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Option 3 — Anton's story
Eight months out

Anton is T-minus 8 and behind.

He's still the Controller at Helios Robotics. Same Series D industrial robotics company from the Velocity story — except this time, six months have passed. The SOX program is real. The Deloitte engagement is live. And the readiness numbers aren't where they need to be.

Monday morning
Helios's audit committee meets in three weeks. The CFO sent Anton a calendar invite for a Tuesday prep call. The subject line was just: "SOX readiness — where are we?"

Anton has been heads-down on the program for six months. He knows things aren't perfect — the walkthroughs are behind schedule, there are three significant deficiencies sitting open, he thinks they're tracking — but he has no way to answer the CFO's actual question: compared to what?
He opens Benchmark
Anton pulls up Auditborb Benchmark. He filters to his cohort: industrials, $500M-1B, Deloitte audit. The dashboard loads.

Six metric cards. He reads them in order.
Walkthrough coverage
40%
vs peer median 65% · p15
Open significant deficiencies
3
vs peer median 1 · p85
Testing history at filing
4 mo
vs peer median 7 · p12
Readiness score
62
/100 · vs peer median 71 · p28
Controls in scope
175
vs median 158 · p62
Months to filing
T-8
Target Jan 2027
Four red boxes. Two neutral. The numbers aren't editorial — they're the same numbers his audit team sees in Velocity. The story they tell is just: we're behind.
He drills into Big 4 walkthroughs
Anton clicks the worst card. Big 4 walkthrough coverage: 40% at T-8, vs the peer median of 65%. A drawer opens showing his actual trajectory over the last 10 months overlaid against where peers were.

Peers were doing 12 walkthroughs at T-10. He did his first one at T-9. They've been pulling ahead ever since.
Trajectory — Helios vs peer median (T-18 → today)
0% 50% 100% T-18 T-12 T-8 T0 TODAY · T-8 Peer median Helios
The chart isn't subtle. Peers were running at 60-65% by T-8. He's at 40 and trending up too slowly to close the gap before filing.
He reads the peer cohort commentary
Below the chart is a callout. It's not advice — it's just what other companies in his exact spot actually did.
PEER COHORT INSIGHT
24 of 47 peers at T-8 with a 20+ point walkthrough gap engaged a Big 4 catch-up engagement — median spend $450K over 12 weeks.
15 of 47 peers added 2 SOX analysts instead. 11 extended filing by a quarter. The 3 peers who did nothing received qualified first-year opinions.
Anton doesn't have to invent his ask. The cohort already validated it.
Tuesday's prep
Anton walks into the CFO call with a one-page memo. Auditborb's PDF export, two pages.
ANTON'S ASK
$630K · Deloitte 12-week catch-up engagement + 1 contractor remediation lead.
Closes the walkthrough gap to ~80% by T-4. Reduces deficiency cycle from 74 → 42 days. Projected to lift the readiness score from 62 → 74. Decision needed within 4 weeks to preserve the Q1 2027 filing window.
The CFO doesn't have to take his word for it. The memo cites the cohort — 24 peers spent this; 15 spent this other amount; 11 delayed; 3 received qualified opinions.

It's not a budget request. It's a peer-validated pattern match.
Result
The CFO approves.
Not because Anton made a great case. Because the dashboard made one for him.
Open the dashboard Anton used →
Pre-IPO Controller running first-year SOX?
Stop guessing whether you're on track.
Try the dashboard → See the CFO memo →