CaseWare IDEA Inc. and Audimation Services Inc. have released IDEA Version 7.2, the latest version of their software to give accounting and financial professionals additional capabilities to assist with audits, detect fraud and meet documentation standards.
IDEA is designed to import, join, analyze, sample and extract data from almost any source, including reports printed to a file. IDEA Version 7.2 includes an enhanced portable document format converter and a built-in Reporter Reader. The tool allows users to capture data on printed reports and turn it into an IDEA database for analytic purposes. The software is compatible with Microsoft Excel 2007, Access and Windows Vista.
"As a security measure, many companies produce documents in PDF format," said Carolyn Newman, president of Audimation Services, via e-mail. "IDEA Version 7.2 includes Reporter Reader with an enhanced PDF converter, which reads the PDF and displays it in a format that allows the user to import the data into IDEA. Additionally, the PDF converter reads characters and encoding to align text with at least 90 percent accuracy."
This enhanced PDF converter, according to Newman, allows users to access the data to quickly search for and detect fraud during an audit. They can also access information they wouldn't normally be able to review.
"Once the data is imported into IDEA, the user can import and test controls, select samples using five proven methods, scan 100 percent of journal entries in the general ledger, compare data between years and identify inappropriate user access," Newman added.
The software's Smart Analyzer Financial feature includes several new capabilities, such as search and summary features for journal entries, creditor and debtor transactions, weekend accounts payable transactions, and duplicate fields. Additionally, the ASCII Delimited Import has been redesigned for increased speed and optimal performance.
IDEA 7.0 users can download Version 7.2 by visiting
