Connecting the Independence Relationship Dots

Scott Birkedal
4/8/21 9:12 AM

Wouldn't it be nice to search for a company or person and have all the information needed to understand what you're allowed to do as an accounting professional? Whether it's a business relationship, taking out a loan, or providing accounting services, you would feel confident relying on one system to let you know that you're okay to pursue these activities without any conflict of interest.

Accurately tracking the director, officer or significant shareholder relationships among people and entities can help keep individuals and engagement teams in good standing. Taking a closer look at natural persons, it's really focusing on how people in the world are related to legal entities. Understanding these interdependencies and relationships is a tangled mess of rules and hierarchies that can obscure the truth.

Data, Rules & Regulations

Data is the linchpin of the problem. You have lots of information to sort through. The challenge is that you'll have to sift through all that data on your own, and you may not be confident in the quality of the data. To do that, you'll need to spend a lot of time ensuring the information is correct. You can always reach out to a trusted data vendor, but that can get costly, and you need accurate information now - not in the next two to four weeks. In order to get the level of information needed, you would need to conduct multiple, time-consuming searches. 

Then you have SEC regulations such as business relationship restrictions, loan restrictions, and more. If you're in an accounting firm as an engagement professional, it's easy to get lost among the many regulations governing your independence. 

The Platform interprets and applies regulatory guidelines to your clients so that when you run a search, you understand what regulations apply. As information changes, the system updates information across the enterprise. If there's an M&A situation, you need that updated information in your system as quickly as possible. 

Let's say you're managing information in a tree with dozens of nodes. With the right system, you no longer have to worry about understanding the restrictions and designations throughout the tree. A system such as the Kingland Platform uses a powerful rules engine that recalculates rules so users don't have to apply and recalculate the regulations. You don't have to be an independence policy expert. The system will apply the firm policies for you.  

Consider the Kingland Platform as a reliable hand that helps you deliver essential business outcomes. The Platform assists clients with compliance processes, but it also enables the business to maintain its position as a global leader in the marketplace. 

Staying Compliant through the Complexity

Time is a luxury when you're spending most of it doing searches. Why not rely on software that provides the proper safeguards needed to remain compliant? Asking for forgiveness or a lack of awareness isn't an excuse for the SEC when compliance issues occur. 

Understanding that Shelly from one company is connected to Gilbert from a different company can be crucial - especially if you're doing an audit on Gilbert's company. Without the automation from the Platform, it's possible you may miss the relationship with Gilbert. Eventually, you might be able to get there through multiple searches ... or maybe not. Why not improve your efficiency and accuracy with proven, automated software that has solved many data challenges throughout the accounting industry? 

With more than 20 years of experience developing global compliance management software, Kingland software solutions have supported over 400,000 accounting professionals across more than 105 countries. 

Ask how we can help you connect the dots among your natural person data and simplify how you use data for your compliance efforts. 

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