Become Proficient in Compliance Automation with Document Management Software

A document management system (DMS) eases many challenges linked to compliance with its automated workflow. It allows quick and simple verification that employees adhere to company policies while minimising the time spent on repetitive routine tasks. A digital document management system provides reporting features to identify issues before they escalate into problems. It’s a reliable method to significantly enhance your organisation's likelihood of succeeding in internal and external compliance audits.

Revamp your procedures by eliminating the dependence on paper, disorganised electronic files, or Excel spreadsheets for tracking and storing compliance-related documents. Business operations that depend on error-prone techniques, such as manually entering data into a spreadsheet, mainly when handled by multiple employees, are hazardous.

Despite everyone's efforts to ensure precision, mistakes are inevitable. Failing to detect these errors can lead to non-compliance. Our document management solution streamlines these manual tasks with AI-driven technology. Intelligent Indexing automatically extracts the most critical information from a document and transforms it into well organised, practical index data.

2. Embrace cloud automation

Robust security measures and disaster recovery planning are fundamental components of a compliance strategy. Cloud platforms establish and consistently adhere to explicit security and privacy standards. These platforms offer document and internet communication encryption, safeguarding cloud services from protocol downgrade attacks, cookie hijacking, malware, and other cyber threats. They also ensure secure backup by replicating data in remote data centres. Transitioning your DMS to the cloud ensures your organisation complies with standards while easing the burden on internal IT resources.

3. Control access and permissions

If unrestricted access is granted to everyone for editing documents and reports, chaos may ensue. A document management system employs a detailed rights framework to manage document access and workflow data. This rights-based system limits which documents and index data users can store, retrieve, edit, alter, and delete from a digital archive. It safeguards sensitive information to maintain its integrity and prevent unauthorised changes and bypasses.

4. Manage the entire document lifecycle

Since each document type has its retention timeline, manual methods are time-consuming and prone to errors. Your business requires a strategy, and a document management system streamlines its implementation. A DMS handles retention timelines through automatic deletion or by sending an email alert to a team member before deletion. Automation, guided by your business rules, greatly facilitates maintaining your company's compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, GDPR, FINRA, FERPA, and other federal and state regulations.

Although organisations can face penalties for failing to retain information for a specified duration, retaining documents longer than necessary exposes companies to potential security breaches and violations of privacy regulations.

5. Implement version control

Our document management software is installed with version control enabled. Seek a document management system with a list view indicating the last edit date and the editor's identity. Restricting access to previous versions will minimise confusion and unnecessary modifications. When sharing a document for review, send a link to the current version instead of the document itself, preventing multiple team members from editing different versions simultaneously.

6. Ensure audit preparedness

Government bodies, nonprofit organisations, and both private and public enterprises may undergo an audit. A compliance audit examines the activities of a company, business, or particular department to verify that its regulations and procedures align with company policies. Additionally, some compliance audits assess whether a company operates according to external standards, such as federal or industry regulations.

A document management system verifies corporate policies and practices by generating reports that validate the implementation of an organisation’s standard operating procedures. With a DMS, reports can be compiled and shared effectively with auditors.

7. Prioritise data privacy initiatives

Data privacy is becoming an increasingly significant issue for all organisations. In addition to the existing compliance mandates set by HIPAA, GDPR, the Shield Act, COPPA, and other industry-specific regulations, anticipate the emergence of new and possibly stricter ones soon. Standing by these regulations requires your company to comprehensively understand your data's status and the necessary tools to ensure it remains secure, confidential, and current.

Our document management system allows you to maintain strong data integrity and demonstrate that information is complete, precise, and protected with administrative, physical, and technical measures to prevent unauthorised alterations, damage, or deletion. Besides enhancing internal security, this solution also protects customer and membership data. Electronic processes can adjust to evolving regulations or new laws, and enforcing company policies centrally is far more efficient than doing so on a department by department basis.

How document management capabilities enhance compliance best practices

A document management system offers workflow tools that ensure your business remains compliant and away from penalties and legal actions.

Define roles and responsibilities

• Facilitates user identification and authentication using a distinct username and password
• Grants each employee specific access permissions
• Assigns privileges at the individual level to help eliminate unauthorised activity
• Provides a complete record of which document was accessed, who accessed it, and what actions were performed

Access rights

• Offers various tiers of control
• Allows groups to access a wide range of documents
• Can limit group members' actions regarding a document. For instance, certain staff might have the ability to view and print a document but not modify it.

Audit trails and version control

• Enhances the capacity to examine and oversee user accounts.

• Sends alerts about breaches of security protocols via activity reports
• Provides capabilities for tracking errors and conducting audits

• Maintains document integrity by displaying the differences between document versions.

• Ensures that users are always working on the latest version.
• Secures "checked out" documents to stop simultaneous edits by multiple users.
• Maintains a precise log of who made changes and the timing of those modifications.
• Logs each document access and modification to compile a document history for audit readiness and other compliance needs.

Creating a compliance strategy demands careful consideration, specialised knowledge, and interdepartmental cooperation. Implementing this strategy is best handled through office automation. By establishing business rules tailored to your needs and activating them via office automation, you can mitigate non-compliance risks and concentrate on your primary duties.

Learn more about our document management solution.