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 Audit Tool

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Trend Lines with Audit Commander




Audit Guide
Data analysis made easier…
                                    EZ-R Stats, LLC
Audit Commander




The software described in this document may be freely downloaded
and used without restriction. Additional information about the audit
software is available at the web site http://ezrstats.com.
All comments and suggestions are welcome.
Trend Lines with Audit Commander


 Document History

 Revision History
Revision Number   Revision Date   Summary of Changes     Author
1.0               9-7-2009        Initial Version        M. Blakley
Trend Lines with Audit Commander

Table of Contents
1 ABOUT THIS GUIDE..........................................................................................................................6

   1.1 W HO SHOULD USE IT........................................................................................................................6
   1.2 TYPOGRAPHICAL CONVENTIONS ...........................................................................................................7
   1.3 PURPOSE........................................................................................................................................7
   1.4 SCOPE...........................................................................................................................................8
   1.5 INTENDED AUDIENCE...........................................................................................................................8
   1.6 HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS..................................................................................................................8
   1.7 SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS..................................................................................................................8

2 GETTING STARTED..........................................................................................................................9

3 EXCEL ............................................................................................................................................10

   3.1 THE “BUILT-IN” FUNCTIONS OF EXCEL...................................................................................................10
   3.2 EXCEL TREND LINE.........................................................................................................................11
   3.3 EXCEL SCATTER PLOT......................................................................................................................11
   3.4 EXCEL PLOT WITH FORMULA AND REGRESSION STATISTICS..........................................................................12
   3.5 SETTING UP THE WORK SHEET............................................................................................................12

4 USING AUDIT COMMANDER.........................................................................................................13

   4.1 EXAMPLE......................................................................................................................................13
   4.2 STEP 1........................................................................................................................................14
   4.3 STEP 2........................................................................................................................................15
   4.4 STEP 3........................................................................................................................................16
   4.5 STEP 4........................................................................................................................................17
   4.6 STEP 5........................................................................................................................................19
   4.7 MACRO.........................................................................................................................................21
   4.8 MACRO ELEMENTS...........................................................................................................................23
   4.9 CLICK THE “RUN” BUTTON.................................................................................................................32
   4.10 DATA USED.................................................................................................................................33
   4.11 SUMMARY....................................................................................................................................33
   4.12 ADVANTAGES................................................................................................................................33
   4.13 DISADVANTAGES............................................................................................................................33




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Trend Lines with Audit Commander


1 About this guide


This document is divided into the following chapters:

        •   Chapter 1 – About

        •   Chapter 2 – Getting Started

        •   Chapter 3 – Trend Lines using Excel®

        •   Chapter 4 – Trend lines using Audit Commander

        •   Appendix – Contains the code used to produce the charts in this monograph



  1.1 Who Should Use It
Auditors, researchers, business analysts and academics who use data analytics to perform their
jobs.

   Auditors: can use the techniques here for their audit tests

   Researchers: use the software for:

        Data analysis

        Data mining

        Statistical reports and charts
Trend Lines with Audit Commander


  1.2 Typographical Conventions
This document uses the following typographical conventions:

   Command and option names appear in bold type in definitions and examples.

   Screen output and code samples appear in monospace type.



  1.3 Purpose
The purpose of this monograph is to briefly describe the uses of trend line for audit testing. The
detail procedures for the use of two software systems are described:


    1. Microsoft Excel
    2. Audit Commander


Microsoft Excel has “built-in” functions which can be used to perform trend line tests, as well
compute bounds for confidence and prediction intervals. This monograph walks through the
procedures.


Audit Commander also has built-in functions for performing trend line analysis and provides
special purpose charts and reports for the auditor to use in testing transactions and balances.


The auditor does not need special computer skills in order to be able to analyze existing data
and apply a variety of “canned” audit procedures using a menu driven system. Output from the
system can be easily imported into Excel for documentation or further analysis. In many cases
the software outputs the results in chart format as well, to help provide a visual representation of
the results of the audit tests performed.


Development of the software began in August 2005 when the author searched fruitlessly for a
relatively easy to use, economical software package for common data analysis routines needed
by auditors. During its development, suggestions and improvements were made by a variety of
audit practitioners.


More information about the system is available from the website, http://ezrstats.com.


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  1.4 Scope
The purpose of this guide is to explain how to apply trend line tests using Excel or the Audit
Commander. This guide is for version 1.86 of the Audit Commander software.




  1.5 Intended audience
The software is intended for use by both internal and external auditors, researchers, students
learning auditing and data mining, business analysts and anyone else interested in data
analytics.


  1.6 Hardware requirements
At least 512 MB of memory (more if possible). Minimum disk space is 27 MB.


  1.7 Software requirements
Audit Commander works only in Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7. Requires ActiveX Data
Objects which is part of SP1. (ActiveX Data Objects can be downloaded from the Microsoft web
site at no charge)
Trend Lines with Audit Commander


2 Getting Started


There is often a linear relationship between accounting data elements, i.e. as one amount
increases, so too does another accounting data element. Common examples include:


    •   Heating and cooling expense increases as floor space square footage increases
    •   Payroll taxes increase as the number of employees increases
    •   Hospital charges increase as the number of days of stay increases
    •   Cost of goods sold increase as the number of units sold increases


The examples above are just a very few of the many linear relationships that exist between data
elements. The auditor can test specific data amounts in the populations being tested to
determine if a linear relationship exists.


In this monograph, invoice data for approximately sixty vendors, and consisting of approximately
50,000 detail lines will be analyzed for anomalies, using trend line analysis. The invoice data
includes vendor number, invoice date, invoice amount, etc. Note that all amounts in this
monograph are strictly fictional.


Note that the data is raw data, i.e. there has been no summarization, sorting or other
organization of the data. In order to view any underlying trends in the data, it must first be
summarized and sorted. The trend line analysis routine of the Audit Comander has built in
functions to perform such summarization and sorting.




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3 Excel


Excel has trend line functionality built into the charting function (scatter plots). However, in order
to perform a trend line analysis, the data must first have been summarized. Once summarized it
can be plotted as a scatter plot, and then a trend line can be placed over the data and the trend
line regression statistics obtained.


Excel has analytical capabilities such as pivot tables. However, to effectively use this capability,
the input data must have already had a certain amount of pre-formatting performed. In the
example shown below, the data has already been summarized before the Excel functions are
applied.




  3.1 The “built-in” functions of Excel
A basic trend line test can be performed using the following “built in” functions of Excel:


            •   Slope – computes the slope of the “best fit” trend line
            •   Intercept – computes the intercept of the “best fit” trend line
            •   Correl – computes the coefficient of correlation


The slope formula can be used by typing in the following formula into a cell:


“=slope(known_y, known_x)” where “known-y” and “known-x” are range names or ranges.


The same approach can be used for computing the intercept and the correlation, except
different function names are used, i.e. “intercept” and “correl”. Note that an equal sign “=” must
be the first character in the cell formula


Using the data in the example we obtain the following results for the “best fit” regression line:
Trend Lines with Audit Commander

Slope       182.2285
Intercept   2068.807
Correlation 0.983043




 3.2 Excel Trend Line

These values would then be used to compute a trend line which would have the following
formulae:


Maintenance_cost = $2,068.807 + (182.2286 * number_of_buses)




 3.3 Excel Scatter Plot
We can plot the actual data values as a scatter plot:



                                          Number of Buses


                             300000
   Annual Maintenance Cost




                             250000

                             200000

                             150000

                             100000

                             50000

                                 0
                                      0       500            1000            1500
                                              Number of Buses




A regression line can then be added, as well as show the regression formula and the r-squared
value. This is done by right mouse clicking on the chart and requesting that a trend line be
added and checking the boxes to display the formula and r values



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 3.4 Excel Plot with formula and regression statistics


                                          Chart Title


                             300000
   Annual Maintenance Cost




                                               y = 182.23x + 2068.8
                             250000
                                                    R2 = 0.9664
                             200000

                             150000

                             100000

                             50000

                                 0
                                      0    500          1000          1500
                                           Number of Buses




The trend amount can be added as a new column of data points on the work sheet using the
function “TREND(known_Y,known_x,this_value)”.




 3.5 Setting up the work sheet

Perhaps the simplest approach, due to the complexity of some of the formula, is to define named
ranges on the work sheet for the values to be tested. This provides some flexibility in the event
that the data tested should change.


Named ranges can be specified by using the menu items “Insert|Name|Define” and then specify
the name of the range and the column values which make up the range. In the example
provided, there are two named ranges “known_x” and “known_y”. Note that any name can be
provided. The ranges, in this example are “Data!$c$2:$c$101” and “Data!$b$2:$b$101”.
Trend Lines with Audit Commander


4 Using Audit Commander



 4.1 Example

The same calculations and chart can be done using Audit Commander. Audit Commander uses
the formulas above, computed using the Cephes tool from the US Department of Energy. To do
so, the processing parameters are first entered into an Excel macro.

Note: Audit Commander does NOT use any functions or computations provided by Excel.


The macro requires a number of items of information, each of which is described later in this
document.


Examples of usage are provided in the following example. A Microsoft Excel work book contains
a sheet with 49,880 rows of information pertaining to invoices over a period of four years. This
information includes information such as vendor number, invoice amount, invoice date, due date,
etc. The information has not been pre-sorted and is contained in a work book named poext.xls
which can be downloaded from the web site at http://ezrstats.com/online/newinno/Trend.zip.


The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate various types of trend line analysis that can be
performed, the reasons for the analysis and possible audit conclusions that might be derived
from the analysis.


All of the processing is done using macros which can be readily tailored to other types of trend
line analysis which may be required. A work book with all the macros in this whitepaper can be
downloaded from http://ezrstats.com/online/newinno/Trend.zip . The appendix to this document
includes additional details as to the processing performed.




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  4.2 Step 1
The first step in the analysis is to obtain a trend line for invoice counts, by quarter, for the entire
period. We have selected the option to display the information by State fiscal year, which ends
on June 30. The chart is shown as figure 1.




                                      Figure 1 – Invoice counts by quarter


  A review of the chart indicates an upward slope in invoice counts, which could be associated
  with increased purchasing activity. The correlation, at 77%, is not strong, which indicates that
  there is a fair amount of fluctuation in invoice counts by quarter. One unusual attribute of the
  chart is that there appears to be a consistent “spike” in the volume of invoices during the fourth
  quarter. This pattern has existed for the last three fiscal years.
Trend Lines with Audit Commander


4.3 Step 2

We can make a very minor change in the processing parameters and see the invoice amount
totals by quarter. A change in the chart type from “count” to “sum” results in the chart shown
in figure 2.




                                   Figure 2 – Invoice totals by quarter



Viewing this chart, it can be seen that the same trend exists, and the correlation, at 83%, is
better. The same “spikes” exist in each of the last three final quarters, but they are less
pronounced.




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  4.4 Step 3
One possible explanation for the “spikes” is that invoices with larger amounts are being
processed. This is easy to check by changing the chart type from “sum” to “max”. Such a chart
should enable us to easily see if, in fact, larger invoice amounts are being processed. When the
chart type parameter is changed from “sum” to “max” the chart in Figure 3 is obtained.




                                   Figure 3 – Maximum invoices by quarter


The chart indicates that invoices have consistently had a maximum of approximately $60,000
and that there is no trend. The correlation is very poor. At 43%, the chart indicates little or no
correlation and a slightly upward trend.
Trend Lines with Audit Commander

  4.5 Step 4
At this point, it makes sense to “drill down” and look at specific vendors to see if the pattern
exists with all or just a few. Drill downs can be done using the “Where” parameter in order to
specify a criteria for selection. Additional drill down capability exists for the selection of date
ranges, but the analysis will start by looking only at a particular vendor at a time. The first
vendor selected is the first vendor number, 105313. The result of the chart is shown as Figure 4.




                                 Figure 4 – Transaction totals for vendor 105313



Looking at the chart there appear to be some minor “blips”, but they do not occur in the fourth
quarter. Also, the correlation, at 80% seems better than the overall population, which was 77%.
We then look at the next vendor, 105436 and the results are shown as Figure 5.




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                               Figure 5 – Transaction counts for vendor 105436


Looking at the chart there appear to be some significant spikes, all of which occur during the
fourth quarter. This is borne out by the very low correlation amount of 32%. It is fairly easy to do
additional testing through some very minor changes to parameters. For example, we can
change the parameter “count” to “sum” to obtain the invoice totals. If we wish to get even more
granular information, we can change the fiscal period from “sfy” (state fiscal year) to “mon”
(monthly chart). Figure 6 shows the results, when the parameter is changed from count to sum.
Trend Lines with Audit Commander




                                 Figure 6 – Quarterly totals for vendor 105436


Looking at the chart there appear to be some significant spikes, all of which occur during the
fourth quarter. This is borne out by the very low correlation amount of 32%. It is fairly easy to do
additional testing through some very minor changes to parameters. For example, if we wish to
get even more granular information, we can change the chart type from “sfy” (state fiscal year) to
“mon” (monthly chart).




  4.6 Step 5
We now change the period to “monthly” in order to look at the monthly amounts. Figure 7 shows
the results, when the fiscal period is changed to “monthly”.




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                                 Figure 7 – Monthly totals for vendor 105436



This chart shows the invoice totals over a two year period ending June 30, 2005. There was a
more than four fold spike in the amount of invoices processed during the final month of the fourth
quarter (June). The coefficient of correlation, at 24%, is even lower than before because most of
the activity was concentrated in a single month (June) which was significantly larger than the
transaction totals for any other month.


Notice that the process to look at data over a federal fiscal period involves only changing the
FiscalPeriod parameter to “ffy”. The chart in figure 8 shows the data based upon a federal fiscal
year.
Trend Lines with Audit Commander




                           Figure 8 – Monthly coefficient of correlation for vendor 105436




 4.7 Macro
In order to use the macros described, Audit Commander must be “registered” with Windows.
This is done as follows:
   •   Open an Excel work book
   •   Start the visual basic editor




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   •




From the menu, select “Tools|References” and check the box labeled “Electronic work papers –
Audit Commander”.
Trend Lines with Audit Commander




Once box has been checked, then a reference can be made in the macro to the class “cScatter”
which has the trend line chart logic. This can be done using the statement:

    Dim oScatter As New cScatter

At this point the remaining elements of the macro can be entered, referring to this class element
named “oScatter” (the name can be any valid name).


 4.8 Macro elements

4.8.1 Input file

The name of the file containing the information to be analyzed must be specified. This can be
either an Excel work book or a Microsoft Access database.
An example is as follows, where the a Microsoft Access data base is to be analyzed”:

    oScatter.Infile = "c:tempmdbpoext.mdb"




4.8.2 Work Sheet or Table


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If data in an excel work book is being analyzed, then the name of the work sheet which contains
the data must be provided. Note that the worksheet name is followed by a “$”. For example if
the Work Sheet is named “Utility Expenses” then the name would be entered as “Utility
Expenses$”. It also possible to use the name of an Excel named ranged, in which case the “$”
symbol is not used.
If the data is in Microsoft Access, then the name of the table containing the data to be analyzed
must be provided. An alternative is to provide the name of a stored Query.
An example is as follows, where the table is named “poext”:

    oScatter.Table= "poext"


4.8.3 Amount Column

The name of the column of data containing the numeric amounts to be analyzed is specified
using the “amtcol” parameter.
An example is as follows, where the amount column is named “invamount”:

    oScatter.AmtCol = "Invamount"


4.8.4 Date Column

The name of the column of data containing the transaction dates to be analyzed is specified
using the “datecol” parameter.
An example is as follows, where the date column is the invoice date named “invdate”:

    oScatter.DateCol = "Invdate"


4.8.5 Chart output file

The name of the file containing the graphic to be created. The file type must be of type graphic,
which is specified by the file suffix. Common examples include “.png”, “.gif”, “.jpg”, etc. For this
example, the file will be named “t-trendonly” and created as type “png” – portable net work
graphics..

    oScatter.ChartFile = "c:testscattert-trendonly.png"


4.8.6 Selection criteria
Trend Lines with Audit Commander

In some cases, not all records are to be analyzed. For example, the auditor may be interested in
only a particular region, store, vendor, etc. This is done using the “where” criteria. Some
examples are provided below:

    'oScatter.where = "invamount > 100"

    'oScatter.Where = "invdate > #6-30-2003# "

    oScatter.Where = "vendor_number = '105313' "




4.8.7 Log (extract) file

The system logs those records which are selected for analysis. The outfile parameter is used to
specify the name of the file to contain these extract records.



    oScatter.Outfile = "c:testscattert-out.txt"




4.8.8 Chart title

The chart produced can contain a title centered at the top. The “title” parameter is used to
specify the chart title.

    oScatter.Title = "Vendor 103251"




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4.8.9 Aggregate data

The most common type of trend line produced will be for totals by time period. For example, a
file of vendor payments might be analyzed by month, showing the total amounts paid per month.
However, there are a variety of other types of statistics which can be charted as well, such as,
through the specification of an “Aggregate Data” parameter:
                    Parameter Name                                  Description
          Sum                                      The total amount for the period, i.e. a sum of
                                                   each detail amount.
          Min                                      The minimum amount for the period, i.e. the
                                                   smallest value.
          Max                                      The maximum amount for the period, i.e. the
                                                   largest value.
          Average                                  The average or mean value for the period.
          Count                                    A count of the number of transactions for the
                                                   period.
          Stdev                                    The standard deviation of the amounts for the
                                                   period
          Range                                    The range in values for the amounts in a
                                                   period, i.e. the difference between the largest
                                                   and smallest amounts for the period.

In the example below, the chart plots the sum of the amounts.

    oScatter.AggregateData = "sum"




4.8.10          Start date

In some cases, a trend line is needed for just a specific time period, i.e. transactions outside that
period are not to be considered. This is done through the specification of a start and end time.
The start and end dates are entered as a date.



    oScatter.StartDate = "5/13/2004"

    oScatter.EndDate = "7/20/2007"


4.8.11          X-Axis label
Trend Lines with Audit Commander

To specify the name to be shown at the bottom of the chart, use the parameter “xaxis”. If no
value is provided, then the label is “Date”.

    oScatter.XAxis = "Invoice Date"




4.8.12          Chart Type

Three types of charts can be produced:


    1. Scatter – shows data points only
    2. TrendOnly – shows data points and trend line
    3. Trend – data points, trend line and line statistics (slope, intercept, correlation, etc.)
An example parameter to produce a trend chart (without statistics) is:

    oScatter.ChartType = "trendonly"




4.8.13          Data label

The data points on the chart can be labeled using the “data” parameter. This label will be shown
on the chart to identify the data being plotted,
An example parameter to label the plotted data points as “invoices” :

    oScatter.data = "invoices"




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4.8.14          Fiscal Period

For data summarized by quarter, a fiscal period can be specified as follows
                       Value                                      Description
               SFY                        State fiscal year (fiscal year ends June 30, 20XX)
               FFY                        Federal fiscal year (fiscal year ends September 30,
                                          20XX)
               CAL                        Calendar year (ends December 31, 20XX)
               MON                        Indicates that data will be summarized monthly, not
                                          quarterly
               CORPX                      Corporate fiscal year ends on the last day of month X,
                                          where X is a number between 1 and 12. For example
                                          “CORP1” signifies a fiscal year ending January 31,
                                          20XX. Note that all of the following are equivalent to
                                          each other (CORP6 = SFY, CORP9=FFY, CORP19=
                                          CAL).

In the example below, the fiscal period for the chart is set to the State Fiscal Year, i.e. Uune 30,
20XX.

    oScatter.FiscalPeriod = "sfy"




4.8.15          Chart Color

The background color for the chart can be set using the “chartcolor” parameter. In the example
below, the chart color is set to “honey dew”. There is a list of all recognized chart colors at http://
web.njit.edu/~walsh/rgb.html. The color name is not case sensitive and any embedded spaces
are ignored.




    oScatter.ChartColor = "Honey Dew"
Trend Lines with Audit Commander




4.8.16          Plot Position

The chart is logically divided into two parts. The chart as a whole and the data plot, which
occupies just a portion of the chart. Generally, room must be left at both the top and bottom to
show chart titles, axis labels, etc. Also, on the left, room must be provided for the numeric
amounts. The plot area is specified as a percentage of the entire chart width and chart height
using the following parameters (all of which are specified as percentages)
         Parameter           Default value       Description
         PlotUCX             .10                 Plot Upper Corner X value is the percentage of
                                                 the chart reserved on the left, in this example
                                                 10%
         PlotUCY             .15                 Plot Upper Corner Y value is the percentage of
                                                 the chart reserved at the top, in this example
                                                 15%
         PlotLCX             .75                 Plot Lower Corner X value is the percentage of
                                                 the chart width reserved for the plot, in this case
                                                 75%
         PlotLCY             .75                 Plot Lower Corner Y Value is the percentage of
                                                 the chart height reserved for the plot, in this case
                                                 75%


    oScatter.PlotUCY = 0.1

    oScatter.PlotUCX = 0.15

    oScatter.PlotLCY = 0.65

    oScatter.PlotLCX = 0.75




4.8.17          TrendLineColor

The color of the trendline can be set using the “trendlinecolor” parameter. In the example below,
the trend line color is set to “orange”. The color name is not case sensitive and any embedded
spaces are ignored.

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    oScatter.TrendLineColor = "orange"




4.8.18          Connect Line Color

The color of the line connecting the scatter point values can be set using the “connectlinecolor”
parameter. In the example below, the connect line color is set to “dark green”. The color name
is not case sensitive and any embedded spaces are ignored.



    oScatter.ConnectLineColor = "dark green"




4.8.19          Stat Box Color

The color of the text box containing the trend line statistics such as slope, intercept, etc. can be
set using the “statboxcolor” parameter. In the example below, the statistics box is colored a light
yellow..



    oScatter.StatBoxColor = "light yellow"
Trend Lines with Audit Commander


4.8.20          WallPaper

The background graphic used for the chart, the wallpaper, may be set to a specific file name
which is of graphic format. Valid formats include .png, .jpg, .gif and .jpeg. The wall paper can be
set using the “wallpaper” parameter. If the wall paper is not large enough to cover the entire
chart, then it will be replicated (“tiled”). In the example below, the wallpaper is set to the file
“bg.png”




    oScatter.WallPaper = "c:testscatterimagebg.png"




4.8.21          X-Axis Colors

The colors used along the bottom of the chart can be controlled using various parameters. Each
parameter is the name of a color. The color name is not case sensitive and embedded blanks
are ignored. There are three parameters as follows:
            Parameter                   Description
            xAxisBaseColor              The color used for the base line of the x-axis
            xAxislabelColor             The color used for the labels on the x-axis
            xAxisTitleColor             The color used for the title of the x-axis

An example is shown below where the labels are colored red

    oScatter.xAxisLabelColor = "red"




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4.8.22         Text Box

The placement of the text box which contains the trend line statistics can be controlled using two
parameters:
textboxX – indicates the horizontal position and ranges in value from 1 to the chart width
textboxY – indicate the horizontal position and ranges in value from 1 to the chart height.


An example of the textbox parameter to place the text box in lower right corner of the chart is
shown below. To place the text box towards the upper left corner, both the X and Y values would
be smaller.:



    oScatter.TextBoxX = 270

    oScatter.TextBoxY = 245




  4.9 Click the “Run” button
    1. To run the macro, click inside the macro and then either click the “run” icon on the tool
        bar, or else select the menu item “Run” or press Control-R
Trend Lines with Audit Commander


  4.10          Data Used
The data used for this example can be downloaded from
http://ezrstats.com/online/newinno/POExt.xls. The same data (in Access 2002 format) is
contained at http://ezrstats.com/online/newinno/POExt.mdb.


  4.11          Summary
Trend line analysis can be readily performed using Excel macros with the ability to “drill down” to
the data of interest and easily produce visually appealing charts of the results. These charts
help visualize the trends in the underlying data. There are various advantages and
disadvantages of using trend lines for analytical review.




  4.12          Advantages

    •   Auditor does not necessarily need special knowledge to identify exceptional conditions
    •   Possible to process fairly large data volumes easily
    •   Ability to “drill down”, when needed
    •   Can focus the audit on “critical” or “high risk” areas



  4.13          Disadvantages

    •   Requires some training in data interpretation and query techniques
    •   Not applicable in all instances
    •   Can result in “false positives”




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Appendix



The macro code shown below was used to produce the charts in this monograph. This code
could be copied and pasted into an Excel macro and run. Note that lines of code beginning with
an apostrophe are comments and are not run. The code is also included in the work book which
can be downloaded at http://ezrstats.com/online/newinno/Trend.zip.


Option Explicit
'
' run the various types of trend lines
'
Const sBasedir = "c:testscatterchart"
Sub tsA()
    Dim sInfile As String
    Dim sChartfile As String
    Dim sMsg As String


    sInfile = "c:tempmdbpoext.mdb"
    Dim oScatter As New cScatter
    oScatter.Infile = sInfile
    oScatter.ChartFile = sBasedir & "t-fig1.png"
    oScatter.AmtCol = "Invamount"
    oScatter.Datecol = "invdate"
    oScatter.Table = "poext"
    'oScatter.Where = "vendor_number = '105313'"
    'oScatter.Where = "invdate > #6-30-2003# "
    'oScatter.Where = "vendor_number = '105313' "
    oScatter.Outfile = sBasedir & "t-out10.txt"
    'oScatter.TempFile = sBaseDir & "t-temp.txt"
    oScatter.Title = "Invoice Counts by Quarter"
    'oScatter.AggregateData = "min"
    'oScatter.AggregateData = "max"
Trend Lines with Audit Commander

   'oScatter.AggregateData = "average"
   oScatter.AggregateData = "count"
   'oScatter.AggregateData = "stdev"
   'oScatter.AggregateData = "range"
   oScatter.XAxis = "Invoice Date"
   oScatter.StartDate = "5/13/2002"
   oScatter.EndDate = "12/31/2005"
   oScatter.ChartType = "trend"
   oScatter.Data = "Invoices"
   oScatter.FiscalPeriod = "SFY"
   oScatter.ChartColor = "honey dew"
   oScatter.PlotUCY = 0.1
   oScatter.PlotUCX = 0.15
   oScatter.PlotLCY = 0.65
   oScatter.PlotLCX = 0.75
   oScatter.TrendLineColor = "orange"
   oScatter.ConnectLineColor = "dark green"
   oScatter.StatBoxColor = "light yellow"
   'oScatter.WallPaper = "c:testscatterimagebg.png"
   'oScatter.WallPaper = "c:testscatterimageraleigh-capital-
soft.jpg"
   oScatter.xAxisBaseColor = "dark blue"
   oScatter.xAxisLabelColor = "dark green"
   oScatter.xAxisTitleColor = "dark brown"
   oScatter.TextBoxX = 270
   oScatter.TextBoxY = 245
   '
   ' plot1 - all records, counts, SFY
   '
   Call oScatter.RunSql
   If oScatter.Err = False Then
   Call oScatter.Plot
   sMsg = "Plot results: " & vbCrLf
   sMsg = sMsg & "Slope: " & Format(oScatter.Slope, "###,###,###.00") &
vbCrLf


Audit Commander User Guide     Copyright 2009             Page 35 of 40
Trend Lines with Audit Commander

   sMsg = sMsg & "Intercept: " & Format(oScatter.Intercept,
"###,###,###.00") & vbCrLf
   sMsg = sMsg & "Corr: " & Format(oScatter.Corr, "###,###,###.00") &
vbCrLf
   'MsgBox sMsg
   End If
   ' plot totals by quarter
   'oScatter.Where = "vendor_number = '105436'"
   oScatter.Outfile = sBasedir & "t-fig2.txt"
   oScatter.Title = "Invoice Totals by Quarter"
   oScatter.ChartFile = sBasedir & "t-fig2.png"
   oScatter.AggregateData = "sum"
   oScatter.TextBoxX = 230
   oScatter.TextBoxY = 245
   Call oScatter.RunSql
   If oScatter.Err = False Then
   Call oScatter.Plot
   End If
   ' max by quarter
   oScatter.AggregateData = "max"
   oScatter.Outfile = sBasedir & "t-fig3.txt"
   oScatter.Title = "Invoice Maximum by Quarter"
   oScatter.ChartFile = sBasedir & "t-fig3.png"
   Call oScatter.RunSql
   If oScatter.Err = False Then
   Call oScatter.Plot
   End If


   ' 105313 - count by quarter
   oScatter.AggregateData = "count"
   oScatter.Where = "vendor_number = '105313'"
   oScatter.Outfile = sBasedir & "t-fig4.txt"
   oScatter.Title = "Vendor 105313"
   oScatter.ChartFile = sBasedir & "t-fig4.png"
   oScatter.WallPaper = "c:testscatterimagebg.png"
   oScatter.TextBoxX = 290
Trend Lines with Audit Commander

  oScatter.TextBoxY = 245
  Call oScatter.RunSql
  If oScatter.Err = False Then
  Call oScatter.Plot
  End If


  ' 105436 - count by quarter
  oScatter.Where = "vendor_number = '105436'"
  oScatter.Outfile = sBasedir & "t-fig5.txt"
  oScatter.Title = "Vendor 105436"
  oScatter.ChartFile = sBasedir & "t-fig5.png"
  oScatter.AggregateData = "count"
  oScatter.TextBoxX = 300
  oScatter.TextBoxY = 265
  Call oScatter.RunSql
  If oScatter.Err = False Then
  Call oScatter.Plot
  End If
  ' 105436 - totals by quarter
  oScatter.Where = "vendor_number = '105436'"
  oScatter.Outfile = sBasedir & "t-fig6.txt"
  oScatter.Title = "Vendor 105436"
  oScatter.ChartFile = sBasedir & "t-fig6.png"
  oScatter.AggregateData = "sum"
  oScatter.WallPaper = "c:testscatterimagemarble2.jpg"
  oScatter.TextBoxX = 300
  oScatter.TextBoxY = 265
  oScatter.FiscalPeriod = "sfy"
  Call oScatter.RunSql
  If oScatter.Err = False Then
  Call oScatter.Plot
  End If


  ' 105436 - totals by month (two years)
  oScatter.Where = "vendor_number = '105436'"
  oScatter.Outfile = sBasedir & "t-fig7.txt"

Audit Commander User Guide     Copyright 2009             Page 37 of 40
Trend Lines with Audit Commander

oScatter.Title = "105436 - Two years ended 6/30/05"
oScatter.ChartFile = sBasedir & "t-fig7.png"
oScatter.AggregateData = "sum"
oScatter.FiscalPeriod = "mon"
oScatter.StartDate = "7/1/2003"
oScatter.EndDate = "6/30/2005"
oScatter.TextBoxX = 270
oScatter.TextBoxY = 85
Call oScatter.RunSql
If oScatter.Err = False Then
Call oScatter.Plot
End If


' 105436 - federal fiscal year (two years)
oScatter.Where = "vendor_number = '105436'"
oScatter.Outfile = sBasedir & "t-fig8.txt"
oScatter.Title = "105436 - Two years ended 6/30/05"
oScatter.ChartFile = sBasedir & "t-fig8.png"
oScatter.AggregateData = "sum"
oScatter.FiscalPeriod = "ffy"
oScatter.StartDate = "7/1/2003"
oScatter.EndDate = "6/30/2005"
oScatter.TextBoxX = 80
oScatter.TextBoxY = 115
Call oScatter.RunSql
If oScatter.Err = False Then
Call oScatter.Plot
End If


' 12417 - std dev by month (two years)
oScatter.Where = "vendor_number = '12417'"
oScatter.Outfile = sBasedir & "t-fig9.txt"
oScatter.Title = "12417 - Two years ended 6/30/05"
oScatter.ChartFile = sBasedir & "t-fig9.png"
oScatter.AggregateData = "stdev"
oScatter.FiscalPeriod = "mon"
Trend Lines with Audit Commander

   oScatter.StartDate = "7/1/2003"
   oScatter.EndDate = "6/30/2005"
   oScatter.TextBoxX = 80
   oScatter.TextBoxY = 245
   Call oScatter.RunSql
   If oScatter.Err = False Then
   Call oScatter.Plot
   End If




   Set oScatter = Nothing


End Sub




Audit Commander User Guide     Copyright 2009             Page 39 of 40
Trend Lines with Audit Commander



                         Comment form



     Please send any comments, suggestions or items identified as errors to:

                           Mike.Blakley@ezrstats.com

Although I am not able to respond to all such comments and suggestions, I will try
to do so as feasible. Registered users of Audit Commander will be notified as
revised versions of the manual are released.

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Trend Line Guide

  • 1. Trend Lines As an Audit Tool Audit Commander
  • 2. Trend Lines with Audit Commander Audit Guide Data analysis made easier… EZ-R Stats, LLC
  • 3. Audit Commander The software described in this document may be freely downloaded and used without restriction. Additional information about the audit software is available at the web site http://ezrstats.com. All comments and suggestions are welcome.
  • 4. Trend Lines with Audit Commander Document History Revision History Revision Number Revision Date Summary of Changes Author 1.0 9-7-2009 Initial Version M. Blakley
  • 5. Trend Lines with Audit Commander Table of Contents 1 ABOUT THIS GUIDE..........................................................................................................................6 1.1 W HO SHOULD USE IT........................................................................................................................6 1.2 TYPOGRAPHICAL CONVENTIONS ...........................................................................................................7 1.3 PURPOSE........................................................................................................................................7 1.4 SCOPE...........................................................................................................................................8 1.5 INTENDED AUDIENCE...........................................................................................................................8 1.6 HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS..................................................................................................................8 1.7 SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS..................................................................................................................8 2 GETTING STARTED..........................................................................................................................9 3 EXCEL ............................................................................................................................................10 3.1 THE “BUILT-IN” FUNCTIONS OF EXCEL...................................................................................................10 3.2 EXCEL TREND LINE.........................................................................................................................11 3.3 EXCEL SCATTER PLOT......................................................................................................................11 3.4 EXCEL PLOT WITH FORMULA AND REGRESSION STATISTICS..........................................................................12 3.5 SETTING UP THE WORK SHEET............................................................................................................12 4 USING AUDIT COMMANDER.........................................................................................................13 4.1 EXAMPLE......................................................................................................................................13 4.2 STEP 1........................................................................................................................................14 4.3 STEP 2........................................................................................................................................15 4.4 STEP 3........................................................................................................................................16 4.5 STEP 4........................................................................................................................................17 4.6 STEP 5........................................................................................................................................19 4.7 MACRO.........................................................................................................................................21 4.8 MACRO ELEMENTS...........................................................................................................................23 4.9 CLICK THE “RUN” BUTTON.................................................................................................................32 4.10 DATA USED.................................................................................................................................33 4.11 SUMMARY....................................................................................................................................33 4.12 ADVANTAGES................................................................................................................................33 4.13 DISADVANTAGES............................................................................................................................33 Audit Commander User Guide Copyright 2009 Page 5 of 40
  • 6. Trend Lines with Audit Commander 1 About this guide This document is divided into the following chapters: • Chapter 1 – About • Chapter 2 – Getting Started • Chapter 3 – Trend Lines using Excel® • Chapter 4 – Trend lines using Audit Commander • Appendix – Contains the code used to produce the charts in this monograph 1.1 Who Should Use It Auditors, researchers, business analysts and academics who use data analytics to perform their jobs. Auditors: can use the techniques here for their audit tests Researchers: use the software for: Data analysis Data mining Statistical reports and charts
  • 7. Trend Lines with Audit Commander 1.2 Typographical Conventions This document uses the following typographical conventions: Command and option names appear in bold type in definitions and examples. Screen output and code samples appear in monospace type. 1.3 Purpose The purpose of this monograph is to briefly describe the uses of trend line for audit testing. The detail procedures for the use of two software systems are described: 1. Microsoft Excel 2. Audit Commander Microsoft Excel has “built-in” functions which can be used to perform trend line tests, as well compute bounds for confidence and prediction intervals. This monograph walks through the procedures. Audit Commander also has built-in functions for performing trend line analysis and provides special purpose charts and reports for the auditor to use in testing transactions and balances. The auditor does not need special computer skills in order to be able to analyze existing data and apply a variety of “canned” audit procedures using a menu driven system. Output from the system can be easily imported into Excel for documentation or further analysis. In many cases the software outputs the results in chart format as well, to help provide a visual representation of the results of the audit tests performed. Development of the software began in August 2005 when the author searched fruitlessly for a relatively easy to use, economical software package for common data analysis routines needed by auditors. During its development, suggestions and improvements were made by a variety of audit practitioners. More information about the system is available from the website, http://ezrstats.com. Audit Commander User Guide Copyright 2009 Page 7 of 40
  • 8. Trend Lines with Audit Commander 1.4 Scope The purpose of this guide is to explain how to apply trend line tests using Excel or the Audit Commander. This guide is for version 1.86 of the Audit Commander software. 1.5 Intended audience The software is intended for use by both internal and external auditors, researchers, students learning auditing and data mining, business analysts and anyone else interested in data analytics. 1.6 Hardware requirements At least 512 MB of memory (more if possible). Minimum disk space is 27 MB. 1.7 Software requirements Audit Commander works only in Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7. Requires ActiveX Data Objects which is part of SP1. (ActiveX Data Objects can be downloaded from the Microsoft web site at no charge)
  • 9. Trend Lines with Audit Commander 2 Getting Started There is often a linear relationship between accounting data elements, i.e. as one amount increases, so too does another accounting data element. Common examples include: • Heating and cooling expense increases as floor space square footage increases • Payroll taxes increase as the number of employees increases • Hospital charges increase as the number of days of stay increases • Cost of goods sold increase as the number of units sold increases The examples above are just a very few of the many linear relationships that exist between data elements. The auditor can test specific data amounts in the populations being tested to determine if a linear relationship exists. In this monograph, invoice data for approximately sixty vendors, and consisting of approximately 50,000 detail lines will be analyzed for anomalies, using trend line analysis. The invoice data includes vendor number, invoice date, invoice amount, etc. Note that all amounts in this monograph are strictly fictional. Note that the data is raw data, i.e. there has been no summarization, sorting or other organization of the data. In order to view any underlying trends in the data, it must first be summarized and sorted. The trend line analysis routine of the Audit Comander has built in functions to perform such summarization and sorting. Audit Commander User Guide Copyright 2009 Page 9 of 40
  • 10. Trend Lines with Audit Commander 3 Excel Excel has trend line functionality built into the charting function (scatter plots). However, in order to perform a trend line analysis, the data must first have been summarized. Once summarized it can be plotted as a scatter plot, and then a trend line can be placed over the data and the trend line regression statistics obtained. Excel has analytical capabilities such as pivot tables. However, to effectively use this capability, the input data must have already had a certain amount of pre-formatting performed. In the example shown below, the data has already been summarized before the Excel functions are applied. 3.1 The “built-in” functions of Excel A basic trend line test can be performed using the following “built in” functions of Excel: • Slope – computes the slope of the “best fit” trend line • Intercept – computes the intercept of the “best fit” trend line • Correl – computes the coefficient of correlation The slope formula can be used by typing in the following formula into a cell: “=slope(known_y, known_x)” where “known-y” and “known-x” are range names or ranges. The same approach can be used for computing the intercept and the correlation, except different function names are used, i.e. “intercept” and “correl”. Note that an equal sign “=” must be the first character in the cell formula Using the data in the example we obtain the following results for the “best fit” regression line:
  • 11. Trend Lines with Audit Commander Slope 182.2285 Intercept 2068.807 Correlation 0.983043 3.2 Excel Trend Line These values would then be used to compute a trend line which would have the following formulae: Maintenance_cost = $2,068.807 + (182.2286 * number_of_buses) 3.3 Excel Scatter Plot We can plot the actual data values as a scatter plot: Number of Buses 300000 Annual Maintenance Cost 250000 200000 150000 100000 50000 0 0 500 1000 1500 Number of Buses A regression line can then be added, as well as show the regression formula and the r-squared value. This is done by right mouse clicking on the chart and requesting that a trend line be added and checking the boxes to display the formula and r values Audit Commander User Guide Copyright 2009 Page 11 of 40
  • 12. Trend Lines with Audit Commander 3.4 Excel Plot with formula and regression statistics Chart Title 300000 Annual Maintenance Cost y = 182.23x + 2068.8 250000 R2 = 0.9664 200000 150000 100000 50000 0 0 500 1000 1500 Number of Buses The trend amount can be added as a new column of data points on the work sheet using the function “TREND(known_Y,known_x,this_value)”. 3.5 Setting up the work sheet Perhaps the simplest approach, due to the complexity of some of the formula, is to define named ranges on the work sheet for the values to be tested. This provides some flexibility in the event that the data tested should change. Named ranges can be specified by using the menu items “Insert|Name|Define” and then specify the name of the range and the column values which make up the range. In the example provided, there are two named ranges “known_x” and “known_y”. Note that any name can be provided. The ranges, in this example are “Data!$c$2:$c$101” and “Data!$b$2:$b$101”.
  • 13. Trend Lines with Audit Commander 4 Using Audit Commander 4.1 Example The same calculations and chart can be done using Audit Commander. Audit Commander uses the formulas above, computed using the Cephes tool from the US Department of Energy. To do so, the processing parameters are first entered into an Excel macro. Note: Audit Commander does NOT use any functions or computations provided by Excel. The macro requires a number of items of information, each of which is described later in this document. Examples of usage are provided in the following example. A Microsoft Excel work book contains a sheet with 49,880 rows of information pertaining to invoices over a period of four years. This information includes information such as vendor number, invoice amount, invoice date, due date, etc. The information has not been pre-sorted and is contained in a work book named poext.xls which can be downloaded from the web site at http://ezrstats.com/online/newinno/Trend.zip. The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate various types of trend line analysis that can be performed, the reasons for the analysis and possible audit conclusions that might be derived from the analysis. All of the processing is done using macros which can be readily tailored to other types of trend line analysis which may be required. A work book with all the macros in this whitepaper can be downloaded from http://ezrstats.com/online/newinno/Trend.zip . The appendix to this document includes additional details as to the processing performed. Audit Commander User Guide Copyright 2009 Page 13 of 40
  • 14. Trend Lines with Audit Commander 4.2 Step 1 The first step in the analysis is to obtain a trend line for invoice counts, by quarter, for the entire period. We have selected the option to display the information by State fiscal year, which ends on June 30. The chart is shown as figure 1. Figure 1 – Invoice counts by quarter A review of the chart indicates an upward slope in invoice counts, which could be associated with increased purchasing activity. The correlation, at 77%, is not strong, which indicates that there is a fair amount of fluctuation in invoice counts by quarter. One unusual attribute of the chart is that there appears to be a consistent “spike” in the volume of invoices during the fourth quarter. This pattern has existed for the last three fiscal years.
  • 15. Trend Lines with Audit Commander 4.3 Step 2 We can make a very minor change in the processing parameters and see the invoice amount totals by quarter. A change in the chart type from “count” to “sum” results in the chart shown in figure 2. Figure 2 – Invoice totals by quarter Viewing this chart, it can be seen that the same trend exists, and the correlation, at 83%, is better. The same “spikes” exist in each of the last three final quarters, but they are less pronounced. Audit Commander User Guide Copyright 2009 Page 15 of 40
  • 16. Trend Lines with Audit Commander 4.4 Step 3 One possible explanation for the “spikes” is that invoices with larger amounts are being processed. This is easy to check by changing the chart type from “sum” to “max”. Such a chart should enable us to easily see if, in fact, larger invoice amounts are being processed. When the chart type parameter is changed from “sum” to “max” the chart in Figure 3 is obtained. Figure 3 – Maximum invoices by quarter The chart indicates that invoices have consistently had a maximum of approximately $60,000 and that there is no trend. The correlation is very poor. At 43%, the chart indicates little or no correlation and a slightly upward trend.
  • 17. Trend Lines with Audit Commander 4.5 Step 4 At this point, it makes sense to “drill down” and look at specific vendors to see if the pattern exists with all or just a few. Drill downs can be done using the “Where” parameter in order to specify a criteria for selection. Additional drill down capability exists for the selection of date ranges, but the analysis will start by looking only at a particular vendor at a time. The first vendor selected is the first vendor number, 105313. The result of the chart is shown as Figure 4. Figure 4 – Transaction totals for vendor 105313 Looking at the chart there appear to be some minor “blips”, but they do not occur in the fourth quarter. Also, the correlation, at 80% seems better than the overall population, which was 77%. We then look at the next vendor, 105436 and the results are shown as Figure 5. Audit Commander User Guide Copyright 2009 Page 17 of 40
  • 18. Trend Lines with Audit Commander Figure 5 – Transaction counts for vendor 105436 Looking at the chart there appear to be some significant spikes, all of which occur during the fourth quarter. This is borne out by the very low correlation amount of 32%. It is fairly easy to do additional testing through some very minor changes to parameters. For example, we can change the parameter “count” to “sum” to obtain the invoice totals. If we wish to get even more granular information, we can change the fiscal period from “sfy” (state fiscal year) to “mon” (monthly chart). Figure 6 shows the results, when the parameter is changed from count to sum.
  • 19. Trend Lines with Audit Commander Figure 6 – Quarterly totals for vendor 105436 Looking at the chart there appear to be some significant spikes, all of which occur during the fourth quarter. This is borne out by the very low correlation amount of 32%. It is fairly easy to do additional testing through some very minor changes to parameters. For example, if we wish to get even more granular information, we can change the chart type from “sfy” (state fiscal year) to “mon” (monthly chart). 4.6 Step 5 We now change the period to “monthly” in order to look at the monthly amounts. Figure 7 shows the results, when the fiscal period is changed to “monthly”. Audit Commander User Guide Copyright 2009 Page 19 of 40
  • 20. Trend Lines with Audit Commander Figure 7 – Monthly totals for vendor 105436 This chart shows the invoice totals over a two year period ending June 30, 2005. There was a more than four fold spike in the amount of invoices processed during the final month of the fourth quarter (June). The coefficient of correlation, at 24%, is even lower than before because most of the activity was concentrated in a single month (June) which was significantly larger than the transaction totals for any other month. Notice that the process to look at data over a federal fiscal period involves only changing the FiscalPeriod parameter to “ffy”. The chart in figure 8 shows the data based upon a federal fiscal year.
  • 21. Trend Lines with Audit Commander Figure 8 – Monthly coefficient of correlation for vendor 105436 4.7 Macro In order to use the macros described, Audit Commander must be “registered” with Windows. This is done as follows: • Open an Excel work book • Start the visual basic editor Audit Commander User Guide Copyright 2009 Page 21 of 40
  • 22. Trend Lines with Audit Commander • From the menu, select “Tools|References” and check the box labeled “Electronic work papers – Audit Commander”.
  • 23. Trend Lines with Audit Commander Once box has been checked, then a reference can be made in the macro to the class “cScatter” which has the trend line chart logic. This can be done using the statement: Dim oScatter As New cScatter At this point the remaining elements of the macro can be entered, referring to this class element named “oScatter” (the name can be any valid name). 4.8 Macro elements 4.8.1 Input file The name of the file containing the information to be analyzed must be specified. This can be either an Excel work book or a Microsoft Access database. An example is as follows, where the a Microsoft Access data base is to be analyzed”: oScatter.Infile = "c:tempmdbpoext.mdb" 4.8.2 Work Sheet or Table Audit Commander User Guide Copyright 2009 Page 23 of 40
  • 24. Trend Lines with Audit Commander If data in an excel work book is being analyzed, then the name of the work sheet which contains the data must be provided. Note that the worksheet name is followed by a “$”. For example if the Work Sheet is named “Utility Expenses” then the name would be entered as “Utility Expenses$”. It also possible to use the name of an Excel named ranged, in which case the “$” symbol is not used. If the data is in Microsoft Access, then the name of the table containing the data to be analyzed must be provided. An alternative is to provide the name of a stored Query. An example is as follows, where the table is named “poext”: oScatter.Table= "poext" 4.8.3 Amount Column The name of the column of data containing the numeric amounts to be analyzed is specified using the “amtcol” parameter. An example is as follows, where the amount column is named “invamount”: oScatter.AmtCol = "Invamount" 4.8.4 Date Column The name of the column of data containing the transaction dates to be analyzed is specified using the “datecol” parameter. An example is as follows, where the date column is the invoice date named “invdate”: oScatter.DateCol = "Invdate" 4.8.5 Chart output file The name of the file containing the graphic to be created. The file type must be of type graphic, which is specified by the file suffix. Common examples include “.png”, “.gif”, “.jpg”, etc. For this example, the file will be named “t-trendonly” and created as type “png” – portable net work graphics.. oScatter.ChartFile = "c:testscattert-trendonly.png" 4.8.6 Selection criteria
  • 25. Trend Lines with Audit Commander In some cases, not all records are to be analyzed. For example, the auditor may be interested in only a particular region, store, vendor, etc. This is done using the “where” criteria. Some examples are provided below: 'oScatter.where = "invamount > 100" 'oScatter.Where = "invdate > #6-30-2003# " oScatter.Where = "vendor_number = '105313' " 4.8.7 Log (extract) file The system logs those records which are selected for analysis. The outfile parameter is used to specify the name of the file to contain these extract records. oScatter.Outfile = "c:testscattert-out.txt" 4.8.8 Chart title The chart produced can contain a title centered at the top. The “title” parameter is used to specify the chart title. oScatter.Title = "Vendor 103251" Audit Commander User Guide Copyright 2009 Page 25 of 40
  • 26. Trend Lines with Audit Commander 4.8.9 Aggregate data The most common type of trend line produced will be for totals by time period. For example, a file of vendor payments might be analyzed by month, showing the total amounts paid per month. However, there are a variety of other types of statistics which can be charted as well, such as, through the specification of an “Aggregate Data” parameter: Parameter Name Description Sum The total amount for the period, i.e. a sum of each detail amount. Min The minimum amount for the period, i.e. the smallest value. Max The maximum amount for the period, i.e. the largest value. Average The average or mean value for the period. Count A count of the number of transactions for the period. Stdev The standard deviation of the amounts for the period Range The range in values for the amounts in a period, i.e. the difference between the largest and smallest amounts for the period. In the example below, the chart plots the sum of the amounts. oScatter.AggregateData = "sum" 4.8.10 Start date In some cases, a trend line is needed for just a specific time period, i.e. transactions outside that period are not to be considered. This is done through the specification of a start and end time. The start and end dates are entered as a date. oScatter.StartDate = "5/13/2004" oScatter.EndDate = "7/20/2007" 4.8.11 X-Axis label
  • 27. Trend Lines with Audit Commander To specify the name to be shown at the bottom of the chart, use the parameter “xaxis”. If no value is provided, then the label is “Date”. oScatter.XAxis = "Invoice Date" 4.8.12 Chart Type Three types of charts can be produced: 1. Scatter – shows data points only 2. TrendOnly – shows data points and trend line 3. Trend – data points, trend line and line statistics (slope, intercept, correlation, etc.) An example parameter to produce a trend chart (without statistics) is: oScatter.ChartType = "trendonly" 4.8.13 Data label The data points on the chart can be labeled using the “data” parameter. This label will be shown on the chart to identify the data being plotted, An example parameter to label the plotted data points as “invoices” : oScatter.data = "invoices" Audit Commander User Guide Copyright 2009 Page 27 of 40
  • 28. Trend Lines with Audit Commander 4.8.14 Fiscal Period For data summarized by quarter, a fiscal period can be specified as follows Value Description SFY State fiscal year (fiscal year ends June 30, 20XX) FFY Federal fiscal year (fiscal year ends September 30, 20XX) CAL Calendar year (ends December 31, 20XX) MON Indicates that data will be summarized monthly, not quarterly CORPX Corporate fiscal year ends on the last day of month X, where X is a number between 1 and 12. For example “CORP1” signifies a fiscal year ending January 31, 20XX. Note that all of the following are equivalent to each other (CORP6 = SFY, CORP9=FFY, CORP19= CAL). In the example below, the fiscal period for the chart is set to the State Fiscal Year, i.e. Uune 30, 20XX. oScatter.FiscalPeriod = "sfy" 4.8.15 Chart Color The background color for the chart can be set using the “chartcolor” parameter. In the example below, the chart color is set to “honey dew”. There is a list of all recognized chart colors at http:// web.njit.edu/~walsh/rgb.html. The color name is not case sensitive and any embedded spaces are ignored. oScatter.ChartColor = "Honey Dew"
  • 29. Trend Lines with Audit Commander 4.8.16 Plot Position The chart is logically divided into two parts. The chart as a whole and the data plot, which occupies just a portion of the chart. Generally, room must be left at both the top and bottom to show chart titles, axis labels, etc. Also, on the left, room must be provided for the numeric amounts. The plot area is specified as a percentage of the entire chart width and chart height using the following parameters (all of which are specified as percentages) Parameter Default value Description PlotUCX .10 Plot Upper Corner X value is the percentage of the chart reserved on the left, in this example 10% PlotUCY .15 Plot Upper Corner Y value is the percentage of the chart reserved at the top, in this example 15% PlotLCX .75 Plot Lower Corner X value is the percentage of the chart width reserved for the plot, in this case 75% PlotLCY .75 Plot Lower Corner Y Value is the percentage of the chart height reserved for the plot, in this case 75% oScatter.PlotUCY = 0.1 oScatter.PlotUCX = 0.15 oScatter.PlotLCY = 0.65 oScatter.PlotLCX = 0.75 4.8.17 TrendLineColor The color of the trendline can be set using the “trendlinecolor” parameter. In the example below, the trend line color is set to “orange”. The color name is not case sensitive and any embedded spaces are ignored. Audit Commander User Guide Copyright 2009 Page 29 of 40
  • 30. Trend Lines with Audit Commander oScatter.TrendLineColor = "orange" 4.8.18 Connect Line Color The color of the line connecting the scatter point values can be set using the “connectlinecolor” parameter. In the example below, the connect line color is set to “dark green”. The color name is not case sensitive and any embedded spaces are ignored. oScatter.ConnectLineColor = "dark green" 4.8.19 Stat Box Color The color of the text box containing the trend line statistics such as slope, intercept, etc. can be set using the “statboxcolor” parameter. In the example below, the statistics box is colored a light yellow.. oScatter.StatBoxColor = "light yellow"
  • 31. Trend Lines with Audit Commander 4.8.20 WallPaper The background graphic used for the chart, the wallpaper, may be set to a specific file name which is of graphic format. Valid formats include .png, .jpg, .gif and .jpeg. The wall paper can be set using the “wallpaper” parameter. If the wall paper is not large enough to cover the entire chart, then it will be replicated (“tiled”). In the example below, the wallpaper is set to the file “bg.png” oScatter.WallPaper = "c:testscatterimagebg.png" 4.8.21 X-Axis Colors The colors used along the bottom of the chart can be controlled using various parameters. Each parameter is the name of a color. The color name is not case sensitive and embedded blanks are ignored. There are three parameters as follows: Parameter Description xAxisBaseColor The color used for the base line of the x-axis xAxislabelColor The color used for the labels on the x-axis xAxisTitleColor The color used for the title of the x-axis An example is shown below where the labels are colored red oScatter.xAxisLabelColor = "red" Audit Commander User Guide Copyright 2009 Page 31 of 40
  • 32. Trend Lines with Audit Commander 4.8.22 Text Box The placement of the text box which contains the trend line statistics can be controlled using two parameters: textboxX – indicates the horizontal position and ranges in value from 1 to the chart width textboxY – indicate the horizontal position and ranges in value from 1 to the chart height. An example of the textbox parameter to place the text box in lower right corner of the chart is shown below. To place the text box towards the upper left corner, both the X and Y values would be smaller.: oScatter.TextBoxX = 270 oScatter.TextBoxY = 245 4.9 Click the “Run” button 1. To run the macro, click inside the macro and then either click the “run” icon on the tool bar, or else select the menu item “Run” or press Control-R
  • 33. Trend Lines with Audit Commander 4.10 Data Used The data used for this example can be downloaded from http://ezrstats.com/online/newinno/POExt.xls. The same data (in Access 2002 format) is contained at http://ezrstats.com/online/newinno/POExt.mdb. 4.11 Summary Trend line analysis can be readily performed using Excel macros with the ability to “drill down” to the data of interest and easily produce visually appealing charts of the results. These charts help visualize the trends in the underlying data. There are various advantages and disadvantages of using trend lines for analytical review. 4.12 Advantages • Auditor does not necessarily need special knowledge to identify exceptional conditions • Possible to process fairly large data volumes easily • Ability to “drill down”, when needed • Can focus the audit on “critical” or “high risk” areas 4.13 Disadvantages • Requires some training in data interpretation and query techniques • Not applicable in all instances • Can result in “false positives” Audit Commander User Guide Copyright 2009 Page 33 of 40
  • 34. Trend Lines with Audit Commander Appendix The macro code shown below was used to produce the charts in this monograph. This code could be copied and pasted into an Excel macro and run. Note that lines of code beginning with an apostrophe are comments and are not run. The code is also included in the work book which can be downloaded at http://ezrstats.com/online/newinno/Trend.zip. Option Explicit ' ' run the various types of trend lines ' Const sBasedir = "c:testscatterchart" Sub tsA() Dim sInfile As String Dim sChartfile As String Dim sMsg As String sInfile = "c:tempmdbpoext.mdb" Dim oScatter As New cScatter oScatter.Infile = sInfile oScatter.ChartFile = sBasedir & "t-fig1.png" oScatter.AmtCol = "Invamount" oScatter.Datecol = "invdate" oScatter.Table = "poext" 'oScatter.Where = "vendor_number = '105313'" 'oScatter.Where = "invdate > #6-30-2003# " 'oScatter.Where = "vendor_number = '105313' " oScatter.Outfile = sBasedir & "t-out10.txt" 'oScatter.TempFile = sBaseDir & "t-temp.txt" oScatter.Title = "Invoice Counts by Quarter" 'oScatter.AggregateData = "min" 'oScatter.AggregateData = "max"
  • 35. Trend Lines with Audit Commander 'oScatter.AggregateData = "average" oScatter.AggregateData = "count" 'oScatter.AggregateData = "stdev" 'oScatter.AggregateData = "range" oScatter.XAxis = "Invoice Date" oScatter.StartDate = "5/13/2002" oScatter.EndDate = "12/31/2005" oScatter.ChartType = "trend" oScatter.Data = "Invoices" oScatter.FiscalPeriod = "SFY" oScatter.ChartColor = "honey dew" oScatter.PlotUCY = 0.1 oScatter.PlotUCX = 0.15 oScatter.PlotLCY = 0.65 oScatter.PlotLCX = 0.75 oScatter.TrendLineColor = "orange" oScatter.ConnectLineColor = "dark green" oScatter.StatBoxColor = "light yellow" 'oScatter.WallPaper = "c:testscatterimagebg.png" 'oScatter.WallPaper = "c:testscatterimageraleigh-capital- soft.jpg" oScatter.xAxisBaseColor = "dark blue" oScatter.xAxisLabelColor = "dark green" oScatter.xAxisTitleColor = "dark brown" oScatter.TextBoxX = 270 oScatter.TextBoxY = 245 ' ' plot1 - all records, counts, SFY ' Call oScatter.RunSql If oScatter.Err = False Then Call oScatter.Plot sMsg = "Plot results: " & vbCrLf sMsg = sMsg & "Slope: " & Format(oScatter.Slope, "###,###,###.00") & vbCrLf Audit Commander User Guide Copyright 2009 Page 35 of 40
  • 36. Trend Lines with Audit Commander sMsg = sMsg & "Intercept: " & Format(oScatter.Intercept, "###,###,###.00") & vbCrLf sMsg = sMsg & "Corr: " & Format(oScatter.Corr, "###,###,###.00") & vbCrLf 'MsgBox sMsg End If ' plot totals by quarter 'oScatter.Where = "vendor_number = '105436'" oScatter.Outfile = sBasedir & "t-fig2.txt" oScatter.Title = "Invoice Totals by Quarter" oScatter.ChartFile = sBasedir & "t-fig2.png" oScatter.AggregateData = "sum" oScatter.TextBoxX = 230 oScatter.TextBoxY = 245 Call oScatter.RunSql If oScatter.Err = False Then Call oScatter.Plot End If ' max by quarter oScatter.AggregateData = "max" oScatter.Outfile = sBasedir & "t-fig3.txt" oScatter.Title = "Invoice Maximum by Quarter" oScatter.ChartFile = sBasedir & "t-fig3.png" Call oScatter.RunSql If oScatter.Err = False Then Call oScatter.Plot End If ' 105313 - count by quarter oScatter.AggregateData = "count" oScatter.Where = "vendor_number = '105313'" oScatter.Outfile = sBasedir & "t-fig4.txt" oScatter.Title = "Vendor 105313" oScatter.ChartFile = sBasedir & "t-fig4.png" oScatter.WallPaper = "c:testscatterimagebg.png" oScatter.TextBoxX = 290
  • 37. Trend Lines with Audit Commander oScatter.TextBoxY = 245 Call oScatter.RunSql If oScatter.Err = False Then Call oScatter.Plot End If ' 105436 - count by quarter oScatter.Where = "vendor_number = '105436'" oScatter.Outfile = sBasedir & "t-fig5.txt" oScatter.Title = "Vendor 105436" oScatter.ChartFile = sBasedir & "t-fig5.png" oScatter.AggregateData = "count" oScatter.TextBoxX = 300 oScatter.TextBoxY = 265 Call oScatter.RunSql If oScatter.Err = False Then Call oScatter.Plot End If ' 105436 - totals by quarter oScatter.Where = "vendor_number = '105436'" oScatter.Outfile = sBasedir & "t-fig6.txt" oScatter.Title = "Vendor 105436" oScatter.ChartFile = sBasedir & "t-fig6.png" oScatter.AggregateData = "sum" oScatter.WallPaper = "c:testscatterimagemarble2.jpg" oScatter.TextBoxX = 300 oScatter.TextBoxY = 265 oScatter.FiscalPeriod = "sfy" Call oScatter.RunSql If oScatter.Err = False Then Call oScatter.Plot End If ' 105436 - totals by month (two years) oScatter.Where = "vendor_number = '105436'" oScatter.Outfile = sBasedir & "t-fig7.txt" Audit Commander User Guide Copyright 2009 Page 37 of 40
  • 38. Trend Lines with Audit Commander oScatter.Title = "105436 - Two years ended 6/30/05" oScatter.ChartFile = sBasedir & "t-fig7.png" oScatter.AggregateData = "sum" oScatter.FiscalPeriod = "mon" oScatter.StartDate = "7/1/2003" oScatter.EndDate = "6/30/2005" oScatter.TextBoxX = 270 oScatter.TextBoxY = 85 Call oScatter.RunSql If oScatter.Err = False Then Call oScatter.Plot End If ' 105436 - federal fiscal year (two years) oScatter.Where = "vendor_number = '105436'" oScatter.Outfile = sBasedir & "t-fig8.txt" oScatter.Title = "105436 - Two years ended 6/30/05" oScatter.ChartFile = sBasedir & "t-fig8.png" oScatter.AggregateData = "sum" oScatter.FiscalPeriod = "ffy" oScatter.StartDate = "7/1/2003" oScatter.EndDate = "6/30/2005" oScatter.TextBoxX = 80 oScatter.TextBoxY = 115 Call oScatter.RunSql If oScatter.Err = False Then Call oScatter.Plot End If ' 12417 - std dev by month (two years) oScatter.Where = "vendor_number = '12417'" oScatter.Outfile = sBasedir & "t-fig9.txt" oScatter.Title = "12417 - Two years ended 6/30/05" oScatter.ChartFile = sBasedir & "t-fig9.png" oScatter.AggregateData = "stdev" oScatter.FiscalPeriod = "mon"
  • 39. Trend Lines with Audit Commander oScatter.StartDate = "7/1/2003" oScatter.EndDate = "6/30/2005" oScatter.TextBoxX = 80 oScatter.TextBoxY = 245 Call oScatter.RunSql If oScatter.Err = False Then Call oScatter.Plot End If Set oScatter = Nothing End Sub Audit Commander User Guide Copyright 2009 Page 39 of 40
  • 40. Trend Lines with Audit Commander Comment form Please send any comments, suggestions or items identified as errors to: Mike.Blakley@ezrstats.com Although I am not able to respond to all such comments and suggestions, I will try to do so as feasible. Registered users of Audit Commander will be notified as revised versions of the manual are released.