acl bootcamp exercise 6: skills review

Copyright © 2011 ACL Services Ltd.

EXERCISE 6:

Bootcamp Skills

Review

Copyright © 2011 ACL Services Ltd. 2 ACL Services Ltd.

YOUR COACH

Shane Grimm

20 years of experience with ACL

ACL Certified Data Analyst

ACL Certified Trainer

Experienced coach of 1000’s of ACL users

@shanegrimm

#aclbootcamp


Getting Back in Shape

ACL Bootcamp is a monthly webinar series designed to

help ACL users of all levels learn new skills

#aclbootcamp

*Poll Question # 1


GUEST SPEAKER

Tanja Klagge BA, ACDA, CRISC

Senior Implementation Consultant with ACL

From 2001 to 2006, Technical Support Representative

Over ten years with ACL products

Four years of data analysis experience with multi-national

corporations in Europe and North America

Fluent in both English and German


Introduction

*Poll Question # 2

ACL Bootcamp started September 29 and we have had 5

different “Exercises” since the launch

Keep practicing! Today’s workout is a review of all 5

Exercises


Previous Bootcamp Exercises

http://www.acl.com/bootcamp


Script n’ Stretch High Impact

Analysis

Data Access

Drills

Computed Fields

Cross Training

Power Lifting

Report Files


*Poll Question # 3


Script n’ Stretch High Impact

Analysis

Data Access

Drills

Computed Fields

Cross Training

Power Lifting

Report Files


Data Access

Drills

Power Lifting

Report Files

Computed Fields

Cross Training

High Impact

Analysis

Script n’ Stretch


Powerhouse of Data Retrieval

ACL Desktop provides access to data, such as:

– Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access

– dBase

– Flat files

– Report files (print-image)

– Delimited files

– XML

– Various sources through ODBC

ACL AuditExchange extends this power to connect with:

– DB2

– SQL Server

– Oracle


Hauling in Excel Files

Three steps:

1. Open file in Excel and review

2. Define file in ACL Desktop

3. Review and validate


Why Bother With Report Files?

Direct access is best, not report files!

Sometimes difficult to get direct access

Report files are everywhere!

Setup a text printer if your system does allows you to print

but not save a report


Before You Import- Know Your File

1. Review file outside of ACL (Notepad, WordPad, etc.)

2. Identify detail

3. Identify headers/footers


Simple Report with Heading


Let’s see a Demo


What are Computed Fields?

An expression

A calculation

A virtual field

Original data unchanged


Creating Computed Fields

1. Edit Table Layout -> Add New Expression

2. Provide a name

• Best practice: Prefix name with a C_

3. Use the Expression Builder

• Build and verify your Expressions


Clean Your Data

ALLTRIM(First) + " " + ALLTRIM(Last)

Other useful functions

» ALLTRIM()

» INCLUDE()

» EXCLUDE()

» UPPER()

» REPLACE()

» ZONED()

» SUBSTRING()

» SPLIT()


Combining tables in ACL: available tools

Join tables

Relate tables

Extract Append

Merge


Relate tables

Join tables

Join tables

Join tables

Extract Append

or Merge

What tool to use to combine tables

Combine monthly tables together into one master

table for the year

Gather additional information from a separate

table to add more meaning to the current table

Look at two tables and find what records don’t

exist in both

Look at two tables and filter the records that do

exist in both

Look at two tables and compare to find the

differences?


What is needed to join or relate two tables?

Both tables defined in the same ACL Project

A common piece of information in both tables that you can use to

combine (a key field)

Note: ACL Desktop 9.2 removes the requirement for key fields to have the same

width or data type


Summary

Planning – sketch out steps

beforehand

Used Join to find differences

between two files (Payroll and

Work Departments)

Used Join’s Unmatched option

ACL’s Join command can

combine files in a number of

different ways.

Used Relate to bring in useful

information to complement my

data (Employee name)


Let’s see a Demo


Script and Stretch

Scripting in ACL does not have to be complex

Start small and build your skills

Identify areas to capture some “quick wins”

Think of scripts anytime you need to re-perform the same task


More than one way to “Script n’ Stretch”

Multiple ways to create simple scripts

Depending on your skill set

– Copy and Paste from the ACL Command Log

– Create script from Table History

– Utilize the script recorder

– Manually write script into editor


Let’s see a Demo


Q & A


Additional Resources

ACL Support Center

Online Learning for Premium Supported Customers

ACL Technical Support

ACL Training


Additional Resources

ACL Consulting

Team of subject matter experts and technical consultants

with access to thousands of analytic tests

Implementation methodology supports both onsite and

remote solution development

Expertise across a variety of industries

Next ACL Bootcamp:

Thursday, April 26 11am Pacific Time

Exercise 7: Raising the Bar with

Variable Substitution

Register at acl.com/bootcamp

acl bootcamp exercise 6: skills review

Technology