Financial Accounting and Fraud Detection Training Course

Participants can assess financial statement assertions and identify balances vulnerable to misstatement.

• Financial statement assertions: occurrence, completeness, accuracy, valuation and cut-off
• Income statement trends compared with budgets, forecasts and prior periods
• Statement of financial position balances linked to supporting schedules
• Cash flow patterns reconciled against profit, working capital and financing
• Related-party disclosures assessed for transparency, approval and commercial substance
• Management estimates challenged using assumptions, evidence and subsequent events

Participants can identify common manipulation risks within IFRS-based accounting judgments.

• IFRS 15 revenue recognition steps and contract-based manipulation risks
• IAS 2 inventory costing, write-downs and obsolete stock indicators
• IAS 16 capitalisation decisions, useful lives and depreciation manipulation
• IAS 36 impairment indicators, cash-generating units and forecast assumptions
• IFRS 9 expected credit losses and receivables provisioning judgments
• IAS 37 provisions, contingencies and concealed obligations in reporting

Participants can classify fraud schemes and recognise behavioural and transactional warning signs.

• Fraud triangle pressures, opportunities and rationalisation in accounting environments
• ACFE Fraud Tree categories: asset misappropriation, corruption and reporting fraud
• Occupational fraud schemes affecting cash, procurement, payroll and expenses
• Financial statement fraud involving revenue, reserves, assets and liabilities
• Behavioural red flags balanced against evidence, fairness and confidentiality
• Collusion risks where normal segregation of duties becomes ineffective

Participants can create a fraud-risk register linking schemes, controls and residual risk.

• Fraud-risk assessment scope aligned with processes, accounts and reporting objectives
• Inherent risk scored using likelihood, impact, concealment and management override
• Fraud scenarios written around perpetrators, methods, targets and incentives
• Control mapping connects preventive, detective and corrective activities
• Residual risk ratings reflect control design and operating effectiveness
• Fraud-risk register ownership, review dates and escalation triggers

Participants can evaluate control design and identify failures that permit financial fraud.

• COSO control environment factors affecting accountability and ethical conduct
• Risk assessment processes linked to financial reporting fraud scenarios
• Control activities: approvals, limits, reconciliations, validations and exception reports
• Information and communication channels for reporting financial irregularities
• Monitoring controls through management review, internal audit and remediation
• Walkthrough documentation identifies gaps between policy and actual practice

Participants can test revenue and receivables for premature recognition, fictitious sales and collection anomalies.

• Revenue cut-off testing around period-end dispatches, acceptance and invoices
• Sales contracts reviewed for performance obligations, returns and side agreements
• Receivables ageing analysed for overdue balances, disputes and concentration
• Subsequent cash receipts matched to invoices and customer confirmations
• Credit notes, rebates and returns tested for post-period revenue reversal
• Channel-stuffing indicators identified through sales spikes and inventory movements

Participants can identify procurement and payment patterns associated with supplier fraud.

• Procure-to-pay flow from requisition through purchase order and payment
• Three-way matching between purchase orders, goods receipts and invoices
• Duplicate-payment tests using invoice number, amount, date and supplier
• Vendor-master reviews for duplicate addresses, bank accounts and tax identifiers
• Split-purchase patterns tested against approval limits and tender thresholds
• Conflict-of-interest indicators in supplier selection and contract amendments

Participants can perform targeted reviews of payroll, expenses and assets for misappropriation indicators.

• Payroll-to-HR reconciliation identifies ghost employees and unauthorised pay changes
• Overtime claims compared with attendance records, rosters and approvals
• Expense claims tested for duplicates, policy breaches and altered receipts
• Corporate-card transactions reviewed for merchant category and personal expenditure
• Fixed-asset registers reconciled to physical verification and disposal records
• Petty-cash counts documented with surprise checks and variance investigation

Participants can review cash controls and investigate discrepancies in bank reconciliations.

• Bank reconciliation structure: book balance, bank balance and reconciling items
• Outstanding cheques and deposits tested for timely clearance after period-end
• Electronic payment controls reviewed for maker-checker approval and access rights
• Unusual bank transfers traced through payment requests and beneficiary records
• Cash lapping indicators identified through delayed posting and ageing patterns
• Restricted cash and dormant accounts reviewed for unauthorised activity

Participants can design journal-entry tests that address management override and concealment risks.

• ISA 240 journal-entry testing requirements and management override presumption
• High-risk entries filtered by user, timing, amount and account combination
• Manual journal postings reviewed against evidence, approval and business rationale
• Round-number entries assessed for materiality, frequency and unusual descriptions
• Late-period adjustments traced to supporting schedules and management explanations
• Reversing entries tested for recurring profit smoothing and concealment

Participants can use analytical procedures and ratios to identify financially inconsistent patterns.

• Horizontal analysis compares account movements across monthly and annual periods
• Vertical analysis identifies unusual cost structures and margin shifts
• Liquidity ratios assessed against cash movements, debt terms and working capital
• Receivables, inventory and payables days tested for unexplained movements
• Gross-margin analysis links sales pricing, costs, returns and inventory
• Expectation models combine operational drivers with reported financial results

Participants can select and interpret data tests for common financial fraud patterns.

• Data-quality checks identify missing fields, duplicates and inconsistent coding
• Benford's Law applied cautiously to suitable transaction populations
• Duplicate detection compares vendor names, bank accounts and invoice attributes
• Outlier analysis flags unusual amounts, frequencies, dates and users
• Stratified sampling targets high-value, high-risk and exceptional transactions
• Exception reports documented with population, criteria, results and limitations

Participants can obtain and assess corroborating evidence for suspicious balances and transactions.

• Balance-sheet reconciliations structured with preparer, reviewer and ageing evidence
• Intercompany balances matched between entities, currencies and settlement terms
• Customer and supplier confirmations planned with controlled response procedures
• Third-party evidence evaluated for independence, reliability and completeness
• Physical inspection supports existence claims for cash, inventory and assets
• Subsequent-event testing confirms settlement, reversal or continued exposure

Participants can plan a proportionate financial investigation while preserving relevant evidence.

• Allegation assessment separates known facts, assumptions and unanswered questions
• Investigation objectives define suspected schemes, periods, people and transactions
• Evidence-preservation plans cover records, devices, access logs and backups
• Chain-of-custody records protect evidence integrity and traceability
• Document requests prioritise accounting records, contracts and approval trails
• Investigation plans assign responsibilities, timelines, confidentiality and legal consultation

Participants can prepare structured financial inquiries that obtain facts without compromising investigations.

• Interview plans sequence background, transaction, clarification and challenge questions
• Open questions obtain narratives before documents and evidence are introduced
• Financial records used to test explanations for dates, amounts and approvals
• Contemporaneous notes distinguish statements, observations and documentary evidence
• Interview risks managed through confidentiality, fairness and escalation protocols
• Follow-up questions address inconsistencies, missing records and alternative explanations

Participants can prepare factual fraud review reports with clear findings and recommended actions.

• Finding statements distinguish evidence, analysis, conclusion and recommendation
• Financial loss calculations separate confirmed exposure, estimates and recoveries
• Root-cause analysis identifies control failures, incentives and supervisory weaknesses
• Report language avoids accusation where evidence remains incomplete or disputed
• Escalation routes consider management, internal audit, legal and regulators
• Remediation plans assign control actions, owners, deadlines and verification

Participants can plan fraud-focused assurance procedures based on assessed accounting risks.

• ISA 240 responsibilities compared with management's primary fraud prevention duties
• Fraud-risk responses link assertions, procedures, evidence and documentation
• Professional scepticism applied when explanations conflict with financial evidence
• Sampling approaches selected according to population characteristics and risk
• Control testing distinguishes design effectiveness from operating effectiveness
• Management representations assessed alongside independent corroborating evidence

Participants can propose preventive and detective measures for sustained fraud-risk management.

• Fraud policy components define reporting channels, investigations and disciplinary consequences
• Whistleblowing arrangements protect confidentiality, triage reports and prevent retaliation
• Continuous monitoring routines target payments, journals, vendors and payroll
• Key risk indicators set thresholds for anomalies requiring management review
• Control remediation tracked through action logs, testing and accountable owners
• Fraud awareness communications reinforce reporting obligations and ethical expectations

Participants can build, review and present a complete financial fraud detection review pack for a simulated organisation.

• Case-file scoping defines material accounts, fraud hypotheses and review objectives
• Financial statements analysed using ratios, trends and assertion-based risk assessment
• Transaction extracts tested for duplicates, outliers and journal-entry anomalies
• Control gaps mapped to fraud scenarios, evidence and remediation priorities
• Findings documented with evidence references, financial impact and limitations
• Review pack presented with escalation decisions and practical recommendations