P-Card Controls/Using Forensic Analytics to Detect Fraud, Errors, Waste & Abuse
Omni Dallas, January 15-16, 2013
Data File
Your data file for the workshop should be a file of P-Card transactions for a period of time (e.g.,
all of 2012, or Q4 of 2012). The file should be in an Excel 2007 or an Excel 2010 format.
You may have as many fields (columns of data) as you like. For the analysis we will prepare our
data for analysis by deleting the unneeded fields.
The fields that we would like are:
1.
Merchant Name (MerchName)
2.
Merchant Number (MerchNum)
3.
Transaction Date (Date)
4.
Card Number (CardNum)
5.
Employee Name (CardName)
6.
Transaction Details (Details)
7.
Transaction Amount (Amount)in U.S. dollars
You will be fine by having either (1) or (2). However, having the merchant name helps with reviewing
the results.
You will be fine by having either (4) or (5). However, having the employee name helps with reviewing
the results.
The transaction details field is a text field that describes the purchases (e.g., gift card for $500). This
field is optional. It is useful but not essential.
An example of a file is shown below:
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The first step in the hands-on session will be to rename the fields so that we are all using the
same names, and to delete the fields that are not needed. The useable file might look like,
In the above case we don't have Employee Name (one of the optional fields) or Transaction
Details (another one of the other optional fields).
Other files
The hands-on session will use three Excel templates and one data file with data from two time
periods. These files will be sent by e-mail before the workshop. They'll also be available from
the instructor on CD and on a USB flash drive on the days of the workshop. We will also provide
P-Card data on a USB flash drive to anyone that couldn't bring their own data to the workshop.
Data questions
Questions about the data files can be sent to Mark Nigrini at ForensicAnalytics@gmail.com.
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