The Role of Forensic Accounting in Fraud Investigation and Litigation Support

How forensic accountants have helped with assisting in controlling and managing frauds and
audit through investigations in Australian companies 1
HOW FORENSIC ACCOUNTANTS HAVE HELPED WITH ASSISTING IN
CONTROLLING AND MANAGING FRAUDS AND AUDIT THROUGH INVESTIGATIONS
IN AUSTRALIAN COMPANIES
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How forensic accountants have helped with assisting in controlling and managing frauds and
audit through investigations in Australian companies 2
Summary of the theory and progression in the field
The existence of departments that deals with forensic accounting in different
organizations within Australia have mostly helped in the prevention as well as detection of fraud,
misconduct, breaches of different operational regulations together with rules. It has also helped
in prevention and resolving different cases of disputes. The theory of forensic accounting
remains to be the specialty practice sector of accounting that tends to describes different
engagements that result from actual or anticipated litigation or disputes in operations of
companies. Activities conducted during forensic accounting always help in professional
intelligence claims where the accountants are always capable of assessing as well as commenting
on the duties of other professionals (Hartley 2010, p. 2). In Australia, operations of forensic
accountants are always vital as they help in controlling and managing frauds and poor
governance that pose serious dangers for all organizations in the region. Besides, a fraud risk
management and audit through investigations in Australian companies is the essential factor in
meeting corporate responsibilities of accountability along with transparency. Developing an ideal
way to controlling and managing frauds and audit through investigations in Australian
companies continues to be a complicated concern that needs the appropriate understanding of
Australian standards that deal with fraud and corruption control (AS) 80001-2003 (Roertson
2017, p. 245). Therefore, this research paperwork concentrates on examination of different
journals report on how forensic accountants have helped with assisting in controlling and
managing frauds and audit through investigations in Australian companies.
Common findings across the four articles

How forensic accountants have helped with assisting in controlling and managing frauds and
audit through investigations in Australian companies 3
The presentation of the selected four material for review have some common results
regarding how forensic accountants have helped with assisting in controlling and managing
frauds and audit through investigations in Australian companies. They both report that forensic
accountants have to engage in different categories to control and handling fraud while auditing
their operations. They have to ensure that they conduct economic damages calculations so that
they can note if such damages are suffered through tort or breach of contract (Fleming et al.,
2016, p. 32). During controlling of fraud, accountants have to examine post-acquisition disputes
that comprise of cases of earn outs of violations of set warranties as a way of ensuring that
Australian organizations remain to be active in the competitive business marketplaces. It is clear
from these articles that forensic accountants involved in operations that include the cases of
recovering proceeds of serious crime and about confiscation of different proceedings (Whitin et
al., 2012, p. 513). These proceeding concerns or assume proceeds of crime or cases of money
laundering in operations of most organizations In Australia as an approach to managing and
controlling instances of fraud through audit investigations.
From these journals, it is common that the approaches that forensic accountant uses for
managing and controlling fraud and audit through operations of organizations differ than internal
auditing. Practices and services of forensic accounting in controlling such cases of fraud need to
be handled by forensic accounting experts only, but not by any internal audit professional
(Hartley 2010, p. 3). Besides, forensic accountants are capable of controlling and managing
frauds and review through investigations in Australian companies due to the fact that they use
the understanding of theories of economics, business data, systems of financial reporting,
accounting, along with standards and procedures of auditing. Other techniques that allow

How forensic accountants have helped with assisting in controlling and managing frauds and
audit through investigations in Australian companies 4
forensic accountants to eliminate cases of fraud through investigation in companies around
Australia include capacity to manage data and discover electronic data. More techniques
comprise of analysis of data by using techniques for detecting fraud, gathering of evidence, using
methods of investigation, as well as prosecuting different procedures and processes to perform
their duties (Whiting et al., 2012, p. 519). Therefore, it is clear that forensic accountants around
Australia are increasingly playing other proactive roles of reducing dangers through the methods
of designing and implementing extended procedures as the section of the statutory audit in
operations of most organizations.
Different findings across the four articles
Some differences arise in the reports by the authors of these four articles regarding how
forensic accountants have helped with assisting in controlling and managing frauds and audit
through investigations in Australian companies. For instance, Hartley (2010, p. 2) indicates that
forensic accountants specializes their operations on different duties while Whiting et al., (2012,
p. 509) reports that all forensic accountants have a common goal to achieve that is to control and
manage cases of fraud in various organizations. The reports differ since some others are of the
view that forensic accountants only specializes in forensic analytics that remains to be
procurement as well as analysis of data meant to detection, reconstruction, or otherwise support
the claim of various financial fraud. The articles differ on the illustration of significant steps that
forensic accountants take during analysis. Some authors report that forensic accountants involved
the levels of the gathering of data, preparing data and reporting on the results. However, Fleming
et al., (2016, p. 34) argue that appropriate action to be followed during the analysis of fraud for

How forensic accountants have helped with assisting in controlling and managing frauds and
audit through investigations in Australian companies 5
their control and management by forensic accountants involve four aligned steps. These steps
include the gathering of required data, preparation of such data, analyzing the collected data, and
finally reporting the outcome appropriately. Other authors such as Whiting et al., (2012, p. 517)
argue differently on how forensic accountants have helped with assisting in controlling and
managing frauds and audit through investigations in Australian companies. The authors state that
forensic accountants can conduct their analysis to be applicable to review the activity of
purchasing the card of workers to help in assessing whether any of the purchases might have
been diverted or divertible for personal usages.
The managerial implication of the four articles
The presentations and reports of these articles are vital as they help to report on different
ways that Australian government, as well as management of different organizations in the region,
can use to control and manage various cases of frauds and audit through investigations. The
studies help in alerting the audience on how operations of forensic accountants involve a vast
area that includes activities that deal with accounting, investigative and auditing techniques used
to assist in the analysis of data appropriate for use in managing and controlling fraud (Robertson
2017, p. 245). Therefore, through analysis of the four articles, it helps managers to understand
how forensic accountants can assist in understanding the occurrences of fraud during operations.
The study supports in boosting understanding of activities of forensic accountants at quantifying
and determining the full extent of the loss resources in operations of Australia companies
through frauds. It is evident from these journals that forensic accountants perform different
activities that comprise of examination of records of conducting business, analyzing the

How forensic accountants have helped with assisting in controlling and managing frauds and
audit through investigations in Australian companies 6
historical statement of business operations, searching for irregularities in business operations,
reviewing entries of journals, analyzing different trends, and tracing the flow of funds (Hartley
2010, p. 5). All these tasks by forensic accountants are significant in controlling and managing
frauds and audit through investigations in Australian companies.
Limitations of the survey and future research direction proposed in the four articles
The significant research from these different articles is that they only concentrate on how
to control and manage fraud and audit through the investigation without focusing on how to
prevent such cases from occurrences. Therefore, this study still opens the full door for future
research on how the organization management through the department of forensic accounting
can address how to prevent fraud from occurring rather than managing and controlling them after
they have occurred. Besides, these article calls for every Australian company to focus on
employing qualified and honest employees that can help in ensuring that they do not involve in
fraud activities (Fleming et al., 2017, p. 39). These ideas can help most companies to use less
input on controlling and managing cases of frauds and audit through investigations in Australian
companies. Therefore, like a hind for further research, it is possible for an individual to suggest
the comparative survey of discourses presented by essential actors of the profession of forensic
accounting in other different countries apart from Australia for comparative analysis (Whiting et
al., 2012, p. 521). The analysis will be capable of enabling other investigators to sense the state
of various arts in other nations globally where the practice might be highly disseminated since no
individual reveals how they perform the forensic investigations.

How forensic accountants have helped with assisting in controlling and managing frauds and
audit through investigations in Australian companies 7
List of References
Fleming, A., Hermanson, D., Kranacher, M. and Riley, R. (2016). Financial Reporting Fraud:
Public and Private Companies. Journal of Forensic Accounting Research, 1(1), pp. 27-41.
Hartley, S 2010, 'What Accountants Do', BusiDate, 18 (2), pp. 2-5.
Robertson, J. (2017). Managing the forensic examination of human hairs in contemporary
forensic practice. Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences, 49(3), pp.239-260.
Whiting, DG, Hansen, JV, McDonald, JB, Albrecht, C, & Albrecht, WS 2012, 'Machine learning
methods for detecting patterns of management fraud', Computational Intelligence, 28($), pp.
505-527. Available from: 10.1111/j.1467-8640.2012.00425.x. [6 May 2018].