Acct660DB2Romero

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Forensic Accounting Dina Romero Liberty University
Summary of the Article In this article Forensic Accountin g, Kreuter (2017), discusses how forensic accounting is a skill that adds value to the CPA. Many accountants, in public and private accounting, aspire to the achieve the coveted Certified Public Accountant (CPA) designation. The process to becoming a CPA can cause candidates to grow tiresome since it takes around four to five years of academic work. However, accountants are enthusiastic about getting hands-on experience and knowledge after getting hired at a firm. That makes it the perfect time to attain the coveted CPA designation. The bottom line is that forensic accounting is a hot topic, and it is "well-worth keeping abreast of; for example, fraud is in the news on a daily basis, as whistle-blowing and class action lawsuits leading to large fines, and even criminal charges, levied on those responsible" Accounting graduates can take many different career paths in forensics such as nonprofit organization, private company, hospital, university, or government. Kreuter also states that knowledge of forensics is beneficial to those working in the nonprofit sector. As the nonprofit sector yields a higher value and compensation to forensic specialists that have notable credentials. CPAs should have forensic accounting skills because there is an increasing need for them. Kreuter describes forensic accounting as accounting supported by litigation. Forensic accountants apply their special skills to answer questions pertaining to damages or about fraud that has occurred. Those special skills could also be helpful in assisting an audit team with fraud- risk assessments. Forensic accountants have to come to the realization that people committing fraud as sometimes as smart as the investigator. That is why digital forensics is growing rather quickly because complex fraud schemes require digging through very large databases to detect fraud patterns and reveal any efforts to hide it. Kreuter also stated that forensic accounting helps
professionals. It helps professionals develop important skills like interviewing skills to learn how to read body language and interpret interviewee's comments. That is just one of the many skills accountants can gain from attaining the Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) certification. Since forensic accounting services can be broken down into two categories, investigative and litigation, accountants also build the skills necessary to address particular questions about an organization's performance. "One example is the calculation of lost net profits, where the objective is to analyze the company's historic financial performance and evaluate its economic future. Such evaluation includes analysis of the industry at the present and in the future in order to determine a reasonable basis for computing the lost future net sales as saved costs." Although forensic accountants face a lot of pressures, there are also many benefits. Becoming a CFE can be very rewarding, leading to the promotions. Training in forensics allows the CPA to better serve their clients. It sets the CPA apart from the accountants and leads to advancement. Kreuter adds that CPAs with forensic training adds value to engagement teams. "Earning the CPA designation is a fine start, but the road to success is paved with other achievements—forensic knowledge being one of them." Critique This purpose of Kreuter's article was to show that forensics is a skill that CPA and accountants should achieve. Knowledge in forensics provides accountants and CPAs with many skills that makes them more valuable to their client and the profession. Kreuter does an excellent job explaining that accountants should not only achieve the CPA designation but also go beyond that. He showed what skills forensics training and knowledge gives to the accountants. Forensic accountants have skills, not only in accounting, but also "auditing, finance, quantitative methods,
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