Beyond Excel's (BXL's) Add-in:

Integrity Checks

Gold Standard Made Easy

Errors in our work can kill our careers. Neglecting integrity checks is foolish and amateurish. Beyond Excel's Integrity Checks add-in makes adding world class, gold standard integrity checks quick and easy.

What makes this the gold standard?

I selected the best standards from the best standards organizations and added to them. The gold standard includes:

Overall Status

(FAST) An overall status at the top of every worksheet makes problems anywhere visible everywhere.

Highlight Problems

(Acuity) Highlighting problem cells speeds taking corrective measures.

Centralize Tests

(Operis, Acuity, BPM) Placing all checks in one place makes it easy to audit what we have tested for and what we have not. This also declutters calculation areas making them easier to audit.

Make Alerts Actionable

(BXL) Alerting people to problems is a good. Suggesting corrective actions is better.

Hyperlink Alerts to Issue Locations

(Acuity, BPM) Placing hyperlinks in alert messages can take us directly to problem areas speeding problem resolution.

Who has time for all that?

You do! With Beyond Excel's add-in, adding gold standard integrity checks is quick and easy and can save your career!

Does this add VBA to my project?

No. Beyond Excel's add-in is separate and is only used to create the checks. Once checks are created, the add-in is no longer needed and our projects can be distributed VBA free.

What kinds of things can I test for?

Beyond Excel's Integrity Checks add-in is designed to work with all model types: Financial, Business, Engineering, Scientific, Data Migration and more. That said, we expect most users will be from the Financial space. And so this tool conforms to financial modeling uses and standards, such as the use of tolerances. Below are some things we can test for with this tool (from Microsoft Word - B3 Eusprig 2008 David Colver v2 0 - GJC Edits.doc (arxiv.org) :

• Balance Sheet Balances

• Financial statements add up

• Financial statements have expected signs

• Sources match uses

• Identities hold true

• Balance sheet clears out

• Ratio inclusion analysis

• Tax reconciliation

• Yield analysis

• and more

Included Test

Beyond Excel's Integrity Checks add-in includes a wealth of tests. Below are 'calcualted tests'. Calculated tests update when Excel calculates.

• All Dates - All cells in a range resolve to dates

• All Formulas -All cells in a range have formulas

• All Numbers - All cells in a range resolve to numeric values

• Balance - First reference total must equal second reference total

• Balance Each - Each value in first reference equals corresponding value in second reference

• Column Count - A table or range has the required number of columns

• Each - Compare each first reference's cells to corresponding second reference's cells

• In List - First reference is found in the second reference's list

• Maximum - Compare maximum of reference 1 to reference 2

• Minimum - Compare minimum of reference 1 to reference 2

• No Blanks - No cells in a range evaluate to blank cells

• No Errors - No cells in a range evaluate to errors

• No Falses - No cells in a range evaluate to false

• No Negatives - No cells in a range evaluate to negative numbers

• No Positives = No cells in a range evaluate to positive numbers

• Nothing Remains - Summing all cells in a range returns no remaining balance

• Row Count - A table or range has the required number of rows

• Text Length - All cells in range conform to length requirements

• Total - Compare both reference totals

• Totals 100% - First reference total equals 100%

Beyond Excel's Integrity Checks add-in also includes manual tests so we can record that something was checked, by who, and when. Manual tests do not automatically update when things change; however, two 'manual' test can be reapplied any time and Beyond Excel's Integrity Checks add-in will perform the test for us and record when we did it.

• Row consistency - Check a row to make sure all formulas in the row are consistent.

• Columns consistency - Check a column to make sure all formulas in the row are consistent.