Broad areas of useful expertise for a forensic accountant
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010
Core Knowledge of Forensic Accountants constitutes:
1. Comprehensive knowledge of financial statements and the capability to significantly analyse them. These Forensic Accountancy skills help the forensic accountants recognise the actual source and uncover abnormal patterns in accounting information
2. In-depth understanding of fraud schemes, corruption, bribery, money laundering, and asset misappropriations.
3. Capability to figure out the internal control systems of organisations and to set up a control system that measures risks, accomplish management objectives, let the employees know their control responsibilities so that corrections and modifications can be done.
4. Good knowledge of network systems and proficiency in using software tools to prepare reports. Such skills help forensic accountants to carry out investigations in the area of e-banking and computerised accounting systems.
5. Fair knowledge of psychology to better understand the criminal behaviour and to set up fraud prevention programmes that motivate and encourage employees.
6. Good interpersonal and communication skills required for Forensic Accounting, which aid in distributing information about the company’s ethical policies and help forensic accountants to conduct interviews and obtain critical information.
7. In-depth knowledge of company’s governance policies and the laws that regulate these policies.
8. Through command of criminal law and civil law, as well as, of the legal system and court procedures.
Other than these technical skills and expertise in various fields, a forensic accountant should also posses some personal skills such as:
Patience and analytical mind
Since forensic accountants have to look beyond the numbers and grasp the substance of the situation, they should have patience and analytical mindset to better find out the frauds.
Basic accounting skills
To become a good auditor a forensic accountant needs to have some basic accounting skills and the ability to pay attention to the smallest detail to analyse the data thoroughly.
Sixth - Sense
A forensic account should have a creative and analytical thinking that can be used to reconstruct details of past accounting transactions A photographic memory helps when trying to visualise and reconstruct these past events.
Power to observe and listen:
A forensic accountant should also have the ability to observe and listen carefully. This can help to maintain his composure when detailing these events on the witness stand. Moreover, a forensic accountant should also be thick skinned to stand any personal attacks on his professional credibility.
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