Client one-pager, forensic review or investigation

Forensic review — what it is and when you need one

What it is. When you suspect that money, stock or information has been taken, or that records have been manipulated, a forensic review establishes what happened, how, how much, over what period and who was involved — to a standard that will stand up if you later take action, whether that is dismissal, a police complaint, an insurance claim or a civil suit. It is not an audit. It starts from a specific suspicion and goes as deep as necessary on a narrow front.

What we need from you — and the first request is urgent. A written instruction from your board or the appropriate authority defining what we are to investigate; written authority to access the email and devices of named people; your accounting data in its original format with the change log; bank statements in downloadable form; the HR files and bank details of the people concerned; and your vendor master. On day one, instruct your IT and security teams to preserve CCTV footage, gate registers and system logs, which typically overwrite within two to four weeks — that instruction is often the difference between a provable case and an unprovable one.