Financial Due Diligence - Fictitious Revenue



Quick Summary
Fictitious revenue, where sales are booked without actual goods or services being provided, is a serious concern for businesses. Recent cases highlight the pressure founders face to inflate numbers, especially after securing funding. Financial due diligence professionals can uncover this by scrutinising revenue growth, analysing debtor ageing and confirmations, examining revenue mix for unusual surges, and performing transaction vouching from order to dispatch.

Just like GoMechanic, Mojocare’s founders also recently admitted that they were misreporting revenue and fudging numbers, under the pressure to inflate GMV after raising $20 Mn in August 2022.

Now, as a Financial Due Diligence professional, how does one find out Fictitious Revenue.

For the uninitated, Fictitious Revenue is revenue that was booked without actually rendering the services or supplying the goods. This might involve round-tripping of funds via inventory sold to relatives, creating fake invoices etc.

Detecting Fictitious Revenue: A Due Diligence Guide

One potential red flag is the revenue growth - in case of Mojocare, revenue zoomed to INR 12.12 Cr in FY22 from a mere INR 32 Lakh in FY21 i.e. 38X in 1 year.

You have to assess the change in Debtors - ageing will help in it, insist on balance confirmation from Debtors, look at the revenue mix - volume and price data analysis to find, say, that unusual surge in sales by a minority segment of units etc., perform vouching on the selected sample transactions - checking the trail from point of customer orders to the dispatch document to see if such sales transactions really occurred.

 

SA 240 - The Auditor’s Responsibility Relating to Fraud In An Audit Of Financial Statementsn could be a good read in this context

 

Anurag Singal is a Chartered Accountant, a graduate from IIM Ahmedabad and IBBI Registered Valuer. He can be reached at anurag@betafinpartners.com


Daily Limit Reached

You have reached your daily limit of 2 Free Articles

Subscribe to CCI PRO for unlimited access

Why Upgrade to CCI PRO?
  • No Ads
  • WhatsApp Community
  • Daily E-Newsletter
  • Unlimited Articles Access
  • Profile Visitors
  • Link Social Profiles
  • Featured Job Posts
  • Pro Badge
  • Expert GST Guidance
  • Unlimited Forum Replies
  • Download Content in PDF
1 Year PLAN
1999
(Excl. of GST ₹359)

2 Years PLAN
3499
(Excl. of GST ₹629)

BEST VALUE
3 Years PLAN
4999
(Excl. of GST ₹899)

View all CCI PRO benefits

Already a PRO member? Login here for an ad-free experience. 07941056694


2209 Views 1 Likes Comment   Share Audit   Report


About the Author

Manager

I am a CA and graduated from IIM Ahmedabad in 2015. Worked for 10 yrs across across the likes of Deloitte,ITC Tata Steel. Our startuphttp://cajobportal.com/ is Indias first recruitment website for Chartered Accountants For Careers Guidance, do watch this channel Anurag Singal YouTube 38,000+ subscribers in June19 ... Read more

Comments :

Related Articles


Loading


Popular Articles





CCI Pro

CCI Articles

submit article


Company
14 October 2026
Accountant

Rize.farm

Bengaluru

B.Com

View Details
Company
ARTICLESHIP 07 October 2026
Article assistant

S.K.Bajpai & Co.

Noida

B.Com

View Details
Company
Featured ARTICLESHIP 06 October 2026
Semi Qualified

AJAY SINGH AND CO LLP

Thane

CA Final

View Details
Company
ARTICLESHIP 21 September 2026
CA Article Assistant

KK & Company Chartered Accountant

Pune

CA Inter

View Details
Company
30 September 2026
Senior Accounts Executive

Codeboard Technology

Chennai

MBA

View Details
Company
22 September 2026
Account Assistant

Chirag P Shah & Co. Chartered Accountant

Pune

B.Com

View Details
Company
08 October 2026
SALES TELECALLER

HIRE NOVA

Lucknow

Graduate (Any)

View Details
Company
20 September 2026
Semi Qualified CA

Navin & Associates

Mumbai

CA Inter

View Details