Auditing and Reviewing Spreadsheets
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Miricle Solutions provide worldwide services relating to the
auditing and reviewing of decision models in excel.
The increasing awareness of the problems associated with excel
spreadsheets means that businesses are starting to realize the risks
they face.
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Regular model reviews are one of the best ways to address these
risks and is a must in any organizations that use excel for any
major decisions. On the left we have a link to Miricle Solutions
Excel review methodology.
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The assessment and identification of risks within spreadsheets
is an important step when business decisions are based on the results
and outputs of specific excel models. Combining our reviewing skills
with knowledge in the corporate finance fields means we can provide
a very effective service.
The aim of a spreadsheet review is to identify both current and
potential errors in a excel model. ‘Current’ spreadsheet
errors are errors that mean that the model is currently wrong. ‘Potential’
errors are situations where due to the design of the model, changes
in inputs may result in errors. These are often the most dangerous
errors as the developer may review their model, conclude that everything
works and then make last minute changes that results in errors.
A further aim of a Excel spreadsheet review is to identify risky
financial modeling techniques that are conducive to errors, and
to help eliminate these risky modeling techniques from the developer’s
standard way of building a model.
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Given the extent of Excel use and the risks, it is highly advisable
that spreadsheet audit skills are taught to all users of excel.
Organizations such as financial institutions should seriously consider
having a department focused on spreadsheet reviews. This could be
part of a current internal audit or IT audit department. Mail us
at
for more information.
Even when you have built up internal spreadsheet review skills,
it is still recommended that external review skills are used. This
is because errors are often identified because of the independence
of the reviewer and the fact that they may need to ask ‘simple’
questions that can draw out logic problems. They have no pre conceptions
of what the answer should be.
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