Better, Faster, and Cheaper Audit Software Tools

Better, Faster, and Cheaper Audit Software Tools By Richard B. Lanza, CPA, CFE, PMP As explored further in The 2005 Buyer’s Guide to Audit, Anti-Fraud, and Assurance Software, there is a fire sale in the audit software industry as tools once costing in the thousands of dollars to implement are being replaced with products costing in the low hundreds. What is even more remarkable, other than the multiples less that a company needs to pay for audit software, is that the products are faster and have functionality that exceeds the more expensive products. This article will take one such product, and show how it meets all of the criteria of better, faster, and cheaper. The Bottom Line – It’s Cheaper ActiveData for Office performs data manipulation tasks such as summarizing, joining, extracting, sampling, and sorting files that is akin to other data analysis products. The product is available first as a free 30-day demo and then, costs $449 to purchase. Along with a self-study training course costing an additional $149 (NASBA accredited for 8 CPE credits), a user can have the software and be trained for less than $600. Take this in comparison to other products that cost thousands for a single license and then offer training only in a group-study fashion which can cost additional thousands and may require travel costs. More than likely, the bill for other software will be close to seven or eight times more than the ActiveData for Office approach. ...