Forensic Accounting

Forensic Accounting

Forensic /fəˈrɛnsɪk/
relating to courts of law, from Latin forensis ‘in open court, public’,

Lotus Amity provides accounting services in disputes; we help to resolve financial issues.

About us

Lotus Amity is a specialised firm of Chartered Accountants; accredited Business Valuation Specialist and Forensic Accountant Specialist with Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.

Why Lotus Amity?

Mid-tier accounting practices offer a range of services including tax, audit and advisory. Lotus Amity doesn’t. Lotus Amity is dedicated to Business Valuation and Forensic Accounting.

Mid-tier accounting firms work on a leveraged model; work is delegated to junior employees and partners have little report writing involvement. At Lotus Amity all the reporting work is completed at partner level.

Mid-tier accounting firms typically have premium CBD offices, large overheads and highly remunerated partners. Lotus Amity has none of these.

Consequently, Lotus Amity provides reports at a higher level than you’d receive from a mid-tier firm, with full partner involvement but at a lower cost.

Reporting standards

Lotus Amity produce comprehensive (fully supported and referenced) reports in compliance with Accounting Professional & Ethical Standards International Valuation Standards.

The reports comply with the integrity, objectivity, confidentiality and professional requirements as set out in the APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountant The reports are often used in litigation and meet court reporting requirements.

Experience

Lotus Amity founder Simon Cook is the Queensland Chair for the business valuation group and a member of the trans Tasman Business Valuation Committee for Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.

Simon holds the NYU Stern School of Business Advanced Valuation certificate with high honors, as taught by the Dean of Valuation Professor Aswath Damodaran.Simon was previously a corporate finance partner with mid-tie firm BDO and the national head of forensics. Prior to that he was senior manager with Big 4 firm Deloitte.

Knowledge and skills

Lotus Amity provide the following forensic accounting expertise and skills:

• technical knowledge: derived from training, study and experience, for example, business valuation and quantifying damages
• investigation skills: collecting, analysing and evaluating
• communication skills: critically thinking and interpreting

Lotus Amity provide great attention to detail. Staying objective. Having opinions fully supported and backed up. Thinking through the objections.

Key services

In accordance the Accounting Professional & Ethical Standard 215 on Forensic Accounting Services, Lotus Amity provide the following forensic accounting services

• Expert witness services – expressing an opinion or providing other evidence to the Court based on knowledge, experience and training
• Investigation services – performing, advising or assisting an investigation
• Consulting expert services – acting as an advisor, arbitrator, mediator, referee or providing expert determination

Types of work

Typical work performed by Lotus Amity includes:

• Valuation – valuing businesses, shares, assets and liabilities, for use in shareholder disputes and transaction disputes
• Valuing Economic Damages – calculating actual and potential damages such as lost earnings, lost profit, lost business and the physical loss of property
• Family disputes – uncovering hidden assets or undisclosed sources of income, valuing business interests and preparing a statement of assets and liabilities
• Investigations – examining financial statements to identify irregularities, such as overstatements, understatements, and omissions and calculating the effect of such issues

Other forensic accounting work commonly includes: identifying documents that need to be discovered, extraction of financial information and interpretation of financial information.

Often a matter can involve a large amount of information and or be complex. The role of Lotus Amity is to sift through the information and identify relevant and pertinent facts.

Business Valuation | Forensic Accounting