mis 5208 –l5 acl: working with expressions · acl analytics envionment § project § the project...

Copyright©2015EdwardS.Ferrara

MIS 5208 – L5 ACL: Work ing with Express ions

EdFerrara,MSIA,[email protected]

AuditCommandLanguageFundamentals


Work ing with Express ions§ Expressionsarestatementsusedprimarilytocreatefiltersandcomputedfields.§ Theyperform:

§ Calculations,§ Specifylogicalconditions,§ Createvaluesthatdonotexistinthedatafile.

§ Expressionscanbe:§ Namedandsavedaspartofaprojectorelsecreatedjustforimmediateuse.

§ Theoutputofanexpressioncanbereturnedinanyofthefourdatatypes:logical,character,numeric,anddatetime.


ACL for Windows

• ProfileandHelp - Vieworupdateyouruserprofile,signoutof ACL Launchpad,orviewonlineHelp.

• Organizationselector - Switchbetweenaccounts(organizations)youhaveaccesstousingthisdrop-downlist.

• RecentAnalyticsFiles - Openrecentlyaccessed ACL projectsoranalysisapps.

• SampleFiles - Openpre-built ACL projectsthatincludeavarietyofsampledata.

• Open - Openanexisting ACL project,analysisapp,orGRCproject.

• Create- CreateanewAnalyticProjectorWorkflowinResultsManager for organizing,tracking,andremediationofexceptions.

• Community - Askquestions,shareproductideas,contactsupportandaccesstemplates,content,trainingandotherresourcesaspartofyour ACL subscription.


In ter face and Bas ic Nav igat ion


ACL Inter face and Bas ic Nav igat ion


ACL Analyt ics Env ionment

§ Project§ Theprojectissimilartoafilefolderwithinafilingcabinet;supportingdocumentationitemsforeach

auditarefiledinseparate,clearlynamedfolders.§ Foreachnewanalysisoraudit,anewprojectshouldbecreatedtocontaintherelevant

documentation.§ Projectsarefileswith.acl extensionsandarenamedbytheuserwhentheyarefirstcreated.§ Thereareseveralitemtypeswithintheproject:tablelayouts,Views,thelog,folders,andscripts.§ Tocreateanewprojectselect File > New > Project.



§ Tablelayout§ WhenanACLAnalytics projectisfirstcreated,itisempty;thisisbecausethesourcefile(s) arestored

outsideoftheproject.Creatingatablelayoutlinksthesourcefiletotheproject.§ IntheACLAnalyticsEnvironmentProcessDiagram,thesourcedatafile(AP2016.dat)islinkedtothe

projectviathetablelayoutAP2016.Tablelayoutscontainvariousinformation.§ Datapathtothelocationofthesourcedatafile§ Fieldnames,startpositions,lengths,types,numberofdecimalplacesanddatetime formats§ Namedexpressions(calculatedfieldsandnamedfilters)§ Viewdefinitions



§ View§ AViewdetermineshowdataisdisplayedonthescreenwithinACLAnalytics.§ Wheneveratablelayoutiscreated,aView(namedDefault_View)isautomaticallygeneratedthat

containsallofthefieldsinthetableatthetimeofcreation.§ Ifyouonlywanttoworkwithcertainfields,youcancreateanewViewthathasthedesiredfields.A

tablelayoutcanhavemultipleViews.§ ChangingaViewdoesnotaffecttheunderlyingtablelayoutorotherViews.§ Ifatablelayoutwascreatedwith20fields,theDefaultViewforthattablewouldalsocontain20

fields.AdditionalViewscouldcontainanyofthose20fields.§ ViewscanbeaccessedfromthetabsacrossthebottomoftheACLAnalyticsscreen.InTheACL

AnalyticsEnvironmentprocessdiagram,thetablelayout,ProductType,hasaDefaultViewandtwoadditionalViews.



§ Logfile§ Alogfilerecordsmostanalysis stepsandresults.Whenaprojectisfirstcreated,alogfileis

automaticallycreatedandlinkedtoit.§ Thelogfilehasthesamenameastheprojectthatitislinkedto,butwitha.logextension.IntheACL

AnalyticsEnvironmentprocessdiagram(previouspage),thelogisnamedAPAudit2016.log.§ Considertheprocessoftotalinganumericfield(runningtheTOTALcommandonit).§ TheresultoftheTotalcommandcan'tbewrittentothesourcefilebecauseACLAnalyticsisaread

onlyapplication.§ Instead,theresultoftheTotaliswrittentothelogfile.Alllogresultsincludeadateandtimestamp

alongwiththenameofthetableonwhichtheresultwasproduced.§ Resultscanbeseenatthetimethattheresultwascreatedandtheycanberetrievedlater.


ACL Commands

MenuBarChoice IntendedPurpose Example

Data Manipulate(combineorreorder)data. Join Combinetwotables.

Sort Reorderthesequenceofdata.

Analyze Understand(test)data. Duplicates Identifyanyduplicates.

Classify Calculatesubtotalsbycategory.

Sampling Createandevaluatesamplepools. Sample Selectasampleofrecordsfromaspecificpopulation.

ACL Analytics commands are pre-defined routines and are organized into three menu bar choices: Data, Analyze, and Sampling.


ACL Commands


Logs

§ Aboutthelog§ Thelogprovidesachronological

recordofworkperformedonaproject.Thelogautomaticallyrecordseverysteptakeninaproject.

§ Thisprovidesanaudittrailoftheanalysis,andallowsuserstoretraceand/orre-createthestepstakentoproducetheirresults,printareport,orcreateascripttorepeattheanalysisprocess.

§ Eachanalysisstepiswrittentothelogasanentry,withlogentriesorganizedintologsessions.


The Log


Bas ic ACL Analyt ics Env i ronment§ Sourcefiles,suchasan

ExcelfileresideoutsideoftheACLproject.

§ Corresponding.FILfilesarecreatedforeachsourcefile..FILfilesalsoresideoutsideoftheACLprojectandarereferencedbythetablelayout.Inaway,thetablelayoutactsasawindowtothe.FILfile.

§ YoucanviewthelogintheNavigatorofyourproject.


Sub F i les

§ Whenanew tableiscreatedastheresultofrunningacommanda.filsubfileiscreated.

§ Intheimagetotheright,thesourcefileAR2016.datis129KBandcontainsAccountsReceivabledataforallof2016.

§ IfweusetheExtractcommandtocreateanewtable,AR_Q1_2016,thatcontainsonlytheARdatafromthefirstquarter,a subfile,AR_Q1_2016.filiscreated.SinceAR_Q1_2016 isasubsetoftheAR_2016file,itmakessensethatitisonly32 KB.

§ AR_2016containsdataforthefullyear,butanalysisistobeperformedonQ1data.

§ UsetheExtractcommandtocreateasub-filecontainingQ1data.

§ Subsequentanalysiswillbefasteronthesmaller,sub-file.

§ ACLAnalyticscommandsthatcreatenewtablesalwayscreatenewsub-fileswith.FILextensions.


Data Analys i s Cyc le1.Plan• Planyourworkpriortostartingtheproject• Formulateclearobjectives• Developaconcisestrategy• Budgetresourceseffectively• Consideroutcomesandwhatthefinalreportwillinclude

2.Import• ImportDataOutlinedinPlan• Locatespecificdatafilesandidentifyspecificfiles

• Acquireandcreatetablelayoutsforsourcefiles

3.Prepare• Prepareyourdataanalysis• Understanddataqualityofsourcefiles• Identifyincorrectdateranges• Incorrecttotals• Missingtransactions• Etc

4.Analyze• Analyzetheprepareddata• Considerdataintegrityissues• Manyobjectivescouldtakemanysteps–provingyourhypothesis

5.Report• Understandtheaudience• Willthereportbeadmittedtolegalproceedings– consideredasevidence?


Best Pract ices

§ Organized,Organize,Organize§ Usefoldersandsubfolderstoorganizeyourwork

§ Usewell-definednamingconventions§ Usefulwhensearchingforitems§ Helpsintheinterpretationofyourwork§ UseDescriptivenames(e.g.fileBisnotagoodnameunlessthereisadatamap)


Data Mapwith Data F i le Sources Noted

Source:Ernst&Young


Quest ions

?


Thank you.

mis 5208 –l5 acl: working with expressions · acl analytics envionment § project § the project...

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