Today’s business environments, from enterprises and financial institutions to government facilities and healthcare practices, are comprised of an abundance of tools to execute everyday tasks. The prevalence of spreadsheets, in particular, have had many of us wondering how we ever organized budgets, ran financial calculations and performed other workflow-related responsibilities without them.
Driven by ease of use and longevity in workplace environments, spreadsheets will always maintain a role in adhering to the analytical needs of the companies they serve. The volume of data amongst the formulas and cells within these spreadsheets, however, has fueled a “read between the lines” mentality for those professionals looking to uncover potentially damaging business-related errors and risks.
The process of combining investigative capabilities with analysis has lent itself to the concept of forensic accounting and alongside it has come solutions revolving around spreadsheet error detection and fraud prevention. For companies in search of a best-in-class solution to impose quality controls on spreadsheets, individual worksheets and workbooks, there is Incisive – a pioneer in spreadsheet analysis and management solutions. Incisive is the first in its market to deliver spreadsheet analysis and management solutions offerings as both Software as a Service (SaaS (News - Alert)) and also as installable products that offer best-in-class spreadsheet error detection, management and risk mitigation.
Back in 1995, three Oregon State University computer science professors joined forces to tackle the “Catch-22” occurring in the spreadsheet domain – that spreadsheet users are inexperienced programmers, yet they are tasked with utilizing powerful software tools to perform complex calculation and tracking duties. Incisive’s spreadsheet management solutions then came to fruition as products that would enable average users to develop and use spreadsheets with more confidence and precision.
Incisive’s products and services portfolio covers an array of comprehensive tools for swift analysis and resolution. Incisive’s Xcellerator specifically leverages powerful error detection, comprehensive investigation, interactive navigation and compliance reporting in order to limit occurrences of material errors and potential fraud, and eliminate the laborious task of tediously reviewing data. An installable application designed for every level of spreadsheet user, Xcellerator is unlike other applications on the market in that it always maintains spreadsheet application integrity and performs actions completely independent of Microsoft (News - Alert) Excel.
In order to accurately uncover risks and errors, Xcellerator applies up to 28 tests and displays results in a color heat map. The map rates results by severity and likelihood, visually differentiating “hot spots” for the most critical errors. Taking it a step further, Xcellerator’s comprehensive investigation capabilities dig deeper into both precedent and/or dependent cells in the formula to display relationships and produces a logical visual display to verify content integrity and put errors into context of the spreadsheet’s overall structure. Once errors are identified, interactive navigation features neatly list the inconsistencies so that users can seamlessly and quickly fix any problem areas.
With compliance often being the cornerstone of a business’ success, Xcellerator meets the audit and compliance reporting needs required by most companies through a Summary Report that displays pertinent information related to any metrics that could damage an organization. Comprising data from all 28 risk and error tests, Xcellerator exhibits detection results including formula complexity, volume of connections to other worksheets, data volume and spreadsheet size.
All too often, the information available to us is more than meets the eye, which is why a spreadsheet error detection solution, like Xcellerator from Incisive, can function as the mediator between a small error on paper and a civil or criminal litigation. It’s inevitable that spreadsheet errors will occur, so it’s time for companies to start investing in advanced forensic accounting technology.
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Tammy Wolf is a TMCnet web editor. She covers a wide range of topics, including IP communications and information technology. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Tammy Wolf