Examining Documentation Tools for Audit and Forensic Accounting Investigations

Katherine Taken Smith and Lawrence Murphy Smith ()
Additional contact information
Katherine Taken Smith: College of Business, Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, TX 78412, USA
Lawrence Murphy Smith: College of Business, Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, TX 78412, USA

JRFM, 2024, vol. 17, issue 11, 1-14

Abstract: This study examines some of the documentation tools and techniques that forensic accountants, internal auditors, external auditors, and others can use to document accounting and financial reporting systems under investigation. While prior research has addressed these items piecemeal, this study is the first to incorporate them, along with current related research and theoretical foundation, and relate them in aggregate to the work of forensic accountants, internal auditors, external auditors, and others. Inputs, processes, and outputs of modern accounting and financial reporting systems are often difficult to fully grasp, with weaknesses obscured by the complexities of the system. These weaknesses make a system vulnerable to fraudsters, embezzlers, hackers, and others who will take advantage of system weaknesses to perpetrate financial fraud, embezzlement, or other financial crimes. Documentation tools and techniques examined in this study will be useful to forensic accountants, internal auditors, external auditors, and others for identifying the components, processes, and potential weaknesses of accounting and financial reporting systems.

Keywords: forensic accounting; financial fraud; fraud detection; documentation tools (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C E F2 F3 G (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/17/11/491/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/17/11/491/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:17:y:2024:i:11:p:491-:d:1510970

Access Statistics for this article

JRFM is currently edited by Ms. Chelthy Cheng

More articles in JRFM from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().