Structuring (Smurfing)
Find payments split to stay under an approval limit.
- General ledger alone
What it checks
- Same vendor.
- Same approver.
- Short window.
- Each invoice under DOA limit, sum over it.
How the result is read
The limit that applies is the approver’s own — one global threshold clears everyone with a high limit and floods the result with everyone whose limit is low. Splitting also happens across approvers, so the cluster is keyed on the purchase as well. The sharpest signal is not that a cluster exceeded a limit but that the pieces sit at 90-99% of one.
The worksheet, on the demo engagement
Split Transactions, as the application draws it for Harrow Precision Engineering Ltd, the fictional demo engagement — one row per cluster.
- DOA limit
- Cluster total
The gap is the finding: a cluster clearing the limit while every payment inside it sits below. The individual invoices are on the sheet.
- Structuring clusters
- 4
- DOA threshold
- 5,000
- Total cluster exposure
- 14,460
- Top approver
- R.Kahn 67%
Structuring (ISA 240): same vendor + approver, invoices under DOA limit, sum over it.
Result grid4 rows
| Cluster | Vendor | Approver | Invoice A | Invoice B | Invoice C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S-01 | Orion Supplies | R.Kahn | PI-66128 (2,950) | PI-66130 (2,950) | — |
| S-02 | Summit Tools | J.Smith | PO-8841 (2,100) | PO-8844 (2,100) | PO-8849 (2,100) |
| S-03 | Orion Supplies | R.Kahn | PI-66140 (1,100) | PI-66141 (1,100) | — |
| S-04 | Cedar Office | A.Lee | PI-66200 (980) | PI-66210 (980) | — |
In the application
Structuring (Smurfing) is filed under Purchases & payables, index letter D. "Run all analyses" runs it with every other analysis the ledger can answer. The worksheet states the population it tested on its face — or "Not applicable" with the reason when a column it depends on is empty — and the Excel workbook the engagement exports files it under D, beside an index of the source files with their SHA-256 fingerprints.
Also listed in the application as Split Transactions
.
Read it with
Run your next audit file test without the Excel crash.
One free engagement to evaluate, valid 60 days. The ledger never leaves the machine.
- 20 minutes
- Runs on a fictional engagement
- No client data required