Advanced professional course
Forensic Accounting
Investigate financial irregularities with discipline: scope, analyse, reconstruct, quantify and report findings that stand up to scrutiny.
₹1,999 one-time
Buy the course — ₹1,999 See the curriculum
What this course teaches
Forensic accounting is disciplined investigation, not suspicion with a spreadsheet. This course teaches you to scope an engagement, form and test hypotheses, analyse and reconstruct financial data, weigh alternative explanations, preserve evidence properly, quantify losses where the evidence supports it, and report findings in language that stands up to scrutiny.
You work through fictional investigations at Albright Medical Supplies (a distributor with suspected revenue, procurement and related-party problems) and Pellham Construction (a payroll matter), using realistic ledgers, bank statements, vendor and employee master data and journal-entry populations. Throughout, anomalies are treated as leads, not proof.
Who it is for
- Accountants, auditors and internal auditors moving into investigations, fraud risk or disputes work.
- Finance managers, controllers and compliance professionals responsible for fraud risk and controls.
- Analysts and consultants who support investigations, litigation or regulatory reviews.
- Experienced learners interested in forensic and investigative accounting careers.
Prerequisites
Solid financial accounting, internal controls and audit basics; spreadsheet skills (lookups, pivots).
Solid financial accounting, internal controls and audit basics are assumed, along with spreadsheet skills (lookups and pivot tables).
What you will be able to do
- Scope a forensic engagement, establish predication and run a hypothesis-driven investigation with disciplined working papers.
- Assess fraud risk and recognise behavioural and transactional red flags without mistaking them for proof.
- Detect and reconstruct financial statement manipulation, asset misappropriation and procurement schemes.
- Identify related parties and conflicts of interest using lawful sources and test the economics of related-party transactions.
- Test whole journal-entry populations, find duplicates, apply digit analysis and manage false positives.
- Reconstruct bank, vendor and payroll records and trace funds across sources.
- Use spreadsheet and data techniques reproducibly, including network and timing analysis, and understand sampling limits.
- Handle evidence, chain of custody and interviews properly, and recognise legal, privacy and jurisdictional constraints.
- Quantify losses and damages with stated assumptions and write a defensible investigative or expert-style report.
Curriculum
10 modules, 50 lessons, a final assessment and a capstone project. Each lesson includes worked examples, original charts or diagrams, an exercise with a full solution and a knowledge check. Times are estimates based on the actual lesson content.
Module 1: Forensic Methodology · about 4.3 h
Run an investigation with scope, predication and discipline.
Module 2: Fraud Risk and Theory · about 4.2 h
Understand why fraud happens and where to look.
Module 3: Financial Statement Manipulation · about 4.4 h
Recognise and analyse manipulation of reported results.
- Revenue Schemes · 54 min
- Expense and Liability Concealment · 50 min
- Asset Overstatement · 46 min
- Analytical Detection of Manipulation · 47 min
- Case: Reconstructing a Revenue Fraud · 68 min
Module 4: Asset Misappropriation and Procurement Fraud · about 4.4 h
Detect and test the most common internal schemes.
Module 5: Related Parties and Conflicts of Interest · about 4.1 h
Identify hidden relationships and test their economics.
- Identifying Related Parties · 51 min
- Conflict-of-Interest Testing · 45 min
- Ownership and Corporate Structure Tracing · 47 min
- Related-Party Transaction Pricing Analysis · 43 min
- Disclosure Gaps and Reporting · 61 min
Module 6: Journal-Entry and Ledger Analytics · about 4.8 h
Test whole populations of entries efficiently and fairly.
- Journal-Entry Testing Foundations · 58 min
- Risk-Based Journal-Entry Criteria · 59 min
- Duplicate and Near-Duplicate Detection · 44 min
- Benford's Law and Digit Analysis · 57 min
- Managing False Positives · 72 min
Module 7: Data Reconstruction and Tracing · about 4.2 h
Reconstruct records and trace funds across sources.
Module 8: The Investigative Analytics Toolkit · about 4.0 h
Use spreadsheet and data techniques reproducibly.
- Spreadsheet Investigative Techniques · 50 min
- Relationship and Network Analysis · 44 min
- Timing and Sequence Analysis · 43 min
- Sampling in Investigations and Its Limits · 43 min
- Reproducible Analytics Workpapers · 63 min
Module 9: Evidence, Interviews and Legal Considerations · about 5.4 h
Handle evidence and people properly.
Module 10: Quantification and Reporting · about 4.1 h
Quantify losses defensibly and report findings professionally.
- Loss Quantification Approaches · 49 min
- Damages and But-For Analysis · 44 min
- Interest, Mitigation and Uncertainty in Damages · 41 min
- Expert Report Structure and Limitations · 43 min
- Communicating Findings · 71 min
Final assessment and capstone
- Final assessment · 200 min
- Capstone project · 540 min
Practical work and assessment
- Every lesson has a full worked example, an exercise with a complete solution and a knowledge check with explanations.
- Each module ends with an integrative checkpoint including numeric problems and a written decision question.
- A 40-question final assessment (pass mark 70%) plus three written questions with marking guides.
- Capstone: a complete fictional investigation at a new client with its own evidence pack — ledger, bank, master data and documentary exhibits, including innocent look-alikes and gaps — ending in a quantified investigative report, assessed against a rubric with a full model solution.
A look inside
Investigation lessons are driven by the data. This chart from Module 1 compares how often invoices raised in the last days of a quarter were later reversed, against the normal rate — an indicator worth investigating, not a conclusion.
What is included for ₹1,999
- All 50 lessons, the final assessment and the capstone project, with model answers.
- Original charts, diagrams and data exhibits, plus downloadable CSV datasets for the exercises.
- Progress tracking and saved assessment scores when you are signed in.
- Access from your account on any device for as long as the course is offered on this site.
This is self-paced, text-based learning. It does not include live sessions, personal tutoring, a formal qualification or continuing professional education (CPE/CPD) credit.
About the instructor
The course is written and published by Aditya Gupta, who has spent 12 years working with startups in Europe and the US, including fractional-CFO work for Y Combinator-backed startups. More about Aditya.
Frequently asked questions
Does the course qualify me to conduct investigations?
No. It is an educational course. It is not a professional qualification, a licence or authorisation to carry out regulated investigative work, and it is not legal advice. Real investigations need appropriate authorisation and legal counsel.
Are the people and companies real?
No. All people, companies and datasets are fictional. Where a lesson mentions a well-documented public case, it does so only at the level of general, published facts.
How do I get access after paying?
Payment is processed by Razorpay. When the payment is confirmed, your order is marked paid and the lessons unlock for the account linked to your order email. You receive an email with your sign-in details; you can also find the course under My Account → My Courses.
Can I get a refund?
Yes, within 7 calendar days of purchase if you have completed less than 25% of the lessons, as set out in our Refund & Cancellation Policy. Email the address in the policy with your order number.
Do I get a certificate or CPE credit?
No. The course is not accredited and does not award CPE/CPD credit or a professional qualification. Your scores and progress are saved to your account for your own records.
Are the companies in the case studies real?
No. Case companies and datasets are fictional and built for teaching. Where a lesson refers to a real standard or a well-documented public case, it says so.
See the Refund & Cancellation Policy and Terms of Service. Educational content only — not investment, legal or tax advice.
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