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Forensic Accounting

Franklin University Forensic Accounting bachelor's degree program banner, with link to program video.
Program OverviewProgram DetailsWhy Choose Franklin

Become a financial detective and prevent white-collar crime

Forensic accountants investigate and prevent white-collar crime by ferreting out questionable data in financial reports. They track terrorist funding, keep companies Sarbanes-Oxley compliant, and expose money laundering, tax evasion, and embezzlement schemes. And since most forms of occupational fraud are accounting related, forensic accounting has become one of the fastest growing segments of the accounting profession.

While many colleges offer forensic accounting at the graduate level, Franklin is one of the few universities offering an undergraduate degree in this high-demand field. That means you’ll acquire specialized forensic accounting knowledge to qualify you for an exciting career position—without the time and expense of a graduate degree.

Get a solid foundation in accounting, fraud prevention, and detection

Our Forensic Accounting Major combines solid accounting principles with fraud detection and prevention techniques, preparing you to enter or advance in this exciting career field. When you graduate from Franklin’s Forensic Accounting Program, you’ll have the educational framework to readily seek professional certification including: Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Certified Public Accountant (CPA), or Certified Internal Auditor (CIA).

At Franklin, you’ll take many of the same classes as our undergraduate Accounting Degree Program, but you’ll also take concentrated coursework in occupational fraud forensics. From fraud examination to interviewing techniques to legal elements to corporate governance and internal control assessment, you’ll gain the highly coveted skills your current or next employer is looking for.

Impress your future employer with valuable, hands-on experience

Our Forensic Accounting Degree Program features a unique hands-on curriculum to help you attract hiring managers’ attention and immediately put your skills to work. One of our real-world project assignments is a simulated investigation with a growing company needing help with accounting issues that surfaced during financial statement preparation. As part of a team, you’ll help with the investigation, correct the financial statements, and report your group findings.

You’ll also learn to create and streamline accounting systems and processes using industry-standard Microsoft® Visio software, which is an important part of preventing fraud as well as positively impacting the bottom line.

Learn from the experts in our well-respected, accredited program

And because credentialed instructors with professional accounting experience teach our classes, you’ll benefit from their years of experience in the field and learn from their successes and mistakes. In addition, our curriculum is based on industry standards, including Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), auditing standards of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), and fraud detection and prevention techniques of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE).

You can be sure you’re receiving a respected degree with real value in the workplace since our Forensic Accounting Program is accredited by the International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (IACBE), the leader in outcomes-based accreditation in business.

Earn your degree from a university built for busy adults

Earn your degree on your terms by taking classes 100% online or pursue available coursework at one of our eleven Midwest locations. Regionally accredited and nonprofit, Franklin was built from the ground-up to satisfy the needs of adult learners. A seamless transfer process and personal academic advisors help ease your transition into becoming a student, while our flexible course schedules help to balance your education with work, family, and life. Get started on your future today.

Gain The Skills Employers Desire

  • Financial Accounting & Reporting
    • Maintain accounting standards, ensuring compliance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)
    • Prepare consolidated financial statements, including balance sheets, income statements, and statements of cash flow
    • Produce required financial statements to meet regulatory requirements, such as Form 10-Q, 10-K, and annual reports
    • Gather supporting documentation, and write footnotes and disclosures for financial reports
    • Prepare account reconciliations, analyzing accounts for unusual fluctuations
    • Consolidate and submit financial transaction reports, summarizing current activities and projected financial positions
    • Develop best-in-class procedures for report preparation, ensuring proper internal controls and adherence to policies
    • Analyze financial statements, performing analyses of accounts, variances, trends, and ratios
    • Prepare and submit regulatory reports and special requests related to financial information
    • Identify key differences between Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)
  • Auditing & Internal Controls
    • Perform internal Sarbanes-Oxley reviews, conducting due diligence to address control gaps and ensure compliance
    • Manage internal audit processes and Sarbanes-Oxley 404 efforts in conjunction with external auditors
    • Assess potential risk and state-of-fraud exposure, including the effectiveness of business and financial safeguards
    • Identify systems and procedures loopholes, working with process owners to mitigate control deficiencies
    • Evaluate whether there is appropriate segregation of duties, levels of authorization, and data security to maintain appropriate internal controls
    • Ensure audits are performed in accordance with International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing
    • Conduct controls compliance and fraud risk analyses, including extracting data, validating data integrity, performing data analysis, investigating exceptions, and presenting findings
    • Research accounting and auditing issues, developing internal programs to address complex accounting and audit risks
    • Identify and clearly define forensic issues and root causes, recommending improved internal controls and business processes to ensure the development and implementation of corrective action plans
    • Perform key control testing, including identifying deficiencies, developing remediation plans, and conducting remediation testing
    • Provide input into developing annual internal audit plans, emphasizing adequate audit coverage of key business risks, compliance systems, core processes, and strategic initiatives
  • Ethical Standards & Regulatory Compliance
    • Review and evaluate financial transactions and reports, ensuring data integrity and policy and procedural compliance
    • Identify and assess operational risks, such as people, processes, fraud, extravagance, execution, and reputation, remediating gaps and deficiencies
    • Mitigate risk through design, review, and support of detailed control procedures and exception reports
    • Oversee internal controls of financial reporting processes, and manage external audit processes
    • Improve and strengthen internal controls effectiveness to mitigate risk, prevent fraud, and comply with applicable laws and regulations
    • Review, recommend, and develop strategies, processes, limits, rules, and controls to ensure effective risk management
    • Implement and manage security policies and procedures for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance
    • Ensure validity of partner audits, respond to audit findings, and take corrective action as necessary
    • Understand the professional standards and liability of CPAs, operating in an ethical manner to present a true and fair view of company or individual finances
    • Recognize potentially unethical behavior, perform research and consultations as appropriate, and determine appropriate action
    • Oversee corporate codes of ethics with respect to financial practices, including monitoring employees’ outside business activities and potential conflicts of interest
    • Distill complex compliance requirements and technical documents into understandable and actionable guidance
    • Ensure compliance with prescribed audit methodologies, policies and procedures, as well as legal, regulatory, and contract anti-fraud obligations
  • Fraud Examination
    • Construct interview and interrogation plans for occupational fraud witnesses and suspects
    • Interpret both verbal and nonverbal cues of witnesses and suspects being interviewed or interrogated
    • Plan internal investigations of alleged or suspected violations of criminal law and corporate policies, including theft, fraud, embezzlement, conflicts of interest, collusion, kickbacks, and records falsification
    • Indicate effective data-mining techniques to identify aberrant transactions for further investigation and analysis
    • Identify financial records needed to trace source or disposition of funds, and detect evidence of embezzlement, corruption, or misappropriation
    • Identify methods to detect, investigate, present, and resolve cases of occupational fraud directed against corporate assets
    • Prepare clear, comprehensive, and cohesive investigative reports
    • Provide investigative support and fraud prevention counsel
  • Electronic Discovery
    • Identify effective, evidence-preserving data recovery methods and electronic discovery techniques
    • Create electronic discovery plans, fraud investigations, and personnel investigations involving information systems and legal inquiries
    • Conduct proactive digital risk assessments, including determining potential vulnerabilities
    • Find and analyze vulnerabilities in order to manage and mitigate risk, allowing continuation of business, recovery of lost funds, and halting of further economic losses
    • Review computer-based information systems for appropriate levels of control, documentation, audit trails, and security
  • Fraud Reporting & Litigation
    • Assist in planning, reviewing, delegating, and performing litigation support tasks, including forensic reviews and litigation analysis related to suspected occupational fraud activities
    • Conduct research and analysis associated with suspected occupational fraud activities
    • Help prepare fraud case evidence and exhibits suitable for judicial proceedings
    • Aid legal counsel in the collection, preservation, and analyses of relevant data to support or refute facts and/or allegations in fraud investigations and/or related litigation.

Career Opportunities

  • Corporate Accounting Officer

    Corporate Accounting Officers oversee fiscal activities and financial transactions, including tracking expenditures, allocating resources, and monitoring compliance with regulations and laws.

    View Salary Trends
  • Forensic Accountant

    Forensic Accountants conduct white-collar crime investigations, perform due diligence reviews, and identify potential fraudulent financial activities.

    View Salary Trends
  • Independent Forensic Auditor

    Independent Forensic Auditors conduct financial, operational and compliance audits and investigations, monitor controls to ensure financial integrity, and assist with risk remediation.

    View Salary Trends
  • Internal Auditor

    Internal Auditors evaluate operating guidelines, ensuring compliance with corporate policies, industry standards, and regulatory requirements.

    View Salary Trends
  • Accounting Consultant

    Accounting Consultants assist in pinpointing business problems and recommending appropriate solutions to ensure productive and efficient financial operations.

    View Salary Trends
  • Litigation Expert Witness

    Litigation Expert Witnesses provide expert testimony in order to help prove or disprove a legal case.

    View Salary Trends

Employment Outlook

There will be an estimated 2.2 million jobs related to Forensic Accounting in 2020.

In 2010 there were 52,812 job openings related to Forensic Accounting. That same year, 1,835 students completed programs in Forensic Accounting.

In 2010 there were 52,812 job openings related to Forensic Accounting. That same year, 1,835 students completed programs in Forensic Accounting.

Source information provided by Economic Modeling Specialists International (EMSI)

Our Recipe For Your Success

Academic & Industry Experts

Classes are taught and designed by credentialed professionals with real-world experience.
 

  • Programs are designed by combining the insight of industry leaders with the academic expertise of our faculty, ensuring what you learn translates into on-the-job success.

  • Academic concepts and theories are brought to life through our teaching faculty’s professional expertise, and can be immediately applied in your career.

  • Faculty with industry experience teach our courses, not graduate students or life-time academics, so you learn not only the theories behind the practice but also how to apply them in real-world situations.

Relevant & Consistent Curriculum

What you learn is a reflection of the program you choose, not the format in which it’s applied.
 

  • All programs are designed for learning outcomes to flow from the program level into actual coursework.

  • This top-down approach allows credentialed professionals to customize assignments based on trending industry topics without deviating from a program’s core outcomes.

  • Regardless of your professor or the format of your class, you receive the same quality education.

Hands-On Learning Experience

Franklin's coursework teaches not only theories and concepts, but also how they apply to practical situations.

 

  • Professional course designers ensure that class activities such as learning simulations, case studies, interactive videos, and group exercises are relevant and appropriate.

  • A curriculum development team is dedicated to making sure all courses are intuitively designed so content is taught in a logical manner that facilitates your success in the classroom and beyond.

Continuously Evolving Programs

Consistent program reviews ensure our programs stay at the forefront of industry trends.
 

  • Survey results and feedback from student and faculty assessments are reviewed regularly so that our programs are always improving and up-to-date.

  • A structured review process helps identify industry gaps that guide curriculum enhancements allowing our academic and industry experts to regularly implement new industry trends.

  • Regular assessment provides hard data that is used to improve student learning and teaching methods.

Get the details

Read course descriptions, learn about degree options, and meet program faculty.

View Program Details