Case Study: Flow of Funds Analysis
“ScanWriter is a home run… Game Changer! And I am on the winning team! …I love it.”
Senior Analyst
California, USA
Challenge
Physically entering and checking financial transactions between 40 accounts is not practical because of the large volume and high risk of error.
Solution
ScanWriter for Excel
Results
- Completed the case in weeks instead of months
- Determined the flow of funds and traced the money
- Could take on more cases to support the agency’s mission
- Managed large data sets while maintaining data integrity
A Veteran Analyst Scores with Game-Changing Financial Transaction Analysis
Challenge
A sophisticated financial fraud case involves manifold documents and transactions, all of which require review. Yet this daunting task is necessary to understand where money comes from and goes to.
In the case discussed here, millions of dollars moved from account to account, which could take an analyst months or years to complete manually. The analyst for this case told us, “Manually tracking money can be like a dog chasing his own tail…”
The case was complicated by the fact that the transactions involved were a couple hundred dollars each, and the analyst would have to manually link the transactions to each account.
The analyst, an industry veteran of 20 years, explains, “I gave up on using the software my agency had in the past. I could not get it to work right, so I ended up entering each transaction one-by-one… it’s a labor of love… and sometimes blood, sweat, and tears…”
Solution
At first, the analyst was skeptical about ScanWriter. Her agency had recently adopted the software, and she was encouraged to take a training session and try it.
However, when she started using ScanWriter, the number of banks it supported impressed her. The analyst said, “I could find most of my banks in ScanWriter, but I had to request a few others. It was so easy. I was able to add new banks in a day or two.”
Additionally, the case included offset documents, such as check images and wire transfers. Since ScanWriter can automatically match offsets to individual bank statements, key details – such as the payee name – are automatically populated.
The analyst found herself being able to reallocate her time to other tasks. She explained, “…I was surprised how well [ScanWriter] interpreted the handwriting on the checks. I really could not believe it! Seeing is believing…”
The analyst created multiple visualizations using ScanWriter’s Power BI Flow of Funds Model. She continued, “I verified the accuracy, parsed and standardized the business/entity names, and created a Flow of Funds visualization that showed the money going in and out… I can even filter by my Targets! …Thank goodness that I gave ScanWriter a chance…”
Business Benefits
In a couple of weeks, the analyst concluded her review and notified the case’s agent that she was ready to present the evidence.
The agent could not believe how much work the analyst had completed in a short time. The analyst noted, “I showed the agent how to use the Flow of Funds Model. He found connections and potential targets to look into… I have never seen him so excited to review the data…”
With the Flow of Funds model, the analyst easily illustrated where the money was coming from, where it was going, who was involved, and more. With confidence, the analyst successfully converted thousands of documents into useful evidence that helped victims find restitution.
The analyst went on to say, “When I presented the case to the agency, I received a standing ovation. ScanWriter is a home run… Game Changer! And I am on the winning team! …I love it.”
“Thank goodness that I gave ScanWriter a chance…”
Senior Analyst, Florida, USA
