The types of data that a forensic accountant will need to analyze will
be determined by the type of case that they are working on. Even if
two cases are the same, they may still require different data analysis
(Rufus et al., 2015). As the text states, a business valuation case could
require different data than the next due to what is being looked at in
the case. Doing due diligence will better allow the accountant to
decide what data is necessary. Having sufficient and relevant data
can be a matter of professional judgement (Rufus et al., 2015). While
it is easy to see when data is insufficient and irrelevant, it can be
much more difficult to determine what is. An like most things in
business, opinions will vary on what is sufficient and what is relevant
to a certain case. The best way that anyone can know that they have
a sufficient amount of data is to make sure to do due diligence for
every case. Getting into a mindset where they think that the same
data will work for every case of a certain type can be very dangerous.
It can also be noted that depending on if the case is one looking for
fraud or just an analysis will change the type of data that is needed.
Reliable information can be difficult to obtain in some situations also.
In the case study that I am working on for my final, the company had
two sets of books going at the same time. While the auditing firm was
able to say that nothing stood out to them as fraud from the made up
set of books, does not mean that it was not reliable information.
Some of the information provided was accurate, however not all was.
One needs to be able to decide if they are taking everything at face
value or questioning just parts of the information and data.
Rufus, R., Miller, L., & Hahn, W. (2015). Forensic accounting. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
