Paper Trail
Audits in Quality Management Systems
In 2008, the Federal Reserve conducted an “emergency rescue” of AIG. This came at a time when Americans were disheartened with a seeming lack of responsibility in the corporate world at large. It should come with little surprise to learn of a report released in November 2011 that shows there was little to no documentation to support the Fed’s decision.
Accountability. Integrity. These words have begun to have a profound effect on the climate of American business in the past decade, but have always remained relevant for businesses who strive for compliance in quality management standards. What has changed is an increasingly complex office which mixes electronic records and physical paperwork, often to the frustration of quality management teams in charge of preparing their business for an audit.
For many small businesses, a quality management system consists of a few manila folders packed to the brim with papers with no real way to prove or provide an audit trail. This nightmare can cause audits from inspectors to take days or weeks and slow your operations down more than you can afford.
The tangible cost of non-compliance cannot be fully explored here, although fines, product recall, shut downs, and loss of credibility come to mind. The cost of compliance can be equally frustrating and sometimes as costly - spending resources that could be better applied to improving processes and making your business more profitable.
The Unstoppable Solution
Approach audit records confidently and affordably.
We provide a solution that not only makes compliance documents easy to find, but tracks every single touch of the document over time - that’s the who, when, why and how the document was altered. A manager in one of the most regulated industries in the world confided that they chose our solution over a dozen others because ours was the only one which met regulatory requirements, could be used with minimal training for the low-tech users, and that they could afford.
