20 Portable Apps Every Accountant Should Have on Their USB Drive

Written by admin at 04:41:pm on 8th March, 2011

A portable USB drive makes life so much easier. Rather than carrying a laptop with you when you travel, simply have the files and applications right on your USB drive that fits on your keychain. Then, wherever you are, you can get to your information and applications on any computer, as well as save any work you complete. The following portable applications are ones we think those in the accounting profession will really love.

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Top 50 Forensic Accounting Blogs

Written by L.G. at 09:00:am on 15th December, 2010

The list of the top 50 forensic accounting blogs below shows the wide range of jobs in forensic accounting. Investigation is key, along with dissemination of information, law and governance in maintaining financial security for investors, home owners, employees and tax payers. Finding fraud can be fun, and — considering this list includes just a few of the hundreds of forensic sites on the Internet — a possibly lucrative field. [click to continue…]

20 Excellent YouTube Videos to Learn About Forensic Accounting

Written by admin at 01:17:am on 19th October, 2010

Forensic accounting is defined as a specialty accounting practice where accountants work with figures that are in legal disputes or who perform accounting fraud investigations. The term “forensic” means suitable for use in a court of law, so forensic accounting review numbers and often give expert testimony during trials.

The forensic accountant is a blend of great accounting skills as well as good investigative skills. To enjoy this field, you must be someone who enjoys looking for the information that is buried deep within a company’s finances or other files. If forensic accounting sounds like a field of interest for you, take a look at these 20 YouTube Videos to learn more about this interesting field.

  1. Forensic Accounting Career Information: Learn more about the exam for forensic and fraud auditing and accounting.
  2. What is a Forensic Accountant: Learn more about forensic accounting compared to traditional accounting.
  3. Forensic Accounting Professor: Learn identity information from a forensic accounting professor.
  4. What is Forensic Accounting: A video to explain what forensic accounting is and why it is important.
  5. The Business Society: Forensic Accounting: Learn about career opportunities in the field of Forensic Accounting.
  6. Forensic Accounting: Learn the history of forensic accounting, a relatively new area of accounting.
  7. Forensic Accounting: This video is an advertisement for a Forensic Accounting firm and it explains quite well what a forensic accountant will do during litigation.
  8. Stephen Taylor: Stephen Taylor, an accounting professor, discusses how forensic accounting theory differs from forensic accounting in real practice.
  9. Forensic Accounting Experiment: Watch a real experiment in a deception study conducted by a forensic accounting professor.This one might surprise you.
  10. Kessler International: Learn more about forensic accounting from a forensic accounting firm.
  11. There’s No Crystal Ball: Learn more about the complex inter workings of forensic accounting.
  12. Adam Andrezjewski: This former gubernatorial candidate talks about the state of Illinois’ need for more forensic audits and accounting into the state’s spending.
  13. Deborah Pavelka: Learn about new trends in forensic accounting from a professor of accounting at Roosevelt University.
  14. Qualifications: Learn the qualifications required to become a forensic accountant.
  15. Graduate Jobs in Accounting and Finance: Learn about the job opportunities for graduate level accountants.
  16. Tom Golden: Watch a forensic accountant discuss important fraud information for companies.
  17. M. Martin Mercer: Mercer is an expert witness in forensic accounting and financial fraud.
  18. The Fraud Triangle: Learn the three ingredients for a fraud to happen from Tom Golden, a retired forensic accountant and an expert in the field.
  19. My First Fraud Investigation: Hear Tom Golden, a forensic accounting expert, talk about his very first real fraud investigation. Hear how he discovered it, and what triggered him to look into the books even further than he expected to look. You’ll learn a lot about looking for hidden clues from this story.
  20. Fraud Detection: Learn more about fraud detection and forensic accounting from expert Tom Golden.

Forensic accounting is a very exciting field, and it’s the perfect job for those who are interested in numbers but who also have an interest in the law and in fraud. You’ll use your accounting skills to dig up the information that firms hide and help bring these details to light.

This is a career for the person who likes working with a company’s books but who also thrives on investigation work. In fact, this field is a great choice for a person who has always had an interest in law enforcement but also wants the security and flexibility that comes from an accounting job. Looking for fraud is never easy, but it’s always interesting, particularly if you really enjoy the hunt. So, consider the very interesting and very sought after career of forensic accounting, if you think searching for fraud and bringing financial details to light is something that you would enjoy on a day to day basis. Hopefully these informative videos from You Tube have given you the information you need to make a good decision about the field.

6 Best Crime Dramas on Television

Written by admin at 11:54:am on 1st July, 2010

A crime drama is understood to be a film revolving various aspects of crime and the criminal justice system. It can be divided further into many categories like drama film, thriller film, mystery film, action film and film noir. However, below are briefed some six best crime dramas on Television.

  1. NYPD Blue: It is an American television police drama set in New York City, around the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan. Each episode of the drams used to inter mix several plots involving an ensemble cast. The show was developed by Steven Bochco and David Milch and inspired by Milch’s relationship with Bill Clark, a former member of the New York City Police Department that too became one of its producers. The show was broadcast on the ABC network from its start on September 21, 1993 to March 1, 2005.
  2. Dragnet (1952-1959 & 1967-1970): Dragnet, syndicated as Badge 714, is a radio and television crime drama about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. Dragnet was considered as the most famous and influential police procedural drama in media history. The series let millions of audience to enjoy a feel for the real excitement and work culture of real-life police work.
  3. Law & Order (1990-present): It is an American police procedural and legal drama television series produced by Dick Wolf that premiered on NBC on September 13,1990 and completed its season through May 24, 2010.  When it gone off the air in 2010, it tied with the longest running American drama series of all time with Gunsmoke.
  4. Miami Vice (1984-1989): It is an American television series produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The show became popular for including mix up of music and visual effects to narrate a story. The series starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami. The drama ran successfully for five seasons on NBC from 1984–1989.
  5. Hill Street Blues (1981-1987): It was an American serial police drama that was first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime till 1987. This serial played lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city. The series received quite a good acclaim from its production innovations and was quite influential on serious dramatic television series production in North America.
  6. CSI, New York: It is an American police procedural television series which premiered on CBS on September 22, 2004. This particular show tells about the New York Police Department investigations by there forensic scientists and specialists as to reveal out circumstances and situations after mysterious death and other crimes.

Top 5 Infamous Accounting Frauds in US History

Written by admin at 05:15:am on 3rd May, 2010

Accounting frauds or corporate accounting frauds are political and business scandals that occur due to the misdeed of trusted executives of large public corporations. These misdeeds includes activities like complex methods of misusing or misdirecting funds, overstating revenues, understating expenses, overstating the value of corporate assets or underreporting of the existing liabilities. These frauds actually happen to be a tip of ice- berg and represent catastrophic failure of the system. Below are some of the famous Accounting frauds of the United States which devastated the organizations by large.

  1. ZZZ Best: A company run by Barry Minkow an American religious leader and ex-convict was doing very good business during 1980s however collapsed by 1987 costing investors nearly an estimated $100 million. He was convicted of fraud and several other offenses and sentenced for 25 years in prison. Presently, he is pastor of the Community Bible Church in San Diego. Now, he is considered as an expert on Fraud.
  2. MiniScribe: It was a disk storage Products Company founded in at Longmont, Colorado in 1980 and grows up into developing voice coil motor designs and became bankrupt in 1990. MiniScribe’s failure was centered on one of the first major accounting scandals in the computer industry, when it lost a supply contract with IBM’s PC division in 1985. It falsified its sales records for several years and was discovered in year 1989.
  3. Phar-Mor: It was a US chain of discount drug stores, located in Youngstown, Ohio, founded by Michael I. Monus and David S. Shapira in 1982. In 1992, when the company had grown to over 300 stores and 25,000 employees, Monus and his CFO Patrick Finn were charged for fraud as they hide losses and moved about $10 million from Phar-Mor to the World Basketball League that Monus had founded. Due to this Phar-Mor had to file for bankruptcy protection and eventually closed down 55 stores and fired 5, 000 employees.
  4. Cendant Corporation: It was a New York-based provider of business and consumer services, especially in the real estate and travel industries. The last CEO of Cendant was Henry Silverman. The company was running quite well when, disastrously, in 1998 Henry Silverman led company into a disastrous merger with CUC International, a direct marketing company where company lost approximately $14 billion, with their stock went down to the rate of $12 from $41.
  5. HealthSouth Corporation: Located at Birmingham, Alabama is one of the largest healthcare services providers in the United States are recognized for its rehabilitation services. It has more than 200 facilities in United States and Puerto Rico. The company was involved in a famous corporate accounting scandal in which its Chief Executive Officer,   Richard M. Scrushy, was accused of falsely reporting grossly exaggerated company earnings to meet up with the expectations of its stock holders.

Master Of Forensic Accounting Online

Written by admin at 06:19:am on 22nd April, 2010

The unprecedented advancements in technology have enabled colleges and institutions to reach out to students rather than them reaching the educational institutions. Education has been brought to students’ door steps, giving them an option to stay home and still achieve their academic endeavors. Keeping a job and taking care of the family while still pursuing educational interests has therefore never been made easier.

The Forensic Accounting profession has become one of the fastest growing areas in accounting, which has seen a simultaneous demand for accountants in areas such as tax investigations, economic crime investigations, specialized audit, fraud management and many more. Forensic accountants learn how to incorporate sophisticated technology in accounting and auditing while investigating white collar crimes or helping with litigation of contracts. They are also furnished with how to navigate some of the most complicated criminal transactions such as money laundering. These professionals might also be called upon to unravel information as witnesses in related legal proceedings.

The Online Master of Forensic Accounting will prepare students to work in companies with big accounting department, especially during these times when companies’ financial reporting practices are under thorough scrutiny. There are also accounting firms that have separate forensic accounting departments that specialize in personal injury claims, insurance claims, royalty issues, fraud among many others. Forensic accountants are also in high demand in insurance companies, banks, police forces, audit committees as well as in government bodies. Students in the program are taught how to use the latest security programs and reporting software and thus giving them an edge in the market.

The Online Master of Forensic Accounting is one course that can help a students get into this interesting profession. It is a program in which flexibility has been put to the core of learning. The best bargain of the program to students is that one does not necessarily need to have an undergraduate degree in either accounting or in business administration to qualify for the course. All a student requires is an accredited university degree in any field as the basic eligibility criteria for the program. Acquiring some of the basic certifications on top of the Bachelors degree is also another way that one can increase credibility and employability in the filed of Forensic accounting.

In addition, a student is required to have a high GMAT score to be eligible for the Master of Forensic Accounting, but this is just one way of making the program accessible to a large number of students without an accounting background. The other underlying benefit to the students is that they will not only earn an Online Master of Forensic Accounting but one will also be given an opportunity to specialize in the filed of forensic accounting. More interesting job options also come in handy after graduating from the program.