Forensic accounting is a special subsection of accounting that goes beyond the typical job description of an accountant. Forensic accountants use their work in courtroom and other legal settings to help. Their primary roles are litigation support and investigative accounting (Zysman, 2012). To do this, forensic accountants combine accounting, auditing, and investigative skills. However, conducting investigations is only one component of a forensic accountant's job description; they also have to be capable of translating what they find into understandable evidence for the courtroom setting. In order to do this, "forensic accountants are trained to look beyond the numbers and deal with the business reality of the situation" (Zysman, 2012). Forensic accountants may perform a variety of different functions, including: forensic investigations, forensic audits, internal audits, and external audits. A forensic investigation is any investigation aimed at producing evidence for the courtroom. A forensic audit is an audit that is conducted...
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