ACL Services Ltd. is a global provider of Business Assurance solutions to financial executives and audit professionals. Combining market-leading software and professional services expertise, ACL gives organizations confidence in the reliability, accuracy, and integrity of the data underlying their increasingly complex business operations. ACL’s proven solutions enable financial decision-makers to assure compliance, reduce risk, minimize losses, and enhance profitability – all with a return on investment measured in weeks, not months. With ACL, organizations can trust their data and see results like never before.

ACL has invested heavily in developing top - flight training materials and ACL Certified Trainers to ensure we offer the highest quality of instruction to ACL users around the world. Auditors and other financial professionals will derive maximum value from their investment in ACL while adding significant benefits to their own organization when participating in an ACL training program or achieving ACL certification. ACL through SSPL delivers introductory, intermediate, and advanced courses through both open enrollment and on-site classes. Open enrollment public classes are ideal for individuals wishing to attend ACL training - refer to the training schedule for dates and locations of open enrollment sessions.

Course Contents

Introductory

In these hands-on courses, participants will learn key ACL concepts and techniques and gather the building blocks necessary to access and analyze data using ACL. The sessions are geared towards new or novice users who would benefit from a structured overview. Select the industry specific course that is right for you. Following are the Introductory Courses offered:

ACL 105 Foundations of ACL: Concepts and Practices
Devoted to key ACL data analysis concepts and functionality. With the aid of examples that illustrate the software's abilities, participants will learn how to access data, use commands, build expressions to detect exceptions, and report findings.

ACL 111 Foundations of ACL: Concepts and Practices for Banking and Finance 
Aimed specifically at ACL users from the banking and finance industry, class activities in this seminar will revolve around scenarios such as ATM and credit card transactions, deposits, loans, and mortgages.

ACL 112 Foundations of ACL: Concepts and Practices for Healthcare
Aimed specifically at ACL users from the healthcare industry, class activities will revolve around scenarios such as Charge Master data, admissions and discharges, pharmacy inventory, and outpatient transactions.

Intermediate

Aimed at experienced ACL users, intermediate courses teach participants how to combine various commands and expressions to increase productivity and produce more powerful results. Stronger focus is placed on skill building - how to plan and perform data analysis investigations within the context of your objectives.

Following are the Intermediate Courses offered :

ACL 201 Data Analysis Techniques: An ACL Workshop
A two-day workshop designed to provide participants with the necessary skills to successfully execute complex tasks using ACL. Using real-life scenarios, ACL Certified trainers relate how to implement projects with a plan using combinations of ACL commands, expressions, and variables. Each case study will take you through the phases of assembling a structured process:

• Identifying the project objectives in business and technical terms
• Determining the steps necessary to achieve objectives
• Gaining physical and logical access by identifying location and format of required data
• Ensuring that the data does not contain corrupt elements and that the table layout is correctly constructed
• Testing for control totals, bounds, completeness, uniqueness, data relationships, and reliability
• Scrutinizing the data to reveal exceptions
• Preparing the results for formal presentation

ACL 252 Using ACL to Detect Fraud
A two-day course designed to teach participants how to use ACL for fraud detection. In a hands-on learning environment, you will learn how to locate high-risk transactions and how to test data for possible indicators of fraud. You will also learn how to use the powerful data analysis techniques of Benford's Law to identify non-conforming transactions. The course covers tests in areas such as :

• Purchasing and payables
• Travel and entertainment expenses
• Procurement cards

ACL 260 Using ACL to Test Internal Controls: Supporting Controls & Regulatory Compliance
To meet the ongoing compliance requirements and other regulatory legislation, it is increasingly important to assess and assure the effectiveness of internal controls. Designed for intermediate-level users of ACLT, this two-day course introduces you to the use of ACL data analytics in testing internal controls. In an interactive, hands-on environment, you will learn how to test key control points to identify gaps and weaknesses in your internal control system.

What You Will Learn

Through a case study approach, you will learn how to test a selection of key controls in the following business processes:

• Payables
• Payments
• Purchasing
• Shipping
• Managing customers
• Managing pricing
• Sales invoicing
• Collections
• Managing payroll

By the end of this course, you will be able to :

Identify gaps and weaknesses in your organization's internal control system. Test key controls in business processes for payables, payments, purchasing, shipping, managing customers, managing pricing, sales invoicing, collections and managing payroll

Advanced

Developed for more experienced ACL users who want to further refine their skills and increase their knowledge. The advanced course instructs participants on the more complex functionality of ACL. Participants may also be interested in achieving ACL Certification.

Following are the Advanced Courses offered:

ACL 301 Advanced ACL Concepts & Techniques: Functions
Functions add power to any investigation by allowing analysts to extract useful information through the creation of advanced filters and computed fields. This course is designed to familiarize participants with the most widely applicable functions in ACL. Learn how functions can be combined with each other to create powerful analytical tools that can be permanently stored for future reuse.

ACL 302 Advanced ACL Concepts & Techniques: Scripts
In this two-day course, participants will learn how to use scripts to automate repetitive ACL tasks, which save valuable time, and to preserve best practices, which prevents errors and results in better controls. ACL Certified Trainers will show you how to implement scripts into your daily routine, and they will guide you through activities that illustrate how to work with scripts efficiently and easily.

ACL 303 Advanced ACL Concepts & Techniques: Functions & Scripts
A three-day course designed to teach participants how to use functions and scripts to add power to their data analysis and do more in less time. Participants will learn how to use functions to create complex computed fields and advanced filters. They will also learn how to work with scripts. Scripts save valuable time by automating repetitive tasks. Scripts also preserve best practices, which prevents errors and results in better controls. ACL Certified Trainers will show you how to implement scripts into your daily routine, and they will guide you through activities that illustrate how to work with scripts and functions efficiently and easily.

Management

ACL501 Understanding ACL A Manager’s Perspective Focus and Features

The ACL management course will provide audit and financial managers with the necessary background to successfully implement, manage, and assess the deployment of ACL in their organizations. Participants will be made aware of the management environment that they must create to maximize the return on their investment in ACL. Several issues, such as establishing relations with data providers, understanding the potential value added by data analysis software, and the qualitative and quantitative evaluations of ACL implementation will be covered in depth.

A workshop will take the participants through an ACL analysis of Accounts Payable transactions. This will provide managers with an understanding of the software’s powerful capabilities.

Course Objectives

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Implement, manage and evaluate the deployment of ACL in your organization
• Create the necessary management environment for maximum ACL return on investment
• Explain how ACL supports your strategic objectives
• Integrate ACL into your management practices
• Analyze accounts payable transactions through ACL

Specialized

This four-day instructor-led course is for customers who have purchased ETL for ACL AuditExchange™, powered by Informatica’s PowerCenter 8 product. The course exposes the core features of Informatica PowerCenter 8 through lecture and more than twenty hands-on exercises and two workshops. In addition to gaining tremendous insight into the data integration platform, students will be exposed to Informatica Velocity Best Practices.

What You Will Learn

You will learn the following PowerCenter 8 functions:

• Data Integration Concepts
• PowerCenter Components and User Interface
• Source Qualifier
• Expression, Filter, File Lists and Workflow Scheduler
• Joins, Features and Techniques I
• Lookups and Reusable Transformations
• Debugger
• Sequence Generator
• Lookup Caching, More Features and Techniques
• Sorter, Aggregator and Self-Join
• Router, Update Strategy and Overrides
• Dynamic Lookup and Error Logging
• Unconnected Lookup, Parameters and Variables
• Mapplets
• Mapping Design
• Workflow Variables and Tasks
• More Tasks and Reusability
• Worklets and More Tasks
• Workflow Design

Program Level

This course is oriented toward the technically accomplished auditor or data access specialist who will be using Informatica PowerCenter 8 to configure data access in the ACL AuditExchange repository.

ACL certification evaluates and recognizes your ability to integrate ACL technology into your financial analysis and business process. Earning the ACL Certified Data Analyst (ACDA) designation enhances your professional development while validating your technical skills and ensuring you meet performance standards necessary to address key business challenges.

Designation

Exam

The ACL Certification is based on the ACL 100–level and the ACL 200–level courses. Although not required for certification, ACL recommends that you complete one course at each level prior to attending the exam.

Knowledge Inventory

The Knowledge Inventory component of the exam is three hours in duration and counts for 40 percent of the final grade. It is meant to test your familiarity with ACL concepts, terms, commands, and best practices.

The exam consists of multiple choices, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, and short-answer questions covering six topics:

• ACL Environment
  Working in ACL and setting program options.
• Planning
  Planning your work to achieve your data analysis objectives with ACL.
• Data Access
  Accessing data using ACL, including data access methods, common file types, and data types.
• Data Verification
  Verifying data integrity using ACL functionality.
• Data Analysis
  Producing specified results using ACL commands, either on their own, or combined with other commands or expressions.
• Reporting
  Outputting data to create ACL printed reports and graphs.

Case Study

The Case Study component of the exam is three hours in duration and counts for 60 percent of the final grade. You are provided with a PC pre-loaded with data files, a data analysis scenario, and questions to answer. Scoring is based on your answers and your planning process.

The questions are organized into three sections:

• Data Access & Integrity Verification
  Using ACL to access data and to ensure it is complete, reliable, and ready to analyze.
• Exploratory Analysis
  Gaining a better understanding of the data by executing multiple commands.
  
• Audit Analysis
  Performing the analysis to achieve your audit objectives.
  
• Study Guide
  To help you prepare for the exam, please refer to the study guide on the next page.

METHODOLOGY

This is a highly participative training course. All the participants shall be provided with independent computer system with ACL Software, Books and Study Material. Entire training shall be on-hand with dummy data and cases created with vast experience of ACL Services Limited, Canada. Trainings shall be batches and personal attention to the participants shall be assured. We shall make sure that all the queries and requirements of the participants are meet upto there satisfaction.

MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTIONS

English (supported by Hindi wherever required)

CERTIFICATE

The above stated courses are ACL Certified Courses, where all the participants successfully completing the course shall be certified by ACL Services Limited.

Please Note : After registering for an ACL course, you may cancel or re - schedule your registration without penalty a minimum of twenty-one (21) days prior to the course start date. Within the 21-day period prior to the start of the course, there will be no refunds for cancellations nor will credit be extended for rescheduling to another course.