Scope sheet
finbryn.com
Forensic accounting
Fraud-indicator review
A fraud-indicator review from Finbryn screens a US business's books for patterns statistically associated with fraud: Benford's Law deviations, duplicate payments, round-dollar entries, and vendor data overlapping with employees. Each test produces its own ranked list of flagged items with the specific reason, reviewed by a senior reviewer before it reaches counsel.
What is included
- A ranked list of flagged transactions and vendors with the specific test and reason for each
- A Benford's Law distribution report for the transaction population tested
- A duplicate and near-duplicate payment list with supporting transaction detail
- A vendor-master overlap report checked against employee records
- A false-positive review noting items removed or annotated before delivery
- A summary memo suitable for a board, owner, insurer, or attorney to act on
- A working export of the tested transaction population for further investigation
The process
- 1.
Scoping call
We confirm the accounting system, approximate transaction volume, review period, and whether vendor and employee master data is readily available.
- 2.
Data extraction
A full transaction-level export is pulled from the accounting system using forensic extraction methods that preserve the audit trail without altering the live file.
- 3.
Benford's Law test
The first-digit distribution of payment amounts is compared against the expected natural distribution, with results weighted for dataset size.
- 4.
Duplicate and round-dollar scans
CaseWare IDEA or ACL Analytics scans the population for near-duplicate payments and clusters of suspiciously round-dollar entries.
- 5.
Vendor-master screening
Vendor names, addresses, and bank details are cross-referenced against employee records for any overlap suggesting a conflict.
- 6.
Ranking and review
All flags are combined into one ranked list; a senior reviewer removes obvious false positives, then reviews the language and conclusions.
- 7.
Delivery
The ranked list is delivered to the board, owner, insurer, or counsel who engaged the review, with the reasoning behind each flag included.
Software
CaseWare IDEA, ACL Analytics, Microsoft Excel, QuickBooks Online, Xero
Quality control
Every flag from every test goes into one ranked list, reviewed by a senior reviewer for false positives and for language before it reaches the board or counsel.
Pricing
A fraud-indicator review is quoted per engagement based on transaction volume, system count, and whether vendor and employee data needs to be gathered from more than one source, rather than sold as a flat monthly package. See /us/pricing for how our standard bookkeeping tiers are priced; a screening review of this kind is scoped and quoted separately once we understand the accounting system and data involved.
Finbryn is a brand of Northlane Solutions Inc., a Delaware corporation.
Reviewed September 2026