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Fraud Investigation Using IDEA

By C. Stephen Turnbull

Reviewed by Jim Kaplan

Do you suspect fraud in your organization? Despite what industry or sector of the economy you work in, don’t kid yourself into believing it doesn’t exist or can’t happen. But why do we need another book on investigating fraud? The reason is that Fraud Investigation Using IDEA, focuses on using computer-assisted audit tools and techniques (CAATT). Auditors are increasingly placing greater reliance on software tools for preventative and investigative fraud analysis.   The book begins with an overview of fraud which experienced auditors can give a cursory review. The next chapter deals with understanding business data systems and gets at the age-old question for many auditors; we’ve got the software, now how do we get the data? The chapter boils it down to the basics and puts it in easy to understand language for auditors. I put it to use right away by asking the IT department for an ERD or entity relationship diagram for a system used in an audit on employee compensation. Chapter 3 covers fraud analysis or “asking the right questions.” The remainder of the book covers applying IDEA to a fraud investigation, case studies and using IDEAScript, a powerful tool for automating future audits. The only thing that Ekaros should have added is a companion CD ROM or Website with prepared scripts and sample data.

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