Streamlined Compliance: The Joint Chiropractic’s Success with FloQast

In 2021, The Joint Chiropractic (NASDAQ: JYNT) sought to streamline its reporting, gain workflow visibility, and speed up the month-end Close. Since implementing FloQast, the team has dramatically improved its Close process, gaining workflow visibility and speeding up reporting.

When Kelly Vargas, Vice President, Corporate Controller, caught wind of a Compliance solution within the FloQast platform, she saw a chance to bring everything into FloQast, thus providing a big win for the company’s comprehensive compliance program. Replacing the prior compliance platform with FloQast not only addressed the team’s struggles with the previous solution but also enabled the company to:

• Integrate compliance with existing workflows
• Centralize data and automate processes within a singular platform
• Solve its inefficient evidence collection
• Streamline the audit process

“Transitioning over 100 controls across 13 significant processes to FloQast Compliance Management was seamless for our team. The controls were already embedded in FloQast, making the process straightforward. We quickly moved through walkthroughs, and our internal auditor was able to suggest edits directly within the narratives, which I could approve and update in real-time. This integration significantly improved our efficiency, allowing us to streamline our compliance management and focus on testing during Q3.”

– Kelly Vargas, Vice President, Corporate Controller

Achieving Compliance Excellence: The Joint Chiropractic’s Path to Success

As The Joint Chiropractic continued to optimize its accounting processes, much of the prior compliance platform’s drawbacks gave Kelly pause, but that was the best solution available to them at the time. That is, until they heard about FloQast Compliance Management.

“The prior compliance platform wasn’t very intuitive for me, especially when it came to setting up users and their workspaces,” Kelly said. “If someone left our company, I had to manually reassign the control owner one by one or contact their help desk for mass changes, which was time-consuming. The platform had multiple windows to navigate through for each task, which made it challenging to get a real-time view of our compliance status. It felt like a black box, and I struggled to keep track of where we were in the process.”

While on a check-in call with FloQast’s Accounting Success team, Kelly learned of the forthcoming Compliance Management solution and volunteered to test the product.

“When I first heard about FloQast Compliance Management, I knew I would like it,” she said. “FloQast is like the Apple iPhone — intuitive, clean, and easy to use. Additionally, unlike the prior compliance platform, where I had to constantly submit help desk tickets, FloQast is self-service and very intuitive. I can quickly see where everything is with a dashboard, and it’s easy to manage compliance without needing external help. It’s been a game-changer for us.”

A Seamless Transition: From the prior compliance platform to FloQast Compliance Management

When asked about implementing FloQast Compliance Management, Kelly mentioned that its simplicity caught her by surprise.

“It was incredibly easy,” she recalled. “They told me ‘Hey, we’re going to turn it on,’ and they did. Then they told me they were going to load our narratives and controls in, and they did. It was that easy. It required no involvement from my team at all. I did it without them even knowing, and when a few of them saw it in FloQast, I told them we weren’t going to be using the prior compliance platform anymore, and that everything we needed was already in FloQast.”

While it sounded almost too good to be true, Kelly admitted the transition from the prior compliance platform to FloQast was as simple as she had hoped it would be.

“The switch from the prior compliance platform to FloQast Compliance Management was incredibly smooth,” Kelly said. “Our team barely noticed the transition. FloQast is just so clean and intuitive that we were able to implement it without any disruptions. We’re already seeing huge benefits in terms of accountability and efficiency.”

“The switch from the prior compliance platform to FloQast Compliance Management was incredibly smooth. Our team barely noticed the transition. FloQast is just so clean and intuitive that we were able to implement it without any disruptions. We’re already seeing huge benefits in terms of accountability and efficiency.”

– Kelly Vargas, Vice President, Corporate Controller

Reaping the Rewards: Efficiency and Integration with FloQast

Kelly’s team experienced significant efficiency gains after implementing FloQast Compliance Management. The seamless transition and real-time updates allowed them to enhance their compliance processes.

“Transitioning over 100 controls across 13 significant processes to FloQast Compliance Management was seamless for our team,” Kelly said. “The controls were already embedded in FloQast, making the process straightforward. We quickly moved through walkthroughs, and our internal auditor was able to suggest edits directly within the narratives, which I could approve and update in real-time. This integration significantly improved our efficiency, allowing us to streamline our compliance management and focus on testing during Q3.”

Kelly shared insights on how risk awareness and management have evolved within her organization since implementing FloQast. By empowering her team and enhancing accountability, they have achieved a more vigilant approach to maintaining accurate and effective controls:

“Giving my team more autonomy and requiring their sign-off has significantly improved risk awareness within our organization,” she said. “They know they are held accountable for ensuring that processes are carried out as documented. If there are discrepancies, it prompts a conversation, ensuring that any changes are carefully considered and important risk factors are not overlooked. This two-way accountability has enhanced our overall risk management and ensured that everyone is more vigilant about maintaining accurate and effective controls.”

Kelly discussed how integrating various workflows in FloQast with FloQast Compliance Management has transformed their compliance framework. The ability to link auditing and operational tasks in a single platform has significantly improved their tracking and real-time visibility:

“Linking various workflows in FloQast to FloQast Compliance Management has been a breakthrough for us. The integration of executing and auditing compliance in the same platform allows for a streamlined and easily trackable framework. The real-time dashboard was one of those great features you didn’t know you needed until you had one; which provides a live view of our compliance status, eliminating the need to wait for quarterly updates. This seamless connection between workflows ensures that our compliance environment is always up-to-date and efficiently managed.”

Boosting Efficiency: The Impact on Internal Audits and Budgets

Kelly highlighted the efficiency improvements achieved by granting the internal audit team direct access to FloQast workflows. This change has streamlined their process and reduced the need for manual handling of PBC requests:

“Granting our internal audit team access to FloQast workflows has significantly streamlined our process and reduced the back-and-forth with PBC requests. Now, our auditor can directly search, export, and manage data within FloQast, minimizing the need to transfer information manually. This seamless integration has cut down on redundant work and improved our overall efficiency by consolidating everything in one place.”

Kelly also shared how the efficiency gains from using FloQast have positively impacted their internal audit budget. By integrating FloQast into their processes, they were able to achieve notable cost savings:

“By integrating FloQast into our processes, we achieved a 13% savings compared to last year’s efforts. Our internal audit budget was under budget last year, largely due to the efficiencies gained from giving our auditor access to FloQast. With all data consolidated in one screen and streamlined access, we anticipate being under budget again this year. Despite managing SOX 404B, our budget and actuals have decreased since I began overseeing the SOX process and aligning it with the close checklists and other workflows. This continued efficiency reflects the significant impact of our improved processes.”

Sustained Success: Long-Term Benefits and Future Plans

In conclusion, Kelly reflects on the transformative impact of integrating FloQast into their compliance management processes. The ability to link tasks and audits seamlessly has provided a more efficient and transparent approach to managing compliance. Kelly also highlights the ease of use and self-service nature of FloQast, which has further streamlined their workflow:

“The ability to link the ‘doing’ and the ‘auditing’ in one place has truly transformed our compliance management. It’s made the entire process much more integrated and efficient. The real-time dashboard was one of those great features you didn’t know you needed until you had one; which gives me an up-to-date view without having to wait for quarterly updates. Additionally, I haven’t had to reach out to support for significant changes, as FloQast is intuitive and self-service. This ease of use allows me to focus on moving forward rather than dealing with the complications we faced with the prior compliance platform.”

Kelly discusses the significant value she sees in FloQast’s integrated Accounting Automation Platform. She highlights how the continual enhancements and the integration of Compliance Management have provided a cohesive and intuitive experience, reflecting a significant shift from the fragmented systems they used previously:

“Every time I open FloQast, I discover a new feature that works exactly as I would intuitively expect. Starting with just the Close and ReMind functionalities, we’ve seen how FloQast has evolved into a comprehensive accounting automation platform. This integration of Compliance Management into a single platform has been incredibly valuable. It’s been a tremendous help for us, consolidating what used to be spread across multiple applications into one synergistic system. The ability to access everything in one place and navigate seamlessly between different functions has provided immense value and efficiency, making the platform indispensable for our operations.”