Professional Documents
Culture Documents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
SECTION 2
SUMMARY TABLE
Test Title
#
Description
Findings
Verify if an
expense exceeded
20% above
approved amount
Overlapping trip
dates verification
Use filter-to-filter
Employees name (A-Z)
then filter travel start date
(oldest to newest). Use
the difference formula to
find difference between
travel start day and travel
end day.
We found 2 violations:
- Marie Redwood traveled to
Miami from 8/29/16-9/1/16
which she filed expense for but
then she filed another expense of
her trip she took to Atlanta from
8/30/16-9/3/16
- William Davis traveled to
Charlotte from 4/21/16-4/22/16
which he filed expense for but
then he filed another expense of
her trip she took to Tallahassee
from 4/21/15-4/25/15
Mileage
verification
Compared mileage
expense with cities
mileage. Determined
violations using IF
function
Determine if an
expense is over
double the
average
Airfare:155
Hotel: 57
Taxi: 207
Determine if
contradicting
expenses occur in
one trip.
Trip approval
verification
Validate
salesperson
Verify that
expense dates
align with
approval dates
Verify if a
salesperson often
spends more than
approved amount
(compared to
others)
10
perdiem
verification
---------
---------
--------
12
13
Numbers of trips
that were
approved by each
manager for each
employee
14
Multiple
employees
traveling to the
same place at the
same time
Used VLOOKUP
function as well as Pivot
table to find the City that
multiple employees were
traveling that the same
time.
15
Manager approval
should occur before
the trip commences
16
Expense should
be submitted after
end of trip
17
Multiple trips
cannot use the
same approval
code.
Conditional Formatting
was used to identify
duplicate approval
numbers.
18
Longest times
between the
approval date and
travel start date
19
20
Conditional Formatting
was used to identify if
expenses were submitted
more than once.
21
Verify if max
amount approved
for each
salesperson
exceeds 10% of
average
22
Finding
employees who
travel to the same
city often
23
Verify if hotel
expense per night
exceeding 35%
above average for
particular city
SECTION 3
Test 1: Verify if an expense exceeded 20% above approved amount
We found 5 trips that have total expenses exceeded 20% of the maximum amount approved
associated with following Expenseno and Salespersons: Jennifer Hill (5640619), William David
(5640626), Maria Garcia (5641055 & 5641337) and Marie Redwood (5641104).
These finding highly indicate frauds. We noticed that some of the trips spent more than double
the amount approved. Management should investigate associated trips and employees to find out
if frauds were committed.
Steps:
Raw findings:
Raw findings:
Expense
no.
Approval no.
verification
Travel Start
Travel End
5641681
8/29/2016
9/1/2016
125124
5641690
5640786
5640790
8/30/2016
4/21/2015
4/21/2015
9/3/2016
4/22/2015
4/25/2015
125137
124234
124240
salespersons'
names
Marie
Redwood
Marie
Redwood
William Davis
William Davis
Destination
Miami
Atlanta
Charlotte
Tallahassee
violation
violation
When checking if any mileage submitted was over the calculated distance located in the cities
table, two violations came up.
A trip to Miami, according to the cities mileage data, should have totaled 280 miles. Yet, Marie
Redwood submitted mileage for Miami that totaled 372.6, resulting in a violation of 92.6 mile.
Mileage for a trip taken to Jacksonville should have totaled 203. Yet, Susan Lee submitted
mileage to Jacksonville that totaled 226.8, resulting in a violation of 23.8 miles.
All other mileage submitted fell below the approved destination city mileage. With that being
said, further investigation is needed to determine why Marie Redwood and Susan Lee went over
the approved mileage.
Steps:
-
Used VLOOKUP to combined needed mileage information in the cities tab with the
submitted mileage from each employee.
o =VLOOKUP(Sheet2!C464,Cities!$A$1:$B$9,2,FALSE)
= IF function was used to determine violations
o =IF(B464>D464,"VIOLATION",".")
If mileage submitted is greater than distance, VIOLATION
Raw Findings
Approvalno
124507
124500
Mileage
372.6
226.8
Destination
Miami
Jacksonville
Distance
280
203
OVER VIOLATION
VIOLATION
VIOLATION
salespersons' names
Marie Redwood
Susan Lee
Test 4: Test for expenses that were over the double average. Hotel, airfare, taxi
Steps:
- Average was calculated for airfare, hotel and taxi by using = Average function. Each
average was then multiplied by 2 in order to test whether any expense was over double
the average.
- Used the =IF function for each to then determine those that fell within VIOLATION
range.
o Any expenses that were greater than the double the average showed as violation.
- Conditional Formatting was then used to highlight the violations in red in order to
analyze data in a clearer format.
o Conditional formatting Highlight Cell Rules Text that Contains
VIOLATION highlight red
Test 5: Determine if contradicting expenses occur in one trip.
We found that several trips have contradicting expenses such as AirFare and Milage, Milage and
Taxi, as well as CarRental and Taxi. Upon further inspection, we noticed those contradicting
expenses mainly associate with James Smith. Employee Susan Lee and Maria Garcia violate this
test once and Marie Redwood violates three times.
These findings highly indicate reimburse frauds. It is impossible to have these contradicting
expenses occur in one trips. These employees either spent money on unnecessary services or
falsely claimed fake expense to get reimbursement.
Steps:
Raw findings:
Use VLOOKUP function determine if approvalno in the travel_expenses sheet are valid
using data from the approvals sheet
Use VLOOKUP function to determine if any of the valid approvalno in the approvals
sheet is not on the travel_expenses sheet. Filter out #N/A
Use COUNTIF function to determine if an approvalno in the travel_expenses sheet
duplicated. Filter out TRUE
Raw findings:
Test 9: Verify if a salesperson often spends more than approved amount (compared to
others)
We found that all employees overspend about 63 times on average, ranging from 51 to 68 times.
None of them seems to overspend more often than another.
There is no indication of frauds. However, the company may need to tighten up its policy to
make sure employees do not spends more than the maximum amount approved so often.
Steps:
SUM the total expense of each trip.
Use VLOOKUP function to look for maximum amount and employees names in the
approvals sheet based on approvalno
Use IF to show names the employees that spent more than maximum amount on a new
column called Overspending Employees for all the trips.
Use pivot table to count how many times a name appears in the overspending column.
Filter out blank value from the table.
Raw findings:
Raw findings:
Blue highlighted cells are manually computed perdiem rate based on TravelStart and TravelEnd.
Yellow highlighted cell indicates Perdiem violation.
Test 11
TravelEnd
1/12/2015
1/13/2015
1/11/2015
1/9/2015
1/16/2015
1/11/2015
1/13/2015
1/17/2015
1/15/2015
1
Saturday
Sunday
.
Sunday
.
.
2
.
.
.
4
.
.
Saturday
5
.
.
Sunday
.
.
.
.
.
Sunday
Saturday
saturday
.
Sunday
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Sales Person
Jennifer Hill
Maria Garcia
Mary Moore
Robert
Johnson
Maria Garcia
Marie
1/17/2015
1/9/2015
1/13/2015
1/17/2015
1/17/2015
1/18/2015
1/17/2015
1/18/2015
1/13/2015
1/17/2015
1/20/2015
1/20/2015
1/20/2015
1/20/2015
saturday
.
.
saturday
saturday
sunday
saturday
sunday
Saturday
.
sunday
sunday
.
sunday
.
Sunday
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
saturday
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
1/17/2015
1/21/2015
1/18/2015
1/22/2015
1/22/2015
1/25/2015
1/23/2015
1/26/2015
saturday
.
sunday
.
sunday
.
.
.
.
.
.
saturday
.
saturday
.
sunday
.
sunday
.
.
.
.
.
.
1/22/2015
1/19/2015
1/25/2015
1/21/2015
1/23/2015
1/24/2015
1/29/2015
1/25/2015
1/24/2015
1/27/2015
1/26/2015
1/25/2015
1/29/2015
1/31/2015
.
.
sunday
.
.
saturday
.
.
.
.
.
saturday
sunday
.
saturday
.
.
.
sunday
.
saturday
sunday
.
.
saturday
.
.
.
.
.
.
sunday
.
.
.
.
saturday
.
.
.
.
.
1/23/2015
1/27/2015
saturday
sunday
1/28/2015
1/28/2015
1/30/2015
1/31/2015
2/2/2015
1/31/2015
.
.
.
.
.
saturday
.
.
.
saturday
saturday
.
.
sunday
.
.
.
.
2/1/2015
2/1/2015
1/28/2015
2/3/2015
2/3/2015
2/2/2015
sunday
sunday
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
saturday
.
.
sunday
.
.
.
1/29/2015
1/31/2015
saturday
2/1/2015
1/30/2015
1/30/2015
2/4/2015
1/31/2015
2/6/2015
2/4/2015
2/3/2015
2/3/2015
2/9/2015
2/4/2015
2/10/2015
sunday
.
.
.
saturday
.
.
saturday
saturday
.
sunday
saturday
.
sunday
sunday
.
.
sunday
.
.
.
saturday
.
.
.
.
.
sunday
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
2/6/2015
2/7/2015
2/8/2015
2/3/2015
2/6/2015
2/7/2015
2/8/2015
2/9/2015
2/8/2015
2/7/2015
.
saturday
sunday
.
.
saturday
sunday
.
.
saturday
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
saturday
.
.
.
.
sunday
.
2/7/2015
2/6/2015
2/13/2015
2/12/2015
2/10/2015
2/9/2015
2/14/2015
2/15/2015
saturday
.
.
.
sunday
saturday
saturday
.
.
sunday
.
saturday
.
.
.
sunday
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Redwood
Robert
Johnson
William Davis
Susan Taylor
Jennifer Hill
William Davis
Tom Anderson
Mary Moore
Marie
Redwood
Maria Garcia
Susan Lee
Mary Moore
Robert
Johnson
Susan Taylor
Susan Taylor
William Davis
Jennifer Hill
Tom Anderson
James Smith
Marie
Redwood
Robert
Johnson
Jennifer Hill
Maria Garcia
Marie
Redwood
Maria Garcia
Susan Taylor
Marie
Redwood
Robert
Johnson
William Davis
Mary Moore
William Davis
Tom Anderson
Susan Taylor
Marie
Redwood
Susan Lee
Tom Anderson
James Smith
Jennifer Hill
Robert
Johnson
Mary Moore
Jennifer Hill
Tom Anderson
2/11/2015
2/14/2015
2/13/2015
2/14/2015
2/15/2015
2/16/2015
.
saturday
.
.
sunday
saturday
.
.
sunday
saturday
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
2/14/2015
2/12/2015
2/14/2015
2/13/2015
2/16/2015
2/14/2015
2/16/2015
2/17/2015
saturday
.
saturday
.
sunday
.
sunday
saturday
.
saturday
.
sunday
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
2/20/2015
2/23/2015
saturday
sunday
2/17/2015
2/20/2015
2/21/2015
2/17/2015
2/20/2015
2/21/2015
2/20/2015
2/21/2015
2/26/2015
2/28/2015
2/20/2015
2/24/2015
2/25/2015
2/25/2015
2/28/2015
3/1/2015
3/4/2015
2/22/2015
2/25/2015
2/26/2015
2/21/2015
2/22/2015
2/22/2015
2/25/2015
2/23/2015
2/28/2015
3/2/2015
2/25/2015
2/28/2015
2/28/2015
3/1/2015
3/2/2015
3/5/2015
3/7/2015
.
.
saturday
.
.
saturday
.
saturday
.
saturday
.
.
.
.
saturday
sunday
.
.
saturday
sunday
.
saturday
sunday
saturday
sunday
.
sunday
saturday
.
.
.
sunday
.
.
.
sunday
.
.
sunday
.
sunday
.
saturday
.
sunday
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
saturday
saturday
.
.
saturday
saturday
.
.
saturday
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
saturday
.
sunday
.
.
.
sunday
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
2/26/2015
3/3/2015
saturday
sunday
2/25/2015
3/2/2015
saturday
sunday
3/6/2015
3/6/2015
3/4/2015
3/1/2015
3/3/2015
3/7/2015
3/8/2015
3/9/2015
3/5/2015
3/7/2015
.
.
.
sunday
.
saturday
saturday
.
.
.
.
sunday
.
.
.
.
.
saturday
.
.
.
.
sunday
.
saturday
.
.
.
.
.
3/3/2015
3/6/2015
3/6/2015
3/7/2015
3/4/2015
3/10/2015
3/11/2015
3/7/2015
3/9/2015
3/8/2015
3/9/2015
3/9/2015
3/14/2015
3/14/2015
.
.
.
saturday
.
.
.
.
saturday
saturday
sunday
.
.
.
.
sunday
sunday
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
saturday
.
saturday
saturday
.
.
.
sunday
saturday
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
3/8/2015
3/13/2015
3/15/2015
3/11/2015
3/11/2015
3/15/2015
3/18/2015
3/16/2015
sunday
.
sunday
.
.
saturday
.
.
.
sunday
.
.
.
.
.
saturday
.
.
.
sunday
.
.
.
.
Marie
Redwood
James Smith
Mary Moore
Robert
Johnson
William Davis
Maria Garcia
Susan Taylor
Robert
Johnson
Marie
Redwood
William Davis
Susan Taylor
Susan Lee
Tom Anderson
Mary Moore
Jennifer Hill
Maria Garcia
Susan Lee
William Davis
James Smith
Tom Anderson
Maria Garcia
Mary Moore
James Smith
Susan Taylor
Tom Anderson
Marie
Redwood
Robert
Johnson
Marie
Redwood
James Smith
Maria Garcia
Jennifer Hill
William Davis
Robert
Johnson
Susan Taylor
Jennifer Hill
Mary Moore
Susan Lee
Susan Taylor
Jennifer Hill
Marie
Redwood
James Smith
William Davis
Robert
3/12/2015
3/17/2015
saturday
sunday
3/13/2015
3/14/2015
3/15/2015
3/20/2015
3/21/2015
3/18/2015
3/17/2015
3/18/2015
3/19/2015
3/23/2015
3/24/2015
3/22/2015
.
saturday
sunday
.
saturday
.
saturday
sunday
.
saturday
sunday
.
sunday
.
.
sunday
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
saturday
.
.
.
.
.
sunday
.
.
.
.
.
.
3/19/2015
3/22/2015
3/26/2015
3/23/2015
3/25/2015
3/29/2015
.
sunday
.
.
.
.
saturday
.
saturday
sunday
.
sunday
.
.
.
.
.
.
3/20/2015
3/21/2015
3/25/2015
3/24/2015
.
saturday
saturday
sunday
sunday
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Johnson
Maria Garcia
Marie
Redwood
Tom Anderson
Susan Lee
Susan Lee
William Davis
Jennifer Hill
Robert
Johnson
Tom Anderson
Tom Anderson
Marie
Redwood
Maria Garcia
Test 13: Numbers of trips that were approved by each manager for each employee
We found that the total amount of trips that was taken by all employees was 1301. 129, 130,
4141, 130, 125, 133, 134, 136, 131 and 112 is total amount of trips taken by Spno 1001, 1002,
1003, 1004, 1005, 1006, 1007, 1008, 1009 and 1010 respectively. 325, 317, 328 and 331 is the
number of trips that was approved by managers 11, 12, 13 and 14 respectively.
We do not think it is a strong indicator of fraud because there was no unusual number of times
salesperson being approved by any/same manager because the numbers were consistent. Spno
(James Smith) 1010 was travelling less than other Sales person, he only took 112 trips; and
maybe that is something to be looked at.
Steps:
Select the whole approval sheet Insert Pivot table (New Worksheet)
Drag approval number to values but make sure it is counting not summing
Drag Spno (Salesperson number) to columns
Drag managerno to row
This will give us the manager number with sales person number and will count how many times
each manager have approved each sales person.
Raw findings:
Test 14: Multiple employees traveling to the same place at the same time
We found 105 dates in which more than one employee traveled to the same cities.
We found that multiple employees traveled to the same location with the same start date, totaling
105 times. We do not think it is a strong indicator of fraud because cities like Miami and Atlanta
are big where a company can have multiple clients so multiple employees could be needed at the
same time.
Steps:
On Travel expense sheet use VLOOKUP to add City name, Spno and Employees name.
VLOOKUP (Lookup_value, Table_array, Col_index, [range_lookup]
For city use the formula =VLOOKUP(C2,approvals!$A$1:$F$1302,5,FALSE)
For Spno use the formula =VLOOKUP(C2,approvals!$A$1:$F$1302,4,FALSE)
For Employees name use the formula
=VLOOKUP(M2,Salespersons!$A$1:$B$13,2,FALSE)
Then Select the whole Travel Expense Sheet Insert Pivot table (New Worksheet)
Drag Travel Start and Spno to Rows
Drag City to Columns
Drag Count of employees to values
This will give us date with each Spno and Citys name while counting how many employees
traveled to that City on the same date. Now select row B to I, select conditional formatting
highlight cell rules greater than 1. There were numbers of violations.
Raw findings:
1. On 1/17/2015 two employees (1005 and 1008) traveled to Miami and two employees (1003
and 1005) traveled to Tallahassee.
2. On 1/21/2015 three employees (1002, 1007 and 1008) traveled to Miami.
3. On 1/30/2015 two employees (1003 and 1007) traveled to Charlotte.
4. On 2/6/2015 two employees (1003 and 1006) traveled to Jacksonville.
5. On 2/12/2015 two employees (1002 and 1004) traveled to Atlanta.
6. On 2/17/2015 two employees (1001 and 1009) traveled to Tallahassee.
7. On 3/6/2015 two employees (1006 and 1008) traveled to Charlotte and two employees (1009
and 1010) traveled to Mobile.
8. On 3/24/2015 two employees (1005 and 1006) traveled to Miami.
9. On 3/35/2015 three employees (1001, 1007 and 1010) traveled to Orlando.
10. On 3/28/2015 two employees (1001 and 1002) traveled to Mobile.
11. On 4/21/2015 two employees (1002 and 1003) traveled to Tallahassee.
12. On 4/29/2015 two employees (1001 and 1009) traveled to Orlando.
13. On 5/4/2015 two employees (1007 and 1009) traveled to Tallahassee.
14. On 5/11/2015 two employees (1005 and 1010) traveled to Atlanta.
15. On 5/14/2015 two employees (1001 and 1006) traveled to Tallahassee.
16. On 5/18/2015 two employees (1004 and 1006) traveled to Jacksonville.
17. On 5/26/2015 two employees (1002 and 1004) traveled to Miami.
18. On 6/3/2015 two employees (1004 and 1008) traveled to Tallahassee.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
Test 15: Manager Approval should occur before the trip commences
We found that multiple employees, on multiple occasions, started their trips before the approvals
were given. A total of 713 trips were started on a date prior to approval.
All employees have committed the violation and numerous occasion, so it seems to be that
management should be playing closer attention to start dates and inform the sales reps what the
correct protocol is. Being that this has been a reoccurring violations, among various sales reps,
no corrective action has been taken.
Steps:
We found the violations by using the VLOOKUP and IF function
First the Expense data was copied into a new worksheet. We used VLOOKUP to get the
approval date and expense information on the same sheet.
= VLOOKUP (Lookup_Value, Table_array, Col_Index, [range_lookup])
= VLOOKUP (C2, approvals!$A$1:$G$1302,2,FALSE)
Lookup_value - C2: Approval # in new sheet
Table_array - approvals!$A$1:$G$1302
Approval sheet: highlight all and hit F4 (absolute reference). This lets excel know
to look for the approval number in the entire approval sheet
Col_Index: 2 (approval date)
Colum is the information you want transferred to the sheet you are working on
Range lookup FALSE
False provides exact answers.
Once all the information needed is in the same sheet we used the = IF function to
determine if start date occurred before the approval date.
= IF: if condition is met, and returns one value if false and another if true
= IF (logical_test, [value if true], [value if flase])
=IF (I2>D2,VIOLATION,.)
Logical_Test: I2 > D2
If approval date is greater than start date that means that the trip occurred prior to
getting authorization
Value if true: VIOLATION
Approvals that occurred on a date after start date will show VIOLATION
Value if False: .
Data returned with . Have no violated the approval prior start date protocol.
Using the filter function, we were able to filter the data of interest
(VIOLATIONS) to then sort the given information based on employee names and
approval dates.
Raw findings:
TravelStart TravelEnd salespersons'
names
Approval
Date
1/5/2015
1/14/2015
1/21/2015
1/26/2015
2/3/2015
1/8/2015
1/19/2015
1/22/2015
1/29/2015
2/9/2015
1/9/2015
1/15/2015
1/23/2015
1/28/2015
2/8/2015
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
Approval
after
start
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
2/14/2015
2/20/2015
3/13/2015
3/16/2015
3/25/2015
4/7/2015
4/17/2015
4/26/2015
5/3/2015
5/11/2015
6/12/2015
8/2/2015
8/7/2015
8/17/2015
8/26/2015
9/8/2015
9/16/2015
9/24/2015
10/4/2015
10/10/2015
10/24/2015
11/1/2015
11/4/2015
11/23/2015
11/29/2015
12/7/2015
12/14/2015
12/26/2015
12/28/2015
1/5/2016
1/17/2016
1/30/2016
2/16/2016
2/29/2016
3/9/2016
3/18/2016
3/27/2016
4/6/2016
4/13/2016
4/26/2016
5/2/2016
5/12/2016
6/1/2016
6/16/2016
6/21/2016
2/15/2015
2/25/2015
3/15/2015
3/19/2015
3/27/2015
4/11/2015
4/18/2015
4/28/2015
5/7/2015
5/15/2015
6/16/2015
8/6/2015
8/12/2015
8/22/2015
8/29/2015
9/11/2015
9/19/2015
9/28/2015
10/9/2015
10/14/2015
10/28/2015
11/2/2015
11/5/2015
11/27/2015
12/1/2015
12/12/2015
12/19/2015
12/27/2015
1/2/2016
1/9/2016
1/20/2016
2/4/2016
2/20/2016
3/5/2016
3/10/2016
3/23/2016
3/31/2016
4/10/2016
4/16/2016
4/28/2016
5/3/2016
5/15/2016
6/5/2016
6/17/2016
6/22/2016
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
2/16/2015
3/2/2015
3/18/2015
3/20/2015
3/29/2015
4/10/2015
4/20/2015
4/28/2015
5/5/2015
5/16/2015
6/15/2015
8/8/2015
8/16/2015
8/23/2015
8/31/2015
9/13/2015
9/20/2015
9/30/2015
10/14/2015
10/17/2015
10/27/2015
11/5/2015
11/5/2015
11/24/2015
12/1/2015
12/15/2015
12/17/2015
12/28/2015
1/3/2016
1/8/2016
1/18/2016
2/6/2016
2/19/2016
3/7/2016
3/10/2016
3/24/2016
4/1/2016
4/8/2016
4/14/2016
4/27/2016
5/3/2016
5/14/2016
6/5/2016
6/18/2016
6/23/2016
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
6/28/2016
7/4/2016
7/20/2016
8/12/2016
8/20/2016
9/11/2016
9/27/2016
10/7/2016
10/15/2016
10/20/2016
10/28/2016
11/5/2016
11/16/2016
11/29/2016
11/24/2016
12/6/2016
12/11/2016
12/26/2016
1/10/2015
1/13/2015
1/21/2015
1/23/2015
1/28/2015
2/6/2015
2/20/2015
3/1/2015
3/6/2015
3/27/2015
4/8/2015
4/13/2015
4/22/2015
4/27/2015
5/7/2015
5/10/2015
5/24/2015
6/3/2015
6/7/2015
6/13/2015
6/19/2015
6/25/2015
7/3/2015
7/5/2015
7/9/2015
7/15/2015
7/22/2015
6/30/2016
7/8/2016
7/24/2016
8/17/2016
8/25/2016
9/15/2016
10/2/2016
10/12/2016
10/18/2016
10/24/2016
10/30/2016
11/9/2016
11/19/2016
12/4/2016
11/28/2016
12/8/2016
12/15/2016
12/31/2016
1/12/2015
1/14/2015
1/22/2015
1/25/2015
2/2/2015
2/7/2015
2/25/2015
3/5/2015
3/8/2015
3/28/2015
4/9/2015
4/16/2015
4/23/2015
4/29/2015
5/9/2015
5/13/2015
5/28/2015
6/5/2015
6/12/2015
6/17/2015
6/24/2015
6/27/2015
7/4/2015
7/7/2015
7/14/2015
7/18/2015
7/26/2015
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
7/1/2016
7/10/2016
7/22/2016
8/22/2016
8/23/2016
9/19/2016
10/2/2016
10/12/2016
10/17/2016
10/22/2016
10/29/2016
11/11/2016
11/18/2016
12/1/2016
12/1/2016
12/7/2016
12/16/2016
12/28/2016
1/11/2015
1/15/2015
1/22/2015
1/28/2015
1/31/2015
2/10/2015
2/25/2015
3/4/2015
3/8/2015
3/28/2015
4/12/2015
4/16/2015
4/23/2015
4/29/2015
5/9/2015
5/16/2015
5/30/2015
6/4/2015
6/15/2015
6/18/2015
6/22/2015
6/28/2015
7/9/2015
7/9/2015
7/19/2015
7/21/2015
7/27/2015
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
7/27/2015
8/12/2015
8/15/2015
8/22/2015
9/7/2015
7/28/2015
8/14/2015
8/19/2015
8/26/2015
9/9/2015
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
7/28/2015
8/14/2015
8/16/2015
8/30/2015
9/9/2015
violation
violation
violation
violation
violation
Test 17: Multiple trips cannot use the same approval code.
We found that one employee, Susan Lee, used approval number 124500 for two different trips to
Jacksonville. One trip started on 9/18/2015 and ended 9/22/2015. The second trip to Jacksonville
has a start date 9/24/2019 and end date 9/27/2015. Being that no two trips can have the same
approval number, further investigation is required. Employee could be attempting to get
reimbursement for a trip that was not approved to begin with.
Steps:
First you must highlight the desired column where you want excel to look for the
duplicated values, Approvalno. Under the HOME tab, CONDITIONAL FORMATING,
HIGHLIGHT CELL RULES, DUPLICATED VALUES
Any duplicated values under the selected column would be returned with light red fill and
dark red text.
Raw findings:
Test 18: Longest times between the approval date and travel start date
We found the 5 longest times between the approval date and travel start date. We also found that
multiple employees started their trips before the trip was approved. Out of 1301 trips only 588
trips were made after the approval date (some trips were made in the same day as the approval
date).
We did not think it as a strong indicator of fraud since 713 trips were made before the approval
date and because of that we think that employees are not aware of the fact that their trip needs to
be approved before they actually take the trip. This can be the result of poor management by the
managers because the managers were not aware that employees were taking the trips before it
has been approved. Employees may not be informed so they might think that this is acceptable.
Steps:
Go to travel expense sheet to add approval date and employees number (Spno) in that
sheet using Vlookup.
VLOOKUP (Lookup_value, Table_array, Col_index, [range_lookup]
To add approval date = VLOOKUP(C2,approvals!$A$1:$F$1302,2,FALSE), this will
add approval date to travel expense sheet.
To add Spno =VLOOKUP(C2,approvals!$A$1:$F$1302,4,FALSE)
We do not need expenses through F to K so we can delete those rows.
So find the time difference between the approval date and travel start date create a
formula
=Travel start date (D2) approval date (F2)
This will give us all the time difference for all the travel dates, but we only the five longest times
so we can filter and only use 2927, 2915, 8 (-8 can be used instead of +8), -9, -10. We can sort it
by ascending to descending.
Raw findings:
Five longest times between the approval and travel start date with the employees number are as
follows:
Test 19: Trips those were just under the threshold for detection (15%-19%)
We found 8 trips that were taken just under the threshold of detection (15-19%) above the
approved amount. We found 5 employees who went over the approval amount but under the
threshold of detection.
We do not think it is a strong indicator as a fraud because as per company policy approval
[amount] is allowed to exceed as long as employees can produce receipts to verify the
expenses
Steps:
Go to Travel expense sheet and add all the expenses (F through K) using SUM function.
=SUM(F2-K2) copy this formula for all trips (row N)
Add approval amount as well as Spno and city to Travel expense sheet using Vlookup
VLOOKUP (Lookup_value, Table_array, Col_index, [range_lookup]
To add approval amount =VLOOKUP(C2,approvals!$A$1:$F$1302,6,FALSE)
row M
To add Spno =VLOOKUP(C2,approvals!$A$1:$F$1302,4,FALSE)
To add city =VLOOKUP(C2,approvals!$A$1:$F$1302,5,FALSE)
Make sure there is approval amount, Spno and city for all the trips.
Raw findings:
Test 21: Verify if max amount approved for each salesperson exceeds 10% of average
We found that none of the employees maximum amounts exceeded the average more than 10%.
This indicates that there is no collusion between the managers approving the maximum amount
and the employees taking the trips.
Steps:
Use VLOOKUP function to look for employees names that correspond with each
approvalno.
Create a pivot table with salespersons names as row and sum of MaxAmount as values
so that it shows the maximum amount approved for each salesperson.
Use AVERAGE function to compute the average max amount each salesperson was
approved.
Use IF function to verify if the totaled maximum amount of each salesperson exceeding
10% of the average.
Raw findings:
Test 22: Finding employees who travel to the same city often
We found out the total number of trips taken to each city by each employee. 174, 2, 188, 168,
186, 195, 192, 196 times trips were taken to Atlanta, Birmingham, Charlotte, Jacksonville,
Miami, Mobile, Orlando and Tallahassee respectively.
We think that the finding was somehow an indicator of fraud because only two trips were taken
to Birmingham. This is very low compared to other cities. The company needs to further
investigate and find out if employees are trying to ignore Birmingham or the company doesnt
really need its sales person in Birmingham.
Steps:
Test 23: Verify if hotel expense per night exceeding 35% above average for particular city
We set the threshold for hotel expense at 35% above the average for each city per night. We
originally chose 30% but found that it returns too many results, so we increased the threshold by
5% for better fraud indication. We found 3 cases in which an employee spends more than 35%
on hotel per night compared to others that travel to the same cities. Tom Anderson went over the
threshold once (expenseno 5641741) while Jennifer Hill did twice (expenseno 5641377 and
5640619).
These findings highly indicates reckless spending and/or frauds. Even though hotel rate
fluctuates depends on time traveled, it should not exceed 35% of the average. We also examined
the dates these trips took place and found that those were just ordinary dates. Especially in the
case of Jennifer Hill on her trip to Miami, she spent $650 for one night hotel. This is an
extraordinary amount compared to the average of $122 a night in Miami. This case is definitely a
fraud. The other two cases both Jennifer and Tom spent $160 per night while the average for one
night hotel in Jacksonville is only $118. In Toms case, it might not be fraud but we highly
recommend investigate Jennifer Hills spending as well as tightening up the company policy to
prevent reckless spending.
Steps:
Gather corresponding Expenseno, TravelStart, TravelEnd, Hotel, Salespersons names,
and Destination using VLOOKUP.
Compute numbers of Days Traveled by subtracting TravelStart from TravelEnd.
Compute the average amount of hotel per day by dividing Hotel by Days Traveled.
Create a pivot table with Destination as row and Average of Average Hotel per day as
values.
Copy pivot table and paste and values for easy calculation.
Filter by cities.
Use IF function to determine if the Average Hotel per night is 35% more than the
corresponding average on the pivot table for each cities.
Raw findings: