Become a Certified Forensic Accountant with an Online Forensic Accounting Degree
A global market may expand a business to proportions not dreamed of by the old “mom & pop” businesses, but the massive and complex operations also open the doors to undreamed of opportunities for fraud. Consequently, jobs abound for experts in the field, often with a career salary of $100,000 or more per year.
Checking School Availability
Post University Online offers a Forensic Accounting Certificate for people with an accounting background. You study in small, interactive classes in 8 week modules and take the Certified Fraud Examiner Exam at the end of the program. You can either focus on a new accounting career or plan to move on to complete a four year degree which can qualify you for a CPA or CMA designation (upon completion of the national exam).
Checking School Availability
Colorado Technical University Online offers a Bachelor of Science in Financial Forensics degree. The student will learn how to apply knowledge and skills of accounting and finance to develop methods for detecting and investigating financial and accounting fraud.
For program disclosure information, click here.
Checking School Availability
Forensic Accounting at Jones International University
If you have a prior accounting degree and want to use your education to investigate and help prevent accounting fraud, you can earn an MBA in Forensic Accounting at JIU. With many businesses having global outreach and telecommuting employees, the need for accountants who can detect and deter high profile swindles is expected to grow by 18% through 2016.
Checking School Availability
Kaplan University has a B.S. program in Accounting/Auditing–Forensic Accountancy. The program teaches the newest accounting principles including tax laws, financial statements, accounting software and more. If you wish to get into forensic accounting, you will also learn how to detect and prevent specific types of accounting fraud. You may eventually work with the courts, serving as an expert witness in trials involving white collar crime.
For program disclosure information, click here.
Checking School Availability
Southern New Hampshire University offers an MBA in Forensic Accounting and Fraud Examination. If you like working with numbers and would enjoy rooting out scams and schemes related to off balance sheet financing, fictitious sales /revenue or income smoothing and understated liabilities, this 13 course MBA is designed for you. You can count on a fairly high salary with this degree as there are only a few professionals in this discipline in the entire country.
A forensic accountant could be thought of as an accounting detective. Instead of keeping a company’s books, such a person works in an investigative role to verify records, collect information and interview people. The individual’s purpose is to detect and report—and in some cases prosecute accounting fraud, theft, and other finance related white collar crime. The crimes could be anything from “cooking the books” to make a business seem more profitable than it really is to out and out money laundering. (Money laundering is the act of using legitimate institutions to transfer large sums of money that have been either obtained illegally or will ultimately be used for criminal purposes.) Careers in this field provide an interesting alternative to working as a business accountant while still using the knowledge accumulated in your accounting courses. The salary is usually much higher as well.
A forensic accounting certification is good for people who have good analytical and communication skills. Additionally, you need to be able to recognize indicators that fraud could be taking place even before actual wrong doing has been detected. You may be called upon to present your information in court, and need to be prepared to defend your own conclusions aggressively as the opposition will certainly be prepared to challenge your findings and/or allegations.
It has been said that forensic accounting is the fastest growing type of accounting. Some types of crimes that are investigated using highly developed computer programs along with the investigators skills are:
- Employee dishonesty;
- Business income loss;
- Wrongful death claims;
- Fraud;
- Divorce claims;
- Business valuation.
Organizations that might have openings for certified forensic accountants include:
- Consumer dealerships;
- Education institutions;
- Construction and contracting firms;
- Financial institutions;
- Health care;
- Insurance;
- Hospitality organizations;
- Manufacturing;
- Real estate;
- Government agencies; and more.
You may be able to work within the firm itself or you maybe able to start your own consulting business and work as a freelance consultant. Of course the latter will be a more viable option once you have developed a track record of excellence within the field. If you choose to stay within a firm, you may start as an auditor and eventually move into a management field in charge of a team of investigative accountants.
The usual education requirement for a forensic accountant is a four year business accounting degree and a CPA designation. Often those who are trying to become forensic accountants already have a bachelor’s degree and accounting experience. The forensic accounting program of study is in this case a master’s degree or higher.
