Five ways comprehensive compliance software can save your business

Regulatory scandals are abundant in today’s business environment. You can open your newspaper almost any day of the week and read about how a corporation skirted the rules, or worse, overlooked them. Furthermore, there’s plenty of publicity to fuel the fires of banking failures, faulty subprime mortgage deals and internet data breaches. The current environment has increased the public’s distrust of business; from big corporations down to local small businesses. This has led to increased regulation and compliance frameworks in order to protect private citizens. The current climate has chief compliance officers and their departments walking a tightrope more often than not these days.

It is essential that every business has a strong, structured compliance department. Running a compliance department and keeping up with the demands of the various regulatory agencies can be a nightmare. Trying to accomplish that without a comprehensive compliance software tool, could lead to fines and bad PR for your company.

Keep reading to learn how the right compliance software tool could literally save your business.

Bottom line: Compliance Software Increases Efficiency

Regulatory agencies and outside auditors don’t really see it as their concern to provide companies with neatly packaged lists of compliance requirements and regulations. But, for example, we all know that it’s on the company if wires get crossed and compliance protocols aren’t properly documented. It doesn’t matter that your CCO and staff spent hours untangling a mess and trying to understand it.

Robert Willis, whose company created Cennix says that when he worked in the gaming industry, “The spreadsheets were not broken down by functional department, just a mish-mash of control statements.” A lot can get lost in the shuffle when you have a bunch of disjointed spreadsheets to contend with. Compliance software can eliminate the threat of lost information and missed steps by giving users the ability to consolidate information into one system and navigate easily between dashboards.

Compliance software seamlessly automates the entire process. Most companies are responsible for managing multiple regulatory needs and the automation that software provides can help CCOs and their staff stay on top of narratives that are coming due or are incomplete. There are new regulatory alerts almost constantly, so having a tool that can keep your compliance work organized has come to be expected.

Reduce Costs and Keep Compliance Budgets In Check

Increased efficiency is usually accompanied by reduced cost. There are two major ways costs can be reduced with compliance software: compliance department budgets stay in check because they are operating with optimal efficiency, and there are fewer regulatory fines. A good suite of compliance software should include financial controls that allow for budget creation, expense tracking and documentation tracking. Companies have to stay in compliance, there is no getting around that, and compliance departments often suffer under budgets that barely cover their needs. A tool that has budget controls can at least help departments stay within the allotted budget, and make a better case for more robust funding in years to come. Staying in check means they projected budgetary needs will be much more accurate, allowing CCOs and their staff to plan and execute more effectively.

Audits Will Not Be the Beginning of the End

Compliance software creates a digital paper trail. Excel spreadsheets can do this too, if you want to comb through thousands of files and collate them correctly, in a way that auditors will be receptive of. Using compliance software tools means having compliance documentation automatically. When a random audit happens (or even a scheduled one), and it will, everything is easy to access.

Compliance software can also assign responsibility of controls to specific team members. This keeps staff members accountable for each individual segment of the compliance process. Each person has their assigned tasks and they are the keepers of them. Auditors can easily direct their questions and requests for more information to the appropriate people.

Truly Implement Corporate Policies

A large part of a compliance officer’s job is to communicate the core values and policies of the company, in addition to regulations required by law. Holding training sessions, disseminating information and documenting receipt and understanding of company policies and regulations is critical to any company’s success. This is all behind the scenes work, but without it many companies would cease to exist for a variety of reasons. The ability to house all of this information and be alerted when it is incomplete is a major game changer, because it keeps the policy implementation process moving. Compliance officers won’t be caught off guard at the last minute without a signature, because the system will notify them long before problems arise.

Reduced Personal Liability for CCOs and Protection for Corporations

With everything in mind that compliance management software can accomplish for companies large and small, perhaps the most important component is the fact that it reduces personal liability risk for CCOs and increases protection for companies. Society has a natural tendency to want to assign blame when things go wrong, especially in the corporate world. So, when there is scandal, the CCO is typically the first scapegoat and the first to pack up their office. Not only is there a risk of being fired, but compliance officers can be sued and personally fined. This is on top of the fines and sanctions assessed to the company in question. Compliance software essentially prevents mistakes and even bad intentions in order to protect the people and the entities involved.

Conclusions

The top software in the compliance industry includes compliance automation, policy management, process management and financial tags. When everything is integrated into one system, businesses can operate under calmer conditions where regulatory alerts aren’t constantly sending them into a tailspin. Fines and corporate sanctions are climbing to new heights daily, so an automated software solution that houses all data and makes it easily accessible could quite literally save your company.

Cennix is software that allows your organization to maintain and track your compliance and regulatory requirements.  To learn more about Cennix, call 844-4CENNIX or email to questions@cennix.com