Modern Benford’s Law: State of the Art Techniques for Audit and Compliance Professionals

Benford’s Law offers a powerful, data-driven approach to anomaly detection. Discovered 150 years ago, it wasn’t until the 1990s that auditors began harnessing its potential for identifying irregularities in financial data. Today, the Benford’s Law community spans a wide range of professions and academic disciplines.

This book provides the latest research-based techniques packaged for ready usage by auditors and audit analytics professionals. Discover how to use Benford’s Law in continuous monitoring and pinpoint non-compliant vendors, accounts or other groups. Visual examples demonstrate how to identify and interpret the most common patterns Benford’s Law surfaces.

Auditors and assurance professionals will benefit from clear, practical explanations of advanced methods, making it easier to integrate these techniques into their workflows. Meanwhile, analytics and quantitative experts will find a rich toolkit of new techniques to enhance their capabilities. Whether you’re new to Benford’s Law or looking to deepen your expertise, this book equips you with the tools to transform how you detect anomalies in data.

Daniel J. McCarville is a recognized audit analytics professional, researcher, and speaker with more than a decade of experience developing advanced tools for auditors and compliance teams. He currently leads the audit analytics team at an S&P 500 insurance firm. His statistical expertise spans Benford’s Law, machine learning, simulation, which he applies to detect anomalies and strengthen decision-making.

His peer-reviewed research has introduced novel applications of Benford’s Law and new methods for identifying irregularities in standardized test data. He has published in Emerald Open Research and received the National Legislative Program Evaluation Society’s Impact Award multiple times.

Daniel has presented at major professional conferences, including IIA events, and frequently speaks at universities to inspire the next generation of data professionals. He holds a master’s degree in political science from the University of Kansas, as well as Data Science from Eastern University. He also holds CIA and CRMA designations from the Institute of Internal Auditors, and DASM certification from the Project Management Institute.