Common Questions

Forensic accounting is the investigation of financial records to detect fraud, mismanagement, or other irregularities. Law firms depend on these techniques to analyze records, determine what happened, and build stronger cases. For mission-driven and community-based organizations forensic accounting helps protect resources, ensure accountability, and support legal or regulatory compliance.

I specialize in uncovering asset misappropriation, grant misuse, procurement fraud, and financial reporting discrepancies. I can also prepare analyses showing flow-of-funds for divorce cases or business disputes.

Yes. As a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), I provide litigation support, expert witness testimony, and forensic analysis for legal proceedings and dispute resolution. If your case has a financial component reach out to me early so I can help you plan. Knowing what to request in discovery is a big part of the challenge.

I follow strict confidentiality protocols. All communications (including initial inquiries) are kept private. All data I am provided with is kept on password-protected, encrypted storage. Even the email services I use are encrypted.

NO information is EVER given to third parties without your express consent.

I have direct experience with the unique financial structures and compliance challenges of small and mid-size businesses, nonprofit organizations, and Alaska tribal organizations.

I don’t provide grant writing services, but if you are applying for a grant I can help you plan how to manage new grants.

Being able to refer to written policies and procedures for managing third-party funding can be helpful during the application process. I can also help you enable functionality in your accounting systems to make grant administration much, much easier.

Absolutely. I can act as an advisor to help your organization manage grant funds, track expenditures, and prepare accurate reports to meet federal, state, and/or tribal grantor requirements.

The responsibility for passing any audit always remains with your organization. However, I can help with key parts of the process, such as implementing documentation standards, developing internal controls, and performing pre-reviews to spot issues before the audit begins.

The systems I recommend depend on the size of the organiation, staffing available, and your financial systems. I generally recommend scalable solutions and can support implementation of systems like QuickBooks, Kronos, and even custom databases tailored to your needs.

Basically, the approach I take is to ensure I recommend something that will save you time and money, but won’t saddle your organization with the hassles of managing yet another software package.

Yes, this is an area I specialize in. I can help create clear, compliant policies and procedures that support transparency, accountability, and effective grant stewardship. I can also help integrate these grant-specific policies and procedures into your other operations, such as the month-end close cycle.

Traditional financial statements only give you the 10,000-foot view of your business. Data analytics gets you down into the details to reveal trends, identify inefficiencies, and support strategic planning.

These tools are not just for large organizations. These insights are especially valuable for organizations managing limited resources. And some of them are free!

I specialize in combining data from different systems to create innovative solutions that provide insights you cannot get from any single system. For example: combining payroll data with sales transactions to determine the most (or least) profitable times of day for a business.

I can build reporting that helps drive decision making using any data your organization has access to. Sources include financial general ledger data, payroll cost data, timekeeping data, bank transactions, point-of-sale systems, and more.

Or, if you just need help with something routine like a balance sheet and income statement I can help with that too.

Yes, I specialize in interactive, automated dashboards using Power BI to help you monitor financial health and make informed decisions.

For organizations with less in-house IT expertise, many of the same dashboards can be made semi-automated with advanced features in Excel.

It depends on the report in question . . . .

“Dashboards” are fully automated by their nature. As long as they have a connection to your accounting system they are always up to date.

The month-end and year-end financial reporting processes cannot be fully automated, but I can help you eliminate manual steps to significantly streamline the process.

I like to start with a brief risk assessment of your operations. This helps us make an informed estimate about which areas your auditors will focus on.

Next, I like to do a documentation review of key “risky” areas, plus a review of areas that are almost always audited, such as bank accounts.

Lastly, we do the deep-dive into any company-specific audit areas. Examples could include significant grant funding at a nonprofit, or large inventory balances in a mid-sized business.

Yes. As a Certified Internal Auditor I can evaluate your internal controls and recommend improvements to strengthen compliance and reduce audit risk.

Absolutely. I can work with you and your auditors to analyze past findings, develop corrective action plans, and implement sustainable solutions.

Yes, I can conduct a mock audit walkthrough to simulate the process, identify any problem areas, and help you prepare for the real thing.

I have direct experience with all aspects of business accounting: month-end close, budgeting, forecasting, grant tracking, inventory accounting, banking, investments, timekeeping systems, capital assets, depreciation, financial reporting, and more.

Contact me and we can discuss your specific needs.

Interviews with staff are generally the most effective ways to identify bottlenecks (when a process doesn’t work well everyone usually knows it).

Also, the methods used can often highlight issues. For example, manual typing of data, copy-paste steps, manually moving files, and so forth are almost always indicative of inefficiencies in the process.

I also like to look for “hidden” challenges by tapping into data sources such as timekeeping and payroll systems. Sometimes this information can show where an undue proportion of time is being spent on one activity, at the expense of other value-added functions.

Software manufacturers have their own implementation teams who can help with the IT side of the implementation. They do this work every day, every year, and are the most effective help for system configuration and “server-side” setup.

Where I can facilitate is as an interpreter between the software team and your business . . . by being able to “speak consultant” I can help ensure the software is configured and tested in a way that actually meets your needs. Generic, “default” implementations often leave key business needs unmet.

Yes, I can design internal control frameworks tailored to your organization’s size, funding sources, and operational risks.

Before the initiative starts we will work together to determine which metrics are most important for your organization to track. Examples include time savings, error reduction, compliance improvements, and user satisfaction surveys.

I offer training on financial reporting, internal controls, fraud prevention, grant compliance, inventory accounting, capital assets management, and strategic financial planning.

I also specialize in covering the “what do I need to know as a sole proprietor” side of things. This is helpful when you need a better understanding of your business finances, but need to stay focused on operations.

When working with executives my focus is on identifying those topics (and the depth of discussion) that facilitates leading the business, without getting lost in minutia best left to staff.

Definitely. As part of the planning process the training is tailored to the unique needs of your organization type (nonprofit, tribal organization, or small businesses) and the nature of the work you perform.

I provide flexible training formats including in-person workshops, virtual sessions, and hybrid models.

The key is to use real-life examples from the business itself to keep things interesting. I also leave plenty of space for discussion, since good training tends to stimulate more questions.