Manual monitoring
The checks that were never coded, run consistently, on schedule, with the result recorded whether or not anything was found.
Every compliance function has a set of checks that live outside the monitoring system. Some are qualitative. Some depend on data the system does not hold. Some exist because a side letter says so and nobody wanted to build a rule for one client. They are done monthly, or quarterly, or when someone remembers.
These are the checks that fail an audit — not because they were done badly, but because there is no evidence they were done at all.
We build them into scheduled workflows. Data is gathered, thresholds are applied, exceptions are surfaced with the relevant context attached, and a person reviews and signs. Where nothing is found, that is recorded too, because a clean result is evidence.
The workflow never closes an exception on its own. It prepares the case; the reviewer decides.
Typical checks we automate
- Liquidity classification and bucket monitoring against policy
- Counterparty and issuer concentration outside coded limits
- ESG and sustainability commitments, including exclusion list maintenance
- Side letter and soft restriction monitoring
- Personal account dealing, gifts, entertainment and outside business interests
- Best execution and dealing commission review support
- Regulatory change tracking and impact assessment against the guideline register
Illustrative example, not a client engagement.
Eleven quarterly manual checks maintained across four spreadsheets by one person, with no record of the quarters where nothing was found. After automation: a scheduled run, an exception queue averaging three items, and a complete four-quarter history with reviewer sign-off on every cycle including the clean ones.