How can I use the for investigating the discrepancies in a financial report?

226    Asked by CaroleThom in AWS , Asked on Apr 24, 2024

I am responsible for overseeing the daily financial transactions for a particular retail company. One day I noticed that there were discrepancies in the sales report which are generated by my system as compared to the expected revenue. Explain to me how can I use the “end of business snapshot” (ebs) for investigating these discrepancies. 

Answered by Carole Thom

In the context of AWS, here are the steps given of how you can use the ebs snapshot for this particular issue:-

Automation of the data snapshot creation

You can write the script or even use a tool to automatically capture the snapshots of relevant financial data at the end of each business day.

Store snapshots securely

You should store the snapshots in a secure and accessible location so that you can ensure that they are timestamped and also organized for easy retrieval.

Implement data analysis algorithms

You can develop algorithms or even you can use data analysis tools to compare the current day’s snapshot with the previous day’s snapshot.

Generating the discrepancies reports

You can generate a detailed report that would highlight any discrepancies or even anomalies that are identified during the comparison process.

Implement correction

You can implement the corrective action based on your root cause. This can include updating the transaction records, adjustments of the inventory levels, resolving the system error, or even the improvement of the data validation process.

Here is the example given below of how you can implement end of the business snapshot by using the Python programming language to capture and analyze financial data for identifying revenue discrepancies:-

Import datetime
Import pandas as pd

# Simulated financial data (replace with actual data source)

Sales_data = {
    ‘Date’: [‘2024-04-10’, ‘2024-04-10’, ‘2024-04-11’, ‘2024-04-11’],
    ‘Product’: [‘A’, ‘B’, ‘A’, ‘B’],
    ‘Quantity’: [100, 150, 120, 160],
    ‘UnitPrice’: [10, 20, 10, 25]
}
# Convert data to DataFrame
Df_sales = pd.DataFrame(sales_data)
# Generate end-of-business snapshot
Def generate_eob_snapshot():
    Today = datetime.date.today()
    Snapshot_filename = f’eob_snapshot_{today}.csv’
    Df_sales.to_csv(snapshot_filename, index=False)
    Return snapshot_filename
# Compare EoB snapshots to identify discrepancies
Def compare_snapshots(previous_snapshot, current_snapshot):
    Df_prev = pd.read_csv(previous_snapshot)
    Df_curr = pd.read_csv(current_snapshot)
    # Calculate revenue for each product in previous and current snapshots
    Df_prev[‘Revenue’] = df_prev[‘Quantity’] * df_prev[‘UnitPrice’]
    Df_curr[‘Revenue’] = df_curr[‘Quantity’] * df_curr[‘UnitPrice’]
    # Calculate total revenue for previous and current snapshots
    Prev_total_revenue = df_prev[‘Revenue’].sum()
    Curr_total_revenue = df_curr[‘Revenue’].sum()
    # Compare total revenue and identify discrepancies
    If prev_total_revenue != curr_total_revenue:
        Revenue_discrepancy = curr_total_revenue – prev_total_revenue
        Print(f”Revenue discrepancy detected: ${revenue_discrepancy}”)

    Else:

        Print(“No revenue discrepancies found.”)
# Generate EoB snapshots for two consecutive days
Previous_snapshot = generate_eob_snapshot()
Current_snapshot = generate_eob_snapshot()
# Compare snapshots to identify discrepancies
Compare_snapshots(previous_snapshot, current_snapshot)


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