Case Study
Using the Strongbox output, the Wipfli forensic and litigation services practice gains instant access to the right data in the right format in the right way for their clients.
Marc Courey, CPA/CFF, JD, CFE, CCEP, CIA
Director – Forensic & Litigation Services
THE PRACTICE
Focused on Client Satisfaction
Marc Courey has been part of Wipfli’s Forensic and Litigation Services practice for almost 14 years. His team is razor-focused on delivering quality service for their clients.
With 30+ members in the practice, Marc and his team serve law firms, and private clients, with years of repeat business from their clients proving the quality of their analysis.
THE RIGHT DATA
“Now Strongbox does it in a single click. It’s one-and-done data.”
To conduct forensic investigations or perform analysis for part of a litigation, Marc’s team needs access to financial data. Typically, this involves going into an organization's accounting system and using that system’s reporting features, running multiple reports to try to get a full picture. Strongbox simplifies this process.
“We were really limited to whatever reports or features are available in the system. And it requires multiple extractions and pulls to get all the detailed info out of the system.”
“Reporting that’s available through a system like QuickBooks makes it such a challenge because of the limitations the system has. Now Strongbox does it in a single click. It’s one-and-done data.”
Marc also found the data more useful. “The Strongbox data is also far more comprehensive than the native reporting features found in accounting systems.”
Strongbox is able to extract transaction-level detail that the Wiplfi team would normally have to manually track down and sync.
“Not only would the team have to manually connect details to transactions from multiple reports, but they would often find missing information, which would require going back to the client for additional reports to be pulled. It’s a much better experience for everyone involved being able to get everything in one go.”
Frequently in investigations, assumptions made at the start can be disproved, requiring additional data to complete the analysis. Again, Strongbox eliminates extra steps.
“If we discover in our investigation that we need to look at a particular set of data that we didn’t anticipate at the onset, we no longer have to go back for additional extraction or reporting. We already have that information available to us in the Strongbox output. Because Strongbox is able to extract data at such a detailed level and connects all the components for a transaction or series of transactions together, it’s easier for us to see and understand that detail and the total effect of the transaction.”
THE RIGHT FORMAT
“The data comes out in a way that’s usable right off the bat.”
After extracting the needed data, Marc’s team would face the daunting task of preparing that data for analysis. Strongbox eliminated this need.
“Depending on the accounting system, even if we can get all the data we need, there’s additional manipulation and cleansing of the data we must do before it’s usable for analysis purposes. The way it comes out of Strongbox, it doesn’t require any of that. The data comes out in a way that’s usable right off the bat.”
“With Strongbox, we get a complete dataset with all available details with one data pull. You can’t get that in any other single report from a system like QuickBooks.”
THE RIGHT WAY
“Strongbox allows us to be faster and more efficient without sacrificing detail and quality.“
At the end of the day, client satisfaction is the most important thing at Wipfli. Strongbox helps them serve more clients with speed and top-level analysis while providing the highest quality insights.
“Strongbox saves a significant amount of time, both in getting the data and its immediate availability for use in our analysis. Because of this, we can really focus on the analysis that’s beneficial for the client as opposed to spending all our time trying to get to and validate the data.”
As with all accounting services, forensic and litigation services practices must pay special attention to security and integrity of data. Once again, Strongbox can help with this goal.
“Strongbox also helps with clients who are concerned about security and may not want to give out access to their source books of record. Strongbox allows that data to be extracted so we can do our analysis but keeps us out of their system. This meets the client’s goal from a security perspective but still allows us to get the data we need.”
Appearances also matter when litigation is involved. An adversarial party that’s the subject of an investigation could try to use malfeasance as a defense. Since Strongbox is a one-way connection, there’s no way for a firm using it to change the source data. “Strongbox eliminates the opportunity for someone to try to claim that we added or altered anything in their system.”
Strongbox provides Marc’s team the right data in the right format, the right way.
THE OUTPUT
Most Used Strongbox Data
Transaction Details
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Vendor Details
Cash Flow Analysis
THE FUTURE
Even More Detail
Part of providing quality forensic and litigation service for clients means leaving no stone unturned. That’s what Marc and his team at Wipfli do everyday, and with Strongbox, they can do it even faster.
They look forward to being able to extract all historic data from an accounting system, no matter how far back, in future releases.
