Forensic Accounting and Financial Statement Analysis for Asset Tracing

Course overview

When proceeds of corruption or fraud pass through companies, the trail runs through ledgers, invoices and financial statements rather than personal bank accounts. Investigators who cannot read those records lose the trail at the company door. This forensic accounting asset tracing course gives investigators and accountants the techniques to follow money through company books and identify where it ends up.

Participants learn how accounting systems record transactions, how financial statements fit together and which warning signs point to diversion: unusual related party balances, inflated costs, round-sum payments, suspense accounts and loans to directors. They practise journal entry testing, ratio and trend analysis, cash flow reconstruction and tracing from the ledger to bank records and onwards to property. The course uses the accounts of a fictional construction company that won county tenders, giving participants a realistic dataset to examine.

Participants leave able to examine company records with confidence and to produce accounting evidence that links diverted funds to recoverable assets.

What you will be able to do

• Explain how accounting systems record and summarise transactions
• Analyse financial statements for signs of diversion and concealment
• Test journal entries and ledgers for unusual and suspicious items
• Identify related party transactions and director loans used to extract funds
• Reconstruct cash flows and trace payments from the ledger to bank accounts
• Link extracted funds to assets acquired by the subject or associates
• Present accounting findings clearly to investigators and courts

Who should attend

For investigators who need to work with company accounts and for accountants and auditors who support asset tracing cases. A basic understanding of financial statements is helpful but not essential.

• Financial investigators
• Forensic accountants
• Asset recovery investigators
• Internal and external auditors
• Anti-corruption investigators
• Revenue authority auditors
• Bank fraud investigators

Course outline

Fees are per participant in US dollars and cover tuition, course materials and your certificate. Travel and accommodation are not included.