Hi,
I have a client that asked me to audit an uncooperative company. Note that the company being audited is uncooperative. There is no way for me to walk in there and ask for the data that I need without court order or search warrant. They have destroyed most of their data and their key employees have disappeared. My client's IT personnel managed to recover a file from the company's computer system. The file appears to be a list of journal entries. The problem is that the account's name is coded, and there is no way for me to deduce what kind of accounts they are from their names alone.
I have reconstructed the ledgers. So far, I can deduce which ones are their balance sheet items and which ones are not. I can figure out their revenue and expense accounts. I can also roughly figure out which ones are their assets, but I cannot get anymore specific than that. I need to differentiate their equity from their liabilities. I also need to know their cash and possibly their payable and receivables as well. Is there anyway I can deduce these from the journal alone?
In summary, these are what I have:
- Balance sheet and income statements accounts
- Revenue and expense accounts
- Asset accounts (estimated!)
and these are what I want to know:
- their liabilities and their equity
- cash accounts
- receivable and payable accounts
- non-cash transactions (such as depreciation and other cost allocations).
- and other details possible.
If somebody has any idea on how I should go about deducing these accounts, please help.
Thanks.
I have a client that asked me to audit an uncooperative company. Note that the company being audited is uncooperative. There is no way for me to walk in there and ask for the data that I need without court order or search warrant. They have destroyed most of their data and their key employees have disappeared. My client's IT personnel managed to recover a file from the company's computer system. The file appears to be a list of journal entries. The problem is that the account's name is coded, and there is no way for me to deduce what kind of accounts they are from their names alone.
I have reconstructed the ledgers. So far, I can deduce which ones are their balance sheet items and which ones are not. I can figure out their revenue and expense accounts. I can also roughly figure out which ones are their assets, but I cannot get anymore specific than that. I need to differentiate their equity from their liabilities. I also need to know their cash and possibly their payable and receivables as well. Is there anyway I can deduce these from the journal alone?
In summary, these are what I have:
- Balance sheet and income statements accounts
- Revenue and expense accounts
- Asset accounts (estimated!)
and these are what I want to know:
- their liabilities and their equity
- cash accounts
- receivable and payable accounts
- non-cash transactions (such as depreciation and other cost allocations).
- and other details possible.
If somebody has any idea on how I should go about deducing these accounts, please help.
Thanks.
