How Veracyte Achieves Audit-Ready Compliance with FloQast

Publicly-held Veracyte, a San Francisco-based genomic diagnostics company, wanted to improve audit controls and evidence accuracy, as well as eliminate disparate Excel and Word files for its schedule and risk control matrix. With FloQast Close and Compliance Management, Veracyte has consolidated SEC and SOX reporting, streamlined efforts, and enhanced audit accuracy and efficiency.

Building an internal audit department, along with developing improved SEC and SOX reporting capabilities, is no small task. But Christina Kang, Senior Director Technical Accounting and SEC Reporting at Veracyte was up for it.

“FloQast has transformed the way we’ve been able to see our SOX and controls environment in a clearer fashion, it’s a totally improved program. We have fewer meetings, less back and forth, and I can report up to our CFO or CAO in a more thorough and meaningful way.”

– Christina Kang, Senior Director Technical Accounting and SEC Reporting, Veracyte

With 11 years of previous public accounting experience in audit, she knew the requirements. The bigger challenge was putting the systems and processes in place to meet those requirements.

“The biggest challenge for us was using Excel schedules and Word documents for our Risk Control Matrix and control narratives,” Kang said. “They were two separate formats that just didn’t sync up and we had a lot of consistency issues.”

Fortunately for Kang, Veracyte was already using FloQast for Close Management. When she looked closer at how GL account reconciliations were centralized and automatically updated in FloQast from NetSuite, she had the classic “aha” moment that there could be a better way to meet SEC and SOX compliance standards with FloQast.

“I didn’t know what FloQast was before I got to Veracyte, and then I started to learn about how it was being used to manage our Close and was impressed with the potential,” Kang said. “I quickly realized there was much more that FloQast could do to help us sync our compliance documents and controls.”

Continuous Controls Capture Made Easy

A FloQast briefing on the latest features and functionality provided Kang with the details she needed to pursue FloQast Compliance Management.

“When I saw that FloQast automatically linked reconciliations to the Close and everything else that you need for SOX controls, I knew we had found the solution to our SOX and compliance struggles,” Kang said.

Kang found FloQast Compliance Management particularly helpful early on during two company acquisitions that brought in new team members with little public audit or reporting experience.

“When I saw that FloQast automatically linked reconciliations to the Close and everything else that you need for SOX controls, I knew we had found the solution to our SOX and compliance struggles.”

– Christina Kang, Senior Director Technical Accounting and SEC Reporting, Veracyte

“We have a fairly mature reporting environment at Veracyte since we’ve been a public company for ten years, but these compliance and controls requirements were totally new for these two companies,” Kang said. “FloQast made it easier for us to train them on the requirements and integrate their controls.”

Kang also likes the fact that FloQast is flexible and adaptable to future compliance requirements.

“A good compliance program is constantly evolving to keep up with business and regulatory changes,” Kang said. “It’s not a ‘set it and forget it’ process; there are always new requirements, and FloQast makes it easy to update and grow.”

Audit Evidence: Always Current, In Sync, and Ready for Review

Kang said she’s achieved two key compliance goals with FloQast: consistency and completion. 

“We now have consistency between our process narratives and Risk Control Matrix,” Kang said. “One of my favorite things is that we can link these automatically in FloQast.”

Worrying about version control and updates is a thing of the past now that there’s a single source of truth. Also, updates to senior management are delivered with more accuracy and confidence.

“Being able to track completion of controls and report that to our CFO has been a big win as well,” Kang said. “We can tell instantly what controls are completed, timely, and correct, and that’s super important for staying audit-ready throughout the year.”

Kang has been pleased overall with her FloQast experience, especially its support.

“I have never seen a company so responsive,” Kang said. “I’m getting responses the same day or the next day at the latest.”

In terms of compliance management and productivity, Kang is clear about the before and after differences. “FloQast has transformed the way we’ve been able to see our SOX and controls environment in a clearer fashion, it’s a totally improved program,” Kang said. “We have fewer meetings, less back and forth, and I can report up to our CFO or CAO in a more thorough and meaningful way.”