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Allen Computing and Business Analysis |
ACBA Random Sampling function
This is an MS Excel 'Add-In', for high speed random sampling from paper based audit trail sources. You will require MS Excel 97 or later and 250 KB of space on your hard disk.
Notwithstanding that virtually all companies and government organisations base their business functionality on computers, we auditors frequently find ourselves with a mound of paper purporting to be list of all the auditable transactions. To make our lives even more exciting there are often several different paper mounds (from specialised audit trails prepared by the computer software) covering essentially the same population of transactions.
Here is a downloadable function which the allows an auditor to prepare a true random sample in less than 5 minutes.
Additionally the function:-
- has its own documented audit trail
- avoids duplicates within the sample
- allows you to extend a sample from an existing population just as easily
Click here to download a single user version of 'ACBA Random Sampling function' - Version 2.02 issued August 2004, provides for every transaction to have absolute equality of opportunity to be selected. This latest version revises the approach for very high population numbers (over 1,000,000) to increase the speed of processing. Revised data input validation now permits long integers giving increased flexibility and suppresses screen flicker present in earlier versions.
Note that later a version of the ACBA Random Sampling function is available with ACBA Tools which has been commercially available since early 2005.
User Help
A separate web page is available to provide immediate help using the Random Sampling function.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Related to the operation and scope of the Random Sampling function. Click FAQ to view the latest listing.