The Examiner – Insights on Fighting Financial Fraud

Moving along the anti-fraud maturity (AFM) curve will improve your organization’s culture and increase profitability. This shift in culture helps you fight internal and external fraud, protect against cybercrime, and remain compliant with regulatory demands.

I was invited to present this week at AICPA Controllers Conference, where I also presented two years ago. My first presentation was a four-hour workshop about real-life fraud and the second presentation covered the Anti-Fraud Maturity Curve (AFM Curve). The participants learned about the significant impact fraud has on the organizations and people involved—from the loss of human life to millions of dollars stolen.

For many years, we have used computers to help fight fraud. These are tools that we leverage to find, investigate, and prevent fraud. We weld IDEA and Excel as if they were our sword and shield in the fight against fraud. We train between fights. We learn from every battle and take those experiences into future battles. The best fraud fighters understand their enemies—they know how to think like a fraudster.

In the account reconciliation series introduction, I made a promise that I didn’t keep. I stated, “I will compare each of the above areas to games that we may have played as kids or adults.” If you read the series, you know that I didn’t bring up any games and it was fairly technical. I am sorry, but I saw no other way to cover the information.

This blog is the fourth in the series, Account Reconciliation as a Control.

As we close out this series, I will share with you a story that forced me to pull the trigger and write about this topic. I hope this story hammers home the point—account reconciliations are important.