Blogging about forensic accounting, my life, and anything else I feel warrants it. Disclaimer: Anything found on this site is not intended to be professional advice. If you are in need of professional advice, please contact a professional to give it.
Probably not as interesting as you might think.
Published on August 3, 2006 By Jythier In Business
I am currently working for a forensic accounting firm. Now, when most people hear the word 'forensic' they think crime and CSI and all that. Well, forensic accounting seems to have very little to do with all of that. I have yet to come across a criminal case. Mostly, forensic accountants are hired by lawyers and insurance agencies to calculate lost wage and business interruption claims.

I had never heard of business interruption(BI) insurance until I joined this firm. Basically, with BI coverage, when the business is hit with covered property damage, the insurance company has to pay you for the business you would have done had it not been for the damage. That's pretty neat, I think. Of course, most of the people with that insurance don't think so when the accountants get their hands on it. It's very easy to submit a simple BI claim for a lot of money, and have it cut down to size by someone who knows how it should be done, sometimes even into the much dreaded 'no loss' category!

A lot of the time the claimant simply 'forgets' or doesn't know about discontinuing expenses. If you normally have $100,000 in sales, and pay hourly employees $25,000 in that time, with no other expenses, and then you have a loss, you might submit a claim for your $100,000 in sales. However, you probably didn't pay your employees to work during that time. So, you get your $100,000... minus the $25,000 you didn't pay your employees. So you'll only get $75,000 covered. All kinds of expenses can stop during a loss period, so you really have to look at you Profit + Loss statement before submitting a claim. That way, you won't be as disappointed when you only get the amount due you. Also note that most equipment that is being repaired by the insurance company does not depreciate during the period of repair, so that discontinues too.

Anyway, I think I'm getting too far into accounting land. If anyone has any questions about insurance, I recommend you ask an insurance guy. I'm slowly picking up insurance tid-bits simply because I'm working cases involving it. But, any question asked here will be answered to the best of my ability, and if I don't know the answer, I can probably find out. However, most of the time, the answer will be 'It depends' because... it usually does. Like I said, no two cases are the same.

Comments
on Aug 04, 2006
I doubt it would win a pulitzer prize, but it sounds more interesting than regular accounting.
on Aug 04, 2006
It is more interesting than regular accounting. It's hard to explain without going into specifics, though. I don't mind writing articles very few people want to read, but I would hate to waste time with articles no-one wants to read.
on Aug 04, 2006

It is more interesting than regular accounting. It's hard to explain without going into specifics, though. I don't mind writing articles very few people want to read, but I would hate to waste time with articles no-one wants to read.

I am not an accountant.  But I do find Forensic accounting to be interesting.  now if you want to talk about Tax accounting......zzzzzzzzzz

on Aug 04, 2006
Tax accounting bores me to tears. I can't even schedule out a 1040 at work without wanting to cry. So I guess I will continue to write interesting tidbits, and humorous helpful tips. I have such big plans, heh.