ACL Galvanized Diligent Scripting

This course is intended to help scripters support internal audit departments and improve their testing processes, and reviews the scripting process from planning to development to interactivity and export. Participants will review the basics of data mining, including how data mining can be used to support audit initiatives. Participants will also work to hone their decision-making skills with respect to data mining and assess how audit objectives align with the data mining process.

This course covers topics associated with script planning, including file formats, file import naming conventions, import types, and associated file clean-up. Once planning is complete, this course reviews files and commands that can improve script development and efficiency. Finally, participants will review different methods and best practices for improving script interactivity, including variables, date ranges, filters, and operators. The course includes several live demonstrations that directly correlate to real-world scenarios that scripters and Internal Auditors will face in the field.

Why you should take this course.

For users with an introductory knowledge of this topic, and are searching for additional information and its application.

Here are the learning objectives we'll cover.

• Plan the Data Mining Script Environment — File Location, File Naming Conventions, File Structure — for best utility.
• Develop the main script and import script with a structure that enables users to filter for the data they need, which is especially important for large data repositories.
• Make the scripts interactive with dialog boxes so that filters may be imposed at an early stage of the process.

Here are the topics we'll cover.

1. Planning Your Data Mining Script

   • Basics of Data Mining
   • Questions About Data Mining
   • Available File Formats
   • File Naming Conventions
   • Single File Import
   • Multi-File Import
   • Appending Multiple Files
   • Clean Up, Distribution, and Security Issues

2. Developing Your Data Mining Script

   • Scripting the Import: One Instance of the Data
   • Excel and Access Files
   • CSV and Delimited Files
   • Database Files
   • Flat Files
   • Scripting a Mutli-File Import: Directory Command
   • Scripting a Multi-File Import: Looping
   • To Append or Not to Append

3. Making Your Scripts Interactive

   • Planning the Interactivity
   • Considering the Variables
   • Establishing Variables
   • Variable Substitution
   • Using Start and End Dates
   • The Intricacies of Date Variable Formats
   • Setting Up Other Fields as Filters
   • Naming Results Using Variables