In the early 1900s, a slew of public initiatives were introduced to protect customers. Today, all those actions have evolved and morphed into a complicated regulatory environment, prone to change. All public-facing organizations, especially government and financial bodies, are mandated to keep up.

Since regulations are so diverse and far-reaching, organizations have had to create entire departments dedicated to compliance, who need modern regulatory compliance tools to stay compliant and mitigate risk. Investing in compliance is resource-heavy and expensive. However, the cost of non-compliance in 2025 is estimated to be three times more than keeping up-to-date with the latest compliance tools and best practices.

This is because regulatory compliance software systems get a lot done.

SaaS solutions like Pagefreezer, for example, allow organizations to automate compliance recordkeeping, reduce human error, and keep their website, social media, and internal chat records audit ready. This article will outline how various compliance software systems work and why they’ve become so essential for highly-regulated sectors, including financial services, government, and healthcare. 

What Are Regulatory Compliance Software Systems?

Regulatory compliance software systems is a broad umbrella under which there are many kinds of software, built for many different purposes. Some cater to specific industries by tracking and monitoring compliance reports for regulations like the GDPR or HIPAA. Some others focus on adherence to internal policies related to employment or anti-discrimination programs.

Compliance means very different things depending on the organization. 

That said, there are also similarities across software systems. Each software, for instance, will have a centralized platform where you’ll find useful information about and track compliance-related tasks. Many modern systems come equipped with: 

• Measures to monitor current and future compliance goals
• Controls for real-time tracking of tasks 
• Systems to identify and prioritize non-compliance risks 
• Tools to automate processes and streamline reporting
• Access controls to protect sensitive information 

Regulatory compliance software systems can also monitor for new laws, point out risks and challenges, recommend counter-measures, and get your organization ready for audits. 

Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution that does all the above for every industry.

Data protection and privacy

Some regulatory compliance software systems are designed to adhere to strict data privacy regulations, including international standards like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), or state laws, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act.  

These applications help manage sensitive user data, crucial in industries like healthcare. They may also automate consent collection, track data requests, and protect against breaches. 

The savings from employing these tools can be immense. Fines for HIPAA violations, for example, can range from a few hundred to several thousand dollars. GDPR penalties can be 4% of an organization’s total annual turnover, or as much as 20 million euros.

Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS)

For organizations in industries like manufacturing, construction, or energy, environmental and workplace safety compliance is a huge concern. 

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is just one example of the numerous regulators that protect workers and minimize environmental impact. EHS software helps these organizations stay compliant by giving teams tools to reduce safety incidents, manage equipment maintenance, or generate reports on climate policies. 

Workplace and H.R. 

Labor laws and workplace regulations affect every employer. Organizations must establish policies to prevent workplace harassment and ensure fair pay. They may also have to prove that the policies are working as intended.

HR-focused compliance software eases these challenges. Some of these systems come with training modules to prevent discrimination and harassment, and reporting systems for employees to document concerns. Some platforms monitor labor standards compliance, offering evidence if an organization’s practices are ever challenged in court.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. You can find hundreds of different compliance software systems catering to specific requirements and industries that help organizations contend with:

• Audit Management 
• Governance, Risk and Compliance management 
• Cybersecurity compliance management  
• Finance management
• Quality assurance management 

And more. 

Why is Compliance Software Important?

Manual compliance management is fraught with challenges. All humans make mistakes, but in the case of compliance, errors can be very costly. Besides the sheer number of regulations to keep track of, there are two major trends in compliance that highlight why regulatory compliance software systems are so essential.

The stakes are high

The Global Compliance Trends benchmark report of 2025 points out, among other trends, that audits have become more complex. Over three quarters of enterprise organizations are spending over $100,000 a year to keep up.

This is because the risk of non-compliance is just too high. Organizations are at risk of being handed out hefty penalties. But fines are only part of the story. Organizations also have to deal with potential legal fallouts, striking blows to reputations, and forced downtime. C-suite executives have had to resign over non-compliance. All of these hidden costs add up. 

Regulations are evolving

The explosion of customer communication channels, along with the rapid introduction of new technologies has muddied the waters for highly-regulated bodies. Over the last year alone, we’ve seen multiple data breaches, new cybersecurity rules, and the growing use of artificial intelligence by public serving organizations. Regulations are tightening to keep up. 

Europe’s AI Act of 2024, for example, is expected to be the first of many regulations standardizing the use of AI tools. Simultaneously, standards laid out by the SEC, FINRA, and state-level open records laws are changing to keep up with evolving cybersecurity threats, or new communication platforms.

Regulatory compliance software systems offer respite from these challenges. They significantly reduce the risk of human error, and automate key monitoring and reporting tasks. Most crucially, they ensure your organization is always audit ready through thorough recordkeeping policies. 

Why Is Recordkeeping Crucial For Regulated Bodies?

Compliance solutions like Pagefreezer focus on a particularly critical, yet less-spoken-about aspect of compliance: recordkeeping. All public service organizations and highly regulated bodies are expected to maintain extensive records of communications. This could include emails sent over official channels, data from collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams, or even private DMs.

Failure to comply with open records laws, or Freedom of Information Act requests may be met with legal action, or at the very least, a loss in public trust. 

Staying compliant is not getting easier either. Bodies like the SEC and FINRA, for example, require that all communications, transactions, and operational activities be documented and retrievable — across multiple platforms and in highly-specific formats. Even prominent firms struggle with maintaining such extensive records.

Consider these three high-profile examples: 

Robinhood Financial posts false claims

When regulators request documentation for legal purposes, being unprepared is a problem. Take the example of Robinhood Financial. In 2022, FINRA subpoenaed the company for internal communications and trade logs, which the company didn’t immediately produce. The regulators later found that the company had failed to retain social media communications promoting the company. Some of these claims —  posted by influencers on Robinhood’s behalf — were later found to be false or misleading. The organization paid $3.75 million to customers for this and other violations.

Wall Street firms fined for text messages 

In August 2024, the SEC fined 26 Wall Street firms for a total of $360 million for recordkeeping failures. Companies like Ameriprise Financial, LPL Financial, and Raymond James were caught with regulated employees using personal devices to have official conversations. 

Employees were found to have communicated both internally and externally using applications like WhatsApp and Signal — which were unapproved, and unarchived. 

Wells Fargo fined for improper archiving

In 2020, FINRA demonstrated how crucial preserving evidence in the appropriate format is. The regulator fined Wells Fargo Clearing Services and Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network for $2.25 million for violating records-retention requirements. Between 2003 and 2016, the company failed to maintain one million records in the required tamper-proof format. 

Three years later, the organization was hit with $200 million in fines from the SEC, for similar infractions as the 26 Wall Street organizations: using unapproved and unarchived messaging platforms like Signal and WhatsApp. 

How Do Recordkeeping Compliance Systems Work?

Compliance software like Pagefreezer makes the process of storing and producing important records on-demand manageable, by archiving records from digital sources like websites, social media, internal collaboration platforms, and more. 

For many organizations, the biggest challenge to compliance are incomplete or missing records. With the right software, an organization can present a complete, verifiable account of its communications when requested. 

Dedicated recordkeeping software also ensures all communications are stored in a format that preserves its original context and metadata. This is especially crucial when it’s time for an audit or when organizations receive an official records request.

Having compliant recordkeeping software in place like Pagefreezer can also protect organizations against false allegations and lawsuits. By providing tamper-proof, defensible archives, each record is protected with digital signatures and cryptographic hashes, guaranteeing that archived data has not been altered. This makes the records reliable as legal evidence.

Pagefreezer’s digital recordkeeping and archiving software supports organizations with audits, investigations, reporting, and risk management. By simplifying complex regulatory obligations into manageable workflows, Pagefreezer helps organizations maintain compliance and gain peace of mind.. 

Get a demo to see Pagefreezer in action.