A fast growing career, forensic accounting has many exciting job opportunities. They work in a variety of professions and work closely with a number of professionals.
If you are considering a career in this exciting career, it is important that you discover what your options are.
First Things First
Before you pursue a career as a forensic accountant, you must obtain the right education. Forensic accountants generally have a bachelor’s degree or master’s degree in accounting. Upon course completion, certification is required. This certification is obtained by completing the Certified Accountant Examination.
As a Certified Public Accountant, you can work in any accounting office as an accountant. This will give you hands-on experience for your overall career goal. However, to become a forensic accountant, you will need additional training. This training is generally received through the Association of Fraud Examiners. Training will help you to learn how to detect fraud and signs of illegal activities. Once training is completed, a membership to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners can be obtained. This organization operates to maintain integrity and excellence within the forensic accounting profession.
Skills You Will Need
In addition to accounting skills, there are a number of skills required to carry out your job duties proficiently. These are an essential part of your profession. Although it helps to have many of these skills naturally, some of them will be learned during your studies and training.
To effectively perform your job, you will need to be able to organize and analyze a great deal of information. You also need to be able to detect suspicious activities, so a great deal of logic and attention to detail is needed. All of the information that you compile and analyze will need to be transferred into useable evidence. This will require you to understand court proceedings and understand laws relating to court evidence. Lastly, you will need to know how to relay all of your information and evidence to your client or the court. In order to do this, you need to have exceptional communication skills. Most of the people you will be relaying information to will not have a basic understanding of accounting.
Finding a Job
Once all certifications and licensing requirements are met, you are ready to begin your job search. This is generally an entry level position. Most entry level forensic accountants have a starting salary of about $40,000 per year. However, after practice, knowledge, and experience have come into play, you can expect to make much more. It is actually rather common for seasoned forensic accountants to make around $100,000 per year.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Accounting is one of the five entry level positions available within the FBI. In this sect of forensic accounting, white collared crimes are investigated. This can include health care fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, and corporate fraud. Those who wish to join the FBI as a forensic accountant must have at least a bachelor’s degree, majoring in accounting along with three years of experience in a relevant field.
Banks and Private Companies
As a forensic accountant, you can work with private companies and banks in one of two ways; you can either obtain employment directly with the company or work out of your own accounting firm. Being employed directly by the company, you are most likely to work for a large corporation. Your job would be to detect issues like bank fraud within the organization. Your job would still be similar if you had your own accounting firm, but you would have the opportunity to work with multiple businesses.
IRS/CIA
These government agencies employ a number of forensic accountants to detect tax fraud and tax evasion. This can apply to companies, corporations, or individuals. The primary responsibility of your profession is to track down high-profile tax evaders.
Lawyers and Court Jurisdictions
You may also work directly with lawyers and court systems as a forensic accountant. This is often done by accountants with their own firms. However, there are certain legal professions that utilize the services of a forensic accountant regularly. This can include divorce lawyers and insurance claim lawyers.
While working in legal jurisdictions, the scope of your profession may include many job duties. Some of these duties may include gathering evidence, testifying as an expert witness, submitting evidence to the courts, and investigating many different financial situations.
Accounting Firms
You may wish to open your own accounting firm or work with an existing firm. Depending on the specific sect you select, your job duties and tasks can vary greatly. However, you can be sure that no matter which profession you choose, it will involve investigative techniques to uncover money fraud.
These jobs are only an outline of the many possibilities available to those that wish to pursue a career as a forensic accountant. New opportunities are arising every day. To best determine the field you should pursue, take time to decide what you want most out of your degree.