MANAGEMENT

Change Fails in Silence | MOVE Like This

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Firms that treat communication as strategy—not admin—move faster, scale smarter, and keep trust intact.

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Not Your Headcount

MOVE Like This
With Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk
For CPA Trendlines

On this episode of MOVE Like This, host Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk explores a deceptively simple question with Alice Grey Harrison, founder of AGH Consulting: Why do so many firm transformations stall—not because of strategy, but because of communication?

With more than 30 years of experience in strategic communications and change management within the accounting profession, Harrison has seen firms navigate mergers, private equity investments, leadership transitions, system implementations, and cultural shifts.

The difference between momentum and misery, she argues, is rarely technical. It’s human.

MORE MOVE

Her core insight is that culture becomes a growth engine only when people understand how their work connects to the firm’s mission, vision, and values. That clarity unlocks what she calls “discretionary energy”—the extra effort people put in when they believe in the firm’s direction. READ MORE →

When You Might Need a Forensic Professional

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Numbers floating around man examining calculator with magnifying glass

Four ways to add control to your systems.

By Ed Mendlowitz
77 Ways to Wow!

Various professionals and consultants can set up controls with in-house accountants, the CFO and financial professionals employed by the firm, but they then leave, and the organization is left with administering it. Unless there is a highly disciplined and committed leadership within the company, the initial enthusiasm dissipates soon after.

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A trained forensic professional will detect flaws and cracks in systems and plug them up. They are also transaction-oriented, more than procedure-oriented, so they examine more closely how things are being done and look for subtle deviations from how they are supposed to be done. This skill should be employed in oversight and periodic monitoring of the controls they helped establish.
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Deter Fraud with Forensic Techniques

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person taking inventory on a tablet

BONUS: 11 services that create a “control culture.”

By Ed Mendlowitz
77 Ways to Wow!

Trained forensic professionals investigate accounting and financial transactions that are, or will become, subject to legal proceedings. It is an early step in a potential war, and many times it is the first shot.

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Attorneys and c-level executives are often not familiar with forensic techniques and see them as a means to quantify a loss. Financial forensics also provides a means to deter and detect fraud. Today, I share my views on the value of forensic techniques used to deter fraud and encourage CVAs to consider attending the CTI’s Forensic Accounting Academy™ or Fraud Risk Management courses offered through the MAFF programs.
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Six Ways an Internal Audit Helps

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The six principal tasks required.

By Ed Mendlowitz
77 Ways to Wow!

Every business has a system of internal controls. Very small businesses likely rely on luck and the honesty of their one or two office staff. Small businesses rely on their independent auditors to check their system once a year and large companies employ one or more internal auditors on their staff.

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This post explains the internal audit process that applies to every size business. Businesses have voluminous transactions; multiple people involved, companywide; and assets that need protection.
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Systems Must Be Used, Not Just Implemented

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Internal controls are no good on their own.

By Ed Mendlowitz
77 Ways to Wow!

I have addressed the importance of controls when trying to get a client. But it is also important to retain the client. A good system that is not monitored is a sure way to not only lose the client but be kept awake at night.

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If you have been around long enough, you’ve experienced a theft at a business or not-for-profit organization. For nearly ever fraud I have seen, the slightest effort would have thwarted those frauds. Nowadays the only frauds I encounter are new engagements, where I try to quantify what was taken.
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What Internal Controls Mean to Clients

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man writing in notebook

And how to explain them.

By Ed Mendlowitz
77 Ways to Wow!

What are internal controls? Auditors widely use this term. It also appears multiple times in engagement letters for audits of businesses and not-for-profits, but I do not believe many outside of the accounting profession really know or understand what internal controls are. I will try to explain it here.

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Internal controls refer to an organization’s system of deterrence, oversight, checks and balances. An illustration is where someone in a business writes and mails the checks to pay a bill. If this same person then receives the bank statement and performs the reconciliation of that account, there would not be any control or oversight on that person and whether the payment was proper and not misdirected. They are checking their own work. This is how many frauds occur.
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Create an Accountability Chart for Your Firm

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It beats an org chart and here’s why.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

“Getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats – these are all crucial steps in the early stages of buildup…” – Jim Collins, “Good to Great”

When Adam and I first started the company, we didn’t have much organizational structure. We didn’t need it. But as the company grew, it became necessary to develop an organizational structure. There’s a great quote by Michael E. Gerber in his book “The E-Myth Revisited” that says, “Without the Organization Chart, confusion, discord and conflict become the order of the day.”

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We got to a point where we realized that Adam and I didn’t have clarity around our individual roles, and we were overlapping one another. We needed to have clearly defined roles for one another as well as the people who were working for us. Lack of clarity can cause a loss in production.
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Ten Financial Controls to Spur Growth and Profits

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What clients need to watch.

By Ed Mendlowitz
77 Ways to Wow!

If you want your business to grow, don’t focus on only the easy financial controls where you can see quick results – such as holding down petty cash expenditures or checking expense accounts for accuracy.

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Instead, go for the tough steps that affect long-term profits and facilitate growth.

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Start with the Cash

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A wealth of information is lurking there.

By Ed Mendlowitz
77 Ways to Wow!

One time I was asked to audit a hotel in Florida that was going to be foreclosed on by the mortgagor and for which I was paid in advance. The audit was planned and scheduled, and it looked like we had everything under control from our end as much as we could.

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I received a call on a Friday morning that the foreclosure was going to take place sooner than expected, and I had to either do my work Monday through Wednesday or return the retainer because the foreclosure was going to take place on Thursday. I took a Sunday evening flight with a senior accountant. When I walked into the hotel, I got really nervous. This was not a small motel but a big Hilton hotel – not what I anticipated.
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