Introduction. The current state of Ukraine's economy is characterized by an increase in offenses and crimes of an economic nature, most of which are committed by distorting the financial statements of the enterprise. In this situation, to fully meet the needs of forensic practice, there is a need to appoint and conduct forensic economic examination of the reliability of financial statements of the enterprise.
The purpose of the paper is to study the content of forensic economic examination of the reliability of financial statements of the enterprise, the causes of distortions of financial statements of the enterprise and methods of their detection, as well as improving the methods of forensic economic examination of the reliability of financial statements.
Results. The financial statements contain information about the financial condition and results of the enterprise. The reliability of the financial statements of the enterprise can be established when it is: formed in strict accordance with the requirements of laws, regulations governing accounting and financial reporting; reflects the real financial condition and results of the enterprise; does not contain distortions (intentional) (errors) or unintentional (fraud) in the reporting indicators, which can affect the decisions of users of reporting. Distortions in the financial statements may be the result of both errors and bad faith, as the error differs from the latter by the lack of intent underlying the action that led to the distortion of the financial statements. Forensic economic examination of the reliability of the company's financial statements is considered by the authors as a procedural action aimed at establishing the circumstances and facts of distortion of financial statements, conducted by a forensic economist on behalf of the investigating authority or court, which in the form of a forensic economist evidence to establish the truth in a criminal, civil, administrative or commercial case. The stages of forensic economic examination of the reliability of financial statements of the enterprise are presented, within which an indicative list of questions to which the forensic economist must provide answers in the conclusion and sequence of actions of forensic economist to establish the circumstances and facts of distortion in financial reporting forms.
Conclusions. The proposed algorithms of actions of forensic economists, depending on the tasks and facilities provided for the expert study of the reliability of financial statements of the enterprise, should contribute to a better understanding of the nature of distortion (intentional and unintentional) reporting indicators, ways to identify them and increase the efficiency of forensic reliability financial statements of the enterprise.
