Merchant Protection CPA Partner Program
Add a Valuable New Advisory Capability to Your Accounting Firm
Bring your business clients a structured review of the payment, vendor, banking, and cyber-insurance procedures that protect their money — without building the technical capability inside your firm.
Designed for firms serving established business clients that move meaningful money each month.
Help clients see risks outside your professional scope. You introduce, we screen, and appropriate businesses proceed toward professional help. Your firm is never responsible for cybersecurity or technology advice.
A cause we support: Rock Against Trafficking.
The conversation you cannot currently finish
You See the Money Move. You Cannot Test What Protects It.
You already see your clients' payment volume, vendor activity, approval habits, banking platforms, and insurance renewals. When a client asks whether their payment procedures would hold up against a convincing impersonation attempt, most firms have no practical way to answer.
The Merchant Protection Audit is a structured examination of that chain. It gives you a way to raise the subject with clients, and a specialist to hand the technical work to once the client decides to proceed.
Vendor banking changes
Concentrated approval authority
Insurance conditions
What the engagement examines
A Defined Scope You Can Describe to a Client in One Minute
The audit reviews the complete chain protecting a client's money, so you can judge the quality of what you would be introducing.
- Email and identity security
- Employee access and permissions
- Vendor onboarding and payment changes
- Banking and payment approvals
- Devices and network protection
- Backups and recovery
- Employee fraud awareness
- Cyber-insurance requirements
- Incident-response readiness
- Documentation and evidence
What the client receives
- Pass/fail findings
- Priority risk summary
- Insurance-readiness observations
- Immediate protective actions
- Prioritized corrective-action plan
Your professional role
What the Participating Firm Actually Does
This is a professional participation program, not a referral arrangement. The work below is real, useful to the client, and documented.
Step 1
Identify appropriate clients
Recognize which business clients' circumstances make a Merchant Protection Review or Audit potentially relevant.
Step 2
Evaluate relevance
Apply what you already know about the client's financial activity, payment volume, controls, vendors, employees, banking activity, and insurance.
Step 3
Discuss the service with the client
Help the client understand why the engagement may — or may not — be appropriate for their particular business.
Step 4
Help the client evaluate it
Talk through scope, cost, and potential value before the client decides whether to proceed.
Step 5
Make the introduction
When appropriate, introduce the client to Merchant Protection Services using your firm's link.
Step 6
Stay involved where it fits your role
Participate where findings overlap with financial controls, accounting procedures, internal controls, or vendor and payment procedures.
What Merchant Protection Services handles
You Do Not Have to Become a Security Practice
The specialized technical work stays with us.
We handle
- Qualification and technical scoping
- The security assessment and audit work
- Technical findings and implementation recommendations
- Remediation where applicable
- Contracting, billing, and collections
- Technical support and ongoing Merchant Protection services
You are not asked to
- You are not asked to sell the engagement.
- You are not asked to scope or price the work.
- You are not asked to produce technical findings.
- You are not asked to provide us with client records.
- You are not asked to support the client technically.
How the program works
Nine Steps, Start to Finish
01
Client identification
You identify a business client whose circumstances make the service potentially relevant.
02
Client Review worksheet
You complete a short structured worksheet evaluating the service against that client's actual circumstances.
03
Client education
You discuss with the client why it may be relevant, what it examines, what it costs, and what we do.
04
Disclosure
Any required compensation, relationship, or independence disclosure is made before the client decides.
05
Client decision
The client independently decides whether to engage Merchant Protection Services.
06
Introduction
You introduce the client using your firm's partner link.
07
Merchant Protection engagement
We qualify, scope, contract with, bill, and serve the client directly.
08
Continued participation
Where appropriate, you remain involved in the financial-control and accounting-related aspects of the findings.
09
Documentation and compensation
Our system records that the required participation steps and disclosures were completed before compensation becomes eligible.
The question every firm asks first
Can My Firm Accept Compensation?
Yes, in permitted circumstances.
California rules permit CPAs to receive compensation in certain circumstances when a third-party service is provided in conjunction with professional services the CPA provides to the client. Compensation cannot be accepted solely for referring a client.
For this program, the CPA's role includes consulting with the client about Merchant Protection Services in relation to that client's circumstances, completing the CPA Client Review, making required disclosures, and remaining within applicable professional, independence and firm requirements.
Not every CPA, client or engagement will be eligible. Certain attest and other engagements may restrict compensation. Each participating firm remains responsible for determining whether compensation is permitted for the particular client and engagement.
Built with compliance in mind. This program was intentionally structured around applicable CPA compensation, professional-participation, disclosure, independence, and ethical requirements. Because individual engagements differ, each firm remains responsible for determining whether compensation is permitted for a particular client.
Why this structure works
In plain English, four California provisions shape how this program is built:
Business and Professions Code §5061
Addresses permitted fees and commissions for California licensees — when a fee may be accepted, and when it may not.
Board of Accountancy Regulation §56
Requires a specified written disclosure to the client. In this program the disclosure is generated for you and sent to the client for electronic acknowledgment before the client decides.
Regulation §56.1
Requires professional services that include consultation with the client about the third-party service in relation to that client's circumstances. That consultation is the substance of the CPA Client Review — it is not a formality.
Regulation §56.2
Preserves independence, objectivity and conflict-of-interest requirements. Your firm decides whether those requirements permit compensation for a particular client, and the Client Review asks you that question directly.
This summary is provided for general information about how the program is structured. It is not legal, tax, accounting, or professional-ethics advice, and it is not a determination that compensation is permitted for any particular firm, client, or engagement.
Program economics
Compensation for Professional Participation
On a standard $5,000 Merchant Protection Audit, $1,000 is allocated to the participating CPA firm for its professional participation in the engagement. This is compensation for documented professional work, not a payment for sending us a name.
It is subject to applicable laws, professional standards, independence requirements, your firm's own policies, and any required disclosures. Your firm is responsible for determining whether participation is permitted in its circumstances.
Firm receives $1,000
Split $500 / $500
Full client benefit
Compensation becomes eligible only when
- The required professional participation has occurred and is documented.
- Applicable disclosures have been completed.
- The client has paid for the qualifying engagement.
Treatment of the $2,500 Merchant Protection Review and custom-scope engagements is confirmed with each participating firm.
Independence, disclosure, and confidentiality
Your Obligations Stay Yours
- Your firm is responsible for its own independence analysis and for any disclosure required of it.
- The client always decides independently whether to engage Merchant Protection Services.
- We never ask you for client financial records, statements, or confidential documents.
- You may decline to participate for any client, and may withdraw from the program at any time.
- We do not share a client's assessment answers, scores, or findings with you. Your client decides what to share.
Privacy · Terms · Disclaimer
What we can show you today
An Honest Account of Where This Program Stands
The Merchant Protection Audit is an established service with a defined methodology, published examination areas, fixed deliverables, and plain pricing. The CPA Partner Program is new. We do not have partner case studies or testimonials yet, and we will not imply otherwise.
What you can review before applying: what we examine, what the client receives, what it costs, the written participation agreement, and the publicly sourced incidents cited on our site.
- Defined ten-area examination methodology
- Fixed deliverables and written report
- Published pricing and credit terms
- Written participation agreement
- Publicly sourced incident references
- Named principals behind the service
Questions firms ask
Frequently Asked Questions
What would my firm introduce to clients?
Merchant Protection Services provides a structured Merchant Protection Review or Audit covering the procedures around payments, vendor changes, banking, employee access, cybersecurity, insurance requirements, incident response, and documentation. The client receives written findings and prioritized protective actions. Your firm provides professional evaluation and client consultation; Merchant Protection Services performs the technical work.
Which clients is the program designed for?
It is designed for accounting and advisory firms serving established businesses that move meaningful money through customer receipts, payroll, vendors, ACH, wires, banking platforms, or similar financial activity. Your firm evaluates each client's actual circumstances before deciding whether the service is relevant.
What does the service cost the client?
The Merchant Protection Review starts at $2,500 and the full Merchant Protection Audit starts at $5,000. Complex, multi-entity, or custom work is scoped individually before the client decides whether to proceed.
How is my firm compensated?
For a qualifying standard $5,000 Merchant Protection Audit, $1,000 is allocated for documented professional participation. Your firm may receive the full $1,000, receive $500 and direct $500 to the client's benefit, or waive compensation and direct the full $1,000 to the client's benefit. Treatment of a $2,500 Review or custom-scope engagement is confirmed with each participating firm and is not promised by the standard allocation.
How are client introductions tracked?
Each enrolled firm receives its own introduction links for the general and dental assessment paths. When a client uses one of those links and submits an assessment request, the request is attributed to the firm and the business name and progress status appear in the firm's private toolkit. Client assessment answers, scores, findings, and sensitive security information are not shown to the firm.
How do I get my firm's introduction link?
Complete the two-step enrollment and electronically sign the CPA Partner Agreement. Your partner code and toolkit are then shown immediately, and the welcome email includes access to the toolkit, Client Review, and introduction links.
When is compensation eligible and when is it paid?
Eligibility requires a completed CPA Client Review, completed disclosure, documented professional participation, a qualifying Merchant Protection Services engagement, and receipt of the qualifying client payment. Eligible compensation is paid within 30 days after Merchant Protection Services confirms receipt of that payment.
What happens if participation or a client engagement is cancelled?
Either your firm or Merchant Protection Services may end program participation at any time, with or without cause, and ending participation does not affect compensation already eligible under the agreement. Clients remain free to decline the service. The Partner Agreement does not establish a separate client refund policy.
What materials does my firm receive?
The private toolkit provides the six-step Client Review, firm-specific introduction links, prewritten client emails, a short message, client-conversation talking points, disclosure starting-point wording, and limited client progress statuses. Materials should be adapted to your firm's voice, obligations, and the particular client.
How may my firm discuss the program?
The provided materials support professional client conversations, direct client email, text, and LinkedIn communication. The intended sequence is to evaluate the client, complete the Client Review and required disclosure, and then share the firm's introduction link. The current program materials do not identify paid advertising, mass outreach, or other channels as approved methods.
What claims or methods are not permitted?
Do not describe compensation as payment merely for a name, lead, link, or introduction. Do not promise that an attack will be prevented, lost funds will be recovered, or an insurance claim will be paid. Do not imply that the client is obligated to proceed, provide confidential client information without authorization, perform technical work you are not qualified to perform, or imply approval by a board, association, government body, or professional adviser.
Who is behind the service, and what can I verify before enrolling?
Merchant Protection Audit is operated under Make Your Money Multiply, LLC. Before enrolling, you can review the defined ten-area examination methodology, fixed deliverables, published pricing and credit terms, written participation agreement, public incident sources, and the roles behind the service. The CPA Partner Program is new and does not yet claim partner case studies or testimonials.
Does my firm need cybersecurity experience?
The participating firm is not asked to perform cybersecurity testing, scope technical security work, produce technical findings, provide technical support, or perform remediation unless separately engaged and qualified. Enrollment records the applicant's professional role, credential, states of practice, and business-client experience; each firm remains responsible for working within its own qualifications and professional obligations.
What does it cost to join, and is there a volume commitment?
There is no cost to your firm and no volume commitment. Your firm may decline to participate for any client and may withdraw from the program at any time.
What happens after a client uses my firm's link?
The client submits an assessment request directly to Merchant Protection Services. We qualify the request, discuss scope, contract with and bill the client, perform the technical work, deliver findings and recommendations, and provide support. Your firm remains involved where appropriate in accounting, financial-control, vendor, or payment-procedure matters, while the toolkit records the limited status needed to follow progress and determine compensation eligibility.
Do I have to sell anything?
No. Your role is professional judgment and client education. You decide whether the service is relevant, explain what it is, and make an introduction when appropriate. We handle scoping, pricing, contracting, and delivery.
How much time does participation take?
The Client Review worksheet takes roughly ten minutes per client. The client conversation is typically a short part of a meeting you were already having.
What if my client declines?
Nothing happens. There is no obligation on the client and no penalty for your firm. Your worksheet record simply reflects that you evaluated the service and the client chose not to proceed.
Will you contact my clients without me?
We contact a client after that client submits an assessment request themselves. We do not market to your client list, and we do not ask you for it.
What client information do you need from me?
Only the client's business name and general context in the Client Review worksheet. We never ask for financial records, statements, credentials, or confidential documents.
How does this interact with independence rules for attest clients?
That determination belongs to your firm and its advisers. We flag it explicitly because it matters, and we expect some firms to exclude attest clients from participation entirely.
What disclosure am I responsible for?
Any compensation, relationship, or independence disclosure required of you under applicable professional standards and your firm's policies, made before the client decides to proceed. The toolkit includes starting-point wording for your own counsel to adapt.
Can I direct the compensation to my client instead?
Yes. You may elect the full amount, a $500/$500 split with the client, or a full waiver directing the entire amount to the client's benefit.
Who supports my client during and after the engagement?
We do. Technical scoping, findings, recommendations, remediation where applicable, billing, and support all sit with Merchant Protection Services.
Can I withdraw from the program?
Yes, at any time, with no obligation.
Did we help? Pay the value forward.
If you found value here and choose not to work with us, consider supporting Rock Against Trafficking.
Apply to participate
A Meaningful Reason to Engage Your Business Clients
Participation gives your firm a structured way to raise an important business-protection topic, a specialist to hand the technical work to, and a documented professional role in the engagement.
There is no cost to your firm and no volume commitment.
The Merchant Protection CPA Partner Program compensates participating firms for documented professional participation in a client engagement, subject to applicable laws, professional standards, independence requirements, firm policies, and required disclosures. It is not a referral, affiliate, or lead-generation arrangement, and no compensation is paid merely for introducing a client. Each firm is responsible for determining whether participation is permitted in its circumstances and for making any disclosure required of it. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, accounting, or professional-ethics advice.