1. Dave Pendreigh Audit Specialist, HMRC
IDEA User Group – 1 December 2016 An Appreciation of IDEAScript & BASIC Script (With some live examples)
Dave Pendreigh
Audit Specialist, HMRC 1

2. IDEAScript v BASIC Script
‘Car’ is an object
‘Colour’ is a property
IDEAScript is the “Object Model”. (Objects have “methods” and “properties” which you can use to “do stuff” e.g.:
a car property may be “colour=red”, or “make = Ferrari”
a car method may be “brake” or “accelerate”
BASIC Script is the language itself e.g.
Declaring variables
Flow of logic (conditionals, iteration)
Interaction with other products, e.g. Excel, Outlook etc. (automation)
‘Accelerate’ is a method
Objects tend to be nouns
Properties tend to be adjectives and methods tend to be verbs. Methods can have arguments which are usually adverbs (e.g. brake fiercely or accelerate carefully) 2

3. Ways to Generate Script (1)
Use the history view
Set task = Client.GetImportTask("ImportExcel")
dbName = "C:\Users\ \Documents\Audit\****\Data From Business\Product Master File.xlsx“
task.FileToImport = dbNametask.
SheetToImport = "Product Master File“
task.OutputFilePrefix = "TestData“
task.FirstRowIsFieldName = "FALSE“
task.EmptyNumericFieldAsZero = "FALSE“
task.PerformTask
dbName = task.OutputFilePath("Product Master File")
Set task = Nothing
Client.OpenDatabase(dbName) 3

4. Ways to Generate Script (2)
Record a macro!
Record Macro 4

5. Ways to Generate Script (3)
Write you own (using code from the previous two if you’ve got any sense!)
Why write your own?
IDEAScript will only work sequentially through each line
IDEAScript just uses the object model
To reap the benefits of BASIC Script you need to write it yourself, so
You can add conditions, iteration (looping), control other programs (automation)
You can define custom functions
You can generate custom dialog boxes
Objects tend to be nouns
Properties tend to be adjectives and methods tend to be verbs 5

6. Custom Function Example
VAT Registration No validation
Modulus97 and Modulus9755 checks
VAT No =
1 * 8 = 8
6 * 7 = 42
8 * 6 = 48
7 * 5 = 35
4 * 4 = 16
3 * 3 = 9
3 * 2 = 6
Sum mod 97 = 67 – 97 = -30 (absolute value = 30) 6

7. Custom Function Example7

8. Custom Function Code Function Mod97(strVATNo As String) As String
Dim i As Integer
Dim intTotal As Integer
For i = 1 To 7
intTotal = CInt((Mid(strVATNo, i, 1)) * (9 - i)) + intTotal
Next i
intTotal = intTotal Mod 97
intTotal = Abs(intTotal - 97)
If intTotal = Mid(strVATNo, 8, 2) Then
mod97 = "True"
Else
mod97 = "False"
End If
End Function 8

9. Macro Example
Allows user to specify folder where IDEA databases are located
User select which databases they wish to export
Script exports each database to a sheet in one Excel workbook 9

10. Automation
Allows user to use most of the standard Windows dialogs to collect information
Allows access to the Windows file system.
Enables control of a lage number of Windows and MS Office functions including opening applications, creating new workbooks, Word docs etc and manipulating them
It’s also possible to use the VBA Editor in these Office applications to control IDEA 10

11. Thank you for the invite! Any Questions?11