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Proceedings of the 18th Conference on Computer Science and Intelligence Systems

Annals of Computer Science and Information Systems, Volume 35

CADM: Big Data to Limit Creative Accounting in Saudi-Listed Companies

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15439/2023F3888

Citation: Proceedings of the 18th Conference on Computer Science and Intelligence Systems, M. Ganzha, L. Maciaszek, M. Paprzycki, D. Ślęzak (eds). ACSIS, Vol. 35, pages 103–110 ()

Full text

Abstract. Global financial scandals have demonstrated the harmful impact of creative accounting, a practice where managers creatively manipulate financial reports to conceal a company's actual performance and influence stakeholders' decision-making. Studies showed that Saudi-listed companies use it in preparing financial statements. Despite posing a significant risk to the Saudi financial market, it remains a challenge to detect it using ordinary auditing procedures. Big data analytics has provided useful applications in auditing, and recently, the employment of Deep Learning in fraud detection has delivered remarkably accurate results. Still, limited research has considered it in detecting creative accounting. This study proposes a novel framework using a hybrid learning approach. It suggests training on a simulated dataset of financial statements prepared (i.e., deliberately manipulated) based on financial statements available in the literature for supervised learning. It is then tested on real-world financial reports from the Saudi Open Data and Saudi Statistics. Our framework contributes to the literature with a new governing approach to limit creative accounting and improve financial reporting quality.

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