2 | Automating Issue Remediation in Results

Background
Graphite Ltd has recently implemented a new financial accounting system.
Unfortunately, it was discovered that the application controls in the current system are
not performing reliably. This means that employees have been able to bypass controls
and enter creation dates after the effective dates of transactions.

To detect these occurrences and to follow up with the employees who created these
entries, analytics were run on the data from the General Ledger. These were the results
you exported from r_BackdatedTransactions in Activity 6.2 to Results.

Scenario objectives
The purpose of our on-going scenario is to investigate the records in our data analytic
Backdated Transactions and to show you one way of how you can customize Results to
manage your workflow. Now let's take a closer look at step 5, the remediation workflow.
Our key objectives are to:
o Process, track, and automate the workflow
o Use questionnaires to investigate the findings we've shared to Results

In this section, we will develop the following workflow to achieve our key objectives:
1. Investigate results.
o Process the records that are false positives
o Send questionnaires to investigate the remaining records
2. Automate the process.
Create triggers to:
o Automatically send a questionnaire if a new record is added that is not a false
positive
o Notify reviewers when questionnaire responses are received and adjust the
priority and status of these records
o Resend the questionnaire if no response has been received after one week
3. Track a key indicator using a metric.

Topics in this section:

o Investigating results
o Designing a process workflow
o Automating issue remediation
o Tracking key indicators using metrics

After completing this section, you will be able to:

o Manually process records that require follow up
o Design a process workflow
o Create and configure triggers to automate follow-up actions
o Create and configure questionnaires
o Set up metrics to track key indicators
 Investigating results
Objectives
o Process records that are false positives
o Send questionnaires to investigate remaining records by:
 Creating questionnaires
 Sending questionnaires

In this section, we'll identify, process, and close out those records that are false
positives. For the remaining records, we can then create and send out a questionnaire
to investigate further.

Process records that are false positives

Records with the transaction type "GF" have been identified as the records that can be
processed without further investigation.
Activity 6.3
Collection: Continuous Monitoring

Data Analytic: Backdated Transactions

Process records with the transaction type "GF".

1. Set the priority to Low.
2. Set the status to False Positive.
3. Assign the records to Demo Audit User (John Smithe) to review.
4. Close out the records.
Show me
1. Under General Ledger Analysis, open the analytic Backdated Transactions by
clicking the analytic name.
There are 419 records in this data analytic.
2. Click the filter icon next to the column header Type.
3. Select Sort by Ascending (A → Z).
This sorts the records by the Type field in ascending alphabetical order.
4. Select all the records with "GF" in the Type column. There will be 64 altogether.
 You can quickly select all 64 records by searching GF in the Type column's filter
menu and clicking Apply Filter. Once the table filters down, you can select the
checkbox in the header bar to select all 64 records.
5. Once all 64 records have been selected, click Process 64 checked records in the
Process Records side panel.
6. In the panel that opens, select:
a. Status - False Positive
b. Priority - Low
c. Assignee - John Smithe
7. Click Save.

In reality, the Demo Audit User would now review these records before closing them off.
In this instance, let's assume these records have already been given the go ahead to
close out, so we can do this ourselves.

1. Click to expand the filter menu. Click Clear and Apply Filters to remove any
existing filters.
2. Toggle the Status is Open filter off.
3. Click + Add Filter and select Status from the drop-down. Select "False Positive" in
the Filter modal and click Apply Filter.
The table shows only those records assigned a False Positive status.
4. Select all of the records by clicking the empty checkbox on the upper left of the table
header.
5. Click Process 64 checked records in the Process Records side panel.
6. In the panel that opens, set the Status drop-down to Closed.
7. Click Save.
The "GF" records are removed.
8. In the Filter menu, click Clear and Apply Filters to remove any existing filters and
toggle the Status is Open filter back on.
9. Continue processing the remaining 355 records.

Investigate the remaining records

To find out more about the remaining records, we can ask questions to the employee
who created the record by sending a questionnaire to their email. Their responses will
be returned and stored in Results for you (or whoever has access) to review them.

1. Creating a questionnaire
Before you can send a questionnaire out, you first need to create one in your collection
settings. The questionnaire content we want to include is outlined in the table below.

Questionnaire: General Ledger Follow-up

Response Column Display Name
Question
options

1 Confirm you have read the Financial Accounting Policy and Single choice Confirmation_policy_read
understand section 1.4 on journal entries and the process for
a) Yes
modifying posted journal entry transactions.
b) No
Note
If response to question 1 is 'No', question 1b is revealed.

1b Please explain why: Paragraph Explanation

2 Are these transactions valid and authorized? Single choice Valid_and_authorized

If response to question 2 is 'Yes', question 2b is revealed. a) Yes

b) No
2b Please input the date your manager approved these Date Approval_date
transactions. We will follow up with them to confirm.

3 Under what circumstances were these transactions logged? Paragraph Circumstances

4 Attach supporting documentation here: Attachment Supporting_documentation

This question is optional.

5 Signature required. Please sign below: Signature Signature

Activity 6.4
Collection: Continuous Monitoring

Data Analytic: Backdated Transactions

Create a questionnaire called General Ledger Follow-up using the content in the table
above.
Show me
1. On the Results homepage, navigate to the collection Continuous Monitoring and

click under Questionnaires.

2. Click +Add.
3. In the Name text box, enter the title of your questionnaire - General Ledger Follow-
up.
4. Click Save.
The questionnaire is saved and redirects you to the Questionnaire Details page.
5. Create questions. Create Question 1b first.
Show me
a. Next to Questions, click Add.
b. In the RESPONSE TYPES drop-down, select Paragraph.
c. In the Question text box, type the content for Question 1b (see table above).
d. In the Column Display Name, enter "Explanation".
e. Click Save.
6. Next, create Question 1 (which branches to point to Question 1b for the answer
"No").
Show me
a. Next to Questions, click Add.
b. In the RESPONSE TYPES drop-down, select Single choice.
c. In the Question text box, type the content for Question 1 (see table above).
d. In the Response options text box, enter "Yes."
e. Add another response option. In the newly created Response option text box,
enter "No."
f. Link the response "No" to follow up Question 1b. Next to the Response

option "No," click .

The Adds drop-down opens.
g. Select Question 1b you created in step 6 from the drop-down.
h. In the Column Display Name, enter "Confirmation_policy_read".
 i. Click Save.
7. Create questions 2b and 2 by following steps 6 and 7 above, making the appropriate
changes to the Response Type, Question, and Column Display Name.
8. Create questions 3, 4, and 5 from the table above by following step 6, making the
appropriate changes to accommodate the Response Type and optional questions.
You can preview your questionnaire as you go along by clicking the Preview button
in the Questionnaire Details panel.
Show me

2. Sending the questionnaire

Once you have your questionnaire set up, you can send it to the email linked to each
record under the EmployeeEmail field of the table.
Activity 6.5
Prerequisite: Activity 6.4

Collection: Continuous Monitoring

Data Analytic: Backdated Transactions

Send the questionnaire to email listed in the EmployeeEmail field of the data.
Show me
1. In the Default interpretation of your data analytic, select all 355 remaining records by
clicking the checkbox in the column header.
2. In the Process Records side panel, click the Process 355 checked records button.
3. In the panel that opens, click the Send Questionnaire button.
The Send a Questionnaire modal opens.
4. From the Select a Questionnaire drop-down, select General Ledger Follow-
up (the questionnaire that you created).
5. From the Recipient drop-down, select Email from Field.
The Select a Field drop-down appears.
6. From the Select a Field drop-down, select EmployeeEmail.
7. Leave the option, "One questionnaire per record", selected.
8. Click Send.
3. Receiving questionnaire responses
Once questionnaires are completed by the respondents, it would be painful to process
each of these as they arrive one by one, or to keep checking for them!
Luckily, Results makes things easier for us because we can automate the process to
adjust the priority and status of these records, and assign them to the next reviewer.

We'll have a closer look at automation in the next few topics when we design a process
workflow and set up triggers.

Designing a process
workflow
Objectives
o Design a process workflow for issue remediation

Having gone through the records manually, you feel good about the process and plan to
implement it using automation. Before doing that, you decide to draw out a process
diagram. This way, you can lay out the entire process workflow from a high level and fix
any gaps BEFORE they make their way into your automation workflow. You can also
determine which parts of your issue remediation workflow can actually be automated.

Start with what you know

First, summarize the steps you took in the previous topic. These are the actions needed
to remediate backdated transaction records imported from Analytics:
o Close out all false positive records (records with a Type of "GF")
o Send a questionnaire to associated employees for records not identified as false
positives

So far, your process workflow looks like this:

Show me
Plan out the rest
The next thing you want to automate is handling questionnaire responses as they come
in on a weekly basis. You want to do the following things to process these responses:
o Send the questionnaire again if no response was received
o Raise the alarm when respondents admit that transactions were not authorized
o Deprioritize records when respondents verify that the transactions are valid and
authorized

After that, it's the reviewer's job to follow up with the unauthorized records and confirm
that the authorized records were indeed given permission.

Adding the above actions to the workflow, the process diagram now looks like this:
Show me
The workflow is complete. You can now identify where each step is carried out
in Results. We've taken the diagram one step further and marked the steps that can be
automated in red. With time and practice, it'll be easy to identify which parts of a
process workflow can be represented with trigger logic. In the next topic, you'll create
triggers for the parts of the workflow marked in red below:
Show me
 Automating issue
remediation
Objectives
Create triggers to:
o Create a workflow for new records that are added to the data analytic
o Track questionnaire responses

When you have hundreds of records to process (sometimes even thousands!), rather
than constantly checking to see if questionnaire responses have been received and
manually processing these, it's easier to create an automated workflow using multiple
triggers.

Background
We are now at a stage where we can create an automated workflow for new records
and track the status of our questionnaires. Depending on what you want to achieve
though, you can adjust your workflow accordingly and customize how you use the
triggers.

Check out the animation below to see creating triggers in action and then try it out for
yourself in the following activities:

Using Triggers
Simply put, triggers perform a set of actions whenever specific conditions or thresholds
are met. Triggers detect when a change occurs, and define the actions that should
result from the change.

Using the conditions, actions, and trigger frequency settings, create triggers to automate
your workflow. For more information, see Triggering automated activity.

You can also copy a trigger to one or more of the other tables in the same Collection.
This will save you from manually configuring triggers that are needed across many
different tables. For example, if you spent a lot of time creating triggers for a data
analytic based on a Security Review for 2017 Q1, you can easily copy those triggers to
the data analytics for Q2, Q3, and Q4. For more information, see Copy a record trigger.

Implementing a workflow for new records

To automate and manage our workflow for new records, we will include two triggers
which will follow the process of sending out questionnaires to those records that are not
false positives.
Triggers to define

New records workflow

Trigger Name Trigger Actions

1 New record added A new record is added and the type is o Send questionnaire to the employee
not "GF" email

2 New record false A new record is added and the type is o Set the priority to low
positive "GF" o Set the status to closed

Activity 6.6
Prerequisite: Activity 6.4

Collection: Continuous Monitoring

Data Analytic: Backdated Transactions

Create triggers to automate the workflow defined above for assessing new records that
are added to your data analytic.
Show me

Trigger 1: New record added

When a new record is added and is not a false positive, the trigger should send the
General Ledger Follow-up questionnaire to the employee associated with the record.
Hints

Conditions: First define the event that executes this trigger. As specified in the
workflow, we want to perform an action when we receive a new record where the type
isn't "GF".
Actions: Define the action to perform on each new record with a Type field of "GF". We
want to send the General Ledger Follow-up questionnaire (created in Activity 6.4) to
the employee email address associated with the record.

Frequency: Finally, define when we want to trigger the action. We want to trigger the
action in real-time as soon as we receive a new record.
Show me

1. Click under Triggers. In the Triggers — Backdated Transactions window

that opens, click New.
2. Name the trigger 'New record added.'

3. Define the condition(s) that will cause the trigger to fire under Conditions:
a. Record > Condition.
b. Condition is Type field that does not contain the value, GF.

4. Define the action(s) that will occur when the trigger fires under Actions:
a. Questionnaire > Send General Ledger Follow-up to Email from
field > EmployeeEmail.

5. Define when the actions should be triggered under Frequency:

a. Real-time > Record.
b. Select Only for new records. This sets the trigger to run when any record is
added to Backdated Transactions.
6. Click Save.

Trigger 2: New record false positive

When a new false positive record is added, deprioritize and close out the record.
Hints

Conditions: As specified in the workflow, we want to perform an action whenever a

new record is added and is a false positive (has a Type equal to "GF").

Actions: Define the action to perform on each new record with a Type field of "GF". We
know these are false positives, so set the priority to low and close the record.

Frequency: We want to trigger the action in real-time as soon as we receive a new

record.
Show me
1. Click the button under Triggers. In the Triggers — Backdated
Transactions window that opens, click New.
2. Name the trigger, 'New record false positive'.
3. Define the condition(s) that will cause the trigger to fire under Conditions:
a. Record > Condition.
b. Condition is the Type field that equals the value, GF.
4. Define the action(s) that will occur when the trigger fires under Actions:
a. Priority > Low.
b. Status > Closed.
5. Define when the actions should be triggered under Frequency:
a. Real-time > Record.
b. Select Only for new records. This sets the trigger to run only when a new record
is added, not when an existing record is updated.
6. Click Save.

Tip
Remember above when we said you could copy triggers? Now that you've created a
couple of triggers, if you wanted to copy one of them, you would click the Copy

trigger icon to the left of the Trash Bin icon.

Tracking questionnaires
To keep track of questionnaires, we will use three triggers to address idle/unanswered
questionnaires and sort the responses that are returned.
Triggers to define

Questionnaire follow-up
Trigger Name Trigger Actions

1 Idle questionnaire A sent questionnaire is idle for longer o Questionnaire will be resent as
than seven days reminder to complete
o Trigger frequency - weekly

2 Transaction is Questionnaire returned. o Assign record to yourself to

authorized review
 Trigger Name Trigger Actions

o Set status to Under Review

Question 2 (prefix: Valid and
o Set priority to Low
authorized?) contains response 'Yes'
o Trigger frequency - weekly

3 Transaction is not Questionnaire returned. o Assign record to yourself to

authorized review
Question 2 (prefix: Valid and
o Set status to Under Review
authorized?) contains response 'No'
o Set priority to Critical
o Set Notify user to John Smithe
o Trigger frequency - weekly

Activity 6.7
Prerequisite: Activity 6.4

Collection: Continuous Monitoring

Data Analytic: Backdated Transactions

Questionnaire: General Ledger Follow-up

Create triggers to automate the process of resending idle questionnaires and following
up with returned responses.
Show me

Trigger 1: Idle questionnaire

When the questionnaire goes unanswered for 7 days or more after sending it out,
resend the General Ledger Follow-up email to the employee associated with the record.
Hints

Conditions: We want to trigger an action whenever a record has been idle (i.e., not
updated) for a week and a response has not yet been received.

Actions: For every idle questionnaire, we want to email the General Ledger Follow-
up questionnaire to the associated employee again.

Frequency: We want to schedule this trigger to check for idle questionnaires on a

weekly basis.
Show me
1. Click the button under Triggers. In the Triggers — Backdated
Transactions window that opens, click New.
2. Name the trigger, 'Idle questionnaire'.
3. Define the condition(s) that will cause the trigger to fire under Conditions:
a. Record > Condition.
b. Condition is Updated.
c. In the next box, under Relative Dates, select or more days ago. The position of
the last two boxes will switch.
d. Update the condition so that it reads: Updated is 7 or more days ago.
e. + Add another event to monitor.
f. Condition is Signature field is blank.
Any of the required fields on the questionnaire can be used as the condition here
(however, Explanation, Supporting documentation, and Approval date can't be
used because they are either optional or dependent on a parent response).
4. Define the action(s) that will occur when the trigger fires under Actions:
a. Questionnaire > Send General Ledger Follow-up to Email from
field > EmployeeEmail.
5. Define when the actions should be triggered under Frequency:
a. Schedule > Weekly.
b. In the following drop-down boxes, select your desired day, time, and region.
6. Click Save / Save & Preview.

Trigger 2: Transaction is authorized

When an employee confirms that the transactions are valid and authorized, deprioritize
the record and assign it yourself to review later.
Hints

Conditions: We want to trigger an action when we receive a questionnaire response

and the respondent replied, "Yes," to the question, "Are these transactions valid and
authorized?" To do this, we'll trigger based on the associated questionnaire response
field and make sure that it equals "Yes."

Actions: For these records, assign the record to yourself and update the status so that
you can review them later. We'll assume the respondent is telling the truth, so set the
priority to low.
Frequency: We want to schedule this trigger to check for questionnaire responses on a
weekly basis.
Show me
1. Click the button under Triggers. In the Triggers — Backdated
Transactions window that opens, click New.
2. Name the trigger, 'Transaction is authorized'.
3. Define the condition(s) that will cause the trigger to fire under Conditions:
a. Record> Condition.
b. Condition is Valid_and_authorized (the column name for Question 2 in the
questionnaire) equals value Yes.
Make sure that the value text is identical to the response text you set in the
questionnaire.
4. Define the action(s) that will occur when the trigger fires under Actions:
a. Assign > Users > Group - Unassigned > Assignee <your name>.
b. Status > Under Review.
c. Priority > Low.
5. Define when the actions should be triggered under Frequency:
a. Schedule> Weekly.
b. In the following drop-down boxes, select your desired day, time, and region.
6. Click Save / Save & Preview.

Trigger 3: Transaction is not authorized

When an employee indicates that the transactions are NOT valid and authorized, assign
critical priority to the record and notify your manager. Assign the record to yourself so
that you can review it as soon as possible.
Hints

Conditions: We want to trigger an action when we receive a questionnaire response

and the respondent replied, "No," to the question, "Are these transactions valid and
authorized?"

Actions: For these records, assign the record to yourself and update the status so that
you can review them. Unauthorized transactions should be dealt with right away, so set
the priority to critical. You also want to notify your manager, John Smithe.
Frequency: We want to schedule this trigger to check for questionnaire responses on a
weekly basis.
Show me
1. Click the button under Triggers. In the Triggers — Backdated
Transactions window that opens, click New.
2. Name the trigger, 'Transaction is not authorized'.
3. Define the condition(s) that will cause the trigger to fire under Conditions:
a. Record > Condition.
b. Condition is Valid_and_authorized (the column name for questionnaire question
2) equals value No.
Make sure that the value text is identical to the response text you set in the
questionnaire.
4. Define the action(s) that will occur when the trigger fires under Actions:
a. Assign > Users > Group - Unassigned > Assignee <your name>.
b. Notify > John Smithe.
c. Status > Under Review.
d. Priority > Critical.
5. Define when the actions should be triggered under Frequency:
a. Schedule > Weekly.
b. In the following drop-down boxes, select your desired day, time, and region.
6. Click Save / Save & Preview.

Advanced workflows
We've just completed automating a basic issue remediation workflow. Are you
an Analytics wizard and interested in some more advanced workflow scenarios? Check
out the Issue remediation FAQ!

Tracking key indicators using

metrics
Objectives
o Demonstrate how metrics work
o Create a metric
o Add a trigger to your metric

Background
You'd like to be able to monitor the total percentage of backdated transactions
compared to overall transactions. To do so, you'll need to create a metric to monitor the
total percent of backdated transactions. You decide to stay one step ahead and create
a trigger that will notify you when the percent of backdated transactions exceeds 15%
so you can dig in and find out what could be causing such behavior.

Working with metrics and triggers

Watch the video below for a quick introduction to metrics.

Metrics are calculations used to track the key indicators that are associated with your
organization's objectives. The data is monitored over a period of time using certain
functions like count, average, or percentage of total.

Remember all that stellar work you did automating your workflow with triggers? Well,
the same principles apply here to metrics. After you've decided the metrics you want to
track and you've configured them in the system, you can set threshold amounts for your
metrics. If the threshold amount you've set is crossed, your trigger will be activated.

Say, for example, that you want the percent of backdated transactions to not exceed
15% of total transactions. You set an initial threshold amount of 15% with trigger
conditions that will send you an email to notify you if this threshold is exceeded. You
can also set additional thresholds, so that if the metric passes 30%, the head of
accounting will receive an email (and you will too because the first condition is still true).
Creating a metric and adding triggers
Watch the following video for a step-by-step overview of how to create a metric and add
a trigger to your metric.

Considerations
o You can set multiple triggers for each metric.
o When a metric threshold has been reached, the selected user will be notified of this
by email. The email will contain a link to view the metric in the system.
Activity 6.8
Collection: Continuous Monitoring

Analysis: General Ledger Analysis

Project: ACL 105 Demo Training Data

Table: Miscellaneous/GeneralLedger

File: GeneralLedger.xlsx
1. Create a new data analytic called General Ledger and import your GeneralLedger
table from Analytics.

Because you're creating your metric to calculate backdated transactions as a percent

of total transactions, the records you currently have in your Backdated Transactions
analytic aren't sufficient. You need data that includes both backdated and same-day
transactions.
Show me
a. From the General Ledger Analysis, click +Add Table > Create data analytic.
Name the new data analytic, 'General Ledger'. Click Create.

b. If you have Analytics installed:

 From Analytics, export all the fields from the GeneralLedger table to
the General Ledger data analytic.
Otherwise, import from Excel:
 From the Continuous Monitoring collection, click the General Ledger data
analytic to open the Import Data page and upload
the GeneralLedger.xlsx file.
Confirm the data types:
 CreateDate and EffectiveDate should both be Date types.
 TransactionAmount should be Numeric.
 Every other field should be Character.
 In particular, check the types of BusinessUnit, Organization,
TransactionSource, and TransactionID and adjust to Character if necessary.
c. Click Confirm Data Types.

For a refresher on importing data into Results, review the Sharing data
with Results topic.
2. Add a metric.
 Now that you've successfully uploaded all 3,676 records, it's time to create your
metric.
Show me
a. Navigate to your General Ledger data analytic and click the button
under Metrics.
b. In the Metrics — General Ledger window that opens, click New.
c. The Configure Metric side panel should already be open, but if not,

click Configure to open the panel.

d. From the Measure Field drop-down, select c_IsBackdated.
e. Change the Date/Datetime Range to CreateDate.
f. Change the Period drop-down to Monthly. You want to report on this metric on a
monthly basis.
g. Change the Function to % of Total.
h. You need to select an operator so that the system knows what % of Total you are
actually calculating. The value in the c_IsBackdated field will be either "N" or "Y".
Because you're tracking the percentage of backdated transactions,
select Contains and type Y into the textbox.
i. Name and save your metric.
Note
Don't see a sparkline generated for your metric? Check to make sure you've
updated the Date/Datetime Range from Published to CreateDate. You can create
a metric with a single data point (which is what would happen if you
selected Published, since that field shows the date the records were published to
the table); however, you need at least two data points for your calculation to
generate a sparkline or trend. The sparkline data points are calculation periods, so
more than one period is required to show a historical trend.
3. Create a trigger.

The last thing you want to do is sit around all day monitoring your metrics. And don't
worry, you don't have to. As mentioned above, you can automate your workflow by
using triggers that will fire whenever the thresholds you've set are crossed.
Show me
a. Navigate to your Metrics. Within the Configure Metric side panel, click Manage
Triggers, save your metric if prompted, and then click New.
b. Enter a name for your trigger in the text box, Monthly % of Backdated
Transactions.
c. Define the condition that will cause the trigger to fire:
  Conditions - From the operand drop-down, select Greater than or equal
to and select 15 as your primary threshold.
 Frequency - Real-time > Record.

Choosing Real-time (instead of Schedule) executes the trigger at the actual

time that the event or change occurs. This is beneficial when it comes to
metrics, as it means the selected user will be notified as soon as the metric
reaches the defined threshold.
d. Define the action that will occur when the trigger fires:
 Actions - Notify > select yourself.
e. Select Save.
f. Click x icon to close the pop-up window.