Protect cash, trust and tax funds, payroll, merchant deposits, approvals, access, reconciliations, separation of duties, and source records.
Forensics
U.S.-based · Global reach
Financial & Inventory Forensics
When cash, inventory, sales, deposits, purchasing, payroll, or reported results do not reconcile, leadership needs more than a surface-level variance report. Cole reconstructs the operating trail across POS activity, merchant settlements, bank accounts, invoices, receiving records, transfers, physical counts, recipes, waste, discounts, voids, refunds, timekeeping, purchasing, user access, and available surveillance or incident documentation. We identify when and where the numbers diverged, distinguish process failure from error or potential misconduct, quantify exposure where the records permit, preserve a clear work trail, and translate findings into corrective controls and management action. Legal, insurance, law-enforcement, and certified forensic-accounting specialists are coordinated when the matter requires formal investigation, expert testimony, or regulated professional opinions.
What this work is designed to deliverA documented explanation of material discrepancies, quantified exposure where supportable, clearer accountability, and strengthened controls to prevent recurrence.
Discuss this capability How we help
Senior expertise.
Practical execution.
We preserve records and define the question before reconstructing activity across systems and time periods. Independent sources are reconciled, anomalies are tested against alternative explanations, limitations are documented, and findings are separated from inference so management and outside professionals can act on defensible evidence.
Our operating approachNo seagull management. We can enter at the diagnostic, planning, implementation, stabilization, or ongoing-advisory stage—and remain accountable through execution, adoption, and a sustainable handoff.
Define the discrepancy, allegation, period, locations, systems, custodians, preservation steps, access restrictions, and questions the evidence must answer.
Reconstruct sales, tenders, merchant settlements, cash, discounts, refunds, gift cards, delivery, payroll, bank, vendor, and general-ledger activity.
Trace purchasing, receiving, transfers, recipes, yields, production, storage, waste, comps, counts, theoretical use, and inventory movement.
Analyze users, permissions, overrides, timing, approvals, vendor or employee relationships, surveillance, incidents, and separation-of-duties failures.
Preserve chain of custody, methodology, source records, assumptions, limitations, supported exposure, and distinctions between fact and inference.
Deliver findings, corrective controls, recovery priorities, and coordination material for counsel, insurers, law enforcement, CPAs, or certified specialists.
Details that protect the work
What clients cannot afford to discover too late.
Requirements vary by jurisdiction and operating model. We identify the dependencies early, assign ownership, maintain the evidence, and coordinate licensed specialists wherever professional authority is required.
Track filing, payment, lender, covenant, insurance, license, audit, retention, ownership, and related-party obligations with qualified advisers.
Preserve reliable books, close discipline, balance-sheet support, forecasts, documented assumptions, and management sign-off.
Escalate suspected fraud, insolvency, securities, lending, tax, legal, or expert-opinion matters to appropriately licensed professionals.
When to bring us in
Before a decision.
During a transition.
When performance slips.
Build or launch
Get the structure, economics, people, systems, and controls right before opening or expansion.
Fix or stabilize
Step into an urgent gap, stop leakage, restore accountability, and protect the business.
Improve or grow
Strengthen the operating platform before scaling, transacting, refinancing, or adding leadership.
Flexible engagement
Focused project
A defined issue, deliverable, timeline, and implementation plan.
Fractional leadership
Hands-on senior ownership without adding a permanent full-time executive.
Ongoing advisory
Regular operating review, decision support, accountability, and governance.
Cole provides hospitality operating, transaction-preparation, and coordination support. Legal, real-estate brokerage, lending, securities, tax, and other regulated services are performed by appropriately licensed professionals where required.
Step in where it matters