Customer Stories
How Curis Streamlined Their Close, Strengthened Compliance, and Saved Six Figures With FloQast
Curis, a biopharmaceutical innovator based in Lexington, Massachusetts, faced challenges with their traditional, paper-heavy month-end Close process and compliance program. These inefficiencies not only led to wasted time and resources but also resulted in significant audit fees.
This is where FloQast stepped in. By leveraging FloQast’s automation and connected platform, Curis was able to streamline their Close process, strengthen their compliance program, and achieve substantial cost savings.
Curis’s Success with FloQast: A Summary
- Eliminated $110,000 in external audit fees by combining Close and compliance efforts.
- Enhanced collaboration with internal and external auditors through a single, unified platform.
- Improved visibility and accountability with real-time access to control execution and testing results.
- Streamlined workflows through automation and centralized documentation.
Prioritizing Efficiency: Streamlining the Close Process
When Jake Burgess, Curis’s former Vice President and Corporate Controller, joined the company, he recognized the need for a more efficient Close process. Having experienced the benefits of FloQast Close at his previous company, Jake championed its implementation despite the team’s initial focus on an ERP transition.
“I never want to manage a month-end Close again without FloQast,” Jake stated emphatically. FloQast’s robust Close checklist and integration with Microsoft Dynamics GP facilitated a fast and efficient implementation, replacing manual tasks with automation and providing centralized dashboards for improved visibility.
“Before, we did manual sign-offs and used a lot of paper,” Jake recalled. “Now, we don’t use any paper, and we have the structure and automation of FloQast to guide us and keep us on track.”
Combining Close and Compliance for Enhanced Efficiency and Cost Savings
Another area ripe for improvement was compliance. While control ownership and execution functioned well, the Provided By Client (PBC) process was time-consuming, and external audit fees were high.
Accounting manager Kayli Walker, who previously spent hours uploading PBC documentation, now finds the process significantly faster thanks to FloQast Compliance Management. “With FloQast Compliance, all I have to do is provide a description and a link in the auditor’s PBC portal, which takes about five minutes,” she said.
Recognizing the high cost of outsourced internal auditors, Jake decided to bring the SOX program in-house and leverage FloQast Compliance Management. By linking controls to existing Close processes, Curis embedded controls directly into business workflows, providing real-time validation and eliminating the need for extensive outsourced testing.
“The concept of doing our SOX control management and testing was easy; we just needed FloQast to help us organize it and automate it. That saved us $110,000 in outside audit fees.”
Jake Burgess, Former Vice President and Corporate Controller
Transparency and Collaboration: A Unified Platform for Success
Curis’s financial statement auditors also benefit from FloQast. With a curated view of the platform, they can access necessary Close and compliance information, fostering transparency and allowing them to maintain steady fees.
“FloQast helps us collaborate more effectively with our financial statement auditors because it provides such clear visibility into completeness, testing results, evidence, and ownership,” said Jake.
Both Jake and Kayli agree that having the Close and SOX programs within a single platform like FloQast has significantly improved efficiency and oversight. “With FloQast, everyone on our team, including our financial statement auditors, knows where to go for information, and it eliminates the duplication of efforts,” concluded Kayli.
