Spreadsheet Check and Control

Book excerpt: What other reviewers say about ?Spreadsheet Check and Control??It is excellent. I am embarrassed when I think of the shortcuts I generally take with spreadsheets and I have often paid the price. I think it will become, and it should be, required reading for all young trainee accountants.? Ciaran Walsh, senior finance specialist, Irish Management Institute.?It's super. I kept saying to myself, ?Wow, I didn't know you could do that.? A great job.? Ray Panko, the most cited authority on spreadsheet error, University of Hawai?I.?Spreadsheet Check and Control does what no other book before has attempted to do; provide standards for designing spreadsheets that lend themselves to a logical review by management and internal auditors. Following this author?s guide and insight can help your organization minimize spreadsheet errors and facilitate audit review to prevent and detect those errors.? Jim Kaplan, AuditNet.org.?I thought I knew a lot about Excel, but in the course of teaching me to be Excel-careful, O'Beirne taught me some new tricks and methods that both helped me build better financial models and track down errors.? Simon Benninga, author of Financial Modeling, MIT Press 2000 and Principles of Finance with Excel, Oxford University Press, 2005.'Save red faces all round by buying, absorbing and passing-on this book, especially if you personally develop spreadsheets or if your organization is subject to Sarbanes Oxley and related regulations. Avoiding even a trivial spreadsheet mistake may well pay for the book. Avoiding a large one may save your career.' Dr. Gary Hinson, independent consultant in information security and computer auditing, editor of security awareness website NoticeBored.com.'Probably one of the most important spreadsheet books ever written. Your customers and boss will be delighted with the increased usability, accuracy and reliability his techniques encourage. Be aware that the pages are packed with useful and usable advice, so the 200 pages is probably equivalent to 500 pages in many other books.' Simon Murphy, Codematic.net, author of XLAnalyst.'An essential guide for serious spreadsheet users. This book goes a long way to help spreadsheet users adopt methods that will reduce errors and thereby improve the quality of the information vital to the success of all organisations.' P M Cleary, University of Wales Institute Cardiff, Wales'This is an excellent, easy to follow book containing the key practices that will arm the novice and self taught spreadsheet user so they can create well designed, reliable and error free spreadsheets.' CPA Ireland magazine review'Minimizing or eliminating spreadsheet errors is Patrick O'Beirne's focus in this visual 200-page book, which is geared toward software testers, business managers, or auditors sleuthing for fraud'. CA Magazine (Canada) review Summary of contents