Download Picalo an open source alternative to ACL Audit
Everyone who has been working in audit firm or especially those working for data analytical stuff must be familiar with ACL (Audit Command Language) Audit Software. This software according to the Internal Auditor magazine is "the most widely used data extraction and analysis product" and "the most widely used product for fraud detection and prevention" used in audit profession. Of course, just ask your friend in Big 4 audit firm such PwC, EY, KPMG, Deloitte, they must have ACL installed in their laptop.
However, the price of ACL is quite expensive to be used for educational purpose or for government usage. Then the perfect alternative for this situation is Picalo. Why I said Picalo is perfect, it’s free, at no cost.
“…Picalo is currently being used by organizations like the World Bank to stop corruption in developing countries…”
http://www.picalo.org/
And if you still unsure using Picalo, then let see the comparison between Picalo, ACL in their website. http://www.picalo.org/competitors.spy
Any opinion?
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Other alternatives for ACL and IDEA
Picalo is great piece of audit software. Unfortunately it appears that it is no longer being supported.
I'm offering another alternative, which is free for government agencies, educational institutions and not for profit organizations - Audit Commander.
There is an overview and tutorials at http://ezrstats.com/Training.htm which explains the basic functionality and includes links to reference manuals, etc.
Other free audit software alternatives
Picalo is great free software. However, I also offer a free audit software primarily tailored towards auditors who use Excel. It is called Audit Commander Worksheet and offers a variety of audit functions and fraud detection routines such as Benford's law, checking for round numbers, transactions on holidays, etc. etc. A link to a description of the software is at http://ezrstats.com/XL/home.html. I have set up a support forum at http://ezrstats.com/phpbb3/phpBB-3.0.4/phpBB3/index.php.