Accuracy in Financial Reporting

A sale is a sale, and a profit is a profit, right? Not always. While an organizations financial statements should fully and transparently reflect the organizations actual financial situation, sometimes they do not. Sometimes there is intentional deception or fraud. Yet, even when an organization uses legal and accepted accounting practices, financial statements may fail to present risks or explain unusual costs, profits, or assumptions.

Think about a time in your professional experience when a decision was made based on inaccurate financial information or unethical behavior resulting in fraudulent financial information. If you do not have professional experience directly related to accounting and decision making, research a situation where inaccurate or fraudulent financial information was provided by a company. Consider the outcomes of utilizing fraudulent financial information for decision making and research how to avoid such situations.

Describe the situation from either your professional experience or your research.

Explain the steps you would take to address unethical behavior and remedy the situation of utilizing the inaccurate or fraudulent financial information you described and why you would take these steps.

Explain the steps that you, as a manager, might take to ensure that all financial information you review accurately reflects the organizations true financial situation and why this is important to prevent unethical behavior and the use of inaccurate or fraudulent financial information.