Forensic accounting is a dynamic and challenging field, with diverse cases ranging from financial fraud to asset tracing. Forensic accountants assist their clients in matters such as preventing financial losses, recovering stolen assets and aiding in legal processes.
Forensic accountants are hired to investigate financial discrepancies and irregularities. As a forensic accountant you could be an expert witness - providing your expertise as part of a dispute or litigation - or assist with investigations being carried out for an internal corporate investigation. Forensic accountants dig deep into the financial evidence available before providing analysis for their client, which might involve producing a report, preparing documents for court, or giving evidence as an expert witness.
There are several niche areas a forensic accountant can specialise in, including: business and share valuations; fraud and regulatory investigations; insurance claims; matrimonial disputes; professional negligence; tax investigations.
Qualities/skills needed:
- Meticulous attention to detail
- Analytical thinking and problem solving skills
- Strong written and verbal communication
- Understanding of relevant laws and legal procedures
- Ability to use specialised software to analyse large data sets
- High integrity and impartiality
- Able to manage multiple client engagements
Typical tasks:
- Analyzing financial data to identify discrepancies or patterns
- Carrying out investigations into allegations of bribery, corruption or fraud
- Create financial models to support business valuation assessments
- Providing expert testimony in court
- Producing reports suitable for legal proceedings
- Advising companies on best practices for fraud prevention
Webinars & recordings
ICAEW's
Forensic & Expert Witness community provides events, webinars and training for community members.
Financial fraud - common red flags
This webinar will explain some of the common warning signs that may indicate there is a problem and assist you to detect fraud at the earliest opportunity.
eBooks
The ICAEW Library & Information Service provides full text access to a selection of key business and reference eBooks from leading publishers. eBooks are available to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users. If you are unable to access an eBook, please see our Help and support advice or contact library@icaew.com.
Exclusive
BVB insights: data and analysis on UK private company multiples
Independent analysts, from BVB Ltd, have collated and interpreted transactions data involving private companies. The result is an in-depth overview of transaction multiples paid for UK private companies for the year ended December 2023 (previous editions are also available).
Exclusive
Hands-on financial modeling with Excel for Microsoft 365: build your own practical financial models for effective forecasting, valuation, trading, and growth analysis
Financial modeling is a core skill required by anyone who wants to build a career in finance. This book explores financial modeling terminologies with the help of Excel. Starting with the key concepts of Excel, such as formulas and functions, this updated second edition will help you to learn all about referencing frameworks and other advanced components for building financial models.
Exclusive
Valuing a business: the analysis and appraisal of closely held companies
Covers different valuation principles and methods.
Exclusive
Introduction to valuing stock options
A chapter providing an overview of some models and techniques commonly used in the valuation of options, including the Black–Scholes model, the binomial model, and Monte Carlo simulation techniques.
Exclusive
Financial modeling in Excel for dummies
This books provides practical hands-on exercises to help you build powerful models from scratch, and to work with existing financial models in Excel. Includes chapters on tools and techniques for financial modeling, applying scenarios, charting and presenting model output, building an integrated financial statements model, discounted cash flow valuation, and budgeting for capital expenditure and depreciation.
Exclusive
Valuing businesses using regression analysis: a quantitative approach to the guideline company transaction method
Demystifies regression-based valuation through simple explanations, easy-to-understand charts, and time-saving bonus resources. Current methodologies using median, quartiles, or standard deviations to calculate revenue multipliers and cash flow multipliers often produce values that are wildly divergent.
Exclusive
When numbers don't add up: accounting fraud and financial technology
The book begins with a brief assessment of corporate crime, fraud in general, and how accounting fraud is different. There is a review of notorious cases such as Enron (2001) and recently Toshiba (2015), including the socioeconomic consequences of this nefarious crime.
Exclusive
Forensic Analytics: Methods and Techniques for Forensic Accounting Investigations
This book outlines a framework for and a systematic series of audit data analytics tests that should function well as a starting set of detective controls. The tests are not based on complicated statistics and should be quite easy to understand for anyone that has done well in a handful of accounting courses.
