The Fraud Audit You Should Do Before Year-End: Your Red Flags Checklist

Описание: Fraud in small business books is exploding, and most business owners have no idea it's happening until it's too late. After 30 years in bookkeeping, I need to tell you: you need to do a fraud audit before year-end.

Why before December 31st? If you find fraud now, you can potentially recover funds before the year closes and before filing tax returns with fraudulent deductions. Year-end is when embezzlers get nervous (audits happen, CPAs look at books) so they're covering tracks or making one last grab - both leave evidence.

🔥 MINDSET SHIFT REQUIRED:
✅ Every single time I've uncovered fraud, the business owner said "Not them, it couldn't be them"
✅ "I trust my employees" / "My bookkeeper has been with me for years" / "My office manager is like family"
✅ That's exactly why fraud happens - trust is beautiful, but in bookkeeping we verify everything
✅ That's not paranoid, that's professional

💡 THE 5 RED FLAGS TO CHECK NOW:

Red Flag #1: Rounded Numbers
✅ Scan for perfectly round transactions: $500, $1,000, $250
✅ Legitimate round numbers: retainers, subscriptions, loan payments
✅ Suspicious round numbers: office supplies, repairs, consulting fees (should be messy with cents)
✅ Real case: 5 office supply transactions all exactly $475 = fabricated invoices, checks to fake vendor (bookkeeper's own account)

Red Flag #2: Duplicate or Similar Vendor Names
✅ ABC Supplies and ABC Supply, Johnson Consulting and Johnson Consultant, Mike's Repair and Mike's Repairs
✅ Embezzlers create fake vendors that sound legitimate
✅ Look for: different spellings of same name, vendors with no phone/address, PO boxes, multiple vendors with same address
✅ Export vendor list to Excel, sort alphabetically, manually scan for variations

Red Flag #3: After-Hours or Weekend Transactions
✅ Check QuickBooks audit log: Settings - Audit Log - filter last 90 days
✅ Look for: checks created 11pm Saturday, bills entered 6am Sunday, deleted transactions at odd hours
✅ Real case: Embezzler logging in at 2am to create vendor bills, immediately pay them, delete bill but leave check
✅ Audit log never lies

Red Flag #4: Missing Check Numbers or Excessive Voided Transactions
✅ Run Missing Checks report in QuickBooks
✅ Gaps mean: voided checks actually cashed, manual checks outside system, checks deleted
✅ Run Voided/Deleted Transactions report
✅ Real case: 15 voided checks over 6 months, all originally made to "cash" for "petty cash reimbursement" with no log/receipts = bookkeeper cashing them (bank doesn't care QuickBooks says void if check is signed)

Red Flag #5: Vendor Refunds Without Matching Original Purchases
✅ Look for credits/refunds with no corresponding purchase
✅ $1,200 Office Depot refund but no $1,200+ purchase in prior months = suspicious
✅ Scam: Create fake refund, deposit into business account, immediately transfer to personal or write reimbursement check
✅ Every refund needs paper trail: invoice, return authorization, credit memo

Year-end action plan: Block 2 hours this week, run these 5 reports in QuickBooks, download free fraud audit checklist (link in description), document anything suspicious with screenshots/notes. If you find something, DO NOT confront suspect - talk to lawyer first. Consider third party audit: CPA, another bookkeeper, diagnostic review.

For new bookkeepers: Add this fraud audit to client onboarding process and charge for it - you're providing massive value.

Fraud doesn't mean you're bad business owner or bookkeeper. It means you're human and someone took advantage. But now you know what to look for.

👉 Grab the free fraud audit checklist in description
👉 Visit https://bookkeepingcoach.net

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