Research historical data and evidence

I need evidence for the compliance review. Pull historical transaction records and supporting invoices for account 4200 from January through June, summarize exceptions, and deliver the bundle to Marco, the audit manager, and Leila in compliance by Wednesday afternoon; verify every file is legible and matches the ledger amounts before sending.

Before I hand the historical data to Leila, make it easier for her to judge exceptions: create a single pivot that shows monthly totals, highlight months with variance over five percent, attach a one-paragraph explanation for each exception, and include links to the scanned invoices so she can click straight to evidence.

While pulling invoices for account 4200, I discovered nine invoices that don’t match ledger totals across 2019–2021. I’m responsible for the evidence bundle but I don’t know whether these are posting errors, duplicate entries, or misfiled scans. What diagnostics should I run first to identify the root cause and what should I tell Marco so he isn’t blindsided at the review?

Every audit season we re-run the same searches and re-check archival invoices, wasting two weeks per audit and straining the team. Where are we losing time in researching historical data and what single archival practice or naming convention could stop us repeating the same hunt each year?