Auditing spreadsheets: With or without a tool?
This addresses spreadsheet error issues for auditors, but it is incremental as it builds on existing tools and research.
The paper examined the value of the PerfectXL tool for auditing spreadsheets by visualizing dependencies and identifying errors, finding that auditors perceived it as making audits more effective and efficient, with visualization being highly supportive but risk features less so.
Spreadsheets are known to be error-prone. Over the last decade, research has been done to determine the causes of the high rate of errors in spreadsheets. This paper examines the added value of a spreadsheet tool (PerfectXL) that visualizes spreadsheet dependencies and determines possible errors in spreadsheets by defining risk areas based on previous work. This paper will firstly discuss the most common mistakes in spreadsheets. Then we will summarize research on spreadsheet tools, focussing on the PerfectXL tool. To determine the perceptions of the usefulness of a spreadsheet tool in general and the PerfectXL tool in particular, we have shown the functionality of PerfectXL to several auditors and have also interviewed them. The results of these interviews indicate that spreadsheet tools support a more effective and efficient audit of spreadsheets; the visualization feature in particular is mentioned by the auditors as being highly supportive for their audit task, whereas the risk feature was deemed of lesser value.