This course provides an overview of common fraudulent practices aimed at inflating revenue and earnings, as well as manipulating expenses. It examines the tactics used by some companies to misstate revenue, manage earnings artificially, and underreport or misclassify expenses. Understanding these fraudulent schemes allows auditors to better identify signs of manipulation.
Publication Date: March 2025
Topics Covered
- Fraud
- Fraudulent schemes
- How to identify signs of manipulation
- Inflating revenue and earnings
- Manipulating expenses
Learning Objectives
- Identify common methods of manipulating revenue and earnings in financial statements
- Recognize indicators of inflating earnings with non-recurring items and overstating deferred revenue
- Recognize how to distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent journal entries
- Recognize indicators of backdating transactions and how they can impact financial reporting
- Identify fraudulent activities that involve understating expenses and liabilities in financial statements
- Recognize common schemes for misclassifying financial statement items and manipulating reserves
- Recognize how to distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent lease classifications under accounting standards
Level
Overview
Instructional Method
Self-Study
NASBA Field of Study
Auditing (2 hours)
Program Prerequisites
None
Advance Preparation
None
Instructor
Kelen Camehl
Kelen is a recognized author and reviewer of CPE courses and has authored over 145 courses (350 CPE credit hours) covering a range of accounting, auditing, financial reporting, regulatory, and ethics topics. His courses are available for purchase from many online CPE providers including the AICPA. Kelen remained involved in CPA exam content development for nearly 10 years and authored more than a thousand multiple choice questions for various sections of the CPA exam. He also serves as an Editorial Advisor for the AICPA’s "Journal of Accountancy".
Kelen has nearly 20 years of progressive finance and accounting experience. He currently serves as an Accounting Policy Advisor with HP. Prior to HP, he served in multiple accounting roles in the oil & gas industry with ConocoPhillips including technical accounting policy, SOX compliance, and internal audit. He also gained public accounting experience with PricewaterhouseCoopers, working with various clients in the energy, electric, power, gas, and utility sectors.