Forensic Toolkit
- 02:13
The forensic accounting toolkit and ratios
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Glossary
Forensic AccountingTranscript
When we're conducting our forensic accounting analysis, we focus on three soft areas of accounting, non-GAAP numbers, estimated numbers and classification of cash flows. Now, let's think about what tools and ratios we have in our toolkit for identifying bias in each of these areas. Firstly, non-GAAP numbers. When we're analyzing the quality of non-GAAP metrics, we focus on the non-GAAP reconciliation. And a useful starting point here is simply to compare the level of non-GAAP earnings to GAAP earnings. If non-GAAP earnings are significantly higher than GAAP earnings, this means we need to analyze the reconciliation in more detail to challenge the adjustments being made by management.
Next estimated numbers, we can think about these in terms of the quality of earnings, and our focus here is usually on the cash flow statement, reconciliation, where profits are reconciled to operating cash flows. A useful starting point here is to use a cash conversion ratio, for example, comparing operating cash flows with EBITDA if cash conversion is consistently below 100%. This means that we need to analyze management's use of judgments in more detail and dive into the footnotes. For example, items such as contract revenues, inventory provisions, and if relevant M&A finally classifying cash flows. We can think about this in terms of the quality of cash flows, and our focus here, again, is on the cashflow statement, but this time, looking beyond just operating cash flows to identify concerns with cash flow classes. And for this analysis, if we can spot any concerns about the use of supply chain finance, we can compare working capital ratios to peers and calculate the level of interest costs in relation to financial liabilities. If we spot any concerns regarding over capitalization of assets, we can look at CapEx ratios and compare margins to peers. So those are the tools in your forensic accounting toolkits, and you're ready to go now and conduct your own forensic accounting analysis. Good luck.