5 ERP Compliance Program Components You Need (and why we recommend Oracle NetSuite)

Ekwani Consulting
 

 

Are you on the hunt for a new compliance program but have no clue what to look for? Compliance Programs can be tricky for many reasons but the main one being that they all offer you peace of mind while only a select few have what it really takes to provide you effective governance, risk and compliance. After all, this program will be dedicated towards helping your team not only do what they need to do but also allowing them to do so in a way that keeps your operations compliant in addition to your technology systems. This could look like anything from segregation of duties all the way down to account reconciliations. Having an effective compliance program can set your business up for ease of mind when it comes to audits as well as confidence in knowing your accounting systems are not allowing things to fall through the cracks.
 
 
 So how do you know you’ve found “the one”? A few ways! We share more with you below but remember that above all, having an effective system will help raise your awareness in the financial changes of your business, risks that your business may be open to as well as knowing the hierarchy of authority in your company. All key things to have a stronghold on if taking your company public is of importance to you!
 
 
Here are our top recommendations on things you should keep an eye out for when hunting for a compliance system!
 
 

1. Workflows:

 

If you haven't heard of it before, workflows may become your new favorite thing with your compliance system! Workflows are standard operating procedures of your business. If there are certain steps you take after something occurs, workflows allow you to clearly map them out so that you can follow their progress!

 

This means no more email follow-ups trying to find out status and no fumbling of “who was doing this again??” in the process. Delegate, date and activate so that you know what's occurring every step of the way. Another great bonus? An effective compliance system will also let you incorporate invoice tracking! This way you can keep up-to-date with where the invoice stands in the process as well as automatically have your finance trackers updating and moving along through the workflow without a pause. Speaking of finances...

 
 

2. Financial Audit Proof:

 

Effective compliance systems are also goldmines because of how much they ensure you’re tracking everything you’re doing! By plugging in vendor bills, expense receipts and tracking your business income, everything will be residing in-house/at your fingertips. Should an audit be needed, you have nothing but a few clicks to make! This relieves stress on you as well as making those audits an open and shut case!

 
 

3. Following (and reporting) the trails:

 

No business wants to be susceptible to risks. And yet they happen anyway. So how do you prevent them? By tracking your audit trails. Can you guess what would help you do that? Ding, ding ding! An effective compliance system. If your system is conducting an efficient audit trail, you’ll be able to monitor changes happening in your finances/transactions. This could be monitoring the small details of the changes, who made the changes as well as the source.

 

An effective compliance system should be able to provide you with reports that document master data management, user access administration as well as transaction history.

 

Bonus: Really great systems should even allow the option of creating alerts when things change so that you can attend to them as soon as possible!

 
 

4. Set Hierarchy:

 

When it comes to your compliance program...not everyone needs the same access and sometimes...no one needs access at all! You’ll need a system that will allow you to have different layers of security so that you’re only permitting access to certain users where absolutely necessary to perform their job duties. With a good system, you’ll be able to assign roles and appropriate access so that your business keeps moving along in a compliant manner by not erroneously giving access to those who don’t need it. While some compliance systems do this differently, we’ll share further down how our system does this!

 
 

5. Adaptable to your Business: Your business is not like the next and it deserves to have a system that can bend to it’s needs. That’s why having the ability to customize and change configurations is an important thing to consider! Forms, fields as well as set templates may be needed and being able to change the way an application works may be vital to your business. When hunting for systems, look out for System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and change management controls as these will be vital to your ability to mold the system you want and need. Additionally, you’ll know you have a worthy SDLC by knowing that properly authorized, tested and approved changes are pushed into a live environment.

 
 

WHO WE RECOMMEND (NetSuite, of course!)

 

There’s been only 1 system that we’ve found that hits these 5 vital needs and that's NetSuite. We work on integrating NetSuite into the businesses we work with because of so many reasons.

 

For example:

 

  • “NetSuite is built for the cloud, equipped with features for securing sensitive data, like credit card information and personally identifiable information.”

  • “NetSuite is audited to SOC 1 type 2 and SOC 2 type 2 (SSAE18 and ISAE 3402 standards), ISO 27001 and 27018, PCI DSS and PA DSS.”

  • “The NetSuite SOC 1 and SOC 2 reports are intended to provide users with visibility into the controls over financial reporting and the system controls intended to meet the AICPA Trust Services Principles and Criteria that a user of NetSuite services can rely upon.”

  • “When it comes to ensuring your business’s access is balanced and in check, NetSuite supports you with system notes and audit trails so that you can show your auditors who has access to which features and if these permissions have changed since the last audit.”

  • “In NetSuite, configuration changes are managed through NetSuite’s SuiteCloud Developer Framework (SDF) projects in a sandbox and promoted to production using native functionality. This allows you to track production changes via SDF projects. Change management is a critical aspect of any financial system.”

 
Here’s the thing! Although we SWEAR by NetSuite and talk to you all day about it’s advantages...the truth of the matter is that NO compliance system you buy will be able to guarantee compliance. As a business owner, part of your job will always be to keep an eye on governance, possible risks as well as making sure your staff has access only to what they need. After that? It’s just a to-do list of making sure the wheels of what you put in place are being monitored and working! However, it’s because we know how much work that can take that having some back up can really help! With NetSuite, we truly believe it’s been vital in providing our clients with that 2nd pair of automated eyes and allowing them to rest easy knowing they have the building blocks to a solid foundation for crucial compliance.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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