Abstract: an important role in identifying signs of fraud in the financial statements is played by the industry specifics of the company, market features and dynamics of indicators, for example, a sharp change in their values can often be a sign of fraud. It is also necessary to take into account that the values of the coefficients themselves do not determine the fact of fraud, but are only the basis for a deeper check, the calculation of these coefficients can be used to identify cases of disproportionate, unbalanced reporting dynamics, which may be a sign of fraud. The article discusses the possibilities of applying the coefficient approach to improve the detection of fraud in the financial statements. It is proposed to supplement the map of normative deviations of financial indicators with an indicator of the dynamics of the ratio of the average weighted price of shares and profit (loss) per share, which allows you to compare the investment attractiveness of companies. A sharp change in the value of the indicator can signal a change in the price/earnings per share ratio and talk either about the underestimation of the shares (possibly for their subsequent repurchase by the majority shareholders) or, on the contrary, about the revaluation of the shares that companies can use to improve their investment attractiveness. The calculation of such ratios is especially relevant in the financial analysis of companies having problems with solvency and financial stability, because such companies are usually the most motivated to distort the financial results of their activities in order to attract investment and avoid bankruptcy.
Keywords: financial reporting, reliability of reporting, fraud, Benish model