a Very often, clients request oral reports from a forensic accountant instead of written
reports. An oral report is “verbal in form with no written documentation. While this may
be desirable from the engaging attorney’s perspective (given the discovery issues
previously noted), it creates several potential pitfalls for the forensic accountant. For
example, the information relayed in the oral report may be misunderstood by the recipient
and later misrepresented to others, either intentionally or unintentionally. Without
documentation, there is no way to confirm the essence of the communication—what was
(or was not) actually said” (Rufus, 2015, pg. 378). Conversely, a written report “is more
consistent with the common perception of what a “report” should be. Although
documentation avoids many of the pitfalls previously noted for oral reports, written
reports introduce their own challenges. Most notably, any representation that is put in
writing can be reviewed, parsed, and analyzed in any number of ways to challenge the
credibility of its source. Thus, the threshold for quality and accuracy is much higher.
Although written reports share the same basic form, they differ in other aspects of
structure, such as content, organization, and level of detail. In the following sections, we
describe three types of written reports—summary, detailed, and calculation” (Rufus, 2015,
pg. 379). Typically speaking, a client will ask for an oral report over a written report for a
number of reasons. It can be cost effective, good for confidentiality, and can even provide
some sort of competitive gain. Perhaps the most important is that it leaves no room for
misunderstanding the intentions. Yes, it could lead to misunderstanding, but if there is a
general message that is to be conveyed with regards to a financial audit, an oral report can
summarize the most important aspects to take away from. Auditors should still provide
things such as a written outline of the oral report and memo-to-file that documents the
substance of the report.
a a a A good example of a situation where an oral report would be more beneficial is in
a court of law, more specifically, a deposition. When a forensic accountant serves as an
expert witness, it is important for them to provide their findings in an oral manner,
followed by supporting documentation. Having a full report may not be as beneficial as
providing an explanation orally as time is limited.
References
• Rufus, R. J., Miller, L. S., & Hahn, W. (2015). Forensic accounting. Pearson.
