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ACL Error: Cannot Export to Excel
Next time you get the cannot perform export to Excel error in ACL, try one of the 3 solutions described below. The full text of the error is: Cannot perform the export. You can export fields with...
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5 Things I Hate About ACL
I have 5 things I really hate about ACL. No, these aren’t critical issues, but I deal with them constantly, and they waste my time. All of them deal with the user interface. 1) To close a tab, you...
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ACL: How to Add a Conditional Computed Field
In ACL, a conditional computed field (CCF), is basically a regular computed field with some fireworks. It looks and acts much like a regular computed field, but has some extra parts that do some extra...
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Teach Yourself ACL UPDATED
If you’re trying to learn ACL on your own, Teach Yourself ACL, the widest read post on this blog, has been updated. ACL revised their website, which broke many of the links. Those are now fixed. Until...
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Great Training at the 2014 ACL Conference
If you have ever wanted to go to an ACL conference, this is the year to do it. Why? Because ACL is having pre- and post-conference training for beginning and advanced users, and it’s included in the...
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Free File-Splitter Program
When I ‘m trying to work with text files that are so big I can’t even open them with programs like Excel, Notepad, or PSPad, I reach for the FREE file- splitter program. This program allows you...
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You Might be an ACL Freak if…
You might be an Audit Command Language (ACL) freak if more than 2 of the following are true: At work, you have a second computer just for running ACL. All your social media user names contain the...
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ACL Error: Not all Fields Imported via Script
Recently, I ran an import script to import a delimited file into ACL, but the last 10 fields were not imported. And I didn’t know it right away, because I received no error message. In addition (or...
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ACL Tip: Beware of ORs and ANDs
Whenever you use OR and AND operators in ACL (or other software, for that matter), be careful to ensure that you receive the results that you are looking for. Assume you have Table1, which contains 100...
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Review of ACL Excel Add-in, Now FREE!
In case you missed it, ACL released the next version of their Acerno product, renamed it ACL Excel Add-in, and made it FREE! So I thought I’d update my review. For my original review of Acerno, see A...
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#1 Reason for NOT Doing Data Analytics
Do you know the #1 reason auditors don’t do data analytics (DA) much? It is so simple, so obvious, I hesitated to blog about it. Let me know if you agree. The number #1 reason DA is not used by...
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Why You Should Run ACL in a Virtual Machine
Running the desktop version of ACL in a virtual machine* (VM) has so many advantages, but I haven’t heard anyone else doing it. Consider the following advantages, listed in order of importance (to me):...
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How to Review Your ACL Log
Whether you script your projects or use menu commands, you need to review your ACL log carefully. Good analysts review their results and the log as they work in ACL, after they think they are done, and...
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Auditors, Do Data Analytics or Die
If you’re an auditor, you need data analytic skills or you will die. Or put another way, if you don’t acquire them in the next 1-5 years, you will no longer be an auditor. Pretty bold statement, isn’t...
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10+ Signs Mgmt Doesn’t Really Support Analytics
Your management says it wants more analytics, but does it really support analytics? Here’s 10+ signs that indicate that your mgmt: Does NOT knows what it takes to get analytics off the ground Believes...
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Dedicate an Analytics Champion
To create a successful analytics program in internal audit, you must dedicate a person to serve as an analytic champion. In an earlier post I outlined 10 Signs Mgmt Doesn’t Really Support Analytics....
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Which Way is Analytic North?
To create a successful analytics program in internal audit, you must have a plan. A plan that points to analytic North. That requires WRITTEN goals. In an earlier post I outlined 10 Signs Mgmt Doesn’t...
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Require Analytic Skills to Hire and Promote
Unless your department is still in the early stages of your analytics journey, analytic skills should be one of your hiring and promotion criteria. In an earlier post I outlined 10 Signs Mgmt Doesn’t...
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CISA Does NOT an IT Auditor Make
Passing the CISA exam does not make you a good IT auditor anymore than passing a driving test makes you a good driver. Passing either exam says that you know the basics, but you still have a lot to...
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No Metrics, Little Analytics
If your department doesn’t track metrics on your analytics, you are probably not doing analytics or you are making little progress in analytics. In either case, its obvious that analytics isn’t very...
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