How Hartford Consulting Reduced Manual Work from Hours to Seconds with a Custom Web Audit

‍About Hartford Consulting

Hartford Consulting is a UK firm that helps banks, fintechs, payment providers, and crypto businesses protect themselves from financial crime and navigate complex compliance requirements. With over 25 years of industry expertise, they deliver services ranging from KYC checks and suspicious activity reporting to training, strategy, operational tax and anti-tax evasion measures, and advanced crime detection systems. Their tailored, cost-effective approach reduces regulatory risk, safeguards reputations, and provides clients with the tools to secure their operations.

We gave them a very high-level brief and left the rest in their hands. The app works perfectly, and they came in on time, on budget, with no outstanding issues. They obviously love what they do and like taking on projects that are a bit different. We definitely want to work with them on more projects going forward. - Natalie Dowling, Head of Tax Platform, Hartford Consulting

The Challenge

Hartford Consulting’s diverse client base includes financial institutions that are US Qualified Intermediaries. These companies are required to perform an audit of their processes, documentation, and reporting every three years.

To support this, Hartford Consulting needed a secure, yet intuitive web application to replace the time-consuming manual calculations required to ascertain the number of accounts to be sampled for periodic reviews. They also wanted to offer their clients a cost-effective alternative to the expensive services provided by large financial firms.

To bring this idea to life, Hartford Consulting turned to Brainhub, relying on our experience in the UK market and financial sector.

Project Goals

• Minimize the time and manual work required for QI account sample calculations.
• Provide clients with a more affordable solution compared to large financial corporations.

Project Team

• 1 Project Manager
• 1 Software Engineer
• 1 Business Analyst
• 1 Product Designer

Tech Stack

React, Tanstack, PostgreSQL, Clerk, Stripe

The Solution: IRS QI Periodic Review Safe Harbor Sample Calculator

We built the IRS QI Periodic Review Safe Harbor Sample Calculator from scratch to help quickly calculate client QI account samples for periodic reviews.

Previously, Hartford consultants performed these calculations manually using Excel spreadsheets, and the process took hours. The new tool automated this task, reducing the time required from several hours to just a few seconds.

How It Works

The tool calculates a QI account sample for a Periodic Review using the IRS Safe Harbor method. Users upload a complete list of QI accounts that received U.S. income in the review year, categorized as U.S. direct, non-U.S. direct, indirect, and PTP accounts (with PTP values included). The calculator determines the required sample size for each category, applies a random number generator to select accounts, and generates a downloadable report with full methodology for inclusion in the Periodic Review.

Key Features

• Import data in multiple formats (xlsx, csv, Google Sheets)
• Perform calculations based on the IRS-approved algorithm
• Visualize results for clarity
• Purchase credits and spend them on calculations
• Download output data in multiple formats
• Access a user account with calculation history
• Enable admin management of users and payments

Results

Hartford Consulting required an intuitive and reliable tool to minimize manual work and deliver cost savings to its clients. Together with Brainhub, they achieved this through the IRS QI Periodic Review Safe Harbor Sample Calculator.

The solution reduced the time required to collect data and perform calculations from hours to seconds. All this was delivered on time, within scope, and on budget – aligned with Brainhub’s project governance practices.

Beyond the measurable outcomes, working with Hartford Consulting is a gratifying experience for us at Brainhub. The great atmosphere, combined with open and honest communication, makes this partnership both effective and satisfying.