The number one fundamental error that causes material errors and misstatements in SEC reporting is spreadsheet errors. There are plenty of technical errors you can make and there always is the risk of management override and deliberate misstatement but the number one way is to shot yourself in the foot because you make a basic spreadsheet error.

Spreadsheets are used by all accountants, and it is impossible to operate without them. We all know that they cause problems, but we use them anyways because there is nothing better. Here are some recent examples of reporting errors (taken from the link below, I have not used the product they advertise and the cases cited are public and in other articles)

http://www.audinator.com/Horror_Stories.html

Fannie Mae makes billion dollar spreadsheet error overstating gains
Fannie Mae filed a Form 8-K/A with the SEC amending their third quarter press release to correct computational errors in that release. “There were honest mistakes made in a spreadsheet used in the implementation of a new accounting standard…which resulted in increases to unrealized gains on securities, accumulated other comprehensive income, and total shareholder equity (of $1.279 billion, $1.136 billion, and $1.136 billion, respectively)”

Share price drops by a third, CEO resigns due to spreadsheet error
UK support-services group Mouchel discovered an accounting error in one of its key spreadsheets that led to a £8.6m downgrade of its profits. The company pension-fund deficit had been wrongly valued as a result of the spreadsheet error.

Shares of RedEnvelope fall more than 25 percent due to spreadsheet error
The online retailer of specialty gifts drastically reduced its fourth-quarter outlook and said its chief financial officer will resign. “They were underestimating the cost of goods sold”, said Stanford Group analyst Rebecca Jones Kujawa. “It is likely CFO Eric Wong is being pushed out because of this error, which could demonstrate a material weakness in controls over financial reporting.” RedEnvelope spokeswoman Jordan Goldstein said the budgeting error was due to a mistake in one cell of a spreadsheet that threw off the entire cost forecast.

Kodak restates income downward by $11 million due to spreadsheet error
$11 million severance error traced to a faulty spreadsheet. Kodak spokesman Gerard Meuchner said “There were too many zeros added to the employee’s accrued severance.” Robert Brust, Kodak’s chief financial officer, called it “an internal control deficiency that constitutes a material weakness that impacted the accounting for restructurings.”

AstraZeneca forced to reiterate earnings forecast after spreadsheet error
Britain’s second largest drugmaker AstraZeneca scrambled to reaffirm earnings forecasts after an embarassing spreadsheet error left investor confidence sorely shaken. The behemoth drug manufacturer said the spreadsheet gaffe occurred during “a routine consensus collection process.”

I can also give a personal story about a spreadsheet error that certainly caused embarrassment and could have been worse. Earlier in my career, when I was Controller of a company, we were being bought by another company and we had bankers advising us. At the last minute, right before we filed our last 10Q as a public company, our lawyers decided we should disclose the banking fee we would be paying to our advisors. We had hired the bankers in the past for the same potential deal and the letter from the earlier, failed deal had been updated to a current date and signed again by our CEO without being reviewed.

The formula for payment was based on a certain definition of enterprise value and the fee jumped as each major valuation range was cleared. I built a quick spreadsheet model off of the balance sheet spreadsheet that had been checked by us and the auditors so I knew all the base numbers were right. I entered the formula for the fees, all in one cell instead of stacking the different ranges in a cell for each of them. The number that came out was in the low double digits of $ millions, and I thought it was high looking but the bank had been working a long time and had not been paid for any work yet on previous, failed deals, so I used that figure in the disclosure. My boss did take a quick look at the number, but no one checked my spreadsheet.

I had made a formula error. For the very last range, I was off one decimal place in the formula and the spreadsheet understated the amount due by 50%. The actual amount was a surprise to everyone and had the CEO actually done a calculation, he probably never would have signed the letter. It ended up being an issue for me because I stayed on and the acquiring company was concerned that the fee was being hidden on purpose. Once I showed them my error, I then ended up in the middle of a large investment bank’s M&A group fighting with their country office overseas that was being pressured over the fee. It eventually was resolved, but I didn’t get as smooth a start as I had hoped in my new role and it was a big distraction for a while.

After that narrow escape, I became much more careful about the base spreadsheets me and my team use in SEC reporting. Careful review for errors has caught several that would have ended up being material misstatements. Two common places where I have found errors is in the tax provision spreadsheet and the inter company accounts reconciliation spreadsheet. Both are updated quarterly, the number of rows often changes as items are added or subtracted and both have multiple people inputting data into them.

The first and still main formal study I know of on spreadsheet errors is by Raymond Panko of the University of Hawaii. I have provided a link this site below. The conclusion of his initial study was that spreadsheets are large and complicated and almost never follow a formal software development process designed to eliminate or reduce errors. Therefore it was not a matter of if there is an error, but how many.

His site lists the common errors he found in his study and how to find them. He also describes a standard development process designed to reduce errors and find any that are created. He also reviews the results of several studies that were done around 2004 after Sarbanes-Oxely became the new standard for companies to follow. Control over spreadsheets is a key internal control that all public companies need to address.

http://panko.shidler.hawaii.edu/SSR/

This problem is pretty well known and it is not hard to find newer articles on finding errors in spreadsheets. For example, this one: http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2015/nov/how-to-debug-excel-spreadsheets.html . Even with the recognition that there is a problem, CFOs are still losing their job because of simple spreadsheet errors leading to material reporting errors, misbid contracts, improper internal reporting and analysis and other embarrassing issues. It does not inspire Audit Committee confidence if you present to them and they find an error.

I suggest that you take a look at the Planko articles and do a little search for more articles on what can be done to reduce errors. Call a meeting with your staff and review this issue and discuss what they are doing to make sure they are getting their spreadsheets right. Hopefully they all know about the danger already and you already have a robust process. If not, get one in place ASAP. Even if you do, spot check a couple of the more complex spreadsheets they use and make sure you cannot find any errors.

An ounce of prevention now can save you from a $25M fine later after an error is found and you have to restate your results.