Throughout my Accounting career, fraud prevention has been top of mind – as is usually the case.
For me, it is a lot of little things. Each action or attitude is one more shield against fraud, and taken all together, they build a good defense.
One of those fraud shields in my practice is transparency. The financial statements should be 100% accurate and transparent in regards to the organizations books. They should only be available to those who are eligible to receive that information. So there shouldn’t be any information that is kept off of the books.
And the accompanying presentation should clarify any possible confusions, and provide additional information and context. But there shouldn’t be any attempt to hide anything or create any misperception. In this way, each set of statements is a solid link between the organizations’ internal records, their tax returns, their audited financial statements, and their annual report (all of which should agree (with reconciliation as necessary).
The auditors visit should be a process of assisting them in completing their checks and their tests and their schedules, having all the data available in the organization that makes sense for them, etc.. Sometimes their analysis yields interesting insights that are useful going forward! Otherwise it should be simply another regular process.
“The stories we choose to share our behaviors have adaptive consequences.”
Robin Wall Kimmerer – Braiding Sweetgrass
Clarity Solutions 