AuditMyBooks automatically analyzes small and medium business accounting records to detect errors and possible fraud.
When sharing stories about fraud and the techniques used to commit it, people are often surprised by the simplicity factor. I’ve joked that most small business fraudsters are more like Homer Simpson than Danny Ocean. When the owner is focused on running the business and the bookkeeper has too much leeway, it doesn’t take Ocean’s 11 style planning to commit the crime.
I’m going to share one of the simple tricks with you today. (Hopefully, this doesn’t turn into a how to session for a would-be fraudster!) Believe it or not, but people who commit fraud often create transactions with rounded amounts. In other words, they don’t have the sense to add the cents. Sorry, hard to resist.
Reviewing the accounting data for rounded amount payments is a common test used by fraud examiners, and there are many ways to get the job done. Assuming that you are working with a small data set, you could eye-ball it. The manual review is easy, just be careful of clerical errors and the time it takes to review the data regularly. An hour a month for a year is a day and a half of your time.
You can also use tools like Excel to sort and filter data. In fact, the MOD function is a useful feature for this type of analysis. If you want to further refine the analysis, you can even rank vendors by a percentage of rounded amount payments. Sort them in descending order to identify the most suspicious vendors first. One problem with this approach involves excluding legitimate transactions or vendors where rounded payments are normal. For example, the rent on your office is probably a rounded amount.
AuditMyBooks analyzes small and medium business accounting records for irregularities like rounded amount payments. It calculates each vendor’s percentage of rounded payments and allows you to easily exclude legitimate transactions or vendors from the analysis. In short, it works fast, is accurate every time and can be tuned to factors unique to your business.
Working with small business experts who have years of experience as ProAdvisors, Certified Public Accountants, Chief Financial Officers and Certified Fraud Examiners, we’ve identified more than 100 tests to detect errors and fraud. AuditMyBooks can be configured to meet the needs of all small businesses regardless of company size or industry. Unlike manual reviews of transaction logs which are time consuming, costly and rarely performed, AuditMyBooks automatically analyzes accounting records in a matter of minutes. You can use it daily, weekly, monthly … as often as you choose.
Interested in scanning your data?… check out our free trial today.
-CP Morey
AuditMyBooks automatically analyzes small and medium business accounting records to detect errors and possible fraud.
When sharing stories about fraud and the techniques used to commit it, people are often surprised by the simplicity factor. I’ve joked that most small business fraudsters are more like Homer Simpson than Danny Ocean. When the owner is focused on running the business and the bookkeeper has too much leeway, it doesn’t take Ocean’s 11 style planning to commit the crime.
I’m going to share one of the simple tricks with you today. (Hopefully, this doesn’t turn into a how to session for a would-be fraudster!) Believe it or not, but people who commit fraud often create transactions with rounded amounts. In other words, they don’t have the sense to add the cents. Sorry, hard to resist.
Reviewing the accounting data for rounded amount payments is a common test used by fraud examiners, and there are many ways to get the job done. Assuming that you are working with a small data set, you could eye-ball it. The manual review is easy, just be careful of clerical errors and the time it takes to review the data regularly. An hour a month for a year is a day and a half of your time.
You can also use tools like Excel to sort and filter data. In fact, the MOD function is a useful feature for this type of analysis. If you want to further refine the analysis, you can even rank vendors by a percentage of rounded amount payments. Sort them in descending order to identify the most suspicious vendors first. One problem with this approach involves excluding exclude legitimate transactions or vendors where rounded payments are normal. For example, the rent on your office is probably a rounded amount.
AuditMyBooks analyzes small and medium business accounting records for irregularities like rounded amount payments. It calculates each vendor’s percentage of rounded payments and allows you to easily exclude legitimate transactions or vendors from the analysis. In short, it works fast, is accurate every time and can be tuned to factors unique to your business.
Working with small business experts who have years of experience as ProAdvisors, Certified Public Accountants, Chief Financial Officers and Certified Fraud Examiners, we’ve identified more than 100 tests to detect errors and fraud. AuditMyBooks can be configured to meet the needs of all small businesses regardless of company size or industry. Unlike manual reviews of transaction logs which are time consuming, costly and rarely performed, AuditMyBooks automatically analyzes accounting records in a matter of minutes. You can use it daily, weekly, monthly … as often as you choose.
Interested in scanning your data?… check out our free trial today.
-CP Morey
