Forensic Accounting

Forensic Accounting

Introduction

Forensic accountant are referred to experienced accountants, auditors and investigators of financial and legal documents who are responsible for looking into the possible suspicions of activities including fraud. Forensic accounting involves the prevention of any fraudulent activities form occurring. The services of the forensic accountants are provided in areas including antitrust, accounting, analysis, damages, valuation and general consultation. It is also observed that forensic accounting has also been observed used and implemented in the areas of bankruptcy, divorces, personal injury claims, insurance claims, construction, fraudulent claims, tracking terrorism, royalty audits, and the investigation of financial records. Forensic accounting is a very useful and effective occupation in the modern day society and is also widely used all over the world (Kranacher, 2011). The core focus of this paper is to identify and discuss the roles and skills of forensic accountants along with their responsibilities to their clients.

Skills of a Forensic Accountant

A forensic accountant is a unique auditor or accountant who is responsible for identification of fraudulent suspicions and the prevention of frauds. It is very obvious that there would be a number of important skills that would be possessed by the forensic accountants for the effective fulfillment of their occupational responsibilities. The following are the most significant responsibilities that should be possessed by a good forensic accountant.

Analytical Skills

It is very important for a forensic accountant to be analytical in te investigations. He validity of the financial transactions are analyzed in a keen manner by a forensic accountant to identify whether the transaction were fair or not. It is significant that in some cases the number do not support the documentation of the organization. It is a very important skill of a forensic accountant to analyze that from where the numbers came from and whether the company reported those numbers accurately or not (Crumbley, 2007). The analytical skill is a very important skill of a forensic accountant.

Detail Oriented

It is the responsibility of a forensic accountant to look into large quantities of numerical data which requires him to be detail oriented. It is very important for the numbers to match with the documents at every single step. It is an important skill of the forensic accountants to compare the details of the transactions with the time of each transaction. A key skill of forensic accountants is to be detailed oriented throughout the fulfillment of their job responsibilities.

Persistence

It is very important for a forensic accountant to learn the skills of being persistent as persistence is required in some cases. It is observed that in some cases, the data required by the forensic accountant seems to be missing and the forensic accountant needs to request for the documentations again and again. Persistence will help the forensic accountant in being more assertive while asking for the required documentation.

Inquisitiveness

Inquisitiveness is a very important skill that should be present in a forensic accountant for conducting effective investigation. A forensic accountant needs to interrogate the staff members of the organization. For this purpose, a forensic accountant ...