Case Study: Midwest Energy Company achieves a 28% reduction in internal audit hours in year one and an additional 20% in year two with Workiva

Energy Company's Audit Team Saves Time on SOX Compliance

A Midwest energy utility’s internal audit team responsible for Sarbanes‑Oxley compliance was struggling with disjointed workflows and error‑prone manual processes—documents were stored in multiple formats on network drives and at risk of being overwritten or lost. The team faced the prospect of cutting audits from its plan or adding headcount unless it found a solution that improved collaboration, transparency, and control.

Expanding its use of Workiva’s Wdesk, the team consolidated walkthroughs and memos into one platform, captured full revision histories, linked live data across documents, used roll‑forward functionality, and created dashboards for management and the audit committee. The result was better transparency and access for internal and external stakeholders and major efficiency gains: a 28% reduction in fact‑testing hours in year one and a further 20% reduction in year two.