Across hedge funds, private funds, wealth managers, and broker-dealers, compliance workflow management has become foundational to running an effective compliance program. The compliance function is no longer defined by checklists, reminders, or static policies. It is defined by the workflows that enforce those policies, the evidence those workflows generate, and the regulator-grade reporting that demonstrates ongoing compliance.
Regulators are explicit about this shift.
The SEC has stated that examinations will focus on “the effectiveness of compliance programs, including policies and procedures and controls and monitoring activities.” FINRA’s Rule 3110 requires firms to “establish and maintain a system… reasonably designed to achieve compliance” — and that system must be documented, supervised, and evidence-supported.
For today’s CCOs — whether overseeing a multi-strategy hedge fund, a diversified RIA, a growing private equity platform, or a broker-dealer — the message is unmistakable:
Compliance workflows, not task lists, are the backbone of a defensible compliance program.
The industry has evolved past manual processes and spreadsheet tracking.
Regulators expect an organization-wide compliance framework powered by workflow automation, centralized data, consistent controls, and audit-ready documentation.
And among compliance workflow software available today, Skematic is the only platform built specifically to automate compliance workflows in financial services — and to produce the reporting formats examiners expect.
Why Compliance Workflow Automation Has Become Essential
Financial-services compliance is uniquely complex. Every organization — from a large hedge fund to a boutique wealth manager to a global broker-dealer — must coordinate compliance activities across multiple domains:
- MNPI and conflicts
- Trade and communications surveillance
- Cybersecurity
- Marketing review and approval workflows
- AML/KYC
- Personal trading
- Valuation and due diligence oversight
- Portfolio and transactional monitoring
- Vendor oversight
- Reg S-P and identity-theft programs
- Branch office supervision
- Code of Ethics certifications
These compliance processes generate thousands of compliance tasks, approvals, exceptions, and evidence artifacts each year. When these are managed manually, the risks compound:
1. Compliance failures caused by human errors
Email approvals disappear. Evidence is not attached. Exceptions aren’t escalated. Follow-ups slip through the cracks.
2. Inability to demonstrate compliance to regulators
Regulators now expect firms to demonstrate how and why compliance activities occurred — not simply that they occurred.
3. Reporting gaps during compliance audits or examinations
SEC and FINRA exam teams routinely request:
- Workflow histories
- Evidence files
- Approval chains
- Incident logs
- Risk assessments
- Testing results
- Documentation of corrective action
- Compliance monitoring reviews
- Controls and monitoring tied to internal policies
Traditional implementation methods cannot satisfy these requirements.
The modern compliance program needs compliance workflow automation to automate compliance tasks, enforce evidence capture, route exceptions, and provide centralized data management that withstands regulatory scrutiny.
Why Generic Workflow Management Tools Fail in Regulated Financial Services
Mainstream workflow automation or project-management platforms — Asana, Monday.com, Jira, ClickUp — are not designed for regulatory compliance.
They lack the capabilities required to:
- Automate compliance workflows tied to regulatory requirements
- Produce regulator-grade reporting
- Maintain approval workflows with supervisory hierarchy
- Enforce access controls for sensitive compliance documentation
- Capture mandatory evidence at each step
- Create and manage structured case files
- Support ongoing monitoring and scheduled internal audits
- Integrate incident management systems
- Perform data analytics on compliance performance
- Track compliance progress or key performance indicators
- Ensure regulatory adherence through built-in controls
As one former SEC examiner stated at the National Compliance Outreach Program, “Generic workflow software may help teams automate routine tasks, but it cannot automate compliance at the level expected in financial services.”
Financial Services Requires Industry-Specific Workflow Reporting
Unlike other industries, financial-services regulators don’t just examine activity — they examine documentation, logic, supervisory oversight, and program effectiveness.
SEC and FINRA examiners frequently request:
- The last 20 marketing review samples, with supporting evidence
- Trade review workflows, including reviewer comments and exceptions
- Code of Ethics violations and how they were escalated
- Incident logs for cybersecurity events
- AML workflows and investigative documentation
- Risk assessments and the workflow steps behind them
- Workflow timestamps demonstrating timeliness
- Demonstrations of access controls and review hierarchies
- Documentation connecting internal policies to implemented workflows
- Compliance documentation demonstrating corrective actions
To meet these standards, financial-services firms require compliance workflow software purpose-built to support regulatory reporting, not merely project tracking.
What an Effective Compliance Workflow System Must Deliver
For a CCO, whether at a private fund, RIA, broker-dealer, or wealth manager, the ideal compliance workflow platform must:
1. Automate compliance workflows end-to-end
- Conditional logic
- Multi-step approvals
- Parallel review paths
- Automated case creation
- Incident management workflows
- Automated workflows tied to regulatory obligations
2. Enforce evidence collection and documentation
Every step must allow or require:
- Documentation
- Notes
- Signoffs
- Screenshots
- Data collection
- Attestations
- Linkage to internal policies
3. Provide integrated risk assessment and compliance monitoring
Compliance managers need:
- A consolidated view of compliance risks
- Insight into compliance progress
- Risk trending and exceptions
- KPIs tied to compliance operations
- Data analytics across compliance activities
4. Support organization-wide compliance frameworks
Across different business lines, entities, or advisory programs.
5. Manage controls and monitoring activities consistently
Including regulatory audits and scheduled internal audits.
6. Produce regulator-grade compliance reporting
With audit protocols built in.
7. Integrate with existing systems
Trade surveillance, COE platforms, AML tools, cybersecurity, document management systems, etc.
8. Provide operational efficiency
Reducing manual tasks, administrative compliance work, and compliance issues caused by outdated workflows.
Skematic: The Only Compliance Workflow Automation Platform Built for Financial Services
Among available automation tools, Skematic is the only compliance workflow software engineered specifically for SEC, FINRA, NFA, and other financial-services regulatory frameworks.
What sets Skematic apart?
1. True compliance workflow automation
Skematic was built to automate compliance workflows tied directly to firm policies and regulatory requirements — not to repurpose generic workflow tools into compliance systems.
2. Evidence-first architecture
Every action taken in Skematic generates:
- Evidence artifacts
- Approvals
- Time-stamped records
- Reviewer commentary
- Case documentation
3. Regulator-grade reporting
Firms can evidence compliance through:
- Workflow histories
- Exception trends
- Risk assessments
- Supervisory approvals
- Audit-ready case files
4. Integrated risk assessment system
Skematic unifies compliance data to provide insights into:
- Regulatory risks
- Compliance performance
- Compliance status
- Potential compliance violations
5. Eliminates manual processes that create compliance failures
By automating compliance tasks, firms reduce human errors and operational inconsistencies.
6. Built for compliance officers — no engineering required
Compliance teams can build, modify, and improve workflows without technical support.
7. Centralized data management
A single system to store:
- Compliance documentation
- Evidence
- Approvals
- Incident records
- Monitoring reviews
- Risk metrics
This allows CCOs to demonstrate compliance during regulatory exams with unprecedented clarity.
Conclusion: Compliance Automation Is Now a Regulatory Imperative
Across hedge funds, private funds, RIAs, and broker-dealers, compliance workflow automation is becoming the operational heart of the compliance program. Therefore, an effective system must:
- Automate compliance
- Enforce evidence capture
- Support risk management
- Provide standardized reporting
- Ensure regulatory adherence
- Improve operational efficiency
- Reduce compliance violations
- Strengthen audit readiness
- Enhance compliance initiatives
- Support evolving regulatory requirements
- Empower compliance teams to implement controls and monitor compliance efforts
Generic workflow tools cannot satisfy these demands. On the other hand, Skematic does — because it was built for them.
Skematic is the only compliance management platform engineered to support the complexities, regulatory scrutiny, and evidence requirements of modern financial-services compliance.
