The Overlooked Audit — Spreadsheets

A spreadsheet is one of the greatest software tools used by accounting and finance professionals. While spreadsheets can make accounting work easier, they are also ripe ground for errors and fraud: entry and copy/paste errors are common in spreadsheets, given that there are generally no controls to prevent such occurrences; virtually no security features available in spreadsheets applications; the false sense of security or "comfort factor" given spreadsheets ubiquity in the marketplace. Spreadsheets therefore become the least expected link in producing errors in financial records and for commiting fraud.
To learn more about this issue, pelase see a short article on the topic. Also see a free whitepaper on using Excel as an audit software.

Happy Auditing,
Rich