Forensic Accounting

According to Forbes.com, businesses lose 5% of their annual revenue to employee fraud and abuse. Small businesses are the most vulnerable to employee fraud. In fact, small businesses are more likely than large companies to experience catastrophic losses from fraud because they often lack the awareness and appropriate controls needed to reduce risks.

Our team of accountants and financial professionals can provide intensive expertise regarding financial mishandling. Our accountants use specialized knowledge and investigative skills to compile, analyze, evaluate, interpret, and present important findings. We understand how overwhelming the responsibility of digging through your books and financial records to uncover data can be for business owners. Let us help you get the concrete proof you need!

Take a look at the complete forensic accounting services provided by Bookkeeping & CFO Solutions 5280.

According to the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, turning up suspicious or inconsistent transactions in accounts receivable is one of the most common reasons why business owners seek out forensic accountants.

Unusual invoicing patterns, sudden spending increases, or odd cash transactions should get your radar flashing. However, these things are impossible to detect if you’re not scrutinizing your books every month.

Not being on top of your books is the easiest way to become a victim of fraud or theft. Employees, partners, and investors take advantage of the fact that many startup owners are frazzled, overwhelmed, and spread too thin. You may also have no reason to be untrusting because you’ve never experienced theft before. We hear every day from business owners who are in shock and disbelief over the fact that someone within their inner circle has been stealing from them. The experience can be both personally and financially devastating. That’s why we’re so committed to offering world-class forensic accounting and analysis that won’t leave any questions regarding what happened to your missing funds or assets.

Forensic accountants offer specialty knowledge that goes beyond traditional accounting knowledge. Our experts can turn your company’s data trails into evidence trails by backtracking through financial activity to find suspicious occurrences.

Common reasons why business owners hire forensic accountants include:

• Fraud
• Money laundering
• Payroll schemes
• Billing schemes
• Expense padding
• Check tampering
• Employee theft
• Embezzlement
• Falsification of documents

Business owners dealing with suspected fraud or theft for the first time may feel shocked and outraged. Your first instinct may be to confront the person or group responsible. However, it’s important to only move forward with the right facts in hand. A forensic accountant makes this possible by providing you with the data necessary to pursue legal action. Making accusations before having all the facts and documentation worked out could jeopardize your case.

The forensic accountants at Bookkeeping & CFO Solutions 5280 can approach a case from many different angles. In some cases, having our team conduct an audit may be the best answer for creating accountability regarding where every last dollar in your ledger has been directed. In other cases, allowing our team to conduct an investigation that traces every transaction conducted within a specific timeframe may be more effective for proving your suspicions.

If your aim is to move forward with a court case in response to theft or fraud, the quality of your documentation is everything. Many business owners fail to see justice when they are the victims of fraud or theft because they mishandle the situation from the beginning. Handling potential evidence incorrectly can make it inadmissible in court. What is more, you may not be aware of what is needed to legally prove culpability.

Bringing in forensic accountants to compile incriminating, insightful data for you is such an essential part of making a case. Bookkeeping & CFO Solutions 5280 has a team of forensic accounting experts with courtroom experience. We understand what judges are looking for when creating case packets. As a result, our clients are able to deliver concise, clear evidence that confirms evidence of fraud or theft.

When you hire forensic accountants from Bookkeeping & CFO Solutions 5280, you can count on us to provide services through every stage of your case. This includes everything from gathering evidence to providing information needed for expert testimonies.

Our forensic accountants can work in collaboration with your legal team to ensure that the work we’re doing is in line with the case you’re building. Our accountants have the training and certification needed to properly handle financial records to ensure that your case isn’t being compromised due to mishandling of evidence.

What should your business be doing in the aftermath of fraud or theft? A forensic accountant’s job doesn’t stop at just proving that fraud has taken place. When you hire forensic accountants from Bookkeeping & CFO Solutions 5280, the same expertise that tracks down misdeeds can be used to prevent them in the future.

Our team will use a forensic analysis to identify weak points within your operational setup that are leaving you open to fraud and theft. Next, we’ll provide strategies for closing those holes to solidify the integrity of your business operations. In addition to helping you avoid potential losses, these services also strengthen your position as a company by helping you to appear more secure to investors.

Our services include:

• Conducting a risk assessment to help you understand your exposure to fraud.
• Helping you create a process for regularly reviewing financial statements. We generally recommend a thorough review of your financials at least once a month to spot any unusual changes, anomalies, or missing funds.
• Creating a system for ensuring that no single employee has end-to-end control over your company’s finances and assets. Our forensic accountants can help you to set up a plan for assigning the right permissions to the right people to create proper checks and balances for blocking fraud opportunities.

Forensic accounting isn’t just about catching “the bad guys.” It’s also about leaving your company in a better position by creating stronger financial accountability. Let us help you create new systems and protocols for making your company finances more secure. You don’t need to be vulnerable to fraud and theft just because you’re a busy business owner.

You have to know what was taken in order to know what to recover. In many cases, small business owners never recover what was taken from them through theft or fraud because they never actually get an accurate assessment of how much was taken. Forensic accountants provide precise reporting and analysis regarding the assets that were directed away from your company’s bottom line. This information is crucial when filing charges, pursuing a lawsuit, or taking some other measure for asset recovery. Your legal team will need forensic findings to properly protect your right to recover the funds and assets that were illegally taken from you.

Are you looking for forensic accounting services? There’s no time to waste if something seems “off” with your books. The stakes are high for small businesses when it comes to fraud because most don’t have safeguards in place to prevent, detect, and act on fraud and theft.

Bookkeeping & CFO Solutions 5280 offers comprehensive forensic accounting services to help you get answers based on provable, traceable evidence. In addition to conducting an internal audit for getting to the bottom of “fuzzy numbers” within your business, our team can also provide court-ready investigations and documentation to help you reclaim assets. We’ll also help you put controls in place to stop your business from being vulnerable to fraud and theft in the future. Call (720) 608-6240 today to have an important conversation about investigating your company’s financial activity.