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Do accounting errors & fraud really affect small businesses?... ABSOLUTELY!

Accounting errors and fraud undermine financial decisions, result in monetary losses and in some cases even force companies to close. Read the TRUE STORIES below to see how REAL small businesses are affected by errors and fraud every day.

True Story Round-up for August 31

A True Story Round-up for August 31, 2010:

Our 1st story comes from New Hampshire where an accountant skimmed cash from her employer and ultimately stole more than $20,000. She took the money in small increments… drop… drop… ocean.

An ACE Hardware store in California has gone out of business as a result of bookkeeper theft.  [...]

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True Story Round-up for August 24

A True Story Round-up for August 24, 2010:

Our first story comes from Tampa where a bookkeeper is accused of stealing more than $125,000.  She redirected insurance reimbursement checks to her personal banking account.

Story #2 is set in Ohio where a woman who worked as a bookkeeper in the Simpson Circuit Clerk’s Office is now [...]

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Great WSJ Article on Small Business Fraud

Our weekly round-up of fraud stories will return next week. The Wall Street Journal ran a story about small business fraud on Monday that was so good, I wanted it to be the focus of this week’s blog.

The story covers a manufacturing company, E.F. Couvrette Co., that had grown to $10M per year in [...]

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Dennis Thompson on AuditMyBooks

As a professional  who deals with fraud, I find that dealing with fraud victims can be very challenging.

From an emotional standpoint, the victim is usually shocked and devastated that someone could do this to them and their company.  This is especially true if it is a small business, because many small company owners consider [...]

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True Story Round-up for August 10

A True Story Round-up for August 10, 2010:

Story #1 comes from Florida where a bookkeeper stole over $22,000 by issuing herself unauthorized payroll checks over the last three years.  She was responsible for creating all the paychecks using desktop bookkeeping software.

Off to Connecticut for story #2 where a man was sentenced for embezzling [...]

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Transaction Date Differs from Date Entered

One of the greatest benefits of SaaS, or Cloud-based apps, is the automatic updates.  We get great feedback from our customers and advisers which often leads to new features for our products.  In the old days, software companies would batch these features and issue major releases that required staging and installation.  SaaS companies like AuditMyBooks, [...]

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True Story Round-up for August 3

A True Story Round-up for August 3, 2010:

Our first story is a doozie from Oakland.  A bookkeeper has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of embezzling $240,000 from three small-businesses.  She was depositing checks intended for third-party vendors into her own bank account.

Story #2 keeps us in California.   A [...]

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True Story Round-up for July 27

A True Story Round-up for July 27, 2010:

Our 1st story comes from New Jersey where a woman was sentenced to four years in prison for embezzling $425,000 from a Paterson attorney for whom she worked as a bookkeeper.  Oddly, she actually put some of the money into a savings account!

To Washington for story [...]

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True Story Round-up for July 20

A True Story Round-up for July 20, 2010:

Story #1 takes place in Colorado. A bookkeeper convicted of stealing $230,000 from her former employer faces new charges of harassment and violating a protection order.  Evidently the money spent on lingerie didn’t help with the stalking case.

An Oregon woman was sentenced to four years [...]

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The ROI of Automated Analysis

Dennis Thompson is a QuickBooks guru in the Seattle area and a Certified AuditMyBooks Partner.  Dennis reminded me of a project I started earlier this year.  I thought I’d “dust it off” for today’s blog entry to see if it “has legs”.

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