The potential to reduce the risk of manipulation of financial statements using the identification models of creative accounting

Abstract

Explanatory power of accounting information is the key question for deciding of users of financial statements. A whole range of economic indicators is available to the users of financial statements to measure the firm productivity. When the accounting statements (and applied methods) are manipulated, the economic indicators may reveal clearly different results. The users of financial statements should have the possibility to assess the risk of manipulation of accounting statements in time considering potential risk of accounting fraud. The aim of this paper was based on the synthesis of knowledge from the review of literature, the CFEBT model analysis and Beneish Model proposing a convenient model for identifying risks of manipulation of financial statements. The paper summarizes the outcomes of possibilities and limits of manipulated financial statements and their identification. The testing hypothesis is assessing whether there is a close relation of a loss and an increase in the cash flow in 3–5 years time; whether the sum of the amounts for 3–5 year’s time would reveal the same results respectively. The hypothesis was verified on the accounting statements of the accounting entities of prepared case studies respecting the true and fair view of accounting based on Czech accounting standards.

Keywords

• creative accounting
• fair and true view
• detection of financial statements manipulation
• Czech accounting standards