When Drew Pfeifer, Senior Vice President of Audit, M&A, and AI at Celsius, joined the fast-growing energy drink company, he faced a familiar challenge: strengthening internal controls while keeping pace with rapid growth.
“We already had Workiva in place, and I wanted to do some automation and RPA—without purchasing additional tools,” Drew said. Instead of expanding the tech stack, he focused on maximizing Celsius’ existing Workiva investment. “I just wanted to mature my controls,” he explained. “Through a couple sessions, we realized we could automate user access reviews.”
Workiva introduced Drew to Fastrics, a partner specializing in audit, risk, and compliance automation. Together, they automated Celsius’ user access review (UAR) process—a critical SOX control that ensures appropriate system access.
“We’re getting to what I call the critical thinking stage faster,” Drew said, “and identifying issues instead of spending time gathering data.”
Corey Sherman, Partner at Fastrics, said the opportunity was clear. “We wanted to leverage technology as an enabler for our services. Workiva allowed us to combine our analytics expertise and audit background to create a solution that automates processing controls.”
The results were dramatic. UARs that typically take 50 to 100 hours per quarter were reduced to three to five minutes. Brayden Brizzee, Automation and Implementation Manager at Fastrics, credited the platform’s flexibility and extensive out-of-the-box integrations for making implementation seamless.
Change management was equally smooth. “I wasn’t purchasing a new or untested tool,” Drew said. “This was already part of the Workiva platform, so there was no pushback.”
The impact was immediate: Audit and IT teams saved 40–50% of their time, and external auditors passed the new controls without exception. “They’re not chasing paper or pulling Excel files,” Drew noted. “They’re hitting a button and analyzing results.”
Celsius quickly scaled beyond a single control. “We implemented three UARs this quarter that passed external testing, then scaled to eight more in Q2,” Drew said. Looking ahead, he sees opportunities across cost center analysis, journal entry approvals, and more. “We’re barely scratching the surface.”
Corey added that the approach moves teams beyond check-the-box compliance by enabling quarter-over-quarter analysis.
Outcome: Stronger controls, smarter audits
All automated reviews passed external testing
Teams reached insights faster
One automation unlocked a scalable roadmap
“With these controls automated, the audit is far more efficient,” Drew said. “And I trust they’ll pass almost every quarter.”