ACT 441 FINAL EXAM STUDY GUIDE
Counts - Answers - the number of occurrences of a certain data item or event.
Descriptive Analytics - Answers - analysis performed that characterizes, summarizes,
and organizes features and properties of the data to facilitate understanding.
Descriptive Statistics - Answers - brief summaries of a data set that provide a
representation of the data set as a whole.
Deciles - Answers - division of data observations into 10 defined intervals based on data
values as a way of comparing to the overall data set.
DuPont Analysis - Answers - summarizes and disaggregates company performance into
three ratios: profit margin, asset turnover and financial leverage.
Histogram - Answers - display of rectangles with area proportional to the underlying
frequency of the data.
Horizontal Analysis - Answers - provides comparative changes regarding various line
items of each financial statement over time.
Pivot Chart - Answers - a visualization of summarizations included in the pivottable.
Pivottable - Answers - a tool that allows reorganization and summarization of certain
data using cross-tabulations without changing the underlying spreadsheet (or data).
Quartiles - Answers - division of data observations into four defined intervals based on
data values as a way of comparing to the overall data set.
Percentage Change - Answers - the extent to which a data item gains or loses
magnitude or value.
Ratio Analysis - Answers - quantitative analysis of financial statement items to help
evaluate liquidity, solvency, profitability, and efficiency of the underlying company.
Return on Assets - Answers - measure of profitability for each dollar of resources
available for management to use.
Return on Equity - Answers - measure of profitability generated for each dollar of
stockholders' investment.
Sparklines - Answers - brief, generally small, visuals that fit within one cell in Excel that
visually depict what happened in the cells next to it.
, Vertical Analysis - Answers - financial information expressed in relation to some
relevant figure, or base.
Anomaly - Answers - something that departs, or deviates, from the norm or the
expectation.
Benford's Law - Answers - the principle that in any large, randomly produced set of
natural numbers, there is an expected distribution of the first, or leading, digit with there
being more 1s having the greatest expectation, 2s next most, and down successively to
the number 9.
Diagnostic Analytics - Answers - analytics performed to investigate the underlying
reasons for past results that cannot be answered by simply looking at the descriptive
data.
Drill-Down Analytics - Answers - analytics that looks for underlying patterns in the data
by examining the data at a more detailed level.
Fuzzy Matching - Answers - a technique used to find potential matches when there is
less than an exact match.
Management by Exception - Answers - the practice of bringing specific issues to the
attention of management if they depart from expectation.
Outlier - Answers - an observation that lies outside its expected distribution.
Regression - Answers - a basic technique used in diagnostic and predictive analytics
that allows the accountant to evaluate whether a specific dependent variable outcome
value is related to independent variable inputs.
Segregation of Duties - Answers - a common internal control that requires more than
one person to complete each accounting task.
Sequence Check - Answers - test to see if the key number field in the record is in
correct ascending or descending sequence.
Standard Cost - Answers - an estimated, or expected, cost of producing a good or
service used in management accounting.
Sunk Cost Failacy - Answers - commitment to prior investments escalates and makes it
harder to abandon prior investments even if it may not make rational sense.
Two-Sample T-Test Difference of Means - Answers - a statistical test to evaluate if the
means of two different populations are the same.
Counts - Answers - the number of occurrences of a certain data item or event.
Descriptive Analytics - Answers - analysis performed that characterizes, summarizes,
and organizes features and properties of the data to facilitate understanding.
Descriptive Statistics - Answers - brief summaries of a data set that provide a
representation of the data set as a whole.
Deciles - Answers - division of data observations into 10 defined intervals based on data
values as a way of comparing to the overall data set.
DuPont Analysis - Answers - summarizes and disaggregates company performance into
three ratios: profit margin, asset turnover and financial leverage.
Histogram - Answers - display of rectangles with area proportional to the underlying
frequency of the data.
Horizontal Analysis - Answers - provides comparative changes regarding various line
items of each financial statement over time.
Pivot Chart - Answers - a visualization of summarizations included in the pivottable.
Pivottable - Answers - a tool that allows reorganization and summarization of certain
data using cross-tabulations without changing the underlying spreadsheet (or data).
Quartiles - Answers - division of data observations into four defined intervals based on
data values as a way of comparing to the overall data set.
Percentage Change - Answers - the extent to which a data item gains or loses
magnitude or value.
Ratio Analysis - Answers - quantitative analysis of financial statement items to help
evaluate liquidity, solvency, profitability, and efficiency of the underlying company.
Return on Assets - Answers - measure of profitability for each dollar of resources
available for management to use.
Return on Equity - Answers - measure of profitability generated for each dollar of
stockholders' investment.
Sparklines - Answers - brief, generally small, visuals that fit within one cell in Excel that
visually depict what happened in the cells next to it.
, Vertical Analysis - Answers - financial information expressed in relation to some
relevant figure, or base.
Anomaly - Answers - something that departs, or deviates, from the norm or the
expectation.
Benford's Law - Answers - the principle that in any large, randomly produced set of
natural numbers, there is an expected distribution of the first, or leading, digit with there
being more 1s having the greatest expectation, 2s next most, and down successively to
the number 9.
Diagnostic Analytics - Answers - analytics performed to investigate the underlying
reasons for past results that cannot be answered by simply looking at the descriptive
data.
Drill-Down Analytics - Answers - analytics that looks for underlying patterns in the data
by examining the data at a more detailed level.
Fuzzy Matching - Answers - a technique used to find potential matches when there is
less than an exact match.
Management by Exception - Answers - the practice of bringing specific issues to the
attention of management if they depart from expectation.
Outlier - Answers - an observation that lies outside its expected distribution.
Regression - Answers - a basic technique used in diagnostic and predictive analytics
that allows the accountant to evaluate whether a specific dependent variable outcome
value is related to independent variable inputs.
Segregation of Duties - Answers - a common internal control that requires more than
one person to complete each accounting task.
Sequence Check - Answers - test to see if the key number field in the record is in
correct ascending or descending sequence.
Standard Cost - Answers - an estimated, or expected, cost of producing a good or
service used in management accounting.
Sunk Cost Failacy - Answers - commitment to prior investments escalates and makes it
harder to abandon prior investments even if it may not make rational sense.
Two-Sample T-Test Difference of Means - Answers - a statistical test to evaluate if the
means of two different populations are the same.
