Fraud Audit Techniques Using Excel - v16 (Course Id 2802)

• Who is this course for?
  This course is designed for anyone needing Continuing Professional Education (CPE), particularly CPAs or accountants interested in using Excel for fraud audit tasks.
• What is this course about or what problem does this course solve?
  This course focuses on using Microsoft Excel tools like AutoFilter, conditional formatting, lookup functions, arrays, and Benford’s Law to efficiently analyze large datasets and detect potential fraud.
• How can the knowledge from this course be used?
  The knowledge can be applied to perform fraud audits by identifying anomalies, comparing data sets, detecting duplicates, spotting gaps in sequences, and highlighting suspicious transactions.
• Why is this course important to a CPA or Accountant?
  This course is important because it enhances a CPA’s or accountant’s ability to detect irregularities and potential fraud in financial data using practical, data-driven Excel techniques.
• When is this course relevant or timely?
  This course is relevant whenever professionals are required to review large volumes of financial data, conduct audits, or investigate potential fraud using accessible tools like Excel.
• How is a course like this consumed or used?
  This course is completed as a self-study text-based program with an accompanying Excel file for hands-on exercises, followed by a final exam that must be passed 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 such as Auto filter, Conditional formatting and  Arrays. WE are also incorporating some lookup functions as well as functions such as  COUNTIF,WEEKDAY(), IFERROR(), IFNA(), 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.

NASBA QAS - Text - NASBA Registry - 2802

Course Learning Objectives

• Recognize and identify when Auto Filter and conditional formatting may be utilized to highlight exceptions
• Recognize how to use lookup functions and IFERROR/IFNA functions when comparing lists
• Recognize different array formulas 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 apply it

Chapter 1 - Fraud Audit Techniques Using Excel

Course Learning Objectives

Fraud Audit Techniques Using Excel

Getting Started With AutoFilter

Searching for P.O. Boxes

Text Filters

Checking EIN Numbers

Missing EIN or Telephone Number

Reviewing Items Below a Review Threshold

Conditional Formatting

Review Questions

Dates

WEEKDAY()

Conditional Formatting

VLOOKUP()

IFERROR()/IFNA()

XLOOKUP()

Rounding

Arrays

Comparing Lists Using Arrays

MATCH() and LEFT()

Range Names

Identifying Duplicates in a List

Remove Duplicates

Review Questions

Gaps in Sequence Using If Statements

Benford’s Law

Review Questions

Link for Spreadsheet

Glossary