What Documents Are Needed for a Forensic Economic Examination

The fate of a forensic economic examination is decided before the expert ever sits down to calculate — at the moment the initiating party assembles the package of documents. A forensic economic expert studies only the materials provided and has no right to gather evidence independently, so an incomplete package most often turns into a motion for additional materials or a notice of the impossibility of providing an opinion (NVM). Below is the full list of documents by group, the requirements for their form, and the typical mistakes that leave an opinion unwritten.

Key principle: completeness is the initiator’s responsibility

This is worth understanding before the motion is even filed. Under the Law of Ukraine “On Forensic Expert Examination” and the Instruction on the appointment and conduct of forensic examinations and expert studies (approved by Order No. 53/5 of the Ministry of Justice), a forensic economic expert:

• studies only the objects and materials handed to them — they do not “top up” documents from the accounting department, the bank, or the counterparties;
• does not gather evidence independently and does not assess anything absent from the case file;
• has the right to file a motion for additional documents where those on hand are insufficient to answer the question.

The logic is simple: completeness of the materials is the initiator’s responsibility, not the expert’s. If a document is not in the materials, for the expert it does not exist. And if the question cannot be answered without it, the expert must either move for additional materials or issue an NVM. Both scenarios cost weeks — sometimes months — of waiting.

Which proceedings, and who is the initiator

Economic examinations are ordered in criminal (Criminal Procedure Code, KPK), civil (Civil Procedure Code, TsPK), commercial (Commercial Procedure Code, HPK) and administrative (Code of Administrative Judicial Procedure, KASU) proceedings, and also as an expert study commissioned by a party. Depending on the proceeding, the initiator may be an investigator or prosecutor, a detective of the Bureau of Economic Security (BEB), an investigating judge or the court — and, in commercial and civil disputes, a party itself through its lawyer. Whoever the initiator is, the duty to collect and hand over the full package rests with them: the Ministry of Justice sets the methodology and procedure for examinations, but selecting the object documents lies outside the expert’s competence.

How the package is built: from transaction to reporting

An economic study runs “bottom up”: from the source document that records a single business transaction, to the registers that summarise it, and on to the final reporting. It is convenient to prepare documents along these same levels.

Level	What it is	Examples
Source (primary) documents	Record a single transaction	Invoices, consignment notes (TTN), acts, cash and bank orders
Accounting registers	Summarise transactions by account	Trial balances, general ledger, account cards
Reporting	Period totals	Balance sheet (Form 1), income statement (Form 2), tax returns
Grounds for transactions	Explain substance and terms	Contracts, annexes, specifications, statements

More detail on each group follows.

Source documents — the foundation of the study

Source records are what the expert uses to reconstruct the real picture: this is where every concrete transaction “lives”. Depending on the subject of the study, you will usually need:

• outgoing and incoming invoices and consignment notes (TTN) — the movement of goods and material assets;
• acts of completed works and rendered services — confirmation of work and services;
• cash documents — incoming and outgoing cash orders (PKO/VKO), the cash book, cash-register (RRO/PRRO) reports;
• bank (memorial) orders and payment instructions — the movement of funds through accounts;
• advance reports and payroll statements — settlements with accountable persons and staff;
• inventory lists and reconciliation statements — where the subject concerns shortages or balances.

The specialist accounting law defines the mandatory particulars of a source document: its name, the date drawn up, the name of the enterprise, the content and volume of the transaction, and the positions and signatures of the responsible persons. A document lacking mandatory particulars is treated critically by the expert — it cannot always serve as the basis for a calculation.

Accounting registers

Source records show individual transactions; registers show how they are grouped and reflected in the accounts. Without registers there is no systemic picture. Prepare:

• trial balances — both aggregate and broken down by account and sub-account;
• the general ledger;
• account cards and account analyses, and journal-orders;
• analytical accounting registers for the relevant areas (inventory, settlements with counterparties, fixed assets).

Often it is precisely the comparison of source records against registers that produces the key result — for example, showing that a transaction is reflected in the accounts but supported by no source document at all (or the reverse: a document exists, but no posting was made).

Financial and tax reporting

Reporting is needed to assess the period totals and “close” the study. The essentials:

• the balance sheet (statement of financial position), Form No. 1;
• the income statement (statement of comprehensive income), Form No. 2;
• where relevant, the cash-flow statement and the statement of equity;
• tax returns (corporate profit tax, VAT, the single tax — depending on the taxation system);
• annexes to the returns, breakdowns, and adjusting calculations.

Reporting on its own is of little use to the expert: a figure in a statement is a total, not proof of a transaction. Handing over “just the balance sheet, to speed things up” will not work — without source records and registers, the figure cannot be confirmed.

Contracts, bank statements and supporting materials

This group explains the substance and terms of the transactions — without it, the figures “hang in the air”:

• contracts with all annexes, specifications and supplementary agreements — subject, price, deadlines, settlement procedure;
• bank statements for all accounts over the period under study — the actual movement of funds;
• loan agreements, repayment schedules and debt calculations — in cases concerning financial and credit transactions;
• the enterprise’s accounting policy — to understand the accounting methods applied;
• relevant case materials — a State Tax Service (DPS) audit report, protocols, explanations, where they bear on the questions posed.

A note on electronic accounting databases

Today accounting is kept in software (BAS/1C, M.E.Doc and the like). A database may be a separate object of study, but only if it is properly provided and procedurally recorded as an information carrier. Simply “opening access to the accountant’s computer” is not enough. In practice, the most reliable approach combines paper source records with official exports from the database.

Originals or properly certified copies

It is on the form of documents that most packages stumble. The general rule:

• the expert works with originals or properly certified copies;
• a plain, uncertified photocopy — with no signature, no “true copy” mark, no date and no position of the certifying person — may be rejected, especially where the document’s authenticity is disputed;
• if the original has been seized or is held in the case file, that is fine: what matters is that the copy is certified by an authorised person or by the body that ordered the examination.

In practice, when a document is barely legible or its authenticity is in doubt, this is not a “formality” — it is a genuine reason not to base a calculation on it. So certification and legibility should be checked before the materials reach the expert.

If documents are missing: a motion or an NVM

An incomplete package leads to one of two outcomes, and both drag the case out:

1. A motion for additional materials. The expert halts the study and requests what is missing. The clock effectively “freezes” until you complete the package.
2. A notice of the impossibility of providing an opinion (NVM). If the needed documents cannot be provided, or their absence makes the question unanswerable, the expert issues an NVM — and the party is left without the evidence it needed.

Both scenarios are a direct consequence of incompleteness at the start. Avoiding them is always cheaper than fixing them after the fact.

Common mistakes by the initiator

In expert practice this list barely changes:

• providing only the reporting, or only the DPS audit report — without source records and registers;
• handing over plain photocopies instead of originals or certified copies;
• omitting bank statements, or providing them for only some accounts;
• forgetting contracts and annexes, which leaves the transaction terms unclear;
• submitting illegible or contradictory documents without explanation;
• failing to specify the period of the study, so the volume of materials “blurs”.

Record the list of documents in the ruling or motion

The most effective safeguard is to list the object documents explicitly in the court ruling, the investigator’s or detective’s resolution, or the motion to order the examination. When the list is fixed in writing, there is less risk that part of the materials will be “lost” on the way to the expert, and completeness is easier to control.

Better still is to agree the list with the expert in advance. This is normal, common practice: at a preliminary consultation you can confirm which documents each specific question will require, and assemble the package complete from the outset rather than topping it up piece by piece later.

Checklist before submission

• source documents (invoices, TTN, acts, cash and bank orders);
• accounting registers (trial balances, general ledger, account cards);
• reporting (balance sheet Form 1, income statement Form 2, tax returns);
• contracts with annexes, and bank statements for all accounts;
• originals or properly certified, legible copies;
• a clearly defined study period;
• the list of documents recorded in the ruling or motion.

If you are preparing a motion or a ruling and are unsure which package will actually answer your questions, it is worth checking the list with a forensic economic expert in advance. A short consultation before the examination is ordered saves weeks of waiting and guards against a no-opinion notice — I would be glad to help assess whether your materials are complete for your specific situation.