Getting the time down to the second in Excel

The Tip of the Night for September 4, 2021 discussed setting an Excel spreadsheet to track the time used by each side during a trial, with formulas to add up multiple time ranges for each party. In order to get precise results, it's important to enter the time accurately. Rather than manually keying in the time, or using the SHIFT + CTRL + ; shortcut to enter the current hour and minute, consider using a macro which will enter the hour, minute, and second. This simple vba code, available here :

Sub TimeStamp()

ActiveCell.Value = Time

ActiveCell.NumberFormat = "h:mm:ss AM/PM"

End Sub

. . . while create a function that will allow you to enter the time more precisely with a shortcut you select.

. . . go to the Developer tab and click on Macros. Click on Options and select a letter to be used with the CTRL key

When the shortcut is pressed the time down to the second will be entered in the selected cell.

Staging Explorer for RelativityOne

The Tip of the Night for December 31, 2020 referred to RelativityOne's Staging Explorer, which is used to upload and download files for RelativityOne. Here's some more detail on how it works.

Staging Explorer speeds up the time it takes to complete data transfers by using the data compression functionality of Aspera, IBM's data streaming service. Local files are selected on the left. On the right side, you can download data from the server.

The transfer pane at the bottom is used to track any in progress downloads. If you want to queue several data sets before beginning an upload or download, uncheck the 'Auto Start' box at the lower right.

Notice the small field in the middle of the transfer pane labeled 'Target Rate'. Setting a megabits per second rate in this field will allow you to throttle some jobs, and prioritize others. The highest possible setting for any job in the queue is 55 Mbps.

SSAE-16 and SOC-1 - Assessment of Controls for Financial Reporting

The Tip of the Night for February 26, 2019 discussed the SOC 2 Cloud Security Standard, the cloud security certification offered by AICPA, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. When considering whether or not to use a vendor to host data in the cloud, check to see if it has also completed an AICPA SSAE-16 examination performed by one of the Big Four accounting firms. A good vendor will have done both SOC 2 and SSAE-16 examinations. The SOC 1 reports that a SSAE-16 audit issues will review how the data center's controls affect their financial reporting. SSAE-16 stands for Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements No. 16.

SOC 2 focuses on the security and privacy of data when it's stored and in transit. It checks the security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy of data. SSAE-16, and the SOC 1 Type 1 and Type 2 reports address the sufficiency of internal controls for the purposes of financial reporting.

SSAE-16 is the audit conducted before a SOC 1 report is issued which assesses how comprehensive a data center's controls are. After a first report giving an evaluation of the data center at a given point in time, and second SOC 1 report will be prepared that shows the condition of the data center's control system over time.