END USER COMPUTING
Managing Excel Workbooks for SOX Compliance
What we’ve found
Our experience of working with clients to resolve the ‘End User
Computing’ (EUC) problem has confirmed the stark reality
facing many organisations...
The challenge of managing Excel
Many organisations rely heavily on Excel
workbooks to perform financial, decision support
and pricing processes that are fundamental to
the operations and management of the business.
Business-critical spreadsheets are typically
developed and managed by users who have
exceptional mathematics and Excel skills. These
spreadsheets provide the business with a low cost,
highly flexible approach to solving business-critical
problems that would otherwise require
cumbersome and expensive applications managed
by the IT function. However the very flexibility
and immediacy that makes Excel applications
attractive also creates real risk.
In the world of Excel there are some legitimate
business concerns that need to be addressed:
 Are your critical spreadsheets adequately
understood by users and managers?
 Are there any single points of failure or key
person dependencies?
 Are the spreadsheets based on good practice
and standards?
 Can you be sure that these spreadsheets still
work in the way they were designed to work?
 Is the IP within these spreadsheets adequately
protected? * What We Know About Spreadsheet Errors by Raymond R. Panko University of
 Are appropriate change control and security Hawaii. Published in the Journal of End User Computing's Special issue on Scaling Up
End User Development Volume 10, No 2. Spring 1998, pp. 15-21Revised May 2008
procedures in place?
 Is there a policy guideline and are regular audits
performed to ensure compliance?
Gaining control using our approach
Rule Financial has developed an approach to the EUC
Companies that fail to address these risks are challenge, which industrialises the process for identification,
open to punitive fines from regulators, risk assessment, remediation, migration and management of
reputational damage due to incorrect business spreadsheet applications within a controls framework. Our 3-
decisions or miss-representation of financial step approach, successfully tried and tested by demanding
reporting. clients, involves analysis, planning and remediation.
© Rule Financial Ltd 2009

Our 3 step approach
1. Excel Review & Analysis 3. Manage using Controls Framework Solution
Our Excel review toolkit allows for the rapid Our controls framework addresses all the regulatory and
evaluation of large numbers of workbooks to business requirements for managing Excel applications in a
identify critical issues around both risk and secure centralised repository. The framework is developed in
migration to Office 2007. The toolkit gives us a Microsoft SharePoint or can be deployed as a ‘client side’ Excel
unique capability for the accurate preparation, application.
prioritisation and planning of any Excel
remediation. When integrated within the controls The benefits of our approach
framework, it also provides a mechanism for trend  Reduce the burden of SOX compliance and associated
analysis of workbooks to ensure continuous remediation. This could save many £100Ks annually in
improvement in quality. outside consultants and internal resources
 Reap the benefits of your licensing agreements with
2. Excel Planning & Remediation Microsoft and migrate your complex workbooks to Office
2007 or 2009
Our Excel experts are able to review and  Manage real-time risk and proactive compliance for both
remediate or expected issues in individual users and managers
workbooks or groups of workbooks to recognised  Speed up period end processes for financial reporting and
best practice standards and regulatory compliance price verification
(SOX, FSA directives). Additionally we can  Our flexible monthly service allows you to capture these
remediate workbooks for migration to Office 2007 benefits without the need to raise a Capital Expenditure
or deliver workbook results via a web browser request. And allows you to buy the most appropriate
using SharePoint (Excel Services). service for your business.
Rule Financial Getting started: An initial assessment
For over 10 years Rule Financial’s specialists have been working We will analyse a subset of your Excel workbooks to identify
alongside their counterparts at the world’s top financial both risks and opportunities for improvement. Our r eport will
institutions, helping to lower costs, improve productivity and allow you to deter mine the:
extract the maximum value from existing IT investments.
 Overall quality of your workbooks
Our expertise in the management of change, project delivery  Remediation tasks necessary for risk management
and complex technology has helped us build long-term  Risks associated with migration to Office 2007
relationships on a solid track record of success. Our prowess in  Roadmap for delivery of a controls framework
system design, testing and rapid application development has
earned us a powerful reputation. Contact us
For more information on how we can help you, please contact
As the UK’s leading independent specialist consultancy to the
marketing@rulefinancial.com
financial services sector we’ve attracted some of the best in the
City to our doors. or telephone +44 (0)20 7826 4444
© Rule Financial Ltd 2009