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Secure Transaction CPE Credits
1 Credits: Auditing
1 Credits: Computer Software & Applications
Course Level
Overview
Format
Self-Study
Course Description
Microsoft Excel provides some easy to use tools that can greatly enhance and expedite the fraud audit process. With all detective work, you want to be able to sift through a large volume of data and utilize a tool that is adequately flexible for you to perform immediate investigations of anything questionable. Excel provides a number of different tools however we are going to focus on a couple of extremely useful ones such as Auto filter, Conditional formatting and Arrays. WE are also incorporating some lookup functions as well as functions such as COUNTIF,WEEKDAY(), IFERROR(), IFNA(), and MOD().
Another tool used in fraud audits that does not necessarily require Excel, but can be used in conjunction with Excel, is Benford’s Law. Benford’s law is based on an observation that in certain large data sets, certain digits appear more frequently than others. By comparing the distribution of first digits in some accounting data, this tool can assist you in determining where more investigation is necessary by helping to pinpoint where data may have been contrived through fraud.
There is an accompanying Excel file so that you can walk through all the exercises. Answer sheets immediately follow.
Learning Objectives
Upon successful completion of this course, participants will be able to:
- Recognize and identify when Auto Filter and conditional formatting may be utilized to highlight exceptions
- Recognize how to use lookup functions and IFERROR/IFNA functions when comparing lists
- Recognize different array formulas that are useful for comparing lists and displaying data
- Identify and eliminate duplicate items
- Identify gaps in a sequence using Excel
- Recognize Benford’s Law and how it to apply it
Course Specifics
SS926476507
May 12, 2026
There are no prerequisites.
None
77
Compliance Information
CFP Notice: Not all courses that qualify for CFP® credit are registered by Western CPE. If a course does not have a CFP registration number in the compliance section, the continuing education will need to be individually reported with the CFP Board. For more information on the reporting process, required documentation, processing fee, etc., contact the CFP Board. CFP Professionals must take each course in it’s entirety, the CFP Board DOES NOT accept partial credits for courses.
Meet The Experts
Joseph Helstrom, CPA, is a partner at CFO Resources, LLC, a company focused on training and courseware for CPAs. He’s also the owner of Mill Creek Publishing LLC. Joe has over 30 years of experience as a CPA in both public accounting and industry, with extensive experience in financial reporting and analysis, treasury, tax, information technology, legal and regulatory matters, and strategic planning. After graduation from Butler University with a degree in accounting, Joe got his start at Ernst & Young. Subsequent to that, he has served for several different companies as a chief financial officer; director of treasury and …
QAS Self-Study
