Altia Hint Sheet Investigation Toolkit: Processing Abbey Statements Scope This sheet provides information on how to deal with Abbey statements where the debit and credit values are printed in the same column and transactions are printed in reverse chronological order. The approach taken in this document assumes a working knowledge of the Altia Investigation Toolkit and that normal steps not documented below, but covered in the training and user guide (e.g. straightening pages), will be followed. This Hint Sheet is applicable to version 4 of the Altia Investigation Toolkit Wizard and beyond. Please note that there are a number of Abbey statement formats. An example of the type addressed by this Hint Sheet is as follows: The problem There are 2 problems with Abbey statements from an Investigation Toolkit perspective: 1. The credit and debit amounts share a single column making it impossible to select separate columns when creating zones within the Investigation Toolkit application. Consequently the Investigation Toolkit in Excel cannot determine which transactions are credits and which are debits. 2. Financial transactions are represented in reverse chronological order (i.e. the most recent transaction is at the top of the statement). The effect of this in the final report is that most, if not all, statement balances are flagged as being in error. Page 1 of 5 Version 1.4
The solution The solution to the first issue is to leave the credits and debits in a single column and let the Investigation Toolkit in Excel separate them out in the final report. This is possible due to debit amounts being flagged using a trailing - character. The solution to the second issue is to re-order the transactions in the final report by ascending Date order and by descending Index order using the Excel Sort feature. Step by step 1) In the Investigation Toolkit application, scan, zone, OCR and export the statement to Excel as normal, ensuring that the credits and debits appear in a single column. 2) In Excel, click on the Investigation Toolkit Process button: 3) Ensure that the Opening Statement Balance on Step 1 is at least one day before the first real transaction on the statement, e.g. if the first transaction is 27/07/2004, make the Opening Statement Balance 26/07/2004 : Page 2 of 5 Version 1.4
4) Click on the More Options button, select the Currency menu item and ensure that the - character is entered in the Debit Identifiers list and that it is defined as a Suffix: 5) Click OK to return to the main Investigation Toolkit form. Fill in the rest of the fields paying particular attention to the Ascending Order field, which should be unchecked, and the Debit & Credit field, which should be set to Combined : 6) Click OK to start the processing of the data. Correct any errors and re-run as required so that the final report is produced: Note that most of the cells in the Difference column will be flagged as being in error due to the transactions not being in the expected order. Page 3 of 5 Version 1.4
7) To rectify this we need to re-order the data. Ensure that the Difference column is not selected by clicking anywhere on the spreadsheet, then select Data -> Sort: 8) In the window that appears, select the Sort by value as Date and ensure that the Order value is Oldest to Newest : 9) Click on Add Level and select Index as the Then by value. Ensure that the sort order is Largest to Smallest : 10) Select OK. The data should now by in the correct order: 11) If any of your transactions are still highlighted in yellow as being in error, check that your Opening Statement Balance date on Row 2 is at least one day earlier that the first transaction on Row 3 as failure to do this may be causing these errors. 12) Finally, we need to sort out the Index column which, due to rows being re-arranged, now does not have sequential numbering. Select all the cells in the Index column, except for A1. Note that an easy way to do this is to click on cell A2, hold down the <Ctrl> and <Shift> keys and the press the <Down Arrow> key: Page 4 of 5 Version 1.4
13) Select Home -> Fill -> Series 14) In the window that appears, select the following settings and click OK : 15) The data in the Index column should now be sequential. Page 5 of 5 Version 1.4