First, the purity is inaccurate.
Pure inaccuracy is further divided into two situations, one is sudden inaccuracy and the other is systematic inaccuracy.
(1) Assault is inaccurate.
Surprise inaccuracy is accidental and temporary, and it is often an act that occurs at a specific time for a specific event. It is manifested in an artificially fabricated report that is beneficial to the enterprise itself. This form is relatively low-level, or virtual reduction and virtual increase of assets, or virtual reduction and virtual increase of expenses, or virtual reduction and virtual increase of profits. , but often the statements are unbalanced (the sum of sub-items is not equal to the total), and the accounts are inconsistent.
When reporting materials to government departments, exaggerating the sales income and asset scale of enterprises, such as applying for government subsidies, often occurs; Submit materials to relevant parties temporarily, such as submitting a business plan to our investment company and so on.
1. Abnormal fluctuation of income Due to sudden changes, enterprises often increase accounts receivable while adjusting their income, or reduce expenses and increase accounts payable. Sometimes we can analyze it, for example, the sales revenue of enterprises in this period has increased by more than 30% compared with last year, while the accounts receivable of enterprises have also increased significantly, while the growth rate of accounts received in advance is small. It is not difficult to see that the growth of corporate income during this period is not healthy. The decrease of accounts received in advance means the decrease of orders, and the substantial increase of accounts receivable with income may be the change of enterprise sales credit policy. Although we can't directly say that enterprises are fraudulent, we must first doubt the existence of this situation.
2. Checking the balance sheet with inconsistent relationship shows that the long-term assets in this period have increased by 50 million yuan, while the cash paid for purchasing long-term assets such as fixed assets and intangible assets in the cash flow statement is only 20 million yuan. We know that the difference between the two should be the unpaid amount under normal circumstances and should be reflected in the balance sheet as an increase in accounts payable. If the accounts payable have not increased, it means that the cross-checking relationship between the two tables is abnormal, and it is suspected that the statements are untrue.
The data on the cash flow statement is closely related to the data on the balance sheet. Under normal circumstances, the cash flow items generated by operating activities are linked to current assets and current liabilities; Cross-checking of cash flow items of investment activities and long-term assets; Of course, there are special circumstances when cash flow items of financing activities are linked to long-term liabilities and equity. For example, short-term loans in current liabilities belong to the cash flow of financing activities.
3. Cross-checking of undistributed profits Generally, there is such a relationship between undistributed profits on the balance sheet and net profits on the income statement: undistributed profits at the end of the period-undistributed profits at the beginning = net profits. If there is a big difference between the two amounts, excluding special reasons such as dividends, the income statement may be fraudulent. Of course, there may also be such a situation: income doubles, assuming that the cost remains the same, then the profit doubles. If, in order not to make the above formula abnormal, assets need to increase or liabilities need to decrease while undistributed profits increase, and accounts receivable usually increase, then the above-mentioned abnormal fluctuations in income may occur, and there are many specific changes, which will not be discussed in depth here.
(2) System error
System error has a long-term and special purpose. The big difference between this situation and surprise attack is that enterprises do not surprise fraud for a temporary purpose, but act for a long-term special purpose. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the psychology of enterprises and the motivation of whitewashing statements.
With the popularization of computerized accounting, enterprises basically use financial software, which reduces the workload and the probability of low-level mistakes. To this end, enterprises often design multiple sets of electronic account sets for different users. In this case, the means of fraud are hidden, and it is difficult to find traces of fraud simply from the statements.
1, fully understand the external environment of the enterprise (1).
From the perspective of investment, the external environment of an enterprise contains many contents, such as macro-economic situation, interest rate policy, exchange rate policy, government policy, etc. Industry level, including industry competition situation, industry development prospects, industry status, etc. Industry information may be more important from the point of view of being more in line with financial statements. Therefore, we have to compare the ratio of financial indicators with comparable companies to find abnormal fluctuations.
Among many financial indicators, one of the most important indicators is the gross profit margin of enterprises, which has a great relationship with the industry status of enterprises. Of course, if it deviates greatly from the industry average, we should pay enough attention to it. However, there is also a problem here. The sources of comparable company data and industry data may be difficult except from listed companies and industry associations, so there are also cases where the target company we invest in does not have comparable data.
(2) Internal non-financial information
The range of internal non-financial information is also very wide, such as enterprise ownership structure, enterprise leadership, R&D team and so on. As we know, the financial statement is a summary of the financial situation and operating performance of an enterprise, and its data comes from the daily business of the enterprise, not the cause. Obviously, if we don't carefully understand the daily business of the enterprise, our understanding and judgment of financial statements may be biased.
Knowing the subjects corresponding to the above business links is also convenient for us to understand the subjects needed for synchronous fraud in each business chain when enterprises conduct systematic fraud.
2. Insider of corporate losses We sometimes encounter this situation: the company's statements show annual losses, but the registered capital of the company has increased from several hundred thousand yuan at the time of establishment to tens of millions of yuan, and the increased registered capital has been invested by the original shareholders in monetary funds instead of introducing strategic investors; Or the registered capital of the enterprise has not increased substantially, but the enterprise owes a lot of money to shareholders. Then, why do the shareholders of the enterprise, especially the natural person shareholders, continue to operate and even lend a lot of money to the enterprise despite the great losses of the enterprise?
So should we doubt whether the enterprise is really losing money? Usually, the answer isno. We know that in the early days of its establishment, in order to complete rapid capital accumulation, it can be said that there was basically no case of not making false accounts, not transferring property, and not evading taxes. In general, the practice of enterprises is as follows:
(1) hidden income, multi-column cost
Small enterprises in general, especially family-owned enterprises, especially like to hide their income and itemize their costs. Usually, the business income that does not need to be invoiced goes directly into the personal pocket, but the related costs are still listed on the book, or when accepting the products of the enterprise, the number of products is reduced, thus increasing the product cost, which will lead to low income and high cost, thus causing book losses.
(2) Period expenses are a paradise for fraud.
Period expense accounts refer to "management expenses", "sales expenses" and "financial expenses" on the income statement. Basic accounting of financial expenses is a relatively simple project, and when the amount is large, it is basically loan interest, so the problems of enterprises are basically caused by the other two items.
We often see the loss in the income statement, which is basically that the amount of management expenses or sales expenses accounts is too large, so we should further refine the accounts, find out the detailed items of each account, and make a comparative analysis with our understanding of the enterprise, for example:
(1) The company's salary expenditure is relatively high, but the actual situation is that the company has fewer employees, obviously less than the number on the payroll, or the salary of employees is inflated, so the company is suspected of overstaffing staff, inflating expenses and evading taxes.
② There are two cars on the company's books, but the fuel charge is very high; Or the transportation fee is large, and even a large number of taxi invoices appear. In this case, enterprises often use normal invoices to offset the wages, commission awards and external kickbacks of some employees.
③ Enterprises have a large number of one-time expenses for low-value consumables, such as furniture and household appliances, so are these low consumption real? Maybe it's true, but the business owner bought it in his own home and reimbursed it in the company. Maybe it's not true at all, it's just that the business owner found a relationship to buy a ticket and took the company's cash.
These are just some cases. In addition to concealing income and forming off-balance-sheet coffers, business owners mostly withdraw cash from enterprises through invoice reimbursement.
From the above analysis, we found the clues of enterprise fraud, and through these clues, we can negotiate with enterprises to obtain more real business performance.
Second, the technology is not accurate.
The use of accounting methods for fraud, the financial sector is usually called "technical treatment", the common means of treatment are:
(a) the use of income confirmation time.
Financial revenue recognition needs to meet five conditions at the same time:
① The enterprise has transferred all the main risks and rewards of commodity ownership to the buyer;
(2) The enterprise neither retains the right to continue management, which is usually associated with ownership, nor controls the goods that have been sold;
③ The amount of income can be measured reliably;
④ Relevant economic benefits are likely to flow into the enterprise;
⑤ Related costs that have occurred or will occur can be reliably measured.
All the above conditions are theoretical and abstract. In practical work, enterprises usually meet the above five conditions when the following behaviors occur:
1, the sales behavior has been completed. Sales behavior has been completed in several aspects:
(1) If it is a commodity or product that does not need to be installed, the goods will be delivered to the place designated by the customer according to the contract, and the income will be confirmed after receiving the customer's acceptance certificate (different enterprises have different requirements on whether the acceptance certificate can be received, and some enterprises may consider selling the goods after leaving the warehouse);
② For products that need to be installed, but the installation does not constitute a major obstacle to revenue recognition (such as installing air conditioners), revenue can generally be recognized after the goods are delivered. If the installation constitutes an important part of the sales contract, the income needs to be confirmed after the installation is completed (such as the installation and commissioning of boilers and main machinery).
The above sales can be regarded as income realization regardless of whether the payment is received, and enterprises often realize their goals by confirming income in advance or later. For example, revenue should be recognized immediately after delivery, and enterprises can record the delivered products in the subject of "goods issued" on the grounds that the other enterprise has not accepted them, and postpone the time of revenue recognition. Even now, small and medium-sized enterprises confirm their income by issuing invoices, but they do not confirm their income without issuing invoices, which is obviously inconsistent with the accounting system. When doing a project, I often hear companies say what the tax requirements are, not what the accounting standards require. This is the current accounting situation of small and medium-sized enterprises. Accounting serves tax revenue, and accounting standards are not binding on enterprises. For those who need to confirm the income after installation, the income can be postponed on the grounds that the installation is not completed. All of the above are about delaying the recognition of income, so under what circumstances is it considered to recognize income in advance?
Pre-recognition of income usually occurs in the stage of recognizing income by stages. Of course, there are also cases where income needs to be confirmed after installation and the enterprise confirms income without installation, which also belongs to income confirmation in advance. Typically, the income earned by installments includes rental income, title income and so on. For example, the VIP Service Center of Qingdao Airport sells the naming right of a VIP room to CCB, with a two-year contract and an annual payment of 6,543,800 yuan. In this case, the VIP service center of Qingdao Airport received RMB 2 million, and the income of RMB 6,543,800+should be recognized by two years respectively. If the income of 2 million yuan is confirmed at one time, in addition, let's look at a typical case: American Xerox Company is the world's leading provider of office supplies. In 2002, the company disclosed that in the past five years, Xerox's revenue was exaggerated by 6 billion dollars. So, how did Xerox inflate its income? The means are relatively simple. It is by using the above-mentioned method of confirming income in advance that Xerox not only sells large-scale copying and printing equipment, but also rents equipment.
2, according to the production schedule confirmation (completion degree or project schedule) this way is easier to adjust the income, but more difficult to control, the reason is very simple, the enterprise completion schedule is too professional, if the income is confirmed according to the proportion of the completion cost to the estimated total cost, that is, the completion percentage method, first of all, the collection of the completion cost can make a big fuss, not to mention the estimated total cost is only an estimated value, which is more operational. For example, due to the long production cycle, the income of shipbuilding industry is confirmed according to the completion progress, and the completion progress is often based on various nodes of the ship, such as car body welding and engine boarding. What completion rate can be achieved after the body welding is completed? Generally, the ratio of the incurred cost to the estimated total cost is determined, and the adjustment ratio of the estimated total cost is relatively large.
(B) the use of inventory valuation methods
Adjust the pricing method of inventory, so as to adjust the cost of sales and achieve the purpose of adjusting profits. At present, there are four pricing methods allowed by accounting standards: one-time weighted average method, moving weighted average method, individual pricing method and first-in first-out method. Here, we need to mention the method that accounting standards have clearly failed to use, and this method is also mentioned in some materials when it comes to inventory issuance and pricing. As we all know, this method is no longer allowed.
At present, the moving weighted average method is commonly used in enterprises, and the individual valuation method is often used in the accounting of valuables such as expensive watches. Although enterprises choose the valuation method, many enterprises do not adopt it in practice. For example, enterprise A sells 10000 sets of finished garments, and the unit price calculated by the moving weighted average method is 200 yuan, and the carry-over sales cost should be 2 million yuan, but the actual carry-over cost is only 170000 yuan, which is inflated.
(C) the use of depreciation reserves
We know that there are four factors that affect the depreciation of fixed assets in enterprises, namely, the original value of fixed assets, residual value rate, depreciation period and depreciation accrual method.
1. After the original value of fixed assets is completed, the value of fixed assets will generally not change unless there is evidence that it has been impaired. Therefore, the value of assets is often inflated before completion (unfinished projects are usually accounted for in "construction in progress"). However, some enterprises have completed their work but have not carried out the accounting of "fixed assets" for a long time, so there is no need to accrue depreciation to inflate profits or continue to capitalize interest into asset value, so as to adjust current profits.
Capitalization of interest means that the loan is used for the project under construction, and the interest incurred is included in the cost of the project under construction. The fact that the construction in progress can be used does not mean the actual acceptance, but only means that it can be used, so it should not be capitalized, and the corresponding interest expenses should be included in the financial expenses. At present, many enterprises continue to include interest in the cost of construction in progress for performance, and necessary adjustments should be made after the specific amount is implemented.
In addition to fixed assets, there is also a subject "R&D expenditure", which is also called "R&D expenditure" by some enterprises. If an enterprise has this subject, it should pay attention to the specific content of R&D. Some enterprises develop equipment, which will form fixed assets in the future, so it is necessary to go to the scene to see if the enterprise has any physical objects and success. If they succeed, the R&D expenditure on the enterprise's books is still a suspense, and it will continue to happen. Some enterprises research and develop technology. You can ask when the enterprise can succeed in research and development and what materials can support the research and development progress of the enterprise at present. If the enterprise is just in its infancy, and it is uncertain whether it will succeed, or if the enterprise says it will succeed, but the specific time is uncertain, then it is necessary to expensize these expenses and reduce the profits of the enterprise.
2. Residual value rate Neither the accounting standards for business enterprises nor the tax law stipulates the proportion of estimated net residual value accrued by enterprises. Accounting only says that the estimated net salvage value of fixed assets should be reasonably determined according to the nature and use of fixed assets, while the tax law stipulates that once the estimated net salvage value of fixed assets is determined, it cannot be changed. This leaves a lot of operating space for enterprises, but the average enterprise keeps it at 3%-5%. Although it is operable, because there is no hard and fast rule, as long as it is not a large proportion, we generally don't have to pay attention to it.
3. Depreciation period According to the accounting standards, the depreciation period of fixed assets is determined by the enterprise according to the actual situation. There is no specific fixed number of years, but the tax law stipulates the depreciation period, including: buildings and structures are not less than 20 years; Aircraft, trains, ships, machinery and other production equipment should be no less than 10 years; Appliances, tools and furniture (related to production activities) shall be no less than 5 years; Vehicles other than airplanes, trains and ships shall be no less than 4 years; Electronic equipment should be used for at least 3 years.
Because there is no specific fixed number of years in accounting, the general enterprise will choose the fixed number of years appropriately according to the performance of the enterprise without violating the tax regulations. If the enterprise does not want to pay more taxes, the depreciation period will be shorter; If you want performance, the reverse is also true.
4. Depreciation accrual methods Generally speaking, depreciation accrual methods include average life method, workload method and accelerated depreciation method. And the tax has strict requirements on this piece, so I won't discuss it here.
(D) the use of bad debt reserves
The accounting methods of bad debts of enterprises generally include specific identification method, balance percentage method and aging analysis method, among which aging analysis method is widely used by enterprises, and some enterprises combine specific identification method with aging analysis method, which is allowed by the accounting standards for enterprises.