SEC: Ex-CFO Used Spreadsheets for Fraud - Accounting - CFO.com

Spreadsheets are used extensively in business - so extensively that they have become a normal part of many organizational information systems. However, control over spreadsheets is particularly problematic because they can be easily manipulated by a single user, and often there are no controls over what the user does to a spreadsheet. In a recent fraud case, the former CFO of a company used spreadsheets to hide his manipulations intended to support false balances he had created in the records. He used white fonts and hidden rows to conceal his entries. It reminds us of a need not only to tighten controls over spreadsheets, but more importantly to limit their use in an information system. If spreadsheets are being used too much, then it means there is a shortcoming in the formal IS software that needs to be addressed. SEC: Ex-CFO Used Spreadsheets for Fraud - Accounting - CFO.com