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charlesjening · 5 years ago

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Memo to Audit Firms: Altering Workpapers Is Still Frowned Upon

Amid all the drama and turmoil going on at the PCAOB right now, one thing hasn’t changed: PCAOB inspectors really love busting auditors for improperly altering workpapers. Eight auditors—two at Deloitte Korea and six at BDO Mexico—found this out the hard way recently.

Because these auditors ignored the memo that altering audit workpapers is never OK, Deloitte Korea (Deloitte Anjin) was fined $350,000 and BDO Mexico (Castillo Miranda y Compañía, S.C.) was fined $500,000 by the PCAOB on Oct. 31. The eight auditors also got various degrees of sanctions.

However, both Deloitte Korea and BDO Mexico were given gold stars because of their “extraordinary cooperation” with the PCAOB, which included conducting internal investigations and sharing the factual results of those internal investigations with PCAOB staff. And Deloitte, always the overachiever, “also self-reported misconduct and undertook personnel- and policy-related remediation,” the PCAOB said. Therefore, both firms’ fines could’ve been a lot worse had they not kissed the PCAOB’s ring.

In Deloitte Korea’s case, two former partners—Seul Hyang Wee and Hyun Seung Lee—were sanctioned because they allowed the engagement team they oversaw to backdate electronic workpapers and alter hardcopy workpapers after finding out that the firm’s largest issuer audit would be selected for PCAOB inspection in 2014.

For example:

Wee, Lee, and other Firm personnel backdated the preparation and review dates on several electronic work papers. They applied preparation and review dates that were earlier than the actual dates to conceal the post-issuance performance of procedures and, in those cases where procedures had been performed prior to issuance, to conceal the post-issuance preparation or review of the work papers themselves.

Some of the Firm’s personnel used Firm audit software that allowed them to select a date to apply to the electronic work papers other than the date of the actual sign-off, while others rolled back the clock on their computers to a date and time of their own choosing.

This backdating was widespread among the Firm personnel assigned to the 2013 Audit. The backdated electronic work papers failed to comply with PCAOB audit documentation requirements.

After learning on June 9, 2014, that the PCAOB had selected the 2013 audit for review and after the June 14 deadline Deloitte was given to get together the final and complete set of audit documentation, staff really exercised some poor professional judgment by improperly altering hardcopy workpapers, including adding handwritten descriptions of audit procedures relating to the internal controls of the issuer’s largest subsidiary.

Because this documentation was added after the documentation completion date and did not indicate the date it was added, the name of the person who prepared it, or the reason for adding it, the altered hard-copy work papers failed to comply with PCAOB audit documentation requirements.

Wee and Lee were aware of the efforts by personnel assigned to the Subsidiary Work to improperly alter the hard-copy work papers after the documentation completion date. Yet, despite that knowledge, Wee and Lee took no action to stop those efforts or report them to PCAOB inspection staff or the Firm’s senior management.

The PCAOB fined Wee and Lee $10,000 each and barred them from being an associate of a public accounting firm for two years.

In the case of BDO Mexico, the firm and six partners—Ignacio García Pareras, Juan Martín Gudiño Casillas, Luis Ra��l Michel Domínguez, Juan Francisco Olvera Díaz, Carlos Rivas Ramos, and Bernardo Soto Peñafiel—were sanctioned for participating in, directing, or contributing to the improper alteration of audit documentation.

There were a whole lot of things Bravo Delta Oscar and those partners tried to get away with:

Beginning in 2015, BDO-Mexico and its personnel routinely violated PCAOB standards, including by failing to timely archive issuer audit documentation; improperly altering numerous work papers in multiple audits after those work papers should have been locked down and archived; changing the dates on their computer clocks, which concealed when they actually performed and documented work; failing to cooperate with a PCAOB inspection; and failing to maintain a system of quality control that would provide reasonable assurance that personnel would act with integrity and in compliance with PCAOB rules and standards. These violations were committed and/or directed by partners at the highest level of the Firm’s issuer audit practice and reflect a systematic failure, during those years, to adhere to professional standards.

The disciplinary order gives a play-by-play of the incompetence of the six BDO Mexico partners, including Gudiño, Michel, Olvera, and Soto providing misleading information to PCAOB inspectors during their 2017 inspection of the firm.

Here are the penalties the PCAOB doled out:

Luis Raúl Michel Domínguez, audit and assurance managing partner: $10,000 fine, barred from being an associate of a public accounting firm for three years, and must take 40 hours of additional continuing professional education in subjects directly related to the audits of issuer financial statements under PCAOB standards.

Bernardo Soto Peñafiel, engagement partner with overall responsibility for the firm’s audits of Issuer A’s 2014 and 2015 financial statements, and signed the audit opinions: $10,000 fine, barred from being an associate of a public accounting firm for two years, and must complete 40 hours of additional CPE.

Juan Martín Gudiño Casillas, engagement partner on the firm’s audit of Issuer B’s 2015 financial statements and signed the audit opinion: $5,000 fine, barred from being an associate of a public accounting firm for one year, and must complete 40 hours of additional CPE.

Juan Francisco Olvera Díaz, served as the lead partner on the firm’s 2014 and 2015 audit work for two components of Issuer A: $5,000 fine, barred from being an associate of a public accounting firm for two years, and must complete 40 hours of additional CPE.

Ignacio García Pareras, performed a review of the workpapers for the firm’s 2015 audits of Issuer A and Issuer B in advance of the PCAOB’s 2017 inspection of the firm; served as the firm’s primary contact with the PCAOB during that inspection: Suspended from being an associate of a public accounting firm for one year, and must complete 40 hours of additional CPE.

Carlos Rivas Ramos, engagement partner on the firm’s audit of Issuer B’s 2014 financial statements and signed the audit opinion; lead partner on the firm’s 2015 audit work for four Issuer A components: Suspended from being an associate of a public accounting firm for one year, and must complete 40 hours of additional CPE.

BDO Mexico was also ordered to undertake certain remedial actions, including revising or establishing policies, procedures, and controls that will prevent auditors from altering workpapers in the future; providing auditors with four hours of additional training concerning compliance with AS 1215, Audit Documentation, and PCAOB Rule 4006, Duty to Cooperate with Inspectors; and adopting enhanced reporting procedures for the reporting and investigation of suspected wrongdoing by firm personnel.

The post Memo to Audit Firms: Altering Workpapers Is Still Frowned Upon appeared first on Going Concern.

republished from Going Concern

#Technology #Finance

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yoursainathtbrc-blog · 6 years ago

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Public Sector Audit Services Market Key Players & Regional Analysis

Public sector audit services market involves assessing financial information of government organizations, and non-profit organizations such as charities, education and healthcare. Internal public sector audit is performed by the organization’s internal auditor and reports to the management. External public sector audit service is performed by an independent accounting firm from outside the organization.

Read complete research report @ https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/report/public-sector-audit-services-global-market-report-2018

Public sector audit services market is increasingly utilizing data analytics and automated workpapers software packages to simplify the auditing. Cross referencing and references to standards have been easily streamlined by employing the software packages, aiding in maintaining consistency and thoroughness of the audits with less effort. With all new highly adaptive advanced methods to simplify auditing, public sector audit service market is expected to grow in the upcoming years.

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Table of Contents:

1. Public Sector Audit Services Market Characteristics

2. Public Sector Audit Services Market Size And Growth

3. Public Sector Audit Services Trends And Strategies;

4. Pestle Analysis

5. Public Sector Audit Services Market Customer Information;

6. Public Sector Audit Services Market Regional And Country Analysis

7. Public Sector Audit Services Market Segmentation

8. Public Sector Audit Services Market Segments

9. Global Public Sector Audit Services Market Comparison With Macro Economic Factors

10. Public Sector Audit Services Market Comparison With Macro Economic Factors Across Countries

11. Asia-Pacific Public Sector Audit Services Market

12. Western Europe Public Sector Audit Services Market

13. Eastern Europe Public Sector Audit Services Market

14. North America Public Sector Audit Services Market

15. South America Public Sector Audit Services Market

16. Middle East Public Sector Audit Services Market

17. Africa Public Sector Audit Services Market

18. Public Sector Audit Services Market Competitive Landscape

19. Key Mergers And Acquisitions In The Public Sector Audit Services Market

20. Market Background: Auditing Services Market

21. Appendix

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#public sector audit services market report #public sector audit services market research #external audit services market report

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ashleydpalmerusa · 7 years ago

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Accounting News Roundup: PCAOB Fines Deloitte; PwC’s New Tax Team; Dueling 8-Ks | 05.25.18

PCAOB fines Deloitte $500,000 for faulty audits of Jack Henry [AT, PCAOB] Jack Henry sounds like someone’s pipe-smoking, whiskey-sipping grandpa, but in this case, it’s a Missouri-based provider of information processing solutions for banks and credit unions, and Deloitte did a lousy job auditing them. Namely:

The PCAOB found that Deloitte was primarily responsible for the violations because none of the engagement personnel it assigned to the audits had sufficient software industry experience and knowledge (including of the relevant generally accepted accounting principles) to properly evaluate and audit the accounting for software license revenue.

This happened over three years of audits. The order notes that Deloitte did find “a number of audit and accounting issues” after it had been notified that the Jack Henry fiscal year 2014 audit would be inspected. Deloitte reported these issues to the PCAOB before its inspection began. So, hey, great job not altering workpapers, Deloitte. Few seem to have that kind of willpower.

PwC announces plan for hundreds of new Connecticut jobs [SA] The firm is planning to add 400 jobs in Stamford, and if you enjoy public officials gushing over big business, then this article is for you. Anyway, Stamford will be the home of PwC’s “Insourced Solutions for Tax team.” That’s the group that was created out of the deal that saw PwC hire General Electric’s tax department last year.

A Most Unusual Way To Impress KPMG CEO Lynne Doughtie At Your Job Interview [Forbes] Ugh, yet another interview I’ve read for you. This one isn’t as bad as the “raise-your-hand” nonsense if only because we learn that Lynne Doughtie’s favorite movies include Air Force One, Armageddon, The Help, and The Blind Side.

Samsonite tumbles after short seller questions accounting [Bloomberg] Blue Orca Capital claims “Samsonite concealed slowing growth with debt-funded acquisitions and inflated profit margins with dubious accounting linked to its takeovers.” Blue Orca also alleges that there are some dodgy related party transactions between Samsonite CEO Ramesh Tainwala and companies controlled by him and his family, as well as “a revolving door of auditors” in the company’s South Asia business.

Blood Cleaning Company’s Ousted CEO Denies Exit in Filing Faceoff [Bloomberg] Dueling 8-Ks have caused Rockwell Medical Inc. to have, what Bloomberg’s Matt Levine describes as “different, let’s say, metaphysical statuses.” One 8-K says the CEO has been fired. Another 8-K says that’s not the case. Sounds confusing, right? That’s because it is:

At 9:27 p.m. on Tuesday RMTI-B’s 8-K, announcing that Chioini is still the CEO, arrived at Edgar; at 6:05 a.m. on Wednesday, RMTI-A’s 8-K, announcing that no he isn’t, arrived. Because late-evening Edgar filings don’t actually become public until the next day, the two filings ended up hitting the Bloomberg terminal news feed five minutes apart on Wednesday morning.

Previously, on Going Concern…

I wrote a farewell post.

In Open Items, WHY CAN’T WE FIX REGULATION?

In other news:

Dozens of American News Sites Blocked in Europe as GDPR Goes Into Effect Today

Six C.E.O. Pay Packages That Explain Soaring Executive Compensation

About $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency stolen since 2017: cybercrime group

Could Beyoncé help revive ‘Parks and Rec?’

Mussels off the coast of Seattle test positive for opioids

Get the Accounting News Roundup in your inbox every weekday by signing up here.

See something we missed? Have a tip, correction, comment, or complaint? Email us at [email protected].

The post Accounting News Roundup: PCAOB Fines Deloitte; PwC’s New Tax Team; Dueling 8-Ks | 05.25.18 appeared first on Going Concern.

from Accounting News http://goingconcern.com/05-25-18/

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lisarprahl · 7 years ago

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Accounting News Roundup: PCAOB Fines Deloitte; PwC’s New Tax Team; Dueling 8-Ks | 05.25.18

Previously, on Going Concern…

I wrote a farewell post.

In Open Items, WHY CAN’T WE FIX REGULATION?

In other news:

Dozens of American News Sites Blocked in Europe as GDPR Goes Into Effect Today

Six C.E.O. Pay Packages That Explain Soaring Executive Compensation

About $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency stolen since 2017: cybercrime group

Could Beyoncé help revive ‘Parks and Rec?’

Mussels off the coast of Seattle test positive for opioids

Get the Accounting News Roundup in your inbox every weekday by signing up here.

See something we missed? Have a tip, correction, comment, or complaint? Email us at [email protected].

The post Accounting News Roundup: PCAOB Fines Deloitte; PwC’s New Tax Team; Dueling 8-Ks | 05.25.18 appeared first on Going Concern.

from Accounting News http://goingconcern.com/05-25-18/

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1auditmanagementsoftware · 1 month ago

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Audit working Papers Software

In the context of 1Audit's platform, audit working papers are digital documents that record evidence gathered during the audit process. These papers serve as the foundation for audit findings and opinions. 1Audit's software facilitates the management of these working papers by offering features such as:

Document Management: Easily upload, organize, and link documents to relevant work papers using drag-and-drop functionality.

Collaboration Tools: Manage communications, queries, and documents in one central location, allowing simultaneous auditor access and flexible user permissions.

Compliance Management: Access up-to-date regulatory content and best practice materials, focusing on essential procedures and facilitating the creation of customized review templates.

Cloud-Based Accessibility: Access audit files securely from any location at any time, ensuring data protection and adherence to auditing standards.

These features collectively enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of managing audit working papers within the 1Audit platform.

#types of audit software #software used for auditing #audit software systems #audit workpaper software #audit accounting software #data audit software #easy audit software

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1auditmanagementsoftware · 1 month ago

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Audit Planning Software

1Audit's Audit Planning Software helps streamline the audit planning process by providing tools for document control, team collaboration, and compliance management. It allows users to organize and manage audit documents securely, ensures efficient communication among audit teams, and supports adherence to professional standards. The software is cloud-based, enabling secure access to audit files from anywhere, making the planning process more efficient and organized.

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1auditmanagementsoftware · 1 month ago

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Audit Management Software

Upgrade Your Audit Processes with 1Audit - Your Ultimate External Audit Management Software Solution! Our cutting-edge audit management system simplifies complex auditing tasks, streamlining your workflow for efficiency and accuracy. With 1Audit, experience seamless integration, real-time collaboration, and comprehensive reporting capabilities, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards effortlessly. From risk assessment to audit planning and execution, our software provides the tools you need to conduct audits with precision and confidence. Embrace the future of audit management with 1Audit.Elevate your auditing experience with 1Audit - the ultimate audit management solution.

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lisarprahl · 7 years ago

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More Than 30 Years After Its Debut, Many Controllers Still Head Over Heels for Excel

When Microsoft Corp. released its spreadsheet program, Excel for Windows (Excel 2.0), in late 1987, Lotus 1-2-3 was all the rage. “Among numbers-crunching accountants, corporate planners and business school students, the program has developed the kind of loyal following usually reserved for Madonna and the Boston Red Sox,” the New York Times wrote on Oct. 2, 1987.

In that article, Jeff Raikes, then director of marketing applications programs at Microsoft, said about Excel, “We don’t expect [it] to make a huge impact right away. But we are heading into a technology transition, and over the long term we have a major opportunity.”

Controllers, get your team better prepared to tackle your month-end close by downloading these best practice Excel reconciliation templates from FloQast.

But it didn’t take Microsoft long to knock Lotus off the top of the spreadsheet mountain. Within a year after Excel 2.0 debuted, its sales began outstripping Lotus 1-2-3, according to Excel guru David Ringstrom, CPA. IBM eventually pulled the plug on Lotus 1-2-3 in 2013; meanwhile, Excel continues to have a rabid fan base, with more than 750 million users worldwide, according to some estimates. There’s even an international Microsoft Excel championship (although the competition is limited to ages 13 to 22).

It’s no secret that accounting and finance professionals are among the most loyal to the iconic spreadsheet program, mostly because it’s fast, powerful, straightforward, and easy to use. According to the 2017 Benchmarking the Accounting & Finance Function report from the Financial Executives Research Foundation and Robert Half, 69% of U.S. companies still use Excel as their primary budgeting and planning tool.

��It’s a fantastic tool for tracking, analyzing, troubleshooting, modeling, and summarizing data,” said Jason Page, corporate controller of Provo, Utah-based Chatbooks, a subscription-based service that automatically turns digital photos into photo books. “I can quickly see and understand the summarized data, trace through formulas, understand what’s happening without much explanation, and ultimately see/touch/feel the underlying data. And it’s beyond easy to sort, filter, pivot, and chart information.”

Accountants’ loyalty even stretches outside the walls of their cubicles and offices.

“I wrote a children’s book and brought it to a publisher for review, and I was the only person who ever brought them a draft of a book in Excel, not a Word document,” said Eva Wells, CPA, corporate controller at Turck Inc., a Minneapolis-based company that specializes in connectivity and sensor products.

Why Excel is still relevant

But as more cloud-based financial software programs (and even database software solutions) hit the market, I asked Wells, Page, and a handful of other controllers what makes a manual-intensive tool like Excel still popular and relevant among accounting and finance teams in this age of automation.

“It’s the same reason why CAD [computer-aided design] software is popular for engineers who need to design and build things. We need to design and build things with numbers, and Excel is a very user-friendly tool to use for that purpose,” said Wells, an Excel user for nearly 25 years. “Even though you can theoretically create a report for most anything from your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system using business intelligence, it might not be able to be done fast enough, and it might not be flexible enough, to allow you to analyze thoroughly. You can build anything in Excel fast.”

Another reason is Excel provides a standard language that most people can understand, said Fred Butterweck, CPA, corporate controller of New York-based Clickspring Design, a multidisciplinary design firm. Because Excel is relatively intuitive, a person doesn’t need several years of training to become proficient with it, he added.

“Because of its linear format, Excel forces you to organize data in a logical and straightforward manner,” said Butterweck, who’s been using Excel professionally since 2000. “An important feature of Excel is that it allows the user to retrace his or her steps by looking at the formulas. Most importantly, it allows users to retrace someone else’s steps if they didn’t create the spreadsheet.”

And Butterweck added that Excel is relatively cheap and doesn’t have implementation or setup costs like some business intelligence platforms. Microsoft Office 365 Business and Business Premium plans cost between $8.25 and $12.50 a month, and customers on either plan get access to applications like Excel, Word, and PowerPoint, among others.

“The Cheesecake Factory of financial tools”

The versatile range of Excel’s capabilities—“from simply logging data and preparing reports, to running complex scenario analyses, to troubleshooting and normalizing data”—is one of the things Page loves about the tool.

“If I can imagine it, I can probably do it in Excel. I’ve even used Excel as a CAD program to map out my home sprinkler system,” said Page, who’s used Excel professionally since 2003. “While it may not be best-in-class in any specific isolated area, it performs a large array of functions. It’s the Cheesecake Factory of financial tools.”

Here are some other things controllers told me they love about Excel:

Pivot tables: “Excel has made the pivot table functionality incredibly simple,” Butterweck said. “When distributing reports and analyses, having the underlying data available by one click really helps the users of the reports understand what’s behind the numbers they’re analyzing.”

Goal Seek function: “This is a ‘what if’ function in the Data menu that allows you to quickly find out what input you need to arrive at a certain result,” Wells said. “The possibilities are endless in accounting for situations where this is useful. For example, if you input two amounts in two different cells for revenue and expense, and then make a formula to calculate income, you could then run Goal Seek to determine what your expense target needs to be in order to achieve the income you want given a fixed revenue number.”

Formula Auditing tool: Formula Auditing can be found by clicking on the Formulas ribbon tab. “You can trace dependents or precedents to see which other cells are connected to the cell you’re looking at,” Wells said. “It’s very useful when you’re making sure a spreadsheet was set up properly from a reviewer point of view. You can review faster.”

Integrates well with other programs: “A good example is how Excel data can greatly increase the efficiency of data input into accounting systems, such as QuickBooks, SAP, or Workday, just to name a few,” Butterweck said. “Rather than spending hours booking journal entries, creating vendor records, and entering invoices, you can just create an Excel sheet and import everything with a few clicks.”

FloQast designed and built a cloud-based close management software platform that closes the gaps between Excel spreadsheets and ERP systems, said co-founder Michael Whitmire.

“With FloQast, your reconciliation workpapers are still in Excel format stored in cloud document storage that you own (Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Egnyte, etc.). FloQast sits in the middle, tying together your spreadsheets, checklists, and ERP trial balance,” he wrote in a blog.

With this approach, accountants get the familiarity of working within a tool like Excel but integrated with the actual results that are coming from the business’ operations.

Creative spreadsheet design: “I like being creative in design in the non-creative world of accounting,” said David Rosso, controller, Massachusetts/Midwest Accounting Division of City Electric Supply, an electrical wholesale distributor, who’s been using Excel for 24 years and considers himself a power user. “Designing a spreadsheet for non-financial people to see and to understand is a creative outlet.”

Defending against the Excel backlash

But there’ve been recent defections from Excel Nation, as the Wall Street Journal reported last November. Some CFOs are ditching Excel for their financial planning, analysis, and reporting, opting instead for cloud-based financial software programs that have capitalized on Excel’s weaknesses, touting better data management, analytics, and transparency; collaboration across departments within a single document; and process automation that reduces administrative tasks and errors.

Kolleen Gibson, controller at Boston-based Invaluable, an online marketplace of fine and decorative arts, antiques, and collectibles, said it’s unfair to compare Excel with the specialized technologies mentioned in the Wall Street Journal article.

“Excel is an all-purpose tool, and spreadsheets are built by the users,” said Gibson, who’s been an Excel user since 1990. “Of course, a customized, professionally built and tested tool would be better than something built in Excel. But the article does mention that all these tools have an ‘export to Excel’ feature, so they don’t really make Excel obsolete.”

While cloud-based technologies are “great” and allow users to analyze and crunch data faster, what they don’t have is direct access to granular data, said Marc Baumann, CPA, controller at Sweetwater, a Fort Wayne, Ind.-based music technology and instrument retailer.

“I enjoy having the base data in front of me and being able to alter as I see fit,” said Baumann, who has used Excel professionally for nine years. “I also think ad hoc report generation is more efficient in Excel than these cloud-based databases.”

CFOs said in the Wall Street Journal article that Excel hasn’t kept up with the demands of today’s accounting and finance teams, but that hasn’t been the case at Zipwhip, a Seattle-based business texting provider, according to Controller Ryan Letson.

“From my perspective, Excel has kept up with the demands of my team and I,” said Letson, who’s used Excel professionally for 12 years. “There aren’t many projects or tasks that I take on or assign to my team that cannot be done in Excel.”

Excel skills no longer a priority?

A recent survey by Adaptive Insights, a provider of cloud-based financial software, revealed that CFOs no longer rate Excel proficiency as the most important skill for finance professionals.

According to the survey, only 7% of finance chiefs list Excel skills as important for new hires, and just 5% considered proficiency in Excel as the top skill for their financial planning and analysis teams, down significantly from 78% two years ago.

But Rosso said he tells his team members that there will always be a job for them in accounting or finance because of their knowledge of Excel.

“I tell my employees all the time that no matter what, and wherever you go from here, your Excel education can’t be taken away from you,” he said. “It’s not always easy to find an employee who has experience in Peachtree [Sage 50 Accounting], QuickBooks, SAP, or name any other accounting software as there are hundreds. But there’s only one Excel.”

In a future article, we’ll look at some of the cloud-based financial software platforms that are competing with Excel for accounting and finance teams’ financial planning, analysis, and reporting needs.

Discover how your team can make the most of Excel for your month-end close in this white paper from FloQast. You can read more about Going Concern’s partnership with FloQast here.

Image: iStock/Gearstd

The post More Than 30 Years After Its Debut, Many Controllers Still Head Over Heels for Excel appeared first on Going Concern.

from Accounting News http://goingconcern.com/controllers-love-excel-inchan-sponcon/

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ashleydpalmerusa · 7 years ago

Text

More Than 30 Years After Its Debut, Many Controllers Still Head Over Heels for Excel

Controllers, get your team better prepared to tackle your month-end close by downloading these best practice Excel reconciliation templates from FloQast.

“It’s a fantastic tool for tracking, analyzing, troubleshooting, modeling, and summarizing data,” said Jason Page, corporate controller of Provo, Utah-based Chatbooks, a subscription-based service that automatically turns digital photos into photo books. “I can quickly see and understand the summarized data, trace through formulas, understand what’s happening without much explanation, and ultimately see/touch/feel the underlying data. And it’s beyond easy to sort, filter, pivot, and chart information.”

Accountants’ loyalty even stretches outside the walls of their cubicles and offices.

Why Excel is still relevant

“The Cheesecake Factory of financial tools”

Here are some other things controllers told me they love about Excel:

FloQast designed and built a cloud-based close management software platform that closes the gaps between Excel spreadsheets and ERP systems, said co-founder Michael Whitmire.

With this approach, accountants get the familiarity of working within a tool like Excel but integrated with the actual results that are coming from the business’ operations.

Defending against the Excel backlash

Excel skills no longer a priority?

A recent survey by Adaptive Insights, a provider of cloud-based financial software, revealed that CFOs no longer rate Excel proficiency as the most important skill for finance professionals.

But Rosso said he tells his team members that there will always be a job for them in accounting or finance because of their knowledge of Excel.

Discover how your team can make the most of Excel for your month-end close in this white paper from FloQast. You can read more about Going Concern’s partnership with FloQast here.

Image: iStock/Gearstd

The post More Than 30 Years After Its Debut, Many Controllers Still Head Over Heels for Excel appeared first on Going Concern.

from Accounting News http://goingconcern.com/controllers-love-excel-inchan-sponcon/

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