If you spend time watching crime shows on television then the term forensic isn’t foreign, but with accounting, it rarely involves blood and guts. Forensic accounting is a specialized field in which investigators look at crimes against property. They do their work by running numbers through specialized programs and present their findings in reports, demonstrations and documentation.
Forensic accountants, or auditors, delve in to the financial documents presented to them and search for evidence of fraud, financial mismanagement and other such monetary malfeasance. They give testimony in court trails, or provide expert evidence and consultation when needed. Many accounting firms will keep specialists with forensic accounting training on hand. Sometimes such accountants narrow their specialty even further, focusing upon insurance claims, construction financing, personal injury and so forth.
It may not seem like a glamorous job, and frankly, few people view any aspect of accounting as exciting, but it is the work of forensic accounting to determine exactly what went wrong when dealing with such crimes as the Enron scandal or that which took place with Adelphia Communications. It was forensic accountants hired by the federal government to uncover the irregularities so carefully disguised by the executives of the accused firms.
It is easy to see why forensic accountants are an important part of the legal protections placed upon firms, large and small. It is the records kept and analyzed by such professionals which reduce the chances of inappropriate financial activity and which finds any errors, deliberate or accidental, and protect the investor’s funds.
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