Forensic accounting vs fraud examination: : roles, importance and differences

Tekavčič, Metka (author), Damijan, Sandra (author)

Fraud has existed throughout history. Yet, it is estimated that today's occurrence has a huge impact on global revenues, highlighting the importance of fraud examination and forensic accounting. Although the roles of the two disciplines appear to be similar (e.g. litigation support), they differ significantly in their objectives, with the goal of fraud auditing being to determine whether fraud has occurred and, if so, who is responsible. Forensic accounting has the additional objective of assessing the financial consequences and determining whether the allegations have a factual basis by analyzing the financial evidence. Consequently, experts in both fields require unique skills and different formal and non-formal training and experience. The purpose of the paper is to examine both disciplines, assess their importance, describe their roles, and conclude with a comparison that highlights the differences in key aspects such as time, objective, methodology, presumption, and relationship. The paper states that all fraud investigations are forensic accounting investigations, but not all forensic accounting investigations are fraud investigations.

• Language: English
• Keywords: accounting, auditing, fraud, fraud examination, forensic accounting, fraud, fraud investigation
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: EF - School of Economics and Business
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2021
• Number of pages: Str. 29-47
• Numbering: Vol. 1, iss. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-135648
• UDC: 657
• ISSN on article: 2744-1687
• DOI: 10.2478/jfap-2021-0007
• COBISS.SI-ID: 98739459
• Publication date in RUL: 23.03.2022

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of forensic accounting profession
• Publisher: De Gruyter
• ISSN: 2744-1687
• COBISS.SI-ID: 98735619

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.
• Licensing start date: 18.01.2022

Secondary language

• Language: Bosnian

Abstract

Prevara je postojala kroz istoriju. Ipak, procjenjuje se da današnja pojava prevare ima ogroman uticaj na globalne prihode, s tim naglašavajući važnost područja rada vezanog na istraživanja prevara i forenzičkog računovodstva. Iako se čini da su ove dvije discipline slične (npr. podrška u sudskim sporovima), one se značajno razlikuju po svojim ciljevima, s ciljem revizije da se utvrdi da li je do prijevare došlo i, ako jeste, ko je odgovoran. Forenzičko računovodstvo ima dodatni cilj, a to je procjena finansijskih posljedica i analizom finansijskih dokaza utvrditi da li sumnja na postojanje prevare ima činjeničnu osnovu. Shodno tome, obje oblasti zahtijevaju jedinstvene vještine i različitu formalnu i neformalnu obuku i iskustvo. Svrha ovoga članka je analizirati obje discipline, ocijeniti njihov značaj, opisati njihove uloge i uporediti razlike u ključnim aspektima kao što su vrijeme, cilj, metodologija, pretpostavka i odnos. U članku navodimo da su sve istrage prevara forenzičko računovodstvene istrage, ali nisu sve forenzičko računovodstvene istrage istrage prevara.

• Keywords: analiza prevare, forenzičko računovodstvo, prevara, istraživanje prevara