Auditing “The Accountant”

Warner Bros.’ newest action film features an unlikely protagonist whose typically low-profile role gets a dose of danger and excitement both in and out of the conference room. Yes, we’re talking about “The Accountant.” And while we all know that CPAs (hopefully!) do not cook the books or double as hitmen for the mafia, there were some aspects of the movie that did portray the profession accurately.

We asked our resident CPAs to weigh in on some of the more technical scenes of the film and here’s what we discovered.

ZZZ Accounting
Christian Wolff’s one-man accounting firm, ZZZ Accounting is likely a nod to a notorious fraud scandal from the 1980s, ZZZZ Best Carpet Cleaners. Founded by Barry Minkow, the company took millions of dollars from investors in a sophisticated Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands and landed Minkow in jail for 25 years, paying $600 million in restitution. Interestingly, ZZZZ Best’s IPO raised $15 million, making Minkow the youngest person take a company public in the history of Wall Street.

Investigative Accounting
From an industry perspective, the language, ledgers, and terminology in “The Accountant” were spot on. Affleck’s character used a rule called Benford’s Law to help identify the suspicious transactions in the movie. In actuality, we have algorithms that sift through data sets for naturally occurring number sequences and distributions. In the film, number savant Wolff analyzed these figures in his head.

Boxes of Files
When Christian Wolff, played by Ben Affleck, enters the conference room of the robotics manufacturer he is consulting on, he is greeted by dozens of boxes containing years of financial records that he is tasked with sorting through in preparation for the company’s IPO. This type of data dump is not uncommon in many accounting roles such as forensics. However, the notion of the accounting associate being able to gather and sort through all of this information overnight is a bit of a stretch.

And while the mountain of files in “The Accountant” is something many organizations are all too familiar with, there are automation platforms, like ART that can help companies dig their way out of paper-laden processes.

To schedule a demo of ART to see how you can transform your month-end close and reconciliation process within a few short weeks, click here.