Spreadsheet Professional
& Sarbanes Oxley
The world’s leading
spreadsheet
development and
testing tool
Contact:
Email: sales@spreadsheetinnovations.com
Web site: www.spreadsheetinnovations.com
The Sarbanes Oxley act mandates that a report is produced
each year that testifies that adequate internal controls are in
place for financial reporting…
Section 404
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(a) Rules Required. The Commission shall prescribe rules requiring each
annual report required by section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act
of 1934 to contain an internal control report, which shall-(1) state the responsibility of management for establishing and maintaining an
adequate internal control structure and procedures for financial reporting; and
(2) contain an assessment, as of the end of the most recent fiscal year of the
issuer, of the effectiveness of the internal control structure and procedures of
the issuer for financial reporting.
(b) Internal Control Evaluation and Reporting. With respect to the internal
control assessment required by subsection (a), each registered public
accounting firm that prepares or issues the audit report for the issuer shall
attest to, and report on, the assessment made by the management of the
issuer. An attestation made under this subsection shall be made in accordance
with standards for attestation engagements issued or adopted by the Board.
Any such attestation shall not be the subject of a separate engagement.
Virtually all (all?) companies use spreadsheets in some part of
the creation of their published accounts, and these
spreadsheets can contain significant errors…
“
A single wrong figure on a spreadsheet forced Credit Suisse to
markdown its profits by Swfr 200m (£86m).
The error came in the German subsidiary of the bank’s
Winterthur arm, marking an embarrassing first year in charge
for the insurer’s Lenny Fischer. It means … fourth-quarter
income was lowered 16.7% to Swfr 1 billion…”
London Evening Standard 26th March 2004
We believe that spreadsheet errors are significantly
underestimated by the business and IT
community…

“The European Spreadsheet Risks Group lists 72 publicly reported errors of
upto $1billion due to inadequate spreadsheets and/or spreadsheet controls. “
http://www.eusprig.org/stories.htm

Both KPMG and Coopers & Lybrand have reported finding error rates of more
than 90% in live spreadsheets.
"KPMG Management Consulting audited spreadsheets from over 21 major UK banking and financial
organisations. 92% of the spreadsheets dealing with tax issues had significant errors, 75% had significant
accounting errors, and 59% were judged to have poor design".

Academic studies (including ones using Spreadsheet Professional) regularly
report 50% or more of spreadsheets containg ‘code errors’.

Our own experience mirrors the above. We are aware of several other
significant spreadsheet errors that have not been reported in the press.
To meet the requirements of Sarbanes Oxley,
therefore, we believe that there are three key
requirements…
1.
You must know the location of, and be able to control, your
business critical spreadsheets and in particular those used for
the creation of the companies financial results – both at the
centre and in your company’s operating units.
2.
These business critical spreadsheets must be
comprehensively tested for errors, and both the spreadsheets
and the tests on the spreadsheets documented to meet the
requirements of SoX.
3.
Training must be provided to those people creating and using
business critical spreadsheets.
To meet these requirements therefore
we believe organisations need…
1.
A method of control. There are now a variety of vendors
offering control packages for spreadsheets. – we work with a
number of them to ensure compatibility of our products.
2.
A method of testing and documenting the critical
spreadsheets. Spreadsheet Professional, created in 1994, is
the most established tool for performing such tests with,
currently, 7000 clients worldwide.
3.
Training of end users. We have teamed with AuditExcel to
produce video training that can accompany the product to
provide an introduction to spreadsheet best practice.
Spreadsheet Professional
–
How it helps meet the Sarbanes Oxley
Requirements.
Spreadsheet Professional has been developed as a
powerful testing and documentation tool, following
some key design principles…

Design principles
–
To save the end user time and effort. SP has been designed so that its use saves the end user time, thereby
encouraging its use.
–
To be easy to use – It is designed as an addin for Excel driven by standard menus, so that it is familiar to end users.
–
To not impact on the Spreadsheets tested. SP’s testing and documenting tools leave the original spreadsheet
unchanged.
–
To provide evidence of the tests and documentation performed. All tests and documentation are stored in separate
workbooks.
–
To be compatible with all versions of Excel and to work over a network, thereby easing issues of implementation and
distribution.
–
Its tools are divided into four sections:
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Build tools that encourage the use of spreadsheet design best practice, thereby reducing the probability of an error occurring.
Testing tools to aid the identification of errors.
Documentation tools to ensure that the organisation can understand the key assumptions and design of the spreadsheet
models.
Usage tools – to encourage proper use of the spreadsheet models developed.
The Build tools
- Setting up the spreadsheet correctly…
SP is driven by an
easy to use menu
bar.
The Build tools are
designed to
encourage best
practice.
The Build tools
- Setting up the spreadsheet correctly…
The standard
format tool
ensures sources
and units are
included.
The Build bar
enables formatting
and copying to be
performed with a
single key press.
The Build tools
- Setting up the spreadsheet correctly…
The colour coding
and formatting
aids
understanding.
The translation bar
provides instant
translation into
English of
formulas entered.
The Build tools
It is possible to apply formatting retrospectively…
The spreadsheet
painter enables
you to colour code
a spreadsheet
after completion.
Testing tools
The test tools apply tests against common
errors…
The automated
tests capture many
typical
spreadsheet
errors.
Testing tools
… and produce a comprehensive test report
indicating where errors may have occurred.
As well as
providing the list of
cells, SP explains
what to look for.
Documentation tools
The tools are designed to provide easy
understanding of a spreadsheet…
The summary
report details the
sheets used and
basic data about
the spreadsheet.
Documentation tools
The tools are designed to provide easy
understanding of a spreadsheet…
The Map report
identifies potential
inconsistencies in
the development
of the
spreadsheet.
Something odd
has happened
here.
Documentation tools
The tools are designed to provide easy
understanding of a spreadsheet…
The translation
report translates
each formula into
English for easy
understanding.
Documentation tools
The inputs report enables you to check all the
inputs to a spreadsheet against the source data…
Documentation tools
The formula tracer rapidly aids understanding of a
spreadsheet…
This has proved
Easy to
understand printed
documentation can
be quickly
produced
the easiest way to
understand how
formulas are
calculated.
Usage tools
The quick reports tool enables reports to be created
very quickly…
The quick reports
tool provides an
easy mechanism
for printing out
several reports at
once.
Usage tools
The comparison tool enables changes in
spreadsheets to be spotted quickly…
The comparison
tool enables you to
check whether two
spreadsheets are
the same, and/or
the differences
between two runs
of the same
spreadsheet.
Usage tools
The sensitivity analyser enables you to identify
what drives your results…
The sensitivity tool
provides a range
of outputs both
graphical and
numerical showing
how a target cell
varies when
another cell is
changed.
Usage tools
The sensitivity analyser and produce written
reports…
SP is designed to
provide hard copy
reports of all its
outputs. These
are created as
Excel workbooks
so that they can be
added to reports,
distributed
electronically, or
printed out.
Summary


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The world’s leading tool for the production of
professional quality spreadsheets.
Ideal for the implementation of appropriate controls
to meet the needs of Sarbanes Oxley.
Designed to radically reduce the time taken to build
and use spreadsheets – and at the same time
radically improve their quality.
Impacts all aspects of the Spreadsheet design, build,
document, test and use.
Pays for itself the first time it is used.
Training

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Whatever controls are implemented, we believe that
the success of the implementation will be enhanced
through the provision of end user training.
We have teamed with Audit Excel to provide a
multimedia training package that can accompany
Spreadsheet Professional.
The course consists of an introduction to using
Excel…
Introduction (2 min)
Brief introduction to the topic and using this training course
Auditing Toolbar (5 min)
Loading and using the auditing toolbar which is a fundamental tool in Excel
1- Auditing Toolbar exercise
Load the auditing toolbar and see how it helps to find errors in the spreadsheet.
Solution included in exercise
How Errors Happen
It is extremely easy to make errors in a spreadsheet. Below are some of the typical errors made. Look through the items you are familiar with:
Basic Functions
Copy and Paste (2 min)
Inserting Rows (2 min)
Inserting cells (1 min)
Deleting cells (1 min)
Hiding rows or columns of information (2min)
Linking spreadsheets together (3 min)
Intermediate and advanced functions
IF functions (e.g. SUMIF) (3 min)
VLOOKUP function (5 min)
MIN and MAX functions (2 min)
Referencing (absolute and relative) (2 min)
2- How errors happen
Work through each example of the functions you use. When you get to the external links example open the following workbook.
3- More than one workbook
Work through the example to see what goes wrong when you work across workbooks.
… a comprehensive guide to how to use Spreadsheet
Professional to review spreadsheets (this is just some of the
sections)…
Getting Started with Spreadsheet Professional (3min)
An introduction to Spreadsheet Professional ("SP") and the objectives of this part of the course
Change the options as indicated in the introduction video. You can stop/ start the video to follow the precise steps.
4- Feedback template
A template to use when documenting a review. Use it for the upcoming exercises.
The Spreadsheet Model review process (3 min)
A high level overview of the spreadsheet review process and how spreadsheet professional assists in the task.
A print out of the spreadsheet review process
Maps (4 min)
How to use the Maps feature in SP.
5- Maps exercise
Run the maps on the 2 sheets in this workbook. Review the maps and look at the inconsistent areas. Document your findings on the feedback template. Tick
off the formula that you have looked at on the map.
6-What your map should look like and where you should look
Highlighted in red are the areas you should have reviewed and documented on the Feedback Template.
Prioritising the cells you look at (7 min)
Which cells to look at first to find the errors
7-Priority Exercise
Run the test reports on the 2 sheets in this workbook. Review the report and look at the inconsistent areas. Document your findings on the feedback
template. Tick off the formulae you look at on the maps.
8- What your report should look like
What your report should look like.
9- Suggested findings after exercises
After reviewing the maps and reports you should have found most of these.
… and a section on Spreadsheet design and
advanced features of Excel
Good Spreadsheet Design (15 min)
Basic concepts in designing spreadsheet models.
External Links (5 min)
Handle links between spreadsheets using Excels inbuilt features.
21- External links exercise
22- Input Data v1
23- Input Data v2
Open these 3 files, view the external links and make the changes.
Find/ Replace (9 min)
Use this common Excel feature to help in reviews and find cells containing external links.
Use the files for the external links and find the stray link.
The GoTo Special Command (7 min)
Learn how to use this brilliant tool to navigate your spreadsheet.
24- GoTo Special Exercise
Follow the instructions in the file.
The Function Wizard (3 min)
See what is already built into Excel.
25- Function Wizard Exercise
Follow the instructions in the exercise
… each section consists of video clips,
exercises and worked examples…

Click on the picture to
see an example video
clip.
Next steps and any questions…