How CAE replaced a two-level compliance problem with a self-service portal and fully automated document handling.
Challenge
A compliance operation for a dozen organizations — with no system to support it
C.A. Ellis & Associates sits in the middle of a compliance chain that most businesses never encounter. Candice Ellis's firm serves as Designated Coordinator and Manager for multiple licensed 245D care providers in Minnesota — meaning her team carries direct regulatory responsibility for the compliance standing of every organization they serve. Not one organization. A dozen.
That two-level structure — CAE's own internal operations layered on top of each provider's client population, documentation requirements, and staff training deadlines — created a data problem that no spreadsheet could hold. Compliance status for one provider lived in a Google Sheet. A document deadline was buried in an email thread. A staff training renewal existed only in someone's memory. There was no single place to answer the question every compliance manager needs to answer immediately: where does this provider stand right now?
The gap wasn't effort — it was infrastructure. When providers had questions about their own compliance status, they called CAE. Every inbound call was a symptom of the same structural problem: providers had no visibility into their own standing, and CAE had no system to give it to them. Meanwhile, PandaDoc documents that needed to land in specific Google Drive folders had to be manually downloaded and re-uploaded by a staff member every time one was signed or expired. The operation was reactive by necessity — there was nothing in place to make it proactive.
"Compliance gaps were discovered when clients called asking questions — not when a system flagged them in advance"
Solution
A three-layer system: unified data, full automation, and a client-facing compliance portal
Layer 1 — Airtable as the single source of truth
Before any automation could work, the operation needed clean, structured data in one place. We built a two-base Airtable system — Operations and Admin — designed around CAE's actual compliance hierarchy: provider organizations at the top, the individuals each provider serves below them, and all associated documentation, meeting schedules, staff training requirements, and compliance deadlines mapped within that structure.
Every piece of information that had previously lived in a spreadsheet, an email, or a staff member's memory was migrated into this system. The data architecture reflected how 245D compliance actually works — the provider → individual hierarchy — so compliance status could be surfaced at any level of the organization at any time. This was the foundation everything else ran on.
Layer 2 — Operational automations across every connected platform
With structured data in place, we automated the manual work that had been consuming staff time across every platform CAE used. Google Drive: automatic folder creation for new providers, and automated file routing so documents always land in the correct provider folder without anyone moving them by hand. PandaDoc: webhook-triggered automation so that when a document is signed or expires, it routes to the correct Drive folder and the status in Airtable updates instantly — the manual download/upload cycle dropped to zero.
Email notification workflows now trigger automatically on compliance status changes and document events. QuickBooks financial workflows were connected to the operational data layer. The staff members who had been spending hours each week on manual document handling and status tracking shifted that time to compliance work that actually required human judgment.
Layer 3 — Client-facing compliance portal with enforced data isolation
The inbound calls from providers asking basic status questions were a structural problem, not a communication problem. The fix was giving providers direct visibility into their own compliance standing. We built a Softr portal where each provider can log in and see their compliance dashboard: active individuals, upcoming meetings, documents awaiting signature, open compliance alerts, and staff training status — all scoped exclusively to their organization.
The hard security requirement — every provider sees only their own data — was architected as a constraint at every layer of the build, not added as an afterthought. In a 245D-regulated environment, data isolation is non-negotiable. The portal surfaces compliance alerts proactively: expiring CSSPs, service agreement end dates, PSS due dates, and annual reviews appear before they become violations, not after. Documentation status moves in real time through every stage from Scheduled through Awaiting Signature to Completed.
"Providers can now see exactly where their compliance stands — without calling us"
, C.A. Ellis & Associates
Results
Reactive compliance management replaced with a proactive, automated system that scales across every provider.
Before this system existed, CAE's team discovered compliance gaps the same way their clients did — when someone called. There was no mechanism for surfacing an expiring CSSP or an overdue training renewal before it became a problem. The volume of inbound calls from providers asking about their own status was a direct cost: staff time spent answering questions that a system should answer automatically.
After implementation, providers self-serve. The compliance portal gives every provider-client a real-time view of their own standing, their individuals' documentation status, and any alerts requiring attention — without involving CAE's staff. The inbound questions that had consumed hours each week no longer require a phone call.
On the internal side, the automations eliminated the manual document handling that had been a constant low-level drain. Signed PandaDoc documents land in the correct Google Drive folder without anyone touching them. Training renewals surface before they lapse. The Airtable system that sits underneath the entire operation connects both levels of the compliance hierarchy — CAE's own operations and each provider's client population — into a single data layer that updates automatically as documents are signed, meetings are completed, and deadlines approach.
- Two-level compliance hierarchy natively supported: provider organizations and their individual clients managed in one connected Airtable system
- 100% automated document routing: PandaDoc → Google Drive via webhook, status updated in Airtable — zero manual transfers
- Self-service compliance portal: providers see their own compliance dashboard, documentation status, and expiring items without calling CAE
- Proactive alerts: expiring CSSPs, PSS due dates, service agreement end dates, and annual reviews surfaced before they become violations
- 5 platforms integrated: Airtable, Google Drive, PandaDoc, email automations, and QuickBooks connected into one operational layer
- Enforced data isolation: hard-architected security ensures every provider sees only their own data — compliant with 245D regulatory requirements
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