Travel and Entertainment Data Query

[EAlden01]

Fairly new to SAS - It hasn't been a year yet.  I need to analyze travel and entertainment data for the items below and didn't know if a query already exists.

• Unusual expenses/patterns or large expenses
• Possible split transactions
• Unusual dates of travel (non-work days, holidays)
• Duplicate expenses

[Reeza]

What do you mean 'if a query already exists'? Are you using SAS Base, Studio, EG, or some other version of SAS?

[EAlden01]

I am using SAS EG and I was wondering if someone has already written a query that I could use.

[Reeza]

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@EAlden01 wrote:

I am using SAS EG and I was wondering if someone has already written a query that I could use.

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Unless they happen to be working with the exact same data, it's unlikely. 

That being said, we're purchasing a new ERP that claims to do all of this out of the box, with their reports so that'll be interesting. 

In general, getting a 'good signal' for some of these problems is difficult and the accounting codes are all company specific so it's not something that's easy to generalize unless you happen to be using the exact same ERP with the no customizations. 

[ballardw]

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@EAlden01 wrote:

Fairly new to SAS - It hasn't been a year yet.  I need to analyze travel and entertainment data for the items below and didn't know if a query already exists.

• Unusual expenses/patterns or large expenses This could very well be organization dependent; ask your supervisor what ranges of values would qualify
• Possible split transactions  Not an accountant so I don't know if this is a standard term or what it would mean
• Unusual dates of travel (non-work days, holidays) If you have dates as SAS date values you have a number of functions such a HOLIDAY, HOLIDAYNAME or HOLIDAYTEST to look at common US holidays; WEEKDAY returns day of week so can check for week ends.
• Duplicate expenses This may take some care in defining as I can see different people/offices having the same amount at the same vendor and possibly on the same day.

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