TellTable Spreadsheet Audit: from Technical Possibility to Operating Prototype

TL;DR

This paper reports on the development and pilot implementation of TellTable, an open-source software framework for auditing spreadsheets, including infrastructure, extensions, and integration into server interfaces, aiming to improve transparency and accountability.

Contribution

It introduces a functional prototype of an audit trail system for spreadsheets, extending to other Office files and integrating with server interfaces, advancing spreadsheet auditing technology.

Findings

Successful pilot implementation of the TellTable audit system

Extensions to other Office Suite files demonstrated feasibility

Open-source model encourages collaboration and further development

Abstract

At the 2003 EuSpRIG meeting, we presented a framework and software infrastructure to generate and analyse an audit trail for a spreadsheet file. This report describes the results of a pilot implementation of this software (now called TellTable; see www.telltable.com), along with developments in the server infrastructure and availability, extensions to other "Office Suite" files, integration of the audit tool into the server interface, and related developments, licensing and reports. We continue to seek collaborators and partners in what is primarily an open-source project with some shared-source components.