Corporate Finance & Accounting
Corporate Spreadsheet Challenges With over 200 million users worldwide, Microsoft Excel is perhaps the most ubiquitous analysis and management reporting tool on the planet. Spreadsheets are used every day in organizations across the globe to drive critical business decisions. Yet, this power and ubiquity can expose organizations to unacceptable business risks when critical spreadsheets and other end-user computing applications such as Microsoft Access databases, are used in uncontrolled environments.
For CFOs, controllers and finance executives, these spreadsheet risks can include inaccurate account balances, errors in the financial reporting process, lost earnings, non-compliance with regulatory mandates such as SOX 404, and shattered shareholder confidence.
Auditor Guidance on Spreadsheet Controls Leading tax and audit firms such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, and Ernst & Young are now recommending a new set of internal controls to help finance and accounting organizations minimize this risk, including:
- Documentation
- Change control
- Version control
- Security and access control
- Input control
- Data integrity
- Software development lifecycle
- Back-ups and archival
- Logic inspection
- Segregation of duties/roles/procedures
- Overall analytics
Used collectively, these controls provide a sustainable and effective internal control framework for critical spreadsheets ensuring that financial data and spreadsheets are secure, trusted and always maintained with the highest level of integrity throughout their lifecycle, from creation to destruction.
Automating Spreadsheet Risk & Compliance Management The Prodiance Spreadsheet Compliance Edition is a comprehensive technology solution that incorporates all of these key controls and is based on best practices developed through a successful history of implementation projects at leading global organizations. The Prodiance Spreadsheet Compliance Edition helps organizations automate the Spreadsheet Compliance Lifecycle, from inventory, and risk assessment, to remediation, management and control, and automation and monitoring.
The Prodiance Spreadsheet Compliance Edition is a proven technology solution that exceeds recent guidance from leading tax and audit firms, and provides a sustainable infrastructure to help organizations automate internal controls over business critical spreadsheets. For end users, there is little or no impact to existing business processes and spreadsheet performance because the solution is based on a web based (zero client) user interface.
Proven ROI This web based approach minimizes the cost and resource impact to IT organizations because there is no software installation required on client PCs. Bottom line benefits include effective spreadsheet risk mitigation, improved compliance, increased visibility, and better productivity for end users.