Frequent Questions
Do your auditing tools modify our spreadsheets?
Absolutely not. More impressively our technology does not even require Excel to be installed. Even spreadsheets with auto-start macros can be opened without danger of the underlying document being modified.
Can you only audit Excel spreadsheets?
We are able to audit other conformant spreadsheets, such as Open Office and Google Spreadsheets.
How do you perform the spreadsheet inventory process, and how long does it take?
We would of course need to be on-site to perform the inventory process, and also have read access to the areas in your organisation that you require scanning. Normally, for this process our tools can parse and analyse a spreadsheet in under 10 seconds. Some, much larger models (over 50MB in size), may take several minutes.
What about the deep dive analysis process? Could this be performed offsite?
Definitely. Once we are in possession of the spreadsheets we could perform the forensic activities off site. If you prefer, the spreadsheets could even be emailed to us. Deep dive analysis is a longer process and the time is dependent on the size and complexity of each spreadsheet. Even with the assistance of automated tools it may take up to one day for a relatively large spreadsheet (for instance more than 25,000 formulae, more than 20 worksheets).
We respect your privacy and do not store any information you give us, or pass the information on to 3rd parties.
What sort of rules could be implemented in the rules engine?
Rules can be applied at many levels:
- Workbook level, such as author name and title
- Worksheet level, such as restricting sheet count and sheet visibility
- Formula level, such as restricting function use, formula count, Nested IF depth, array formulas, etc.
- Cell level, such as cell maximum and minimum values, restricting cells types such as dates or visiblity status
- Named Range level, such as restricting duplicates and those referencing external sources
- Other attributes such as VBA Macros, validations and conditional formatting
Rules can be used to pinpoint complex spreadsheets or those that break standard company procedures.
