Managerial-finance

This is one of the few books about auditing and compliance that is written for general business managers instead of auditors. To be sure, the material represents an excellent training tool for auditors and compliance specialists who need to develop a company-wide awareness program as one tier in a comprehensive initiative. However, the main message in the book, and the approach it presents, is based on the fact that the responsibility for deterring fraud extends well beyond auditing and compliance. Indeed, the most effective deterrent is an aware management and workforce that is vigilant at all levels.

Three objectives of this book are: (1) serve as a primer on financial fraud, its impact on organizations and common exposures, and (2), give mangers who may not be trained in auditing guidance and techniques to investigate fraud if they find themselves tasked with doing so (a particularly common occurrence in small-to-medium businesses), (3) provide a comprehensive framework for detecting, investigating and dealing with fraud.

The full range of topics are covered and are presented without the professional auditing and compliance jargon, which makes it easy for general business professionals to understand. I like the way the authors addressed ethics, and especially like the chapter on whistleblowing (see "Merrill Lynch: The Cost Could Be Fatal" by Keith A. Schooley for a realistic view of how tricky this can be for all parties). In addition, I thought that the integrated approach that defines clearly articulated policies and procedures, and roles and responsibilities for all stakeholders is a critical success factor to making it all work. The reason is, like security, fraud control requires a defense in depth that depends on no single element of that defense. I also found the two appendices (A-Forensic Statement Analysis and B-An Introduction to Data Mining as a Fraud Risk Management Tool) invaluable.

For whom will this book be most useful? Managers, regardless of functional area or specialty, will gain insights into causes and steps to prevent fraud. It will also provide basic tools for investigating suspected fraud.

Professional auditors or compliance specialists will find a viable approach to developing and implementing a company-wide initiative that will significantly reduce fraud.

Corporate and IT security specialists will find a wealth of material that will support their own detection, investigation and action procedures, especially for the IT security specialist who is trained in forensics.

I did not find this book helpful. What a share that I spent my time on this...I could just as easily gotten all of this information from the ProClarity website at no charge and in about 10 minutes.

With financial business intelligence burgeoning as key tool in today competitive market, managers everywhere must learn how to utilize their massive quantities of information in an effective way. This book is perfect in explaining how direct the information traffic flow to key arenas where you can maximize your company's profitability.

This is an invaluable book for business consultants, executive management, process analysts and IT professionals. Part I provides keen insights about the subtle and not-so-subtle differences between today's economic situation that has been changed dramatically by the Internet and e-commerce, and the "old" economy that is characterized by bricks and mortar and traditional distribution. The heart of this book is Part II, which provides metrics and indicators that need to be considered in today's competitive environment. In particular, the process metrics and transaction cycles that the author provides need to be carefully considered because they represent realities of competitively doing business in an e-commerce setting. This material will directly benefit process analysts and business process owners who are tasked with realigning their operations with systems that support e-commerce. Moreover, this information will also provide a solid foundation for IT analysts and architects who need to understand the business and functional requirements of systems they will be designing to support e-commerce. Another benefit that this book will provide is a method for performing an accurate cost/benefit analysis of any system or reengineering initiative that is undertaken to support business and IT alignment for e-commerce. I strongly recommend augmenting this excellent book with "Internet Commerce Metrics and Models in the New Era of Accountability" by Sri Jagannathan, which is a compendium of models and metrics that complement and validate the information in this book.