Abstract
Controller Monica Pilz-Spivey leveraged her extensive statutory accounting knowledge to complete KW Specialty’s filing using legacy software. An upgrade to Gain Compliance not only provided lift to her personally, but also facilitated including another team member with significantly less experience in the process.
In this Customer Story, you’ll learn the simple reason Monica chose Gain over software with which she had become very familiar, and how Gain’s modern solution had a transformative effect on the reporting workflows at the company.
Key Quotes
“When I say Yuan had maybe one year of experience with these filings, and he was using Gain without any problem, that is a testament to the software.”
Monica Pilz-Spivey, Controller, KW Specialty
“The data flows of the statement are clear. It’s the same with the structure of the framework. Those are the things that make it all approachable for someone new to this reporting.”
Yuan Li, Accountant, KW Specialty
Background
Following the 2024 Annual Statement, KW Specialty’s Controller, Monica Pilz-Spivey, was feeling the limitations that came with the installed software product she used to file the company’s Yellow Book.
Part of the challenge was the time spent managing software updates from the vendor as well as both the timing and frequency in which those updates were sent.
The larger issue, however, was the specialized knowledge required – not only of statutory accounting, but also of the software itself. “The only way to know you had a validation error,” she explained, “was to recognize the number of an identifier in a certain place, as long as you knew where to look to find that place.”
In effect, Monica uniquely bore the responsibility for the entire process. She also noted that completing the filing required coordination and support from the vendor to get across the finish line: “They were in it with us to get us through the season,” she recalled, ”but they were struggling with that old architecture as well.”
An Immediate Impact
For Monica, the look of Gain’s software was the first thing to catch her eye. ““It just looked prettier,” she enthused.
She went on to explain the improved interface provided clearer insight: “When the colors indicate you have a problem with a number, and there’s information on the problem just to the right, that makes it so easy to resolve any issue with that number. It’s very intuitive, especially for someone who is new.”
Unlike the software she had been using, which often required crunch-time assistance from their support team, Gain’s software was high-functioning, bug-free, and eliminated her previous tech support needs.
The move to Gain also enabled Monica to execute on her plan to enlist a new person into the process. Yuan Li, new to both the insurance industry in general and statutory reporting specifically, joined the team as Accounting Systems Analyst.
He began using Gain and quickly took the lead on the filing. “When I say Yuan had maybe one year of experience with these filings, and he was using Gain without any problem, that is a testament to the software,” Monica observed.
Off And Running
“Once Monica walked me through the workflow in Gain,” Yuan recalled, “I was able to start using the software right away, and felt very comfortable with it.”
As a new user, the intuitiveness and instant familiarity was transformational. As Yuan spent time in Gain’s application, he quickly began to understand the logic of the data model within the filings. “The data flows of the statement are clear. It’s the same with the structure of the framework,” he said. “Those are the things that make it approachable for someone new to this reporting.”
Yuan noted the comfort he found from Gain’s Customer Success team as well: “I know there’s a real person at Gain Compliance that will get back to me quickly. Someone to talk to like that, it’s just so very helpful.”
With Gain’s Notes module, real time validation engine, and straightforward data importing features, Yuan was able to take over key parts of generating the statement prior to Monica’s review. “Validating the numbers is in real time. You can clearly see what’s off, and it’s easy to fix those things. That’s the most useful part,” he concluded.
When Yuan returned to visit China for the New Year celebrations in February, he worked on the 2025 Annual Statement from a distance. “It’s all in real time, and Monica and I used the status dots to show our progress no matter the time difference, and it all went smoothly.”
Conclusion
With their knowledge and experience, finance leaders are often well-equipped to manage their company’s statutory filings on their own, no matter the software the company has in place. The main problem with that is they become the only people who really know how to use these legacy software products.
Through modern, Cloud-native technology, Gain Compliance empowers these leaders to bring new people into the reporting process and have them quickly make a contribution to the work of these statements.
Learn more about how Gain has improved outcomes for financial reporting teams for other carriers.