Next week I’ll be presenting a session at Scaling New Heights.  The topic is how to grow your business while protecting clients from errors & fraud.  Considering that almost half of all fraud in the U.S. is committed at companies with less than 100 employees, I think the topic is very relevant for the Intuit QuickBooks ProAdvisors and Solution Providers attending the event.

I’m presenting an overview of the “how’s” in today’s blog.

1.  Extending the life of QuickBooks – is an interesting angle and one… admittedly… I didn’t think of myself.  I heard a similar story when talking to two different ProAdvisors recently.  One explained that he “doesn’t recommend QuickBooks unless it’s an owner/operator scenario”, while another said she “sometimes has to migrate clients to other systems when they have outgrown QuickBooks.”

They both also recognized that AuditMyBooks could be useful to “extend the life of QuickBooks” because it adds some level of internal control that doesn’t exist natively.  Some clients may still eventually outgrow QuickBooks, but keeping them on a platform that you’ve invested in learning… if even for an extra year or two… is valuable to you and your client.

2.  What am I getting into? – is another interesting “how”.  AuditMyBooks is useful as diagnostic before visiting an existing client or submitting a proposal to a new prospect.  In either case, AuditMyBooks provides a quick, automated assessment to support the assertion that “the books are in great shape”.  Rather than taking their word for it, AuditMyBooks offers visibility into the “true” state of the books which helps to avoid underbidding an engagement with an existing client or new prospect.

3.  New services – is perhaps the most obvious answer for how to grow your business while protecting clients from errors & fraud.   The AICPA recently reported that nearly 70% of all CPA firms are creating or enhancing their forensic practices.  While fraud is always present, the sour economy has worsened the problem as cash-strapped employees resort to theft as a means of supporting lifestyles backed by overextended credit.   AuditMyBooks offers a number of new service opportunities for CPA’s, CFE’s, ProAdvisors and other financial professionals serving small businesses.   The new services can include set-up and tuning, ongoing transaction monitoring and even “emergency response” in the unfortunate case when a fraud is discovered.

There are two other options worth mentioning, certification and “rule recipes”.  We’ll be launching an AuditMyBooks Certification this summer.  While the program details are still being defined, we’ve discussed a “train the trainer” scenario where we will invest in training a select group of ProAdvisors, who may then choose to offer AuditMyBooks Certification classes to other ProAdvisors.  These classes could be offered for a fee.  AuditMyBooks allows you to customize the rules that detect irregularities, and some users have recognized how rules could be customized for factors like a client’s industry.  In this scenario, a ProAdvisor with deep retail experience could  create configuration templates… “rule recipes”… that leverage their industry expertise.  These templates could be sold to other ProAdvisors.

AuditMyBooks is a great way CPA’s, CFE’s, ProAdvisors or financial professionals to expand their services to include enhanced protection from a serious problem facing millions of small businesses.   If you are interested in this topic, let’s talk.

-CP Morey