Financial statements are one of the key sources of information for stakeholders of companies. Therefore, financial reporting aims at presenting an objective and transparent state of an enterprise. In order to protect the interests of all stakeholders of companies, whether external or internal, the role of financial accountants is very important, which is related to the detection of fraudulent activities in the financial statements. Forensic accountants with the knowledge they possess in the field of accounting, auditing, management and other skills, have the ability to clearly understand the irregularities and injustices that occur within the company. Fraudulent actions are most often a case of using an enterprise management strategy to gain benefits to the interests of other marketers that surround it. The aim of the paper is to show the significance of the role of a financial accountant in detecting fraudulent actions in the financial statements. The subject of this paper is to investigate the possibility of fraudulent actions and to look into the specific role forensic accountants have in this process.
Bearing in mind the increasingly complex economic environment and the emergence of new types of fraud, it is important to see what role the audit profession plays in detecting fraud and providing reasonable persuasion about fraud. The aim of this paper is to explain how the process of auditing financial statements works. The paper distinguishes between an auditor, a fraud auditor and a forensic accountant. The similarities and differences between these professions and their interrelationships are specified. The methodology used in the paper is content analysis. The results of the analysis revealed that audit and forensic accounting are inextricably linked in detection of fraudulent actions.
Fraud in companies, regardless of its scope and shape, creates some loss not only for the company, but very often for the wider community. Moreover, no company in the world is immune to fraud, be it small or large, in one country or another, at any level of economic and social development. Practical experience has shown that fraud, as well as damage it causes, is inevitable. For these reasons, preventing and detecting all forms of fraud in companies’ operations is very important. To prevent fraud, companies need to understand what motivates people to manipulate and make financial loss. Theorists cite a number of factors that motivate fraud perpetrators to commit manipulation, but all agree that, to commit fraud, three things need to be matched: motivation, opportunity and rationalization. For this reason, the research subject in this paper is a detailed analysis of all the factors that motivate and create opportunities for people of Serbia to commit fraud in companies, as well as the most common excuses they use to justify their manipulations. We surveyed 306 respondents to analyze their motives for possible fraud, as well as their attitude on the number and forms of fraud in the business operations of Serbian companies.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.