Auditopia | Paul (Auditopia) | Activity

Paul (Auditopia) posted an update in the group IDEA: Hi, all. Someone asked a great question in the 2026 […]

Thu, 22 Oct 2026 21:31:30 -0500

Hi, all. Someone asked a great question in the 2026 IDEA Conference group yesterday (private group for conference registrants), so I figured I’d share the solution in this group so others can also benefit!

In IDEA, the File Explorer “box” was missing. It wasn’t clearly de-docked, and the Library was still on the left, but no File Explorer.

Check…

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Wed, 21 Oct 2026 18:09:32 -0500

@DevensaAdvisory This is so spot-on! Realistically, auditors should be able to look at the findings from their last audit and determine status (and how long it’s been since the first notification and report date), even if they have to contact some folks to find out. But, I’m always curious to know how many total findings (especially high…

In reply to - DevensaAdvisory posted an update

In 2015, Equifax’s own internal audit flagged more than 8,500 overdue vulnerabilities, including over 1,000 on external-facing systems, and no one ran a follow-up audit. Two […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 18:19:19 -0500

Quick answer for us: we’re not yet asking vendors about model changes and are trying to understand what it means when they proactively communicate that their model(s) has changed. Your post is very helpful and appreciated!

In reply to - DevensaAdvisory posted an update in the group DEVENSA

AI vendors change their models after you approve them, often without telling you. MIT Sloan Management Review and BCG found 55% of AI-related failures […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 18:17:16 -0500

Wow, so many possibilities! Things that come to mind are independent assessments by a third-party (like a SOC or other applicable audits), evidence of what they stated were controls around things like cybersecurity, and a few others things. BUT, something easy to ask for and relatively easy to vet is a set of key policies/procedures that…

In reply to - DevensaAdvisory posted an update in the group DEVENSA

Vendor questionnaires come back complete, contracts carry signatures, and the vendor file passes review. Then the vendor gets breached, and nobody saw […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Wed, 30 Sep 2026 03:39:35 -0500

I’d say incident response drills, mainly because it’s the area most likely (in my humble opinion) to have “the work behind it” significantly cut in scope in an attempt to satisfy the compliance checkbox. To be effective, the drills should encompass a true assessment of preparedness…NOT just ask a few questions and say “yep, we’re ready”.…

In reply to - DevensaAdvisory posted an update in the group DEVENSA

Your policy says quarterly access reviews. Your last one happened 14 months ago, and you still passed the audit.

Which checkbox gets ticked most often […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Thu, 24 Sep 2026 00:11:55 -0500

I commented on the article itself, but just had to note something here. This is GREAT stuff. I love that the Devensa team is so experienced and on top of today’s risks. How we as auditors looked at the risks around patch management are different today than even a couple of years ago. And organizations need to be on top of this. The best way…

In reply to - DevensaAdvisory posted an update in the group DEVENSA

Median patch times jumped from 32 to 43 days last year, and it made me wonder how many “effective” patch controls are really just testing whether a […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Wed, 23 Sep 2026 21:43:18 -0500

quick answer: nope Maybe it’s because I’ve been in audit/GRC-related roles for 35-ish years, but any policy we have (info security, retention policies, even policy creation policies, etc.) really must have some kind of evidence for me to have a comfort level that it’s understood and operationally effective consistently. I’ve seen too…

In reply to - DevensaAdvisory posted an update in the group DEVENSA

Pick any policy your organization has on file today. If you couldn’t produce evidence beyond the document itself, would you be confident it’s actually […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted an update in the group ACL Analytics: Here is a script that gives the user a dropdown to select […]

Mon, 14 Sep 2026 21:51:09 -0500

Here is a script that gives the user a dropdown to select a table to sample and the sample size, then pulls the sample and exports results to Excel along with a separate sheet containing the sample info (initial selection point, seed, etc.)!

Paul (Auditopia) posted an update: I became aware of Audit Toolbar (www.audittoolbar.com) […]

Sun, 13 Sep 2026 15:39:54 -0500

I became aware of Audit Toolbar (www.audittoolbar.com) today and it looks pretty neat. Are you aware of Audit Toolbar?

We’re going to reach out to their founder Christian to see if he would give a demo/Q&A for our Auditopia members. Let me know what you think. I’m going to post about this in some of our collaboration groups, as well.

Here’s a…

Paul (Auditopia) posted an update: Don't forget, the ACL two-day pre-conference […]

Sun, 13 Sep 2026 15:35:27 -0500

Don’t forget, the ACL two-day pre-conference training starts tomorrow morning! And our 2026 ACL Conference will be Wed and Thurs this week. Hope you’re registered!

Paul (Auditopia): Two truly amazing sessions today from @claire (using […]

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 17:05:59 -0500

Two truly amazing sessions today from @claire (using Python to create an Intranet site) and Sekou Tyler (his second Power BI session)! We appreciate them and everyone who was able to join.

Paul (Auditopia) posted an update in the group Power BI: This data was used in Sekou Tyler's first Power BI […]

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 15:16:32 -0500

This data was used in Sekou Tyler's first Power BI session (and subsequent ones).

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 03:41:23 -0500

@kara-0325 Hi, Kara! You’re 100% spot on about there also being gaps in the Privacy/Cybersecurity area as well. @alyssa-obrien just wrote a blog post about the 5 security findings that show up in every audit (https://auditopia.com/224520-2/). I have it printed out and under my left forearm as I write this…LOL It briefly discusses how… Read more

In reply to - Alyssa posted an update in the group DEVENSA

This group exists for one reason: governance and audit sit closer together than most organizations act like they do. You spend your career documenting what […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 03:36:11 -0500

@rob-nsl2 Hey, Rob! Yep, I could sit and listen to Alyssa’s team all day long to hear their thoughts/advice on responsible AI adoption, monitoring, adjusting, etc.

In reply to - Alyssa posted an update in the group DEVENSA

This group exists for one reason: governance and audit sit closer together than most organizations act like they do. You spend your career documenting what […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 18:17:58 -0500

@alyssa-obrien Hi, Alyssa! For those who don’t know me yet, my name is Paul, and Tami/I acquired Auditopia a couple of years ago. I’ve been in audit or risk jobs for 35+ years, and I LOVE that Devensa is now part of the Auditopia community! Your organization is “walking the walk” beyond just pointing out what could or should be done. You know… Read more

In reply to - Alyssa posted an update in the group DEVENSA

This group exists for one reason: governance and audit sit closer together than most organizations act like they do. You spend your career documenting what […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted an update in the group IDEA:

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 20:57:02 -0500

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 03:22:58 -0500

@dorman-0726 100% Great to have you in the community, my friend! As we saw during COVID-19 and always see with disaster-generated chaos in personal and professional “processes”, the most likely time for risk to get through unmitigated is when all heck breaks loose! I’d also add to beware of temporary adjustments to controls, as those can… Read more

In reply to - Dorman posted an update

It is July 2026, the family is in Florida on vacation, and wouldn’t you know that tropical storm Bertha decided to make an appearance. I do not see a lot of damage from where we […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted an update: I had a great time today talking ACL with the Diligent […]

Tue, 21 Jul 2026 18:15:34 -0500

I had a great time today talking ACL with the Diligent team during their ACL Community Livestream. This is a relatively new bi-monthly event. To check out previous recorded events, go to https://training.diligent.com/series/acl-community-livestream/series_summit (they alternate every other month with Eastern and Western Hemisphere events),…

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 02:34:19 -0500

@tami-nsl Awesome question about shadow AI! It’s when employees (or contractors) use AI to generate content, create code, etc. without the approval of their employer (at least that’s the way I understand it). From that, I’m sure you could think of all kinds of ways that could bring risk, such as the potential of sharing sensitive company… Read more

In reply to - Rob posted an update in the group Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Some great insights in the attached article – Shadow AI, AI throttling, and the role of AI in all of our futures. Some great statistics the price […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 20:30:55 -0500

Hi, @Marcia !

What analytic or automation tools do you use to assist in your audit or compliance testing?

Many different tools, though primarily ACL, Arbutus, Analyzer, IDEA, and Alteryx (depending on what our customer uses and if the scope of any internal projects we’re doing for our team). I still use Excel quite a bit, including…

In reply to - Marcia posted an update

Howdy Beautiful People! Happy Tuesday!

Curiosity questions.

What analytic or automation tools do you use to assist in your audit or compliance testing?

What are your favorites and why? […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Sat, 09 May 2026 18:14:12 -0500

@peternwanji We’re excited to have you in the Auditopia community! : )

In reply to - peter posted an update Am always open and very excited to learning from auditopia!

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 23:18:12 -0500

@Angela I’m going!

In reply to - Angela posted an update in the group ACL Analytics

Who is considering going to the Diligent Elevate conference? What are the pros an cons from an ACL User perspective?
https://www.diligent.com/elevate

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 23:17:32 -0500

Agreed. I go every year it’s available. Even though there’s been less ACL content over the years, it’s still GREAT to network with other ACLers!

In reply to - Angela posted an update in the group ACL Analytics

Who is considering going to the Diligent Elevate conference? What are the pros an cons from an ACL User perspective?
https://www.diligent.com/elevate

Paul (Auditopia) posted an update in the group IDEA:

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 14:28:42 -0500

Paul (Auditopia) posted an update in the group IDEA: Prior to my webinar for Caseware tomorrow morning, […]

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 21:09:37 -0500

Prior to my webinar for Caseware tomorrow morning, I'm uploading this list of 100 regular expression examples that could be used in IDEA equations. Enjoy!

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 23:03:32 -0500

@louisentsi I may be misunderstanding the requirement. This attached Excel file here (RBA_Test_mockupwithnewcolumn.xlsx) shows the differences after subtracting the “new” value from the prior value for each ID. Looking at your temps.xlsx file, I’m not sure what is supposed to be calculated. Is the file I attached what you are looking for in output?

In reply to - Louis posted an update in the group Arbutus

Hello Team, I have attached a file. I would be grateful if you could assist with an Arbutus script to calculate day‑by‑day differences per ID for an amount field.

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 23:30:41 -0500

Thanks, Safiya! Great to see you here. : )

In reply to - safiya-0225 posted an update in the group Chief Audit Executives

Hi Everyone,

Name: Safiya

Entity Size: 2,500 employees

Audit Team Size: 3 (inclusive of myself)

Industry: Public Healthcare

Audit Universe: Approx. 80

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 22:09:31 -0500

@rob-nsl2 Hey, Rob. Not sure when you posted this (or when you tried the page), but it was last week, I believe. So, if you’re trying now, that’s prob why. If you tried beforehand….I hope you made it!

In reply to - Tami to angela and thomas-0825

Good morning Auditopia! We’d like to share with you some information about an upcoming webinar, with a couple of our Auditopia members, @Angela & @thomas-0825

We know they are […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 22:50:26 -0500

@sean-0324 Sorry if this reply got buried. Please let me know if you see my post about exporting and reimporting the data using a print image report file. The latest proposed solution posting has a file called “HTMLparsingto3records_v2.zip” attached.

In reply to - Sean posted an update in the group ACL Analytics

Somebody has to have written this.

I have an html field in a table, and I want to extract the table rows in that html field into separate rows of a new table. […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 18:13:02 -0500

@Soha glad we got this taken care of for ya!

In reply to - Soha posted an update

Hey guys! I couldn’t access the link to the quiz for the CPE certificate for webclass Categorizing Suppliers Using an AI model. I got this page instead. Can someone resent the quiz link again?

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 18:25:39 -0500

@Soha we’re in a call with William now and are looking into this for ya! Thanks for the heads-up. : )

In reply to - Soha posted an update

Hey guys! I couldn’t access the link to the quiz for the CPE certificate for webclass Categorizing Suppliers Using an AI model. I got this page instead. Can someone resent the quiz link again?

Paul (Auditopia) posted an update: Hey, Auditopia Family! Quick question: Do you enjoy […]

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 16:07:48 -0500

Hey, Auditopia Family! Quick question: Do you enjoy tabletop or online role-playing games, like Pathfinder, Dungeons & Dragons, detective/mystery games?

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 22:18:20 -0500

@sean-0324 Hey, Sean. I kept encountering weirdness with the SPLIT() against the sample data you sent, possibly(?) because ACL just couldn’t easily evaluate the longer part of the field value…which as we know IS there, but it doesn’t show up onscreen. Sooooo…I took another approach.

Since the data (i.e., the whole HTML to parse into the… Read more

In reply to - Sean posted an update in the group ACL Analytics

Somebody has to have written this.

I have an html field in a table, and I want to extract the table rows in that html field into separate rows of a new table. […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted an update in the group Regular Expressions (Regex): Here's the guy I mentioned in the conference today. […]

Fri, 29 Aug 2025 02:06:33 -0500

Here’s the guy I mentioned in the conference today. His videos helped me further “click” with using regex, so figured I’d share. : )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DG3kCDx53c

Paul (Auditopia) posted an update in the group Regular Expressions (Regex):

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 19:39:15 -0500

Paul (Auditopia) posted an update in the group Regular Expressions (Regex): In preparation for the 2025 Auditopia ACL Conference, […]

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 02:17:57 -0500

In preparation for the 2025 Auditopia ACL Conference, we’ve added a group for regular expressions! I’m still a “regex baby”, but I’m learning. : ) If you’ve got favorite reference sites, videos, guides, etc. let us know in this group. We’ll upload some materials here in the coming days, so stay tuned!

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 17:42:20 -0500

@sean-0324 The patience is appreciated, sir! Looking forward to hearing how the Python route works out. We can always pick the brains of Claire, Raed (Beladi), and others here on the Python side. Claire is doing a “using Python from ACL” session, so I’m curious to know if that gives any inspiration toward a solution. : ) Tami mentioned you… Read more

In reply to - Sean posted an update in the group ACL Analytics

Somebody has to have written this.

I have an html field in a table, and I want to extract the table rows in that html field into separate rows of a new table. […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 17:34:24 -0500

@sean-0324 I’m so embarrassed that I haven’t yet tested my script against your test data. Blame it on so many people wanting to be at our Auditopia ACL conference, as it’s been even busier than usual here. I haven’t forgotten about it!

In reply to - Sean posted an update in the group ACL Analytics

Somebody has to have written this.

I have an html field in a table, and I want to extract the table rows in that html field into separate rows of a new table. […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Fri, 15 Aug 2025 20:21:18 -0500

@sean-0324 well, we’ll see about that…LOL….sorry it’s taken me so long; we’ve had a lot of ACL conference registrations and prep this week and several consulting gigs have kept us busy; I’ll at least be able to test this during the coming weekend. Thanks very much for your patience, Sean!

In reply to - Sean posted an update in the group ACL Analytics

Somebody has to have written this.

I have an html field in a table, and I want to extract the table rows in that html field into separate rows of a new table. […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 01:31:33 -0500

@sean-0324 Thanks for sharing the .zip. I have a full day tomorrow with reaching out to more folks about the ACL conference and sending 3 Power BI proposals. But, I’ll try out my script solution with these files ASAP.

In reply to - Sean posted an update in the group ACL Analytics

Somebody has to have written this.

I have an html field in a table, and I want to extract the table rows in that html field into separate rows of a new table. […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Fri, 08 Aug 2025 16:40:02 -0500

@sean-0324 was my proposed solution helpful? I’m happy to get it closer to exactly what you need if you’re able to give the example .acl and .fil files.

In reply to - Sean posted an update in the group ACL Analytics

Somebody has to have written this.

I have an html field in a table, and I want to extract the table rows in that html field into separate rows of a new table. […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Thu, 07 Aug 2025 00:53:26 -0500

@sean-0324 I’m having a tough time trying to get the test data to work on my end. I can see the data in my table and it should be working fine, but there’s weirdness very likely due to me mocking things up. If you’re able to send a .acl and .fil with the example data, I can run my script using that and it should give a good test for working… Read more

In reply to - Sean posted an update in the group ACL Analytics

Somebody has to have written this.

I have an html field in a table, and I want to extract the table rows in that html field into separate rows of a new table. […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 16:43:40 -0500

@sean-0324 I have a solution pseudo-coded and just need to put it in ACL after my meetings are done for the day.

In reply to - Sean posted an update in the group ACL Analytics

Somebody has to have written this.

I have an html field in a table, and I want to extract the table rows in that html field into separate rows of a new table. […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 01:54:33 -0500

@sean-0324 I haven’t forgotten about ya! Had to step out of the office for a while. A few questions:

1. Are you able to provide the .acl and .fil files with the test data? I’m trying to make sure the solution I provide is on the right track, given potential for quote weirdness in the HTML.

2. Do you know if there are smart quotes in the HTML or… Read more

In reply to - Sean posted an update in the group ACL Analytics

Somebody has to have written this.

I have an html field in a table, and I want to extract the table rows in that html field into separate rows of a new table. […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 17:09:18 -0500

@sean-0324 perfect…I don’t have this written, but I’ve parsed HTML stuff like this (as recently as late last night), so I’ll get you something as soon as I can. I’m reaching out to about 100 people today about the Auditopia ACL Conference, so it’s been a busy day…LOL…this will be a nice break for a few minutes. : )

Since this is a… Read more

In reply to - Sean posted an update in the group ACL Analytics

Somebody has to have written this.

I have an html field in a table, and I want to extract the table rows in that html field into separate rows of a new table. […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 17:02:50 -0500

@sean-0324 Is this what you need the rows/columns to look like, based on your HTML? Should we grab the TH class info as column names? Not sure if it’s just the changing of source data for examples, but I assume each of the values in the bolded TR tags are supposed to line up with the same column meanings, as in the attached mockup of output, right?

In reply to - Sean posted an update in the group ACL Analytics

Somebody has to have written this.

I have an html field in a table, and I want to extract the table rows in that html field into separate rows of a new table. […]

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 15:08:48 -0500

@louisentsi I’m hoping my comments haven’t gotten buried. Did you see my suggestion of using regex as a way to do the FINDMULTI() type function in Arbutus?

In reply to - Louis posted an update in the group Arbutus

Dear Team,

Trust you are well.

Please, is there an equivalent function in Arbutus that works similarly to the FINDMULTI() function in ACL?

Thank you

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 03:23:24 -0500

Oh, and Dave’s ( @david-0224 ) session during the upcoming Auditopia ACL conference covering the GROUP command can help show ways to dynamically assemble the pipe-separated strings for the REGEXFIND based on values in a column. For example, a list of keywords in Excel can be imported and looped through to create this REGEXFIND() syntax with…

In reply to - Louis posted an update in the group Arbutus

Dear Team,

Trust you are well.

Please, is there an equivalent function in Arbutus that works similarly to the FINDMULTI() function in ACL?

Thank you

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 03:16:47 -0500

@louisentsi Please let me know if this helps. The answer somewhat depends on what you need to do with the analysis, as FINDMULTI() and similar options on the Arbutus side have several ways they can be used.

As a most direct answer, ACL’s FINDMULTI() finds records where at least one of the specified strings is found; so, basically an OR… Read more

In reply to - Louis posted an update in the group Arbutus

Dear Team,

Trust you are well.

Please, is there an equivalent function in Arbutus that works similarly to the FINDMULTI() function in ACL?

Thank you

Paul (Auditopia) posted a new activity comment

Tue, 29 Jul 2025 17:04:12 -0500

Great question, @louisentsi ! Doing well, thanks. Hope the same for you. @david-0224 @Angela @Alain_Rousseau Do any of you know what might be an equivalent function on the Arbutus side?

In reply to - Louis posted an update in the group Arbutus

Dear Team,

Trust you are well.

Please, is there an equivalent function in Arbutus that works similarly to the FINDMULTI() function in ACL?

Thank you