Forensic Accounting, Fraud Analytics and Fraud Control

Course overview

Fraud in organisations across the region is usually found by accident: a tip-off, a bank query or an auditor's hunch. By then the losses are large. This forensic accounting course teaches accountants and auditors to look for fraud deliberately, using structured forensic techniques and data analytics that can be run on ordinary transaction data in Excel, and then to put controls in place that make fraud harder.

Participants learn the main fraud schemes affecting public and private organisations, including payroll, procurement, expense and revenue fraud, and the behavioural and accounting red flags that accompany them. They then practise forensic data tests: data profiling, Benford's law and its variants, duplicate and near-duplicate tests, relative size factors, outlier and trend analysis. The final part addresses fraud control: risk assessment, preventive and detective controls, ethics and whistleblowing, and responding when fraud is found. All analytics exercises use realistic transaction datasets so participants can repeat the tests at work.

Participants leave with a set of tested fraud analytics routines and a practical fraud control framework for their organisation.

What you will be able to do

• Explain fraud theory and the main fraud schemes affecting organisations
• Recognise accounting and behavioural red flags of fraud
• Prepare and profile transaction data for forensic testing
• Apply Benford's law and related digit tests in Excel
• Use duplicate, relative size and outlier tests to select suspicious items
• Assess fraud risk and design preventive and detective controls
• Plan an appropriate response when fraud is suspected

Who should attend

For accountants, auditors and risk professionals who want practical, data-driven fraud detection skills. Working knowledge of Excel is expected.

• Accountants
• Internal auditors
• External auditors
• Fraud examiners
• Risk managers
• Compliance officers
• Finance managers in public bodies

Course outline

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