Graham Hain, 33, associate director at Smith & Williamson

“Forensic accountants collect accounting information, analyse it and report on their findings to help a court to come to a decision in a case.

“A client could be somebody who has fallen down a manhole and wants us to calculate his or her loss of earnings, or a corporate dispute worth millions of pounds. If a company believes that it has been a victim of fraud we go in and look at business records. You don’t always know what you’re looking for. There’s an element of detective work. We play an investigative role to find out how the fraud was committed and then try to recover the money.

“I write reports presenting the evidence. We have to explain the financial analysis in a way that is understandable to a nonaccountant.

“The best bit of the job is being called as an expert witness. Most cases settle [out out of court], but to have your report cross-examined by a barrister in the court is a real buzz. It will have been pored over by the other side – solicitors, accountants – looking for holes. We do a lot of work making sure it is watertight. When you go into the witness box you have to be able to confirm what was said.

“Most days I meet solicitors and spend some time writing reports. I also meet accountants on the other side to see their information. The experts talk about what they disagree on and why. Everybody has to understand what the evidence is likely to be to encourage a case to settle before it goes to court.

“We will often take a phone call from a company that suspects it has been a victim of employee fraud. They want a team to go in that afternoon to collect the evidence. If there’s a delay there’s more chance for evidence to go missing or be destroyed. We have to be quite reactive.

“I spend a long time going through documents looking for important elements. Some of it is quite boring, but within that there will be something extremely relevant. You need to stay very sharp. In one case, a company said its accounts were prepared in error. Going through records I found an e-mail which showed that [the firm] deliberately tried to mislead [its] auditors – it was crucial in proving the dishonesty.”

A second opinion

Kate Blenkinsop, 37, senior manager at Grant Thornton

“I specialise in not-for-profit clients, managing internal and external audits. As a senior manager I’m the main contact for clients, managing the audit process and making sure things go smoothly and to plan.

“My day starts at 8am. I’ll spend an hour answering e-mails. I’m not deskbound, poring over numbers. A lot of the role is visiting clients or going to review colleagues’ work onsite. I also spend a lot of time preparing and reviewing documents. These could be strategy documents or memorandums after the work has been done, things to bring to a clients’ attention or written proposals for new clients.

“I go to several audit committees – they take up time and there’s preparation work involved in that. It’s part of managing the client day-to-day. I work closely with my team – it’s not an isolated role, which I like. I keep in contact with colleagues throughout the firm who work in the not-for-profit sector. I’m in our London office twice a week and we meet to share information. I also go to more formal conferences, such as sector updates, to ensure that I am up-to-date with developments and issues.

“In my portfolio I have about 25 clients. They range from small charities with incomes of less than £1 million to large ones with incomes of £150 million. It can be a challenge meeting conflicting demands.

“I love working with the sector – [it has] such nice people. You feel like you’re adding value to a sector that makes a real difference. Charities have to be especially aware of fraud risk. There’s a high level of trust and they often handle a lot of cash – it can be a worry for them.

“As a junior accountant I did more field work, but now I review my colleagues’ work. I get to know organisations very well – it’s essential to understand what drives them.”

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