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Automations & Custom-Built Data Tools

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The Moment It Hits You

Your bookkeeper stole ONE MILLION DOLLARS from your company

December 11, 20234 min read

Your bookkeeper stole ONE MILLION DOLLARS from your company.

Could this be true, and you just don’t know it?

The highest return on investment (ROI) in your small business might just come from proper cash controls. The article linked below illustrates why.

TL;DR – A bookkeeper in San Antonio (allegedly) stole ONE POINT SIX MILLION DOLLARS ($1.6M) from her employer over a four-year period before getting caught.

The article references five additional cases, also in San Antonio, for another $1.3M stolen (allegedly) from five other companies and one non-profit by five different bookkeepers.

There are probably dozens or hundreds more cases not yet discovered, just in San Antonio.

The bookkeeper featured in the article (allegedly) “was responsible for managing the firm's financials, including paying bills and handling payroll, and had access to at least one of its bank accounts and a company debit card.”

Alarm bells blasted at 11 when I read that sentence.

If you trust one person in your small business with more than you should, then you are inviting theft.

If you do not review your company’s bank activity regularly, then you are inviting theft.

You are busy. You trust someone more than you should. You cannot imagine that SHE or HE would do such a thing.

But you take the risk it could happen to you until you remove that opportunity to steal.

If this opportunity exists in your business, Data Make You Smile can help you by building a custom data tool – the DMYS CashBox – that you can use to capture and review all your bank transactions in one place.

It will not correct the lack of controls and lack of segregation of duties that created that opportunity. (We can help you with that separately if you wish.)

But the DMYS CashBox will give you an understanding of where your cash comes from and where it goes, so you can prevent the sinking feeling from discovering theft in your business.

It works with all historical and future transactions available for download from your bank.

It puts all your cash transactions in one place, outside your accounting system and accessible only to you, the business owner.  

Someone who might have the opportunity to steal from doesn't need to know you have it.

The DMYS CashBox empowers you to:

--> Sort and filter cash disbursements by payee and see the pattern and scope of unfamiliar (and fraudulent) Venmo transactions tied to a company debit card (a theft example in the article)

--> Parse a specific date range to identify payroll checks not posting correctly or double posted (another theft example in the article)

--> Find fictitious vendors (setup by your own staff) that are receiving cash payments that end up in your staff's personal account

--> Search for a specific dollar amount that a customer said they wired to your account so you can confirm that you received it

--> Ask your staff timely questions that might save you money by uncovering subscription services not cancelled or rate increases imposed by your vendors

--> Prevent embezzlement of cash from your business

To build a custom DMYS CashBox for your business, we use sample data that you download from your bank’s online portal.

You never share your bank login information with Data Make You Smile.

And the completed DMYS CashBox resides on your own computer or server and accesses your company’s transaction history from your computer or server. No cloud hosting is necessary, so there is no potential compromise of your bank information.

If you have even the slightest concern about the opportunity for someone to steal from your business, order your DMYS CashBox today at https://cashbox.datamakeyousmile.com/.

The first eleven (11) small business owners who use promo code “VIGILANCE11” at checkout get the DMYS CashBox for only $11.00.

After five minutes using the DMYS CashBox, you will wonder why you never had this tool before, and you won’t want to live without it.

Guard your cash and gain peace of mind from knowing where it comes from and where it goes.

After the first eleven purchases, the price goes back to $497.00. But even at that price, the ROI is a theoretical 9,960% if the DMYS CashBox prevents just $50,000 of theft in your business.

The ROI from the peace of mind and control it gives you is off the charts.

Go to https://cashbox.datamakeyousmile.com/ now and use promo code “VIGILANCE11” at checkout to get your own custom DMYS CashBox for only $11.00 before the promo code is gone.

You will be glad you did.

P.S. – Find the article referenced here at: https://tinyurl.com/DMYS-Vigilance

P.P.S. - Please share this with Small Business Owner friends who would benefit from this post. And let me know how I can help you and your business.

blog author image

Jake Gray

Jake founded Data Make You Smile to helpfellow small business owners get the most out of their existing software systems to grow their companies and postpone or delay an ERP implementation.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q:

How can DMYS help with disconnected software systems and operational inefficiencies stunting growth in my business?

We eliminate manual data entry and automate data capture from these disconnected systems so that you can make better decisions to grow your company.

We help you delay (possibly eliminate) the costly ERP implementation project you’ve been dreading.

Q:

What is a "data model"?

A data model (aka "semantic model") captures raw data from multiple sources (software systems, websites, SQL databases, data warehouses, Excel files, CSV files and dozens of other sources) and ties the data together in a manner similar to a relational database, but with custom calculations and analysis built in.

The model allows you to clean, shape, analyze, summarize and present all that data so that it is useful to you, as a business owner or finance or operations professional, to evaluate your business and make better decisions about how to grow it.

Q:

What do you mean by "automation"?

Automation is a fancy word for connections between software systems that move data without human intervention. We use automation technology tools to transfer data between your disconnected software systems so your admin staff don't have to do it by hand.

An example includes connecting to your billing software and its Application Programming Interface (API) to move transaction and timesheet data to your HR/Payroll software, so you can process payroll more quickly, and with fewer admin staff hours to do so.

Q:

What do you mean by "business intelligence"?

Business intelligence (BI) is just a fancy category name for tools that turn raw data into information you can use.

You see this information in custom dashboards, data visualizations and reports that highlight changes over time or give you a better understanding of your company's health and performance.

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