People are bad at making numbers up, and it shows in the digits DIGITS
Too few ones, too many round hundreds, and a bunching just under whatever needs a second signature. None of it is visible by reading the column.
The column of amounts
A CSV with the figures in it: expense claims, invoice totals, purchase orders, grant drawdowns, stock counts. Read in this tab and sent nowhere.
Which column
Is this column even a candidate
Asked first, and answered honestly, because running Benford on a column it does not apply to produces a confident conclusion that is worthless.
The leading digits
The first two digits together
Tests that do not need Benford
Bunching under an approval limit
The figure above which something else has to happen: a second signature, a tender, a declaration, a board paper. Splitting a purchase to stay under it leaves a very particular shape.
The analysis, written out
How it works
Made-up numbers have tells: too few that start with 1, too many round hundreds, and a cluster just below any approval limit. DIGITS runs Benford's law and first-two-digit tests on a column of figures, looks for round numbers and threshold bunching, and says when a test does not apply to your kind of data. A strange result is a reason to look closer, not proof of fraud. The numbers stay on your device.
Doing this often? OBSCURA Books keeps the ledger such figures come from, every journal balanced to the penny. On its own, US$4 a month; with everything else, US$9 a month or US$79 a year. 7 days free.