Common question
Do we have to give you our client files?
No. Not the files, not a login, not an export, not a document. The audit watches how work moves through your firm and never reads what's in it.
We set it up that way on purpose, because it cuts what the audit costs you in time and paperwork.
Why it's built this way
The moment an outside firm can see client records, a set of obligations kicks in. Depending on your profession that can mean vendor due diligence, a written agreement about data handling, security questionnaires, and a place in a file somebody has to maintain. It's all reasonable, and it all takes time.
You don't need most of it to answer the question you're actually asking: what your software already does and what you should do about it. So we stay as far from your client data as the work allows.
Because we never receive or keep client data, your checks on us stay short and easy to pass. If your firm or your broker-dealer has its own approval step for outside consultants, that still applies.
This is about the audit. If you later hire us to help put the recommendations in place, that's a different arrangement, and we'll go through the paperwork with you before it starts.
What the session looks like
- You share your screen and do your work. We watch and ask how the work moves: where it starts, who touches it next, what gets typed twice.
- If a client name is on screen, that's fine, and we don't record it. There's no recording, no screenshots, and nothing is kept beyond our own notes about process.
- We do look at your settings and billing screens. Which plan you're on is the single most important fact in the whole audit, and it isn't client information.
- You can redact or skip anything. If you'd rather not show a particular matter, show a different one. It won't change the outcome.
The limitation of doing it this way
Because we watch instead of pulling your data, we can see, but we can't verify. If you tell us something takes four hours a week and it actually takes one, the report will carry that mistake. If a process works differently when you're not the one doing it, we won't catch it.
Every report says which findings rest on what you told us and which rest on what we saw. It's a real limit, and we'd rather you hear it now than find out later.
If you need somebody inside your data measuring things, that's a different and more expensive kind of project, and we don't sell it.
Any other question before booking?
Ask it on the call. It's thirty minutes, no charge, and you don't need to send anything in advance.