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Objectives

• Discuss the structure and foundations of financial reporting
• Be aware of creative accounting and how it can be determined
• Determine the need for forensic accounting by means of case study and other analysis
• Appreciate the nature or Benford’s Law and its increasingly important role in the prevention and detection of fraud
• Discuss the role of the auditor in detecting fraud
• Carrying out a variety of statistical tests on financial reports and accounting data
• Understand the content of and relationships between financial statements (income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows ).
• Understand how to use financial statements to evaluate the financial performance of an organization
• Understand discounted cash flow (DCF) techniques and their application to financial decision making .
• Understand the budgeting process, including performance evaluation .
• Communicate and to question financial information effectively .

The Delegates

• This programme is aimed at finance and accounting professionals and those for whom the prevention and detection of fraud is a major issue .
• Finance Executive and financial professionals involved in the development and delivery of financial strategy .
• Junior Executives and financial professionals seeking career advancement and development .

Contents

• Financial Accounting Review .
• Structure of financial reports :
• Regulation of financial reporting
• Financial reporting standards
• The Analysis of Financial Reports
• Detecting bias in accounting numbers
• Qualitative analysis: what people say and what they might mean
• Creative Accounting :
• What is creative accounting and why is it a bad thing?
• Inappropriate accruals, estimates, and excessive provisions
• Identifying premature revenue recognition and fictitious revenue
• Aggressive capitalisation
• Creative income statements: classification and disclosure
• Problems with cash flow reporting
• Forensic Accounting
• The basics of forensic accounting
• The need for Sarbanes-Oxley
• The going concern concept in greater detail
• Cases in which forensic accounting was used
• Off balance sheet finance
• Introduction to Benford’s Law
• Financial Statements, Accounting Policies, and Reporting Standards :
• Income Statement – basic components :
• Revenues & the questions .
• Direct/variable/product costs .
• Indirect/fixed/period costs .
• Mixed costs .
• Non-cash deductions: the what, the why & the how :
• Depreciation: various methods explored .
• Amortization: impairment test .
• Depletion: when & how .
• The difference between profit and cash .
• A closer look at costs and expenses .
• Profit calculations .
• Summarizing profit statements and extracting the key figures .
• Balance Sheet :
• Assets – current & long term .
• Liabilities – current & long term .
• Equity – components .
• Capital employed – options .
• Managing the working capital cycle .
• Cash Flow Statement.
• Operating sources/uses .
• Investing sources/uses .
• Financing sources/uses .
• Making and Communicating Decisions using Budgets :
• The master budget .
• The budgeting as a planning tool, a control mechanism, a communications device & value creation .
• Budgeting Sales to “drive” the correct budget .
• Operating budget components .
• Financial budget .
• Pro Forma Financial Statements .
• Cash Budgets – Capital budget .
• Interrelationship of Financial Projections .
• Dynamics and Growth of the Business System – a model review .
• Flexible vs. traditional budgets – the pros & cons .
• Variance analysis as a tool for improvement & communications .
• Price and volume effects within variance analysis: state of the
• The Role Of The Auditor And Detecting Fraud  :
• The Role of the Auditor in the Prevention and Detection of Fraud
• Deterring Fraud – The fraud triangle
• The COSO “Internal Control – Integrated Framework,” (COSO Model)
• 20 ways to detect fraud
• Identifying fraud using time series analysis
• Fraud risk assessments
• Tools for Detecting Fraud  :
• Further Statistical Analysis of accounting and other data
• Further application of Benford’s Law
• Chi Square and Kolmogorov Smirnoff Tests
• Mean Absolute Deviation test
• Mantissa Arc Test
• Second Order and Summation Tests

The Discount

10% in case of Three P. (or more)