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How could account reconciliation be used in detecting errors or fraud?

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Question added by Abdullah Mahhaden, CFA, CPA , Assurance Manager , Grant Thornton
Date Posted: 2013/06/15
Javed Abdulaziz Rawoot Rawoot
by Javed Abdulaziz Rawoot Rawoot , Treasury Supervisor/Treasury Accountant , International Turnkey Systems Group (ITS) - Kuwait (Information & Technology)

When the bank account in opened either by an individual or business entity, the bank issues a pass book/bank statement to its customer, The passbook/bank statement is the copy of all the transactions recorded by bank in its LEDGER.
On the other hand the customer would also be recording all its transactions with the bank in his LEDGER...
So, it is expected that both the balances...
that is, the balance with the customer & the Bank should TALLY.
But, if they do not tally then the BANK BOOK OF THE CUSTOMER & BANK STATEMENT OF THE BANK SHOULD BE RECONCILED PERIODICALLY...IT SHOULD BE DAILY, WEEKLY BUT NOT EXCEEDING A MONTH.
So its compulsory to prepare the Bank Reconciliation Statement at the end of every month to detect errors or froud.

khaled Ibrahim Sayed Abd El Salam Ibrahim
by khaled Ibrahim Sayed Abd El Salam Ibrahim , Chief Accountant , -ElMehy engineering company

By always apply concept of ((Apple to Apple )) meaning both entries must be matched, then no fraud or error can take place.

Now see what account reconciliation does in fraud and error detection, it tends to balance all expenditures, the incomes, and every other financial components of an account. when there are errors or a form of fraud, there is a quick detection because there won't be corresponding account balance amongst the accountants in that sector.     

Chetan Raje
by Chetan Raje , Asst Manager Accounts & Finance , Modren Tasami Gen. Contracting CO

Reconciliation Means to tally or verify the our book balance with Banks, Suppliers, or Debtors book balance. 

this is first step of data scrutiny. from this method we can able to find compensating error , error of omission .

in case of bank Reco.. we just verify our deposits &   withdrawal with actual bank statement to reach exact available balance.

in case of debtor / supplier ledger reco.. we can able to track outstanding bills which is unpaid .

This method is not100% suitable to prevent fraud

 

MALIIK SOHAIL ABBAS
by MALIIK SOHAIL ABBAS , ACCOUNTS MANAGER , AL RAWDAH GREEN SWEET WATER

basically we used reconciliation for detection /prevention for frauds like account reconcilation , bank reconciliation , ledger recocilation , reconcilation used  for that purpose usually

 

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