicates in a List

Remove Duplicates

Duplicates and Conditional Formatting

Review Questions

Gaps in Sequence Using If Statements

Benford’s Law

Review Questions

Link for Spreadsheet

Glossary