Get to know Larisa Andrushko, Manager, Investigative and Forensic Services

Get to Know Larisa Andrushko with our Forensics Team

Technology and data have an impact on all sectors, including forensic accounting. Learn how Larisa started working in forensics and how she integrates data reconstruction into her work.

What led you to forensics?

Early on, I wanted my career to involve the legal system or criminal justice in some way. My first job after high school was at the Law Society of British Columbia in the Forensic Accounting & Investigations department. It introduced me to the world of financial crime, the investigative process, and the analytical type of work that I love doing. I grew into a career analyst and focused my education, interest and skills on investigative data analysis, data management, reconstruction, and visualization.

How have you helped with clients fight fraud?

I enjoy bringing order to chaos. Most investigations require bringing lots of data points together from different sources to analyze and tell the story of what has or hasn’t happened. My role is to find the most efficient way to bring things together, and I use a variety of software programs and tools to accomplish this.

In addition to the results of the investigation, the investigative process also shines a light on where records or processes are lacking in clarity, organization, or efficiency. This can help identify where clients could implement improvements to prevent similar events from happening and reduce whatever version of chaos they were previously experiencing.

How does software help forensics?

The sweet spot within forensics is using technology to create efficiencies with managing data, processing what we received, and reconstructing it to a workable format for analysis. Cleaning is a fundamental part of the analysis cycle and software is used to enhance our capabilities and process higher volumes of data in a shorter time. Technology is ever-changing, and we are continuously adding to our playbook as new tools are brought to market.

What is data reconstruction?

Data Reconstruction refers to the process of moving data from one format into a more usable format for analysis. This can be turning scans of invoices or bank statements into an Excel spreadsheet or making a very unworkable Excel into a filterable, user-friendly format. We use a variety of programs to optimal character recognition, extract, and clean data efficiently, which allows us to avoid high volumes of manual data entry. In short, we reformat and standardize complex financial information to an easily understood presentation to be used in the investigative process.

We recognized early on that the efficiencies we gained by using extraction software could apply to many other situations, in addition to our own investigations.

Who could benefit from data reconstruction?

Anyone in any industry may benefit from data reconstruction services. It is not exclusive to Investigations. As business turns more digital, sometimes that means turning paper or printed documents into electronic form. Litigation disclosure may provide PDFs instead of Excel versions when you wish to conduct your own analysis, or your client may only export reports to PDF instead of Excel.

We began providing data reconstruction services in our own firm and now support other teams within MNP to ensure they’re working with the best and most usable version of records. This service is something that’s accessible to anyone, regardless of need for traditional Forensics Services. Our team can help with the transition of data from one format, into the format you wish you had.

Contact Larisa

Many organizations have data sets with incredible potential, but don’t know how to turn their information into actionable insights. Larisa and the MNP team can help you unlock more from your data. To learn how, contact Larisa at 604.637.1553 or [email protected]