2013-05-01
Welcome to DataConsulting’s May newsletter and greetings from Saudia Arabia where I am writing my contributions for the Newsletter. I’m out here delivering ACL training and it’s certainly very warm, presently pushing over 40 degrees centigrade!
During the last few weeks I’ve done a bit of travelling including a trip to the ACL Connections conference over in Atlanta. I’m going to elaborate on my trip a bit further on in the newsletter so more on that later. We’re all pretty excited at DataConsulting with the arrival ACL Desktop version 10. No longer to be referred to as ACL Desktop but as ACL Analytics it promises to have increased performance levels, many additional functions as well as the ability to call mobile phones and pass on messages via the new EXECUTE command! There’s plenty more on Analytics 10 in our main feature of the newsletter.
It’s not only Desktop that’s changing its name, AuditExchange is becoming Analytics Exchange so if you referred to it as AX you’re pretty safe to keep using that acronym. As well as briefing you on my trip to Atlanta I’m going to give you an update on ACL’s latest cloud based product ‘ACL GRC’ which is due for release this month. There’s plenty more in the newsletter including a coffee corner from our new starter Rikki Wainman. Hope you enjoy the newsletter, can’t believe its nearly already June!
Best Regards,
Robin
ACL™ Analytics 10 — Big Data Analysis Made Easy
ACL Analytics 10™ (formerly ACL Desktop™) is now released and available to download! It’s packed with improvements and enhancements such as 15 new analytical commands and functions including native date, time, and datetime data types to make analysis quicker and easier.
Find out more about Analytics 10
Over 350 enthusiastic ACL users flocked to Atlanta for the annual ACL Connections conference. The venue was fantastic and the southern hospitality warm as always. The attendees were not to be disappointed as the conference packed in many sessions from the latest news on product releases, technical coaching and training through to keynote speeches from quite comical compliance lawyers!
One of the sessions I attended while in Atlanta was on ACL GRC which is ACL’s cloud based product focussed on providing a data driven GRC solution. I was impressed by the usability of the product and its seamless integration with the core ACL analytics products: ACL Analytics and ACL AX. The GRC product comprises Risk Manager (formerly ACL Risk), Project Manager (formerly ACL Workpapers) and Results Manager.
“ACL gives us the ability to quickly and accurately provide information about our corporate control environment.”
Gail Hormats, Manager, Audit Services, Baystate Health Inc.
Find out how Baystate Health are using ACL to:
Test 3 GL Journal Entries with Outlier Amounts
Last time we targeted potential outliers in a specific GL account. This time, we’ll look at broadening our reach by applying statistical analysis across the whole field of GL accounts!
To do this, we want to figure out what would be the typical sized posting to each account, and look for unusually sized postings. Now, some accounts will inherently have a large range of sized transactions posted to them, but some will have a very narrow range. We’ll take this into consideration when we identify our outliers.
Get the full details of this test and download the script
You can now see a video of April’s lunchtime webinar from DataConsulting and ACL. The webinar demonstrates ACL Direct Link for SAP ERP, and discusses how it can improve your audit coverage, and reduce lead times to obtaining SAP data.
For many organisations, T&E represents a significant spend, with a high risk of exposure to costly abuse, misuse and fraud. Generally, controls within this business process are manual or a matter of policy. The sheer volume of transactions can make it difficult for T&E program managers to validate transaction controls in a cost-effective way. For other organisations, T&E may not be a significant area of expenditure, but analysing T&E spend can provide interesting insights into the organisation’s culture of compliance.
In this Bootcamp session, we’re going to dive into Harmonizing Data with Functions in ACL, to show you how to get the most out of these.
You’ll learn about:
Hurrah it’s May!! The lovely month brings us Bank Holidays, BBQs and British Weather… Let’s hope that the sun is out for the first two. This May also brings you the new addition to DataConsulting – Rikki Wainman. For this month’s Coffee Corner I thought it would be a great idea to have a little look at the Top 3 Places to Visit in May. Will these inspire your next trip away…
ISACA Chapter 20th Anniversary Full Day event and AGM – Solihull, May 23, 2013 – Register
ACL 105: Foundations of ACL – Concepts and Practices – London, September 16-17, 2013 – Get a quote
ACL 302: Advanced ACL Concepts and Techniques: Scripts – London, September 18-19, 2013 – Get a quote
ACL 901: ACL Certified Data Analyst (ACDA) Examination – London, September 20, 2013 – Get a quote
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