Lessons · Accounting · asking without contaminating the answer
Asking without contaminating the answer
An account is worth something only if it came from the person rather than from the question. Asking what happened produces evidence; asking whether they took the money produces a reaction, and a reaction proves nothing either way.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
In beta. This lesson was written for Hone and has not yet been checked by a qualified accountant. Practice material, not professional advice. What that means.
What it is for
It is also the point at which an investigation can do real harm. Most people questioned in these situations have done nothing, and the way they are asked determines whether an innocent person is damaged by having been asked. Getting that wrong costs somebody their reputation and costs the investigation its cooperation.
How to think about it
Ask open questions, in order, about process before people. Let them explain how the work is done before asking about any transaction. Record what was said rather than what you concluded, and never put the answer into the question.
Worked example
Open questions about how the work is doneProcess before people.
Then the specific transactionsIn the context they have just described.
Never the answer inside the questionA led answer is worth nothing.
Record what was said, not what it meantInterpretation belongs in the report.
Your turn
Name what a question should never contain.
Never put the inside the question
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Reading nervousness as guilt. Almost everybody is nervous when questioned about money by somebody with authority, including the entirely innocent, and treating that as evidence is how investigations settle on the wrong person early and stay there.