Figure Out Weather Earnings Management Is Fraud

In accounting there is much to be learned, about the financial aspects of a business. In the past five weeks I have learned the importance of financial reports and how they relate to the success of an establishment. These reports may include balance sheets and income statements, which help accountants and the public grasp the overall financial condition of a company. The information in these reports is really significant to, managers, owners, employees, and investors. Managers of a business can take and deduce financial

Understandably, there are a variety of ways in which a company can manage their earnings, and if accomplished successfully, the results can be highly profitable. Not all techniques are fraudulent, as effective earnings management is considered good for business and shareholders. Income smoothing is a specific example of permissible earnings management that involves controlling fluctuations in net income to make earnings less variable over a given period of time (Goel & Thakor, 2003). Smoothing is acceptable as long as it adheres to the restrictions of U.S. GAAP, which maintains that all revenues and expenses are accounted for in a defined fashion. There are a lot of incentives in figuring how to effectively smooth income, as substantial value can be created through the successful arrangement of financial transactions. Management is able to make more intelligent decisions with regards to the future of the firm if the earnings are able to match the forecasts. One instance this is seen is when management is faced with the decision to smooth total income or

Throughout history and in our own time, legitimate accounting methods have been utilized to fraudulently engage in manipulating activities that results in illicit gains to the perpetrators and losses to individuals and financial institutions.

Such an intense focus has been placed on quarterly earnings as an indication of a company’s success by everyone from analysts to executives that ethics have for the most part been thrown out the window, sacrificed to the all important number, i.e. earnings per share. This is the theory in Alex Berenson’s book “The Number: How the Drive for Quarterly Earnings Corrupted Wall Street and Corporate America.” This number has become part of a game to be played, a figure to be manipulated – beat the number and Wall Street all but throws a parade, miss it and a company’s stock may be abandoned. Take into account the incentives that executives have to beat the number and one can find plenty of reasons to manage earnings.

Fraudulent financial reporting is one form of corporate corruption and may involve the manipulation of the documents used to record accounting transactions, the misrepresentation of accounting events or transactions, or the intentional misapplication of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) (Crumbley, Heitger, and Smith, 2013). Examples of fraudulent schemes befitting of this category abound and usually involve financial statement items that have been misclassified, omitted, overstated, undervalued, or prematurely recognized. One case involving CEO Bill Smith of Moonstay

In this research paper the authors want to express their thoughts by stating that how to them earnings reporting pertains to the discovery of information that has not been disclosed by either people or other types of sources and focus towards the negative in this study. In my opinion, the title of the paper itself could have had a different title only because throughout the paper it analyzes negative or bad news rather than really paying attention to both perspectives. Also the paper captures the information or news that occurs by using a three day window in which Quarterly Earnings Announcement (QEA) take place and compares it to a period where it does not take place. Furthermore, in this paper there are three hypotheses that arise

The manipulation of accounts fraud scheme is generally fulfilled by employees in top management positions and it usually involves making understatements or overstatements on financial statements making it very hard to detect. The process followed as Troy Adkins, (2015) explains is very simple. The financial statements are either overstated to show different figures in the earnings on the income statements making them look better than they actually are or the earnings in the current periods are manipulated in such a way that the revenue is understated or they inflate the current year’s expenses. The second process includes making the financial statements look worse than they are in reality. Deloitte, (2009) explains a number of ways which the accounts are manipulated where as one of the ways is to manipulate the reported earnings directly. They further explained that overstating the

The auditing firm has been in engagement with the company throughout the period when the fraud was being committed. One of the common and clear indicators of possible fraud was the company’s cash flow statement. The company experienced positive growth in its profits from the year 1996 through to the year 1998. However, a close analysis of the cash flow statement shows that the company had experienced negative figures of cash flow from both operating and investing activities and positive cash flow from financing activities which would not sufficiently offset the negative cash flows from operating and investing. It is therefore evident

This case study is the first of a two-part Earnings Management Case. The purpose of Part

Fraud is defined as a deliberate misrepresentation that causes a person or business to suffer damages, often in the form of monetary losses through deception or concealment. And Occupational Fraud as defined by the ACFE is the use of one’s occupation for personal enrichment through the deliberate misuse or misapplication of the employing organization’s resources or assets. Traditional fraud triangle theory by Donald Cressey explains that propensity of fraud occurring in an organization lies on three critical elements which are Pressure, Opportunity, and Rationalization.

Does it matter what your competitors are doing? Step back and consider management’s incentives and choices. What is the motivation to manage earnings?

prevent decrease in stock value, higher borrowing cost, evade corporate bankruptcy and non-financial motives are believed to be more powerful (p.286). Stallworth and Degregorio (2004) identified that most companies managed earnings for several reason, however the most common motivations is the pressure to meet the market and analyst expectations by prematurely or fictitiously recognizing revenue (p.55). Stallworth and Degregorio suggests that the internal auditor should be cautious of the indications to perform abusive earning management or motivation to commit fraud, such as personal benefits like prestige, extra compensation, bonuses, employee stock option and increased stock value as a reward when earning expectations are met or exceeded, while negative outcomes provide the same level of motivation like reputational damage or embarrassment, loss of employment, demotion or lowered compensation (p.56).

Yes, it is clearly unethical to intentionally understate earnings since the management makes representations that the financial statements are complete and accurate. It is obvious that intentionally understating earnings is done to allow the company to later overstate earnings by using falsified reserves to cover the inadequate current period earnings.

Earning management or creative accounting is referred to the manipulation or misrepresentation of the company’s financial earnings in order to achieve stable and positive financial position. This was achieve through directly or indirectly use of the accounting methods. Even though the manipulation may follow all the accounting standards and laws, they may go opposite of what the standards and laws were originally trying to establish. Therefore, earning management is often considered materially misleading and referred to a fraudulent activity.

Financial statement fraud is any intentional or grossly negligent violation of generally accounting principles (GAAP) that is undisclosed and materially effects any financial statement. Fraud can take many forms, including hiding both bad and god news. Research shows that financial statement fraud us relatively more likely to occur in companies with assets of less than $100 million, with earnings problems, and with loose governance structures (Hopwood, Leiner, & Young, 2011).