Abstract
In 2020, the statutory reporting team from RSUI upgraded from its legacy Annual Statement software. In this Customer Story, you’ll learn how the switch to Gain yielded material process improvement, including for the production of RSUI’s three Combined filings which leverage data from related subsidiaries.
Key Quote
“With Gain, we can combine one combined statement with another. The teams at our subsidiaries also use Gain, so it is much easier to bring in their Combined Statements so they can be combined with ours.”
Clarissa Wagner, Controller, RSUI
Background
With oversight responsibilities across RSUI’s filings, Clarissa Wagner found herself spending an inordinate amount of time on administrative tasks related to the Notes – keeping up with changes to NAIC requirements, maintaining frameworks for quarterly and annual filings, rolling forward data. The manual pieces of this process were time-consuming and frustrating.
Clarissa then learned of a better way. “We had heard from one of our subsidiaries that they were using Gain for the Notes, and they loved it,” she recalled. On this recommendation, RSUI signed on with Gain Compliance as for its Notes solution as well.
Impressed by the results, the reporting team instantly saw the possibilities of similar improvement across the balance of their process; soon after, RSUI moved to Gain’s Full Filing solution. The benefits were immediate.
A Better Validations Experience
“[Our legacy software] was very cumbersome in the validation process because you would have to run all validations for the whole entire statement at the end,” Clarissa recalled. “It would take five to ten minutes to run, and if you had to go fix something, you would have to run it again. Those five to ten minutes would add up over time, and we had to run it quite a few times, especially when we were working on complicated schedules.”
On top of this, it took a reporting veteran’s familiarity with the data model to understand the output and resolve issues. “It was not very easy to review those errors, and you really had to know what it was talking about to clear the validation report.”
Gain’s live data model, integrated validation dashboard, and multi-monitor support were transformational. “With Gain, it points you to that other page and creates it in a new tab. That has made the process 100% better because you can fix it live, and the validation error goes away,” Clarissa explained.
“You don’t have to spend the time running the report for the entire statement,” she continued. “You can focus it on the pages you’re working on, fix things as they pop up on that page, and easily click through if an error is created on another page.”
In addition to the time savings, the value of Gain is in how much smoother the reporting process has become for the team. “Being able to look at an error, and quickly understand what is going on – you can have both pages up at the same time to compare, and see which exact cell is causing the error.
RSUI’s process and, with it, Clarissa’s approach, have evolved. With the team now contributing already-validated pages, her review takes a more holistic view of the statements. “There’s clarity knowing that those pages don’t have any errors ahead of time, so there’s increased confidence as I begin my review.”
The Combined Filing
The legacy software was also limiting in terms of Combined Statement functionality; this had proven particularly challenging in light of RSUI’s rich reporting environment.
RSUI utilizes a multi-tiered process. Upstream subsidiaries’ Combined filings consolidate with downstream entities for a progressive set of nested Combined filings. All told, RSUI’s financial reporting team creates three unique Combined statements for different audiences: two are reviewed externally, and the third is used for internal reporting.
By understanding RSUI’s workflows, the team at Gain was able to provide input and make suggestions on how to streamline RSUI’s complex Combined Statement process. “With Gain, we can combine one combined statement with another. The teams at our subsidiaries also use Gain, so it is much easier to bring in their Combined Statements so they can be combined with ours.”
A once awkward and inefficient process became straightforward with Gain. The transition was a breeze, and the team sailed through the first filings. “The team at Gain was fantastic; they went above and beyond to make sure that the first year of using Gain for our Combined Statement went smoothly,” Clarissa recounted. “That was invaluable to us.”
Conclusion
Modern software improves outcomes for financial reporting teams by creating process efficiencies and providing better data quality. As demonstrated by RSUI’s rich reporting framework, the most complex processes provide the greatest opportunity for transformation and lift.
Learn more about how Gain has improved outcomes for financial reporting teams for other carriers.