Hi, I'm Sangeetha. Before I joined DataSnipper, I spent years as an auditor, and revenue was one of the areas where I spent the most time. It's material on almost every engagement, the PBC list is long, and the testing is detailed. Tie the invoice to the ledger, check the amount, check the date for cutoff, chase the ones that don't match, and document all of it so the next person can follow your logic. It's important work, but a lot of it is manual, and manual work is where mistakes and late nights creep in.
That's why revenue testing with Excel Agents is near the top of the list when people ask me which feature to try first. So this week I want to walk through how I'd actually run it, step by step, and show you where I'd keep my hands on the wheel.
First, a quick word on what Excel Agents are, in case this is new to you. Instead of working through manual steps yourself, you describe what you want to achieve in plain language and the Agent handles the execution inside Excel. It reads your source documents, reconciles the data, applies the audit and finance logic you asked for, and runs the test end to end. What you get back is output you can explain and trace all the way to the underlying evidence, ready for review. That last part matters to me. As an auditor, output I can't stand behind isn't worth much, so the traceability is the whole point. Think about how much of a revenue test is really just moving information around. Finding the right invoice, reading the amount off it, matching it to a number in the ledger, and writing down what you found. None of that needs your judgment. It needs care and time, which is why it drags. Handing that mechanical layer to the Agent is what frees you up for the parts that do need you.
A couple of things to check before you start. You'll need DataSnipper version 26.1 or later, an Accelerate or Elevate package, and an internet connection. If you're not sure which version you're on, your DataSnipper admin can confirm.
Now let's walk through the test.
Step one is setup. Open your revenue testing workpaper and import the supporting documents you're testing against. For a typical revenue test that might be your sales invoices, customer contracts, shipping or delivery records, and anything else that supports the amount and the timing. Get all of it into the workbook so the Agent has everything it needs to read in one place. This is the same discipline you'd use for any workpaper. Garbage in, garbage out still applies, so make sure you've pulled the right population.
Step two is opening the Agent. Click the Excel Agent icon in the DataSnipper ribbon. This is where you'll type your instruction.
Step three is the instruction itself, and this is where a little care pays off. Tell the Agent exactly what you want it to do, in the same way you'd brief a junior on the team. A vague instruction gets you a vague result. A clear one gets you something close to ready. For a revenue test, I'd write something like “For each item in my sample, trace the amount to the invoice, then to the shipping documents, then to the bank statement, and flag any differences along the way.” Notice how specific that is about what to match, what to pull, and what counts as an exception. If you want to get sharper at this, DataSnipper has a dedicated article on structuring prompts effectively, and it's genuinely worth ten minutes before your first real test.
Step four is Approval and execution. Once the Agent has your instruction it gets to work, and when it's ready to document its output it pauses and asks for your go-ahead before updating the Excel. At that point you can approve, or add more instructions before it writes anything. This is a deliberate checkpoint, not a formality. Nothing lands in your workpaper until you say yes, so you're always in control of what goes in.
Step Five is the output. Once the procedure finishes, the Agent gives you a detailed summary of the actions it completed. Your workpaper now includes the generated outputs, the Snips that link each figure back to the source document, and the Excel formulas wherever they're needed. This is the piece I would have loved as a staff auditor. The documentation builds itself as the test runs, so when a senior or a partner asks how you arrived at a number, you point to the Snip and the formula instead of reconstructing your steps from memory.
Now the most important step, and the one you can't hand off.
Use your professional judgment to review the output and make any edits it needs. The Agent is fast and consistent at reconciling and documenting, but it doesn't sign the file and it doesn't form the opinion. That's you. Read through the exceptions it flagged and decide whether each one is a genuine misstatement, a cutoff issue, or a documents problem on the client's side. Say an invoice shows up flagged because the amount is off by a few dollars. Is that rounding, a currency conversion, or a real error worth chasing? The Agent can surface it, but only you can tell which one it is, and that answer changes what you do next. Open a few of the Snips and confirm the amounts tie the way you'd expect. Sanity check the population and ask yourself whether anything is missing, because a clean run on the wrong sample is still the wrong test. The whole design keeps humans at the judgment points, which is exactly where an auditor's time is best spent. The Agent clears the mechanical work so you have more room for the thinking that actually requires an auditor.
If you want to build this into how your team works, a few habits help. Agree on a standard prompt for common revenue tests so everyone on the engagement runs the procedure the same way, and save it somewhere the team can reuse it. When you standardize the prompt, you also standardize the documentation that comes out of it, which makes review faster and the file easier for the next person to pick up. Keep the review step explicit in your workpaper, so it's clear a person looked at the output and signed off on the exceptions. It also helps to note in your prompt library which tests are a good fit for an Agent and which ones still need a fully manual approach, so newer team members aren't guessing. And when someone writes a prompt that works really well, share it. The teams getting the most out of Excel Agents are the ones treating good prompts like any other piece of engagement knowledge, something you refine and pass on. If your firm runs internal training or you can join one of our sessions, bring a real prompt you're stuck on. Working through actual engagement examples together beats reading about it every time.
That's the shift I keep coming back to. Less time tracing amounts by hand, more time on the calls that actually need an auditor's judgment.
I started this series because I've seen how one small tip can completely change the way someone uses DataSnipper. Every week, I'll share something practical you can put to work right away. And if there's a feature or workflow you'd like me to cover next, let me know in the comments. Visit our knowledge base (https://knowledge.datasnipper.com/) if you'd like to learn more.