FINANCIAL STATEMENTS MANIPULATION TECHNIQUES

Financial statements are basic source of accounting information used for decision making. All users presume that financial statements are reliable and offer realistic picture of the company's financial position. If some part or entire financial statement is manipulated decision making process of users is corrupted. The history shows that some large financial statements manipulations or frauds were eventually exposed and this diminish reliability of financial statements in general. This paper aims to give an overview of most common manipulation techniques. The purpose of this paper is to help users of financial statements understand manipulation techniques in order to improve their decision making process.