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allCLEAR 3.06
"Every picture tells a story, don't it?" The words of Rod Stewart's popular rock-and-roll tune belie a time-tested truism. Namely, people generally understand pictures better than words and numbers. Accordingly, auditors frequently use flowcharts to document the processing of information through the accounting system.
Flowcharts are diagrams that use standard symbols, interconnected with flow lines, to represent complex procedures and data flow visually. The two flowcharting products I reviewed in this column, allCLEAR and EasyFlow, are user-friendly, quick and easy to install, and come with excellent documentation and tutorials.
However, the two packages take drastically different approaches to flowcharting. EasyFlow is a specialized drawing program that takes a drag-and-drop approach to flowcharting. You select shapes from a palette and drop them into the appropriate place in the work area. allCLEAR follows a different approach. To create a flowchart, you write a script in the form of an outline. The punctuation in the script determines how the flowchart will look.
The advantage of the drawing program approach is that you decide exactly how the flowchart should look. The disadvantage is that the process can be cumbersome for anything beyond simple flowcharts. The script approach makes it easy to create and modify the logic of even complicated flowcharts. However, it greatly restricts your ability to customize flowcharts visually.
Writing well
allCLEAR recognizes that while most individuals can write fairly well, few are adept at drawing well. Creating a flowchart in allCLEAR is as simple as writing a script, but in some ways, writing a script adds to the complexity of creating a flowchart. Since you need to use a kind of programming language to write a script, it's more difficult to define the flowchart elements than simply to drag-and-drop a shape from a palette. However, the process of writing a script can be beneficial. The script structure helps you organize ideas and reduce ambiguities. You can also spell check the script and concentrate on defining the logical flow of information.
In addition, you don't waste time trying to arrange shapes; allCLEAR creates the flowcharts automatically. The script punctuation determines how the flowchart will look. For example, a question mark denotes a simple yes/no structure, a colon creates a multiple choice decision, and a period...