13 September, 2010

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW IN FORENSIC ACCOUNTING

Forensic accounting or investigative accounting as some people call it is that branch of accounting that is specially designed to engage in litigation and financial investigation. In forensic accounting, most of the things done there are a little bit more advanced than what is being learnt in conventional accounting.


In forensic accounting, you need to have knowledge in the following fields

COMPUTER FORENSICS: computer forensic knowledge would save you time in forensic accounting. Computer forensics is the investigative branch of computer science. It was carved out as a discipline just to checkmate the increasingly high rate of computer related crime and fraud.

CIVIL LAW and CRIMINAL LAW: you need to have good understanding of the civil law and criminal if you are to do well in forensic accounting. You need to be able to distinguish between civil cases and criminal case.

EVIDENCE LAW: in forensic accounting, evidences only speak volume when they are gathered using the right evidence gathering procedures. I have seen a forensic accountant who spent more two-third of his whole investigation time defending him-self in the law court. It happened that he gathered his evidence wrongly.

BALANCING ACT / PRIVACY LAW: just like the evidence law, if may land your self into trouble if you don’t have an idea of what these two legal documents are saying.

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING: software engineering made it possible for so many things to be achievable with computer today. You may not need to be a software engineer before doing well in forensic accounting but, basic knowledge can save you from frustration.

DIGITAL DEVICES: you need to have knowledge of digital devices before you can get evidence from it.

The reason for getting all the above diverse knowledge before going into forensic accounting is to be sure that no one would easily fool you. Your chances of being fooled are high if you solely rely on the expertise of third parties for your forensic accounting investigation.