Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Ms. Gonzales we would like to thank you for this opportunity that you have given us to help look
into the travel expenses of the company. Our group consists of Stephanie Leon and Gary Lo. We
were asked to examine the travel expense of Tampa Electronics Company and determine if there
is any potentially fraudulent travel reimbursements in the books. This can include violations of
the companys rules such as having an expense for both a taxi and a personal car, airfare and a
personal car or going over 20% of the approval amount. We will also be looking into other
possible violations that can show signs of fraud such as employees being at two places at the
same time or any stale approvals being used for a recent trip.
To check for any violations or signs of fraud we used the data from the company under the file
TampaTravelExpenseData. Using basic formulas in excel along with pivot charts we were able
to obtain the information we need from each test. Some of the formulas we used were
VLOOKUP (), IF (), COUNTIF (), LEFT (), and SUM ().
The most concerning data that we found was that James Smith appeared after completing many
of our tests. He appeared on the test of having an expense for a car rental and taxi, having an air
fare expense and car mileage, car image and a taxi, and submitting an expense reimbursement
before going on the trip and getting it approved. We believe that the company should look into
what he is doing and see if there is a mix up or possible fraud.
There are two more parts in our report, in part two there is a table which lists the different tests
that we did and has a summary of our findings for the tests. In part three there is a more detailed
description on how we got the information from our tests. What we believe the test means
mainly if it is a sign of fraud or just an incident that needs to be looked into. A list of up to
twenty findings and if there are more than twenty findings then it will state how many were
omitted from the report.
Section 2
Test #
1
Verify if employees
receives approval before
the trip begins
Verify if Employee
submitted both expense:
Part A: Car Rental and
taxi
Part B: Car mileage and
car rental expense
10
11
12
James smith
Susan Lee
13
Section 3
Test 1: Verify if an expense exceeded 20% above approved amount
We found 5 trips that have total expenses exceeded 20% of the maximum amount approved
associated with follow Expense no and Salesperson: Jennifer Hill (124070), William Davis
(124068), and Marie Redwood (124553). We also find out that Marie Redwood appeared twice
on the expense variation.
These five finding are highly indicate frauds. The excel spreadsheet has approved that those
three trips are 20% more than the max amount. Management should investigate associated trips
and employees to find out if potential fraud were accrued.
Steps:
should make some adjustment on procedure of giving a correct approval date before mistakes
happen again.
Steps:
Delete out some unnecessary data such as (Travel end, AirFare, Hotel, Mileage,
CarRental, Taxi, and PerDiem.)
Use VLOOKUP to match Approval no to Approval date for each trip.
Use IF function to check if approval date is less than the travel start date. (=if
C2<B2,correct,incorrect)
Filter out incorrect
Use COUNT to check how many incorrect appear.
713
Delete unnecessary data such as( travel start and end, expense no, expense date)
Use VLOOKUP to match approval no with spon.
Use VLOOKUP again to match spon with employees name.
Filter out none 0 for car rental and taxi
Mileage
632
580
CarRental Taxi
226.8
222.75
0
0
PerDiem
0
0
spon
200
250
Employee
James
1010 Smith
1001 Susan Lee
PerDiem
620
56.7
110
250
332
164.43
85
200
144
56.7
85
50
645
222.75
75
250
735
180.67
95
280
636
62.3
120
224
132
62.3
95
56
122
62.3
130
56
86
62.3
75
56
214
62.3
55
112
158
62.3
100
56
147
62.3
45
56
174
62.3
80
112
spon Employee
James
1010 Smith
James
1010 Smith
James
1010 Smith
James
1010 Smith
James
1010 Smith
James
1010 Smith
James
1010 Smith
James
1010 Smith
Marie
1009 Redwood
James
1010 Smith
Marie
1009 Redwood
James
1010 Smith
Marie
1009 Redwood
Calculate the total expense which includes Air fare, Hotel, Mileage, Car Rental, Taxi, and
Per Diem.
Create a column and title it first in that column you will have the first digit for each total
expense. To get the answer using =left ().
In the parenthesis first put the whole column from total expense then select the total
expense in that row.
Create a column that goes from 1 to 9.
To the right of the number type =countif ()
In the parenthesis first put the whole first column second click the number on the left.
For Benfords law the amount of ones should be the most then get smaller and smaller
by about 30% each time.
Benford's law
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Chart Title
637
81
39
65
66
94
107
102
110
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
1
Test 6: Verify if mileage has correctly calculated based on distance between cities.
There are 8 employees who has incorrect of actual distance compared to the mileage that they
have traveled. The employees who got involved are Maria Garcia (124120), Robert Johnson
(124501, 124509), Mary Moore (124502), Marie Redwood (124507, 124680), and Susan Lee
(124500) and William Davis (124683). In Excel, Robert and Marie appeared twice, so they
intentionally travel to somewhere where they shouldnt be and claim extra reimbursement from
mileage.
Steps:
Delete some unnecessary data such as (Airfare, Hotel, Car Rental, Taxi and Per Diem)
Use VLOOKUP to match approval no with cpno and countries that they travel
Use VLOOKUP again to match countries to distance.
Filter out only 2015 for travel start and end date.
Use the mileage rate for 2015 to calculate the correct mileage. The formula is (distance *
mileage rate for 2015 and then *2).
Filter out 2016 and then apply the same format as 2015.
Use IF function to see if current mileage is matching with the correct mileage. If it
matches, then it is correct, if not, then there is a problem. Formula is (=if
(mileage=correct mileage,ok,problem).
Mile a ge
546
222.75
56.7
372.6
56.7
226.8
244.75
244.75
sta te
Birmingham
Miami
Tallahassee
Miami
Jacksonville
Jacksonville
Tallahassee
Tallahassee
D ista nce
602
280
275
280
203
203
275
275
D ista nce
diffe rnce
incorrect
incorrect
incorrect
incorrect
incorrect
incorrect
incorrect
incorrect
spno
1007
1005
1003
1009
1005
1001
1009
1002
e mploye e
Maria Garcia
Robert Johnson
Mary Moore
Marie Redwood
Robert Johnson
Susan Lee
Marie Redwood
William Davis
The per diem violation may or may not be a fraud. Considering the numbers of trips that Ms. Lee
took, it might be a mistake as there is only one violation. However, the company should be
cautious and check Ms. Lees reimbursement claims carefully in the future for possible
frauds. Also, we have adjusted per diem amount for trips that started on 2015 and ended on
2016. The company may want to reimburse those associated employees the difference.
Steps:
e mploye e
Susan Lee
Maria Garcia
Tom Anderson
Jennifer Hill
Susan Lee
James Smith
Susan Taylor
corre ct Pe rdie m
250
262
256
168
168
262
280
Pe rdie m che ck
incorrect
incorrect
incorrect
incorrect
incorrect
incorrect
incorrect
Test 8: Testing is the date that the expenses are submitted are after the approval date and
date of travel.
We found that there are 5 people submitted their expense request before getting it approved and
6 people submitted their expense request before going on the trip. This may not be fraud because
they are going on the trip. Instead it might mean that the employees need to be retrained in the
procedure of what to do before going on their trip.
Use VLOOKUP so the approval date is on the same page as the other data.
Make a column that says approval before submitted. In this column use the formula =if
().
In the parenthesis first put the approval date then the less than sign and the travel state
date, put what you want it to say when true and what you want to say when false.
When it is false that indicates that the date the expense was submitted was before it was
approved.
Make another column that says start before submitted.
Do the same thing except it should have the travel start date is less than the submitted
date.
D a te
Approva lno
T ra ve lSta rt T ra ve lEnd Approva l da te
1/1/2009
125325
12/20/2016 12/25/2016
12/30/2016
1/1/2009
125334
12/26/2016 12/28/2016
12/29/2016
1/2/2009
125332
12/24/2016 12/27/2016
12/28/2016
1/2/2009
125335
12/26/2016 12/30/2016
12/29/2016
1/2/2009
125337
12/26/2016 12/31/2016
12/28/2016
1/3/2009
125336
12/26/2016 12/30/2016
12/28/2016
1/4/2009
125340
12/29/2016 12/30/2016
12/30/2016
1/6/2009
125339
12/28/2016 12/31/2016
1/4/2009
Approva l
be fore
submit
wrong
wrong
wrong
wrong
wrong
wrong
wrong
ok
Sta rt
be fore
submit
wrong
wrong
wrong
wrong
wrong
wrong
wrong
wrong
Employe e
Marie Redwood
Susan Lee
Mary Moore
Robert Johnson
James Smith
Marie Redwood
Mary Moore
William Davis
Test 9: Testing if all trips are approved and that approval numbers are not used more
than once.
We found that there is one incident where the approval number is used more than once. It is
approval number 124500 and it was submitted by Susan Lee. This could be an indicator of fraud
10
because it could mean she was trying to get more money out of the company or it could be that
she thought that she never submitted the expense so she submitted it again on accident.
Create a column that says duplicates and use the formula =if (countif (put the whole
approvals column, the approval number in that row)>1,incorrect, correct).
If the new column says correct then there are no duplicates.
If the column say incorrect then there is more than one of these approval numbers being
used.
To check quicker use the filter feature in excel and filter out the correct part, that way
there is only incorrect.
Employe e
Susan Lee
Susan Lee
Test 10: Expense reimbursement request more than double the average for that city
According on excel, we have found that there is one violation for Airfare in Orlando and one
violation for hotel in Miami. For Airfare, the difference is only $6.67, so it is unlikely to be
consider as a fraud. It may cause by system error that makes the airfare amount slightly higher
than double average. However, for hotel in Orlando, theres a suspicious amount happened. The
difference is $409.48, which is twice as higher than the double average. As a result, there is
possible fraud in this transaction.
Steps for Airfare:
Expenseno Date
Approvalno TravelStart TravelEnd AirFare ave*2
check
5641055 9/27/2015
124503
9/20/2015 9/25/2015
1028 1021.333 problem
5641797 11/12/2016
125242
11/2/2016 11/5/2016
220 1021.333 ok
5641855 12/13/2016
125306
12/8/2016 12/10/2016
284 1021.333 ok
11
city
Orlando
Orlando
Orlando
This time we include 0 for airfare as if we take the 0 out, it will affect the accuracy of the
data.
Filter out the city individually and copy it into a new spreadsheet.
Calculate the difference between travel start and end date by (travel end travel start)
Calculate the average for hotel and days for hotel by (= average (range))
Calculate the double average by (average for hotel/ average for days in hotel)*2
Calculate the actual cost for hotel by ( hotel/ days for hotel)
We are using IF function to compare the double average with the actual cost for hotel, if
double average is greater than actual cost for hotel, then it is correct. If not, there is a
potential fraud occurred
At the end we find one problem for each hotel and airfare.
violation Airfare
Atlanta
Bimin
charlotte
Tallahassee
Jacksonville
Miami
mobile
Orlando
AirFa re
violation Hotel
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
H ote l
0
da ys for a ctua l
hote l
cost
a ve *2
che ck
650
1
650 240.5201 violation
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
city
Miami
e mploye e
Jennifer Hill
Use a pivot table and in the rows column put airfare, then hotel, mileage, car rental, taxi,
per diem, and then approvalno.
Approvalno has to be at the bottom of the list.
Then look down the list for any approval numbers that have two in a row or more and
those will be the duplicates.
417
56.7
150
623.7
124126
550
56.7
250
856.7
124183
149
56.7
50
255.7
124191
266
164.43
100
530.43
124241
504
56.7
200
760.7
124253
162
56.7
100
318.7
124293
146
56.7
50
252.7
124320
266
164.43
100
530.43
124334
504
56.7
200
760.7
124364
149
56.7
50
255.7
124366
106
56.7
50
212.7
124402
162
56.7
100
318.7
124441
550
56.7
250
856.7
124530
146
56.7
50
252.7
124549
106
56.7
50
212.7
124620
417
56.7
150
623.7
124719
765
62.3
280
1107.3
124726
474
62.3
168
704.3
124740
416
62.3
224
702.3
124870
480
249.2
280
1009.2
Copie s
e mploye e s
Duplicates
Duplicates
Duplicates
Duplicates
Duplicates
Duplicates
Duplicates
Duplicates
Duplicates
Duplicates
Duplicates
Duplicates
Duplicates
Duplicates
Duplicates
Duplicates
Duplicates
Duplicates
Duplicates
Duplicates
Robert Johnson
Jennifer Hill
Susan Lee
Robert Johnson
Mary Moore
Mary Moore
Maria Garcia
Tom Anderson
Jennifer Hill
Tom Anderson
Mary Moore
Tom Anderson
Marie Redwood
Marie Redwood
Tom Anderson
Maria Garcia
Maria Garcia
Marie Redwood
Jennifer Hill
William Davis
Test 12: Testing is they travel on specific Holidays (Christmas, New Years Eve, New
Years Day, Thanksgiving, Independence Day, and Labor Day)
There are 57 trips that happened during one of the holidays listed above. This is not show fraud
but management should look to see when people are going on their trips so they can avoid people
going during the holidays.
List all the dates that were traveled. In the first column list the start date.
In the next column use the formula =IF (N2<$E2, N2+1,".") and copy it down till you
have 6 rows for the dates because that is the maximum days traveled. Copy these
formulas down the columns.
In two new columns list out the days and next to it write the name of the holidays.
To find which days traveled are holidays use the formula =IF (ISERROR (VLOOKUP
(date your checking, holidays table, 2, FALSE)),".", VLOOKUP (date your checking,
holidays table, 2, FALSE)) copy the formula down.
If a holiday occurs while they are on their trip the name of the holiday will appear.
11/27/2015 11/28/2015
11/25/2016 11/26/2016
1/1/2016
1/2/2016
1/1/2016
1/2/2016
1/1/2016
1/2/2016
1/2/2016
1/3/2016
9/8/2015
9/9/2015 .
9/6/2016
9/7/2016
7/5/2015
7/6/2015
7/5/2015
7/6/2015
7/5/2015
7/6/2015
7/5/2016 .
.
7/5/2016
7/6/2016
12/26/2015 12/27/2015
12/26/2015 12/27/2015
11/26/2015 11/27/2015
12/31/2015 .
.
9/7/2015
9/8/2015
9/5/2016
9/6/2016 .
9/5/2016
9/6/2016
11/29/2015 11/30/2015
11/27/2016 11/28/2016 .
1/3/2016 .
.
1/3/2016 .
.
1/3/2016
1/4/2016
1/4/2016
1/5/2016
.
.
9/8/2016
9/9/2016 .
7/7/2015
7/8/2015
7/7/2015
7/8/2015 .
7/7/2015 .
.
.
.
7/7/2016
7/8/2016 .
12/28/2015 .
.
12/28/2015 .
.
11/28/2015 11/29/2015 .
.
.
9/9/2015
9/10/2015
.
.
9/7/2016
9/8/2016 .
12/1/2015
1/5/2016
1/6/2016
7/9/2015
9/11/2015
Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving.
New years eve
New years day
New years eve
New years day
New years eve
New years day
New years day
.
Labor day
.
Labor day
.
Independence. day
Independence. day
Independence. day
Independence. day
Independence. day
Chirstmas
.
Chirstmas
.
.
Thanksgiving
.
New years eve
.
Labor day
.
Labor day
.
Labor day
14
Go to approvals tab. On the top right click the heading that says dates and go to sort.
From sort click A to Z and the dates should go from the earliest date to the latest date.
From the date find the ones that are before 2015.
15