Financial Accounting and Detecting Fraud

Financial Accounting and  Detecting Fraud

OBJECTIVES

• Discuss the structure and foundations of financial reporting
• Be aware of creative accounting and how it can be determined
• Determine the need for forensic accounting by means of case study and other analysis
• Appreciate the nature or Benford’s Law and its increasingly important role in the prevention and detection of fraud
• Discuss the role of the auditor in detecting fraud
• Carrying out a variety of statistical tests on financial reports and accounting data

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

Finance and accounting professionals and those for whom the prevention and detection of fraud is a major issue. 

COURSE OUTLINE

Day1 – Financial Accounting Review

• Structure of financial reports
• Regulation of financial reporting
• Financial reporting standards
• The Analysis of Financial Reports
• Detecting bias in accounting numbers
• Qualitative analysis: what people say and what they might mean

Day2 – Creative Accounting

• What is creative accounting and why is it a bad thing?
• Inappropriate accruals, estimates, and excessive provisions
• Identifying premature revenue recognition and fictitious revenue
• Aggressive capitalisation
• Creative income statements: classification and disclosure
• Problems with cash flow reporting

Day3 – Forensic Accounting

• The basics of forensic accounting
• The need for Sarbanes-Oxley
• The going concern concept in greater detail
• Cases in which forensic accounting was used
• Off balance sheet finance
• Introduction to Benford’s Law

Day4 – THE ROLE OF THE AUDITOR AND DETECTING FRAUD

• The Role of the Auditor in the Prevention and Detection of Fraud
• Deterring Fraud – The fraud triangle
• The COSO “Internal Control – Integrated Framework,” (COSO Model)
• 20 ways to detect fraud
• Identifying fraud using time series analysis
• Fraud risk assessments

Day5 – Tools for Detecting Fraud

• Further Statistical Analysis of accounting and other data
• Further application of Benford’s Law
• Chi Square and Kolmogorov Smirnoff Tests
• Mean Absolute Deviation test
• Mantissa Arc Test