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© November/December 2005
Association of Certified Fraud Examiners
Tech Corner Reviews
Monarch V8 increases power of fraud examiners to mine and analyze data without IT help
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From the November/December 2005 issue of
Fraud Magazine
In this column, the author reviews hardware and software products that could aid the fraud examiner. The author avows
no relationship of any type with the companies, which represent or manufacture the reviewed products. The author's
opinions are solely his own and aren't necessarily those of Fraud Magazine or its staff. - ed.
A
s fraud examiners, we're charged with the responsibility to find the evidence that will confirm or refute allegations of
fraud. Increasingly, this evidence is found in documents - not paper documents but digital documents which exist on
computer disks or on the Internet. The challenge is not only to extract the evidence from the computer but to be able to
easily and economically analyze, extract, and summarize the data so that it becomes useful information.
With the help of Monarch, fraud examiners of any information technology (IT) skill level can achieve this goal. In fact, no
additional programming work of any kind is required. Users can, on their own, bring existing reports into Monarch,
transform them into live data (as opposed to "static" data contained in printed reports, which can't be sorted, extracted,
and merged into other applications for analysis and comparison), and search for hidden evidence.
At the heart of Monarch is a powerful data recognition and extraction engine that can pull data out of virtually any report
file (any text output produced by any other software application, "printed" to a file instead of printed on paper). Reports
vary from very simple row-and-column reports to highly detailed reports with multiple lines of detail data, data in report
page headers and footers, report titles or sub-titles, etc. No matter how complex the layout of a report might be,
Monarch can successfully extract, analyze and export the data. Today, just about every computer program has the ability
to re-direct a report from the printer to a disk file, regardless of the operating system or application program. The output
file is then recognizable by Monarch.
In my previous review of Monarch (See The White Paper Jan./Feb. 2003), I discuss the general features and use of the
program, which continues to form the basic core of Version 8. The new release of Monarch has added many new features,
several of which are particularly valuable to the fraud examiner. Although Monarch is available in both a Standard and
Professional edition, the nominal extra cost for the Pro version and the added features of particular interest to the fraud
examiner dictate that the Pro version should be your choice.
PDF files
Monarch V8 Professional Edition now mines data from PDF files. (PDF files have become the defacto standard for Internet
documents; in many cases, in house documents are printed to disk using the PDF format.) This is probably the most
important enhancement to an already powerful and useful tool which belongs in any fraud examiner's toolbox. Monarch
converts your PDF document into text for easy report mining with no other software required. You can even use Monarch
V8 Pro to export your data in PDF format for convenient distribution to other members of the investigation team. (See
Figure 1.)
Figure 1
Model shifting
Current users of prior versions of Monarch may have a library of models which have been created to be used on reports
which repeat themselves periodically. (A model is developed by the user to create a form or mask of the report data
which is to be extracted from the report for further analysis.) Sometimes your existing report is changed slightly, with
data moving a few spaces to the left or right. With Monarch V8, you can now easily adjust your existing Monarch model
template, which eliminates the need to create a new model to match your altered report. (See Figure 2.)
Figure 2
New field functions
New Calculated Field functions enable you to work with your Monarch data before exporting it to another application such
as Excel. Monarch V8 offers six new and improved Calculated Field functions.
Function name Description
Replace Replaces each instance of a text substring with a new substring.
InTrim Trims any consecutive spaces in a text string so there is only one space between each word. Also removes leading
and trailing spaces.
TextLine Great for working with Memo fields, splits a multi-line string based on line breaks and returns a specific text line.
Age Returns the number of years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, or even seconds between two specified dates.
RSplit and LSplit Improved: Splits a text string into user-defined specifications and returns the desired part. Previously
the "split" was performed based on a single character; a substring can now be used.
Careful use of these new functions further simplifies the captured data from the report and refines it closer to the final
level necessary for use.
User-Edited Fields
The new "User-Edited Fields" lets you selectively fill in data however you wish, much like a typical Excel column. This
allows you to attach comments directly to the data report at the time of analysis which could be used to identify the
source or relevance of the selected information.
Improved formatting
Improved formatting of summary data and charts, coupled with new options and a more user-friendly interface, makes it
easier to format your Monarch Summary data and charts to match your needs. This enables the fraud examiner to
produce preliminary reports for discussion faster and to review the intended output prior to exporting the data to another
program for more extensive analysis and reporting. In addition, any page breaks, headers and footers created in Monarch
will be carried through to Excel when exporting, eliminating the need for duplication.
Extra-wide report files
The increased use of computers and demands by users for more information on a single report has resulted in more
reports being designed and generated which contain larger amounts of data than previously encountered. Monarch V8
now accepts extra-wide report files up to 4,000 characters wide. (Previously, it was 1,000 characters.) Plus, you can use
Monarch V8's Multi-Column Region feature to mine data from up to 40 columns appearing in a multi-column report such
as name and address lists, customer statements, or any other report appearing in "newspaper style" multiple column
format.
Automatic audit trail
Where there are multiple members of the investigation team accessing the same reports, Monarch V8 creates and
constantly updates a list of all changes made to a Monarch model, building an audit trail for easy viewing. This enables
the fraud examiner to see exactly who has made changes and what they were.
(See Figure 3.)
Figure 3
For those users who also need to work with data from sources other than reports, Monarch Professional Edition was
created with all of the standard features of Monarch, plus the ability to import and join data from other sources, such as
Excel, Access or other files, ODBC databases, and now HTML files.
Monarch empowers fraud examiners to easily access needed business intelligence without any assistance from IT
departments and no expensive data-mining infrastructure.
Monarch V8, suggested list price: $489
Professional edition list price: $609
Datawatch Inc.: http://www.datawatch.com/
Philip C. Levi, CMC, CFE, FCA, CPA, CAoIFA, technology editor for Fraud Magazine, and a member of the Fraud Magazine Editorial Review
Board, is the partner in charge of the litigation dispute and resolution services division of the Montreal accounting firm, Levi Katz, LLP. Levi is
also a member of the Association's teaching faculty, past vice chairman of the ACFE Board of Regents, and a member of the Fraud Advisory
Committee of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. His e-mail address is: philevi@levikatz.com.
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