Financial Fraud Prevention and Investigation Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Internal Auditors, Finance Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-FFC-016

Before you join: Participants should understand basic accounting records, including invoices, purchase orders, bank reconciliations, general ledger entries and financial statements.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Financial fraud creates direct losses, misstated financial results, regulatory exposure and damaged stakeholder trust. Payment fraud, procurement collusion, expense abuse, payroll manipulation, asset theft and financial statement fraud often begin as small control failures or unusual transactions. Finance, audit, compliance and operational staff need a disciplined way to recognise warning signs, assess allegations, preserve evidence and support fair, defensible decisions.

This course examines financial fraud from prevention through examination and reporting. Participants learn to map fraud risks, apply the Fraud Triangle and Fraud Diamond, evaluate controls using the COSO Internal Control Framework, identify red flags in financial records, and use data-analysis tests to focus enquiries. The programme covers allegation intake, fraud-response planning, document review, interviews, evidence handling, loss calculation and investigation reporting. Attention is given to confidentiality, legal privilege, due process, whistleblowing and the distinction between fact-finding and disciplinary decision-making.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings with financial-record cases, group analysis, interview simulations and structured investigation-planning work. Cases reflect issues found in banks, public agencies, NGOs, multinational businesses and supplier-dependent operations. Participants leave with a fraud risk assessment template, control-gap review checklist, investigation plan, evidence log, interview plan and fraud examination report structure that can be adapted to their own policies and reporting lines.

The course suits professionals who have responsibility for financial controls, audit, compliance, investigations, operational assurance or fraud response. It is particularly useful for staff who must work across finance, legal, human resources, procurement, information security and senior management when a suspected fraud requires prompt and proportionate action.

What you will be able to do

  • Assess fraud risks using a structured fraud risk assessment and risk register
  • Apply the Fraud Triangle, Fraud Diamond and Fraud Tree to suspected schemes
  • Evaluate preventive and detective controls against COSO Internal Control principles
  • Identify financial statement, payment, payroll and procurement fraud red flags
  • Design data-analysis tests using Benford's Law, duplicate testing and exception reports
  • Plan a defensible financial fraud investigation from allegation intake to reporting
  • Conduct fact-finding interviews using the PEACE interview model and evidence sequence
  • Prepare an investigation report, loss calculation and corrective action plan

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Recognise fraud indicators before losses or reporting errors become material
  • Handle allegations with a documented, proportionate investigation process
  • Analyse transaction populations using targeted fraud tests and exception criteria
  • Conduct more structured interviews without compromising evidence or fairness
  • Produce clearer fraud findings for management, legal counsel and disciplinary panels

For your organisation

  • Earlier detection of payment, procurement, payroll and reporting irregularities
  • More consistent fraud triage, escalation and investigation documentation
  • Stronger preventive and detective controls over high-risk financial processes
  • Better preserved evidence for disciplinary, recovery or law-enforcement action
  • Practical corrective actions that reduce repeat fraud and control failures

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can classify common financial fraud schemes and define appropriate professional responsibilities.

  • Fraud, error and misconduct distinguished through intent, concealment and benefit
  • ACFE Fraud Tree categories: corruption, asset misappropriation and statement fraud
  • Fraud Triangle pressure, opportunity and rationalisation applied to financial misconduct
  • Fraud Diamond adds capability to explain complex or repeated schemes
  • Occupational fraud compared with external fraud and organised criminal activity
  • Professional scepticism balanced with fairness, confidentiality and presumption of innocence

Participants can build a fraud risk assessment linked to governance, ownership and escalation.

  • Fraud risk assessment scope defined by processes, assets and reporting objectives
  • Inherent risk scored using likelihood, impact, velocity and control dependency
  • Process walkthroughs identify handoffs, overrides, manual journals and approval gaps
  • Risk registers document schemes, indicators, controls, owners and residual ratings
  • Three Lines Model assigns management, assurance and oversight responsibilities
  • Board reporting distinguishes emerging patterns, confirmed cases and control remediation

Participants can evaluate and strengthen controls that prevent and detect financial fraud.

  • COSO Internal Control Framework applied to fraud prevention responsibilities
  • Segregation of duties tested across vendor setup, purchasing and payment release
  • Approval matrices examined for delegated authority, thresholds and override controls
  • Vendor master file controls address duplicate suppliers and ownership conflicts
  • Reconciliations designed with independent review, ageing analysis and evidence retention
  • Whistleblowing channels assessed for anonymity, protection and case-routing procedures

Participants can identify accounting manipulation indicators and scope initial financial statement enquiries.

  • Revenue recognition red flags include side agreements and premature cut-off
  • Journal entry testing targets unusual users, dates, amounts and descriptions
  • Expense capitalisation examined through asset additions, policies and amortisation patterns
  • Management estimates challenged using assumptions, hindsight review and sensitivity analysis
  • Related-party transactions traced through disclosures, ownership records and payment flows
  • Analytical procedures compare margins, ratios, trends and nonfinancial operating measures

Participants can identify scheme-specific red flags within high-risk financial processes.

  • Duplicate payment tests compare invoice numbers, amounts, suppliers and dates
  • Procurement collusion indicators include bid rotation, identical pricing and split orders
  • Conflict-of-interest checks connect employees, vendors, bank accounts and addresses
  • Payroll fraud tests identify ghost employees, overtime anomalies and altered bank details
  • Expense claims reviewed for duplicate receipts, policy breaches and weekend spending
  • Cash theft indicators include delayed deposits, voids, refunds and reconciliation differences

Participants can design targeted data tests that prioritise transactions for investigation.

  • Data acquisition plan defines systems, fields, periods, owners and extraction controls
  • Population completeness checked against control totals, record counts and source reports
  • Benford's Law used cautiously to screen unnatural first-digit distributions
  • Outlier analysis identifies round amounts, threshold splitting and unusual payment timing
  • Duplicate matching tests names, addresses, tax identifiers and bank accounts
  • Link analysis maps relationships among employees, suppliers, approvals and transactions

Participants can triage allegations and prepare a proportionate financial fraud investigation plan.

  • Allegation intake records source, facts, urgency, confidentiality and supporting material
  • Triage separates credible allegations from misunderstandings, grievances and unsupported claims
  • Immediate risk actions protect people, records, funds and business continuity
  • Investigation hypotheses frame suspected schemes, participants, periods and evidence sources
  • Scope memorandum defines objectives, authority, constraints, roles and reporting route
  • Case plans sequence evidence collection, interviews, analysis and decision points

Participants can preserve, organise and examine financial evidence using defensible procedures.

  • Chain of custody records collection, transfer, storage, access and disposition
  • Document preservation notices prevent deletion, alteration and routine destruction
  • Forensic accounting schedules reconcile source documents to ledger entries and bank activity
  • Evidence matrices link allegations, elements, documents, witnesses and findings
  • Chronologies organise events, approvals, communications, payments and discovery dates
  • Working papers distinguish observed facts, inferences, assumptions and unresolved questions

Participants can plan and conduct fair fact-finding interviews while managing case risks.

  • PEACE model structures planning, engagement, account, closure and evaluation
  • Interview order protects evidence, avoids contamination and tests emerging explanations
  • Open questions obtain narrative accounts before specific documents are introduced
  • Cognitive interviewing techniques support accurate recall without leading the witness
  • Admission-seeking questions tested against corroborating records, motives and opportunity
  • Interview notes separate quotations, observations, documents shown and follow-up actions

Participants can report findings, quantify losses and convert case lessons into corrective actions.

  • Investigation reports distinguish allegations, methodology, evidence, findings and limitations
  • Findings stated using clear evidential language and documented standards of proof
  • Loss calculations separate actual loss, attempted loss, recovery and consequential costs
  • Root cause analysis identifies control failures, override behaviour and governance weaknesses
  • Corrective action plans assign owners, deadlines, evidence and closure criteria
  • Personal application plans prioritise fraud controls, detection tests and response improvements

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Fraud risk assessment template
  2. COSO control-gap review checklist
  3. Financial fraud red-flag matrix
  4. Fraud investigation plan template
  5. Evidence log and chain-of-custody form
  6. Fraud examination report structure

Who should attend

  • Internal Auditors — investigate control failures and assess fraud risk
  • Finance Managers — detect irregularities within reporting, payments and reconciliations
  • Compliance Officers — manage allegations, reporting duties and response procedures
  • Fraud Investigators — structure financial examinations and evidence files
  • Procurement Managers — address supplier fraud, conflicts and collusive purchasing
  • Risk Managers — strengthen fraud controls and escalation arrangements

Skills and tools covered

Fraud risk assessmentControl evaluationFinancial data analysisEvidence managementInvestigative interviewingFraud reporting

Tools and standards

COSO Internal Control Framework, ACFE Fraud Tree, Fraud Triangle, PEACE interview model

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce fraud concepts, control methods and examination protocols. Participants analyse realistic transaction records, allegation scenarios and control failures in small groups. Facilitated case work applies red-flag analysis, fraud-risk assessment, data-testing logic, evidence documentation and interview planning. Simulations address allegation triage and fact-finding conversations. Each participant develops an application plan using their own financial processes, reporting lines and fraud-response arrangements, supported by instructor feedback and peer discussion.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand basic accounting records, including invoices, purchase orders, bank reconciliations, general ledger entries and financial statements. Experience in finance, internal audit, compliance, procurement, risk, investigations or operational management is helpful. Participants should be comfortable reading transaction data and discussing internal controls. Prior fraud-investigation experience is not required, and no forensic accounting qualification, legal training, specialist software knowledge or advanced statistical background is assumed. The course explains the methods used before applying them to financial fraud cases.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants need basic familiarity with accounting records, financial processes and internal controls. Previous fraud investigation experience, legal training and forensic accounting credentials are not required.

Bring a laptop if possible, along with a non-confidential example of a financial process or fraud-control concern. Course materials and case documents are provided, and participants should not bring sensitive case files.

The course is designed for internal audit, finance, compliance, risk, procurement and investigation professionals. It also suits managers who may receive allegations or sponsor fraud-control improvements.

Anti-money laundering training focuses on detecting and reporting suspicious movement of criminal funds. This course focuses on occupational and financial fraud inside business processes, including payments, procurement, payroll, expenses and financial reporting.

Participants can use the risk assessment, control review, data-testing and investigation planning materials for their own processes. The methods support both proactive fraud prevention work and structured responses to allegations.

The programme contains ten modules delivered in teaching order, with approximately 6.5 contact hours each day from 08:30 to 16:30. Time is divided between instructor input, case analysis, group work, simulations and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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