IDEA: Expenses Workshop

• Mischaracterised expenses, where an employee requests reimbursement for a personal expense, claiming the expense to be business-related
• Inflated expenses, where an employee overstates the cost of actual expenses and seeks reimbursement
• False expense, where an employee invents a purchase and seeks reimbursement
• Multiple claims, where an employee submits a single expense for reimbursement multiple times.

Pre-course requirements

Delegates should be fully conversant with the CIDA foundation level functionality covered in CI101 Introduction to IDEA Data Analysis.

Outlined agenda

RED FLAGS for False Reimbursement:

• Employees claiming high-value items on expense reports, without an original receipt as the items were paid for in cash
• An employee might ask a supervisor in another department to sign off on expense reports
• Patterns where expenses are consistently for the same amount
• Expenses that are consistently rounded off, ending in a “0” or “5”
• Meals and entertainment expense reimbursement requests coincide with an employee’s holidays or time off sick etc.
• In instances where only expenses above a certain amount require original documentation, an employee consistently submits expense reports for just under that threshold.

OTHER STANDARD TESTS

• Periodic analysis of expense accounts using historical comparisons or comparisons with budgeted amounts
• Expense limits – checking on expenses such as hotels, meals and entertainment.

Who should attend?

The course is aimed at External Auditors, Internal Auditors, Data Analysts and all those charged with inspection and /or analysis of Payroll / Expenses data.