Abstract
Service Lloyds transitioned from their legacy software vendor for their two entities and their Combined filing for the 2022 Annual Statement. In this customer story, you will learn how Gain’s modern design provided automation and greater visibility into their statements.
Key Quotes:
“The way the software brings the documents forward to you and updates the framework when needed is pretty incredible. It’s been a huge time savings for us.”
Leigh Busby, VP of Accounting
“Everyone here loves your product. We love Gain Compliance – we’re really happy with it.”
Carol Alexander, Senior Accountant
Background:
Gain’s modern design and features provided across-the-board efficiencies for Service Lloyds in areas such as Footnotes, Cash-Flow Worksheet, Collaboration, and keeping up with NAIC changes. This has improved outcomes – both in terms of time savings and data quality.
Cash Flow Worksheet:
Carol Alexander, Senior Accountant, found working in several schedules in her legacy solution particularly frustrating: “Sovos had, especially in their Cash Flow Worksheet, so many challenges. They had a bunch of different colored cells in there and you had to figure out what’s going on in each one of them.”
Carol also faced a lack of automation; prior to even using the framework, significant setup work was required. “It was just the reconciliation process. If something was missing, there were a lot of things, like taxes, that you had to input manually on the cash flow.”
For Carol, the many issues with their previous vendor were due, in large part, to its antiquated interface and a lack of visibility. “With Cash flow in Sovos, that was my biggest problem: you would see a number in a cell and it would say, over on the side, where it comes from, but you couldn’t just click on it and see how it’s connected.”
In her work on Cash Flow with Gain’s solution, Carol benefits from not only perfect visibility, but also modern navigation. “Gain Compliance is so much easier to read,” she said. “You click the cell and it tells you what’s going on, it shows exactly where the validations are, so it’s just so much easier to use.”
Notes:
Prior to adopting Gain Compliance for statutory reporting, VP of Accounting Leigh Busby found the Notes particularly challenging as prior year-end and quarter-end data was entered manually. “In the software we were using, we had to do that ourselves. We had this enormous Excel spreadsheet with lots of columns and tables. It was a mess to work with when we had to make edits.”
Notes data was then manually entered into the filing. Leigh recounted, “We had to manage the electronic Footnotes data entirely separate from the data in our document. So, with all that information, we had to essentially enter it twice.”
It was also fell to the financial reporting team to manage changes to the Notes framework as required through NAIC updates. “To investigate what the Footnotes should look like and the wording that should be used, that was a lot of work.”
Leigh appreciates the altogether different experience working in Gain Compliance. “What’s really exciting about Gain is that everything in the Notes is pre-populated based on either last year end or last quarter end. So that’s already done,” she said. “What I love about Gain is that each Footnote is its own little table organized within the rest of the Notes. The way the software brings the documents forward to you and updates the framework when needed is pretty incredible. It’s been a huge time savings for us.”
Similarly, Gain eliminated the manual process – and the possibility for errors – between the printed and electronically-filed versions of Notes data. By having both the electronic Notes data and printed Notes document in the same place, Leigh no longer worries about disconnects between the two. “It’s very seamless. You don’t have to distinguish between ‘this is for the electronic and this is for the filing’. It’s all built into the Notes, you plug in your numbers and you’ve satisfied the Footnote and the electronic filing, making it easy to keep everything in sync.”
Educational Resources:
Leigh also appreciates how the software guides her through changes to her Notes framework. “With Gain, the text and the tables…everything is where it needs to be and since the software does all that, the difference between then and now is like night and day.”
Collaboration:
She noted how the software gave the team tools that encouraged them to collaborate on their statements. “My team definitely uses that feature. When the page is in process, it’s one color. When my staff feels that page is ready to review, it’s another color. When I’ve finished my review, I change it to green, so it’s good to go. It’s a great communication tool without actually having to communicate.”
Visibility:
In addition, there was less manual work with Gain. ‘The importing of data is just so straightforward and you’re able to copy and paste things in.’ She explained, “We used to have some numbers that were missing in the upload that required us to go back in and manually update certain parts, but with Gain, those things are being pulled in automatically.’
Conclusion
Legacy software products lead to manual processes that can become so routine that financial reporting teams often don’t realize how those processes hold them back. Overall, Carol summarized that the move to Gain has been good for the entire team. “Everyone here loves your product. We love Gain Compliance, we’re really happy with it.”
Learn more about how Gain has improved outcomes for financial reporting teams for other carriers.