Audit Monk
The Last Entry: Bidding Adieu to AuditMonk
Hi there, I'm Lavneet Bansal, aka AuditMonk. It's been nearly seven years since I first started this blog, and it's been about five years since I last wrote here.
Theranos: Victim of Fake it Till You Make it
I recently got my hands on the book Bad Blood by John Carreyrou, it was long due in my reading list. Bad Blood details the dramatic rise and fall of the Silicon Valley start-up Theranos and its founder Elizabeth Holmes.
Cryptocurrency Exchanges and Governance, Risk & Compliance!!!
As per the recent study published by Coinfirm, only 14% of the 216 global cryptocurrency exchanges operating today are regulated.
Can I have Your Personal Information?
International Fraud Awareness Week 2018 Like every year, ACFE is celebrating the International Fraud Awareness Week to promote anti-fraud awareness and education.
Initiative Q: Scam or Legit?
In the last one week I have been invited by scores of people to join Initiative Q, hyped as the next Bitcoin. As so many people in my network are promoting Initiative Q, it piqued my interest in Q tokens.
VBA Script for Splitting Excel Workbook
Recently I got an Excel file which contained more than 50 worksheets and I needed to split them into individual files.
Cryptographic Hash Option in Context Menu
What is Cryptographic Hash Function? A cryptographic hash function is an algorithm that can be run on a piece of data, like an individual file or a password, to produce a value called a checksum.
Identifying Frauds Using Correlation Coefficient
Correlation is a relationship between two things (variables) that tend to vary or move together. There is usually some logical connection between the two things/variables.
International Fraud Awareness Week 2017
Every year in November ACFE celebrates International Fraud Awareness Week, to promote anti-fraud awareness and education.
Batch Unzip Script for WinRAR
Extracting multiple zip files at a time can be a time consuming process. To save time, you can automate the process by creating a simple batch script to unzip multiple files in one go.
Science Fiction to Reality
I love sci-fi and action movies. One of my favourite Sci-fi movie is the ‘ Back to the Future’ trilogy. The best part of sci-fi movies is that what is a fiction today, can become a reality tomorrow.
Largest Subset & Growth Tests
The first analysis of any data set need not use sophisticated mathematics or statistics. The goal of these test is to find subsets that are highly inflated due to the error or fraud.
Multilevel Marketing: You make More Money by Staying Away
Recently an old friend tried to sell me a unique business opportunity, like once in a lifetime opportunity by making me a member of Amway.
Fuzzy Logic: Analyzing Text Datasets
A challenging problem in analyzing text-based datasets is that a same record may be represented in multiple ways throughout the dataset.
Luhn Algorithm: A Little Known Tool for Auditors
Luhn Algorithm also known as ‘modulus 10’ or ‘mod 10’ algorithm, was created by Hans Peter Luhn in 1954. It is widely used in Credit/Debit card numbers, IMEI numbers, and Canadian Social Insurance numbers.
Relative Size Factor: Finding Outliers
In my previous article Auditing: Accounts Payable / Vendor Payments I spoke about Relative Size Factor (RSF) and how it can used to identify isolated outliers in vendor invoices.
Auditing vs Fraud Examination vs Forensic Accounting
In general terms, fraud is an intentional deception, whether by omission or commission, to realize a gain.
Spreadsheets: Best Practices (Part 3)
Spreadsheets are known to be error prone. As per one study by Raymond Panko , 86% of spreadsheets contains errors. Errors in spreadsheets can’t be eliminated completely, but steps can be taken to reduce them.
Spreadsheets: Auditing & Validating (Part 2)
In the previous post Spreadsheets: Risk , I mentioned few of the risks associated with spreadsheets. In this post I’ll try to show some excel tools which can help in detecting errors and frauds in Excel spreadsheets.
Spreadsheets: Risks (Part 1)
Spreadsheets have stood the test of time because they continue to meet the analytical needs of organizations, especially for analyzing and reporting financial results and providing support for decision-making.
Auditing: Accounts Payable / Vendor Payments
Accounts Payable is one of the crucial area in audit. As it represents the monies owed by the organization to its creditors for supply of goods and services.
Beneish M-Score: Identifying Financial Statement Manipulations
According to the ACFE’s “Report to the Nation 2016” financial statement fraud occurred in less than 10% of the cases reported by the respondents.
A Brief History of Auditing
The term “Audit” is derived from the Latin term “Audire” which means “to hear”, because in ancient times auditors listened to the oral reports of responsible officials to owners or those having authority, and confirmed the accuracy of…
Financial Shenanigans: Cash Flow & Key Metrics Shenanigans (Part 3)
In the previous post I mentioned the brief summary of Earnings Manipulation shenanigans.
Financial Shenanigans: Earnings Manipulation (Part 2)
In my previous post I mentioned the brief summary of accounting shenanigans identified by Howard Schilit in his book Financial Shenanigans used by management to manipulate earnings, cash flow and key metrics.
Financial Shenanigans (Part 1)
Shenanigans : Secret or dishonest activity or maneuvering Recently I was reading Financial Shenanigans: How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks & Fraud in Financial Reports.
Investment Portfolio Tracker
We all invest in stocks and Mutual funds and tracking their performance sometimes becomes a problem.
CISA Exam Resources
Last December I gave my CISA exam, and cleared it.
Benford's Law in Analyzing Accounting Data
Benford law named after physicist Frank Benford, also called first-digit law is an observation about the frequency distribution of leading digits in natural sets of numerical data.
Financial Ratios in Fraud Analytics
Ratio analysis is a means of measuring the relationship between two different financial statement amounts. This form of financial statement analysis can be very useful in detecting red flags for a fraud examination.