A return-only review checks whether the form matches the records. We check whether the records were right in the first place — because that is where the recoverable money usually is, and a second look at the return will never find it.
Join the waitlist Built for CPA firms. We are not taking customers yet.The method
Before OptiBooks was software it was a method, developed in practice and used on real engagements. What follows is what that method does. The software is an attempt to make it repeatable.
We take the general ledger, trial balance and supporting records a return was built from, alongside the return itself. Most missed items are not mistakes on the form — they are classification decisions in the books that the return then reflected faithfully. The preparer did nothing wrong; the books were never in scope.
Two different things get found, and they are never mixed. A correction is something that should have been treated differently under the rules as they stood. A strategy is an election or a choice that was available and not taken. One is compliance; the other is planning. They carry different risk, different evidence and different conversations with the client.
A finding is only useful if you can act on it. We determine which mechanism is available — an amended return, a change in accounting method, or nothing at all because the year is closed — and we say so plainly.
Every finding arrives with the reasoning, the authority it rests on, and what would need to be true for it to apply. Nothing is filed. Nothing is posted to an accounting system. The professional reviewing it decides what is worth acting on, and that decision is the point of the exercise rather than a formality at the end of it. You retain the relationship and you present the savings to your clients.
One engagement
A business had its returns prepared and filed by a CPA. The returns were accurate: they reflected the accounting records they were built from. The records themselves contained a treatment decision, applied consistently across several years, that the rules did not support.
Correcting the treatment and refiling produced a cash refund. The forward-looking effect was larger than the refund, but those years have not been filed yet, so we are not putting a number on them.
Limits
Most of this page describes what we look for. This part matters more, because it is what stops a finding from being a guess.
Who this is for
OptiBooks is built for firms whose clients are small and midsize businesses, and whose people already know what to do with a finding once they have one. It is not a filing product, not a research library, and not a replacement for professional judgment. It is a way to look at the accounting underneath returns you have already signed, at a scale that reviewing them by hand does not allow.
If you are a business owner rather than a firm: the useful step is to bring this to your accountant. We work through the professional who signs the return, not around them.
Questions
It can determine which correction mechanism is available — an amended return, a Form 3115 change in accounting method, or no mechanism because the year is closed — and it returns an explicit "cannot determine" when the filing or payment dates needed to evaluate the refund window are unknown. The decision itself stays with the CPA.
By reviewing the accounting records the return was built from rather than the return alone. Most missed items are not errors on the form — they are classification decisions in the books, which the return then reflected faithfully.
No. We produce findings with the reasoning and authority behind them. A qualified professional reviews them and decides what to act on. Nothing is filed and nothing is posted to an accounting system automatically.
Not yet. We are in development and not accepting customers. The method is real and has been used in practice; the software is being built. Firms can join the waitlist below and we will be in touch when there is something worth your time.
Waitlist
We will contact you when there is a working product to look at. No newsletter, no drip sequence.