Straight answers to the usual questions
What we do, what we refuse, how we handle your data and how pricing works.
Working together follows a set pattern
Who is Finance Ethics for?
Organizations with lean finance teams that need to show their controls and conduct to someone else. That includes companies of roughly $2 million to $100 million in revenue, nonprofits with federal or foundation funding, venture-backed companies from Series B to pre-IPO, private-equity portfolio companies, fintech and digital-asset businesses, and suppliers answering integrity or sustainability questionnaires.
Do you work outside Wyoming?
Yes. Our only office is in Cheyenne, but we work with clients across the United States. Most analysis is done remotely. Walkthroughs, training and board sessions happen on site when that works better.
Who will we actually deal with?
One engagement lead, named in the proposal and accountable for the whole engagement. Specialists join by role as the scope needs them, such as a controls specialist, a forensic data analyst or a learning designer. A second reviewer who did no fieldwork reads every deliverable before you see it.
Do we have to install anything or share passwords?
Neither. We work from read-only accounts you create and can revoke, or from exports we specify. We work with QuickBooks Online, Xero, NetSuite, Sage Intacct and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, with bank exports such as CSV, BAI2 and camt.053, and with payroll provider reports.
How much of our team's time will it take?
The proposal states it in hours for each role, so you can plan around the close. A diagnostic typically needs a few hours from the controller or finance lead across the engagement, plus short sessions with the people who run payables, receivables and payroll.
Why don't you publish client testimonials?
Because you could not check them. A quote on a website, named or anonymous, is an endorsement the reader has to take on trust, and we do not publish endorsements we cannot let readers verify. We publish what you can verify instead: our method, our policies, and dated articles with their sources. Our scenarios are illustrative composites and are labeled that way. Judge us on the proposal, which is written to be specific enough to hold us to.
We never audit, review or compile financial statements. That is what lets us work beside the people who do.
Our scope stops short of attest
Can you audit or review our financial statements?
No. Finance Ethics does not perform audits, reviews, compilations or any other attest engagement, and it is not a CPA firm. If you need an audit opinion, you need a licensed CPA firm. We can help you prepare for the audit and work alongside the auditors.
Will our auditors accept your work?
That is their decision, and it should be. We write our documentation so an audit team can follow it: what we tested, over which population, with which parameters, and what we found. Auditors may use it to understand your controls. They are not obliged to rely on it.
Do you give legal or tax advice?
No. We are not a law firm and do not give legal or tax advice. When a finding raises a legal question, we say so and suggest you take it to counsel. Where counsel is already involved, we can work under counsel's direction on the financial facts.
What if we already suspect fraud?
Speak to counsel first, and if money is moving now, call your bank. We can then work under counsel's direction on the data: full-ledger analytics, vendor and payment tracing, and a review of who had access to what. We describe what the records show. Decisions about people, recovery and reporting stay with you and your counsel.
Do software vendors pay you to recommend them?
No. We neither pay nor accept referral fees, commissions or vendor incentives, and we do not resell software. If we recommend a product and have any relationship with its vendor, the recommendation says so.
Can you work for us and for our lender or investor at the same time?
Only where their interests do not conflict with yours, and only with everyone's knowledge. Every engagement letter states who the client is and who receives the report. We run a conflicts check before accepting any engagement and decline work we cannot do independently.
The detail sits on other pages
Our principles and policies
Independence, conflicts, fees, vendor neutrality, AI use, data handling and how to raise a concern about us.How engagements work
The five engagement models, how scoping works and what every proposal contains.The Open Ledger Method
What happens at each stage, what you see, and the evidence each stage leaves.Controls Health Check
A fixed-scope, fixed-fee diagnostic of your core money flows, delivered in two to four weeks.Free tools
A controls self-check, a segregation-of-duties conflict finder and a single audit threshold checker, all running in your browser.
Your data stays under your control
How do you receive our data?
Through read-only accounts you create and can revoke, or as exports sent through an encrypted transfer link. We do not accept ledger data as email attachments and never ask for shared passwords. We ask only for the data the scope needs.
Will you sign our confidentiality agreement?
Yes. We sign yours, or offer ours, before any data changes hands. Confidentiality terms are also written into the engagement letter.
Where is our data processed, and who can see it?
In access-logged environments, by the people on your engagement and the second reviewer. Nobody else at the firm works with it.
Do you use AI on our data?
We use analytics, statistical models and, where they help, AI tools, all within access-logged environments. Client data is never used to train external AI models, and every analytic finding is reviewed by a person before it appears in a deliverable. If you would rather we used no AI tools on your data, say so and we will scope the work without them.
How long do you keep our data?
Client data is deleted 90 days after the engagement closes, unless you ask otherwise in writing. We confirm the deletion in writing.
Who sees our findings?
Only the audiences agreed in the proposal, such as management, the board, auditors, funders or lenders. Nothing is published unless you decide to publish it, for example through a Financial Integrity Report or an Integrity Center.
Ask the question we missed
If your question is not answered here, write to us. A person replies within two business days.
Fees are agreed before work begins
How much does an engagement cost?
It depends on scope, so we quote after a scoping conversation rather than publish prices. Diagnostics have a fixed fee agreed in advance. Projects are quoted against defined deliverables, monitoring is billed monthly after setup, and research and training are quoted per commission or cohort. Every quote arrives in a written proposal.
Do you charge for the first conversation?
No. Scoping carries no fee and no obligation.
Do you ever work for a contingent or success fee?
No. Our fee never depends on what we find, what you save, what is recovered or how a deal turns out. A fee that grew with the findings would give us a reason to find more.
How long does an engagement take?
Diagnostics take two to four weeks, projects six to sixteen weeks, research commissions three to eight weeks, and training from half a day to six weeks. Monitoring subscriptions run monthly after a setup period of about six weeks.
How soon can you start?
The proposal confirms a start date, and it typically follows the scoping call within a week. The usual constraint is access: work moves as fast as read-only accounts and exports can be arranged.
What happens if the scope changes?
We tell you before doing work outside the agreed scope, and we agree the change, with its effect on timing and fee, in writing first. A scope change never appears for the first time on an invoice.
Tell us what you are seeing
A first conversation is a scoping call: what worries you, what you need to show, and to whom. You leave it with a view on where to start, whether or not you hire us.