Fraud, Technology, and Advanced Internal Controls (Course Id 2837)

Fraud remains a significant risk for organizations, often leading to financial losses, reputational damage, and regulatory consequences when internal controls are weak or ineffective. For accounting and finance professionals, understanding how fraud occurs—and how strong internal controls help prevent and detect it—is essential to protecting organizational assets and maintaining reliable financial reporting. CPAs frequently play a central role in evaluating control environments, identifying risk factors, and recognizing warning signs that may indicate fraudulent activity.

This course examines the relationship between fraud risk and internal controls, focusing on how organizations design control systems to reduce opportunities for fraud and detect irregularities. Participants explore common fraud schemes such as cash skimming, billing fraud, payroll manipulation, expense reimbursement fraud, and financial statement fraud, while also learning to identify control weaknesses and warning signs such as lack of segregation of duties, missing documentation, and management override of controls.

The course also addresses the growing role of technology in modern internal control environments. Topics include IT general controls, application controls, automation, continuous monitoring, and the use of technology in fraud detection. Participants will also explore control considerations related to cloud-based systems, third-party service providers, and vendor risk management, helping them better evaluate and strengthen internal control systems in today’s increasingly digital financial environment.

Course Learning Objectives

• Explain the relationship between fraud risk and internal controls and describe how effective control environments help prevent and detect fraudulent activity.
• Identify common fraud schemes and recognize how these schemes typically occur within organizations.
• Recognize key internal control weaknesses and warning signs.
• Describe the role of technology in modern internal control systems.
• Evaluate risks associated with cloud-based systems, third-party service providers, and remote work environments, including considerations related to user permissions, SOC reports, and vendor risk management.
• Apply professional judgment to assess the effectiveness of internal controls and identify opportunities to strengthen fraud prevention and detection efforts within organizations.