Compliance Management Checklist for Small Businesses 

Compliance is a core component of all organizations regardless of their size. There is, however, a major difference in how compliance affects small businesses and how it affects large businesses. There is a huge imbalance in the resources available to these organizations. Large organizations can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on compliance every year and it barely makes a dent on their budget. Small businesses are limited by their resources.

While both the small and large organizations are complying with the same laws and regulations, their methods are very different. Large organizations have fully staffed compliance departments equipped with the latest compliance and regulatory technology solutions. This allows them to work efficiently and productively. In some small organizations the compliance ‘department’ is just one person and they have to manage everything manually. The small business compliance checklist has thus always been a helpful tool.

Keeping a small business compliance checklist helps small organizations keep track of and organize compliance activities. The checklist allows compliance employees to quickly ensure that all required tasks have been completed and nothing is amiss.

The problem with keeping a manual checklist

Small business compliance checklists are used because there is a need for them – compliance managers need a document or system to reference that can help them manage compliance. It should however be kept in mind that these checklists are used only because there was no better solution available. While there have been a lot of compliance management solutions available over the last decade, they were always a bit too expensive for small businesses to use.

This needs to change now, for one very simple reason – GRC is no longer inaccessible for smaller organizations. There was a time when GRC meant expensive technology that was hard to implement, but that is no longer true. GRC solutions, like compliance management systems and risk management systems, are now easily accessible for organizations of all sizes.

Bringing the checklist into the digital age

The small business compliance checklist is still an important tool. That is why instead of abandoning it compliance management systems have a checklist included. The checklist is also often automated. If any part of the checklist has been missed no one needs to reference the checklist – the system will alert the assigned users automatically, ensuring better compliance. Referencing documents is also simplified with the help of GRC technology. Everything is easily searchable through keywords, ensuring that any document needed for referencing will be quickly available.

Small organizations need to realize that the technology their employees need is easily accessible for them. Cloud based GRC solutions work on a SaaS (software as a service) model. This means that instead of making a large investment in a technology hoping that it will generate ROI in a few years banks can subscribe to software services on a temporary basis. There are many advantages to this – one being that the company simply needs to make a small monthly payment and no significant implementation cost is required. This is a gamechanger for small to mid-sized organizations. They have not been able to compete with the compliance efficiency in larger organizations because they simply did not have the technology to keep up with them.

If your organization is still using a manual small business compliance checklist, it is due for an upgrade. Once your compliance managers become comfortable with GRC solutions their productivity will significantly increase. There wouldn’t just be a vague increase in efficiency – there will a startling cut-down in the amount of time and effort required to complete and manage compliance tasks.

There will be fewer compliance violations and issues as well. When compliance managers are manually tracking compliance performance, they will eventually miss something. No person can deliver 100% efficiency. Computers are much better at monitoring and tracking costs. Another side benefit of this automation is that compliance managers will now have time to focus on big picture compliance projects and strategies for the future.

If you want to see what a compliance management system can do for your organization and how it performs better than a small business compliance checklist, talk to us. There is no need to make an investment before you test the compliance management system – we will give your organization a one month trial so you can assess the benefits of the solution yourself.

About the company

360factors, Inc. (Austin, TX) helps companies improve business performance by reducing risk and ensuring compliance. Predict360, its flagship software product, vertically integrates regulations and requirements, policies and procedures management, risks and controls, audit management and inspections, and on-line training and qualifications, in a single cloud-based platform based on artificial intelligence.

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