Compliance-Audit Hour Estimator
The cost of a compliance examination is split between the regulator's hours (which the firm pays for indirectly via supervisory fees + management distraction) and the firm's prep hours (direct cost to compliance + engineering). This calculator estimates both, and surfaces the artifacts that compress them — most of which are checklists, assessments, and a defensible synthetic corpus.
What you walk away with
~50s · 4 inputs- Estimated examiner-hours for the upcoming exam.
- Estimated internal-prep-hours required to be ready.
- A delta showing the prep-hour reduction from having a defensible corpus + the relevant checklists in place.
Inputs
Default source: Multiplier on a baseline 80-hour exam
In billions USD. Use 0.1 for $100M.
Distinct subjects in scope (Reg BI, AML, Form ADV, custody, Marketing Rule, etc.). Most exams cover 2-5.
How structurally complete is the firm's evidence today?
Default source: Per the relevant Audit-Readiness Scorecard band
Hours of compliance + engineering + product time required for examination prep. Driven primarily by evidence posture — a Defensible posture cuts prep hours by ~30% vs. Findings-Possible.
Regulator-side hours. Stronger evidence posture compresses both sides; the regulator finishes faster when answers are structurally available.
What the prep effort drops to once the firm reaches Audit-Ready posture.
Internal-prep hours under three evidence-posture states.
- Findings Likely posture302 hours
- Defensible posture168 hours
- Audit-Ready posture118 hours
FAQ
These numbers seem high.
Across firms we've worked with, a typical SEC RIA examination consumes 150-300 hours of internal compliance + engineering time when posture is Findings-Possible. Defensible posture cuts that by ~30%. Audit-Ready cuts by ~50%. The ROI on improving posture is usually visible in the first exam.
What about the cost of getting to Audit-Ready?
The Build-vs-Buy ROI Calculator captures the corpus side of that. The Maturity Assessment scopes the program changes required.