About

Documents is where you keep the written side of compliance: policies, procedures and governance documents, plus reusable company values (Organizational Parameters) that fill in those documents automatically. Each document has an owner, an approver, a status, a review date and a version history. You can link a document to controls and framework objectives, and send it to people for acknowledgement.

Documents has four tabs:

• Policies: policies built from sections.
• Procedures: free-form procedure documents.
• Governance: any other document, for example a system context document.
• Organizational Parameters: reusable values that you insert into documents.

Find your documents

Select Documents in the sidebar, under your framework. With All Frameworks chosen, the page lists documents for every framework. With one framework chosen, it lists the documents linked to that framework. You can also reach documents from the Documents tab in To do.

The toolbar above each list on the Policies, Procedures and Governance tabs has these controls:

• A count, such as "Showing 38 policies".
• A search box. It searches document titles only, not the text inside a document.
• Filter: narrow the list by Status, Owner, Approver, Contributor, Tags or Framework.
• Display: choose and reorder the columns. Your choice is kept for the rest of your browser session.
• Copilot.
• Actions: add documents and more (see the sections below).

The list shows these columns by default:

• ID, for example POL-1, PRO-1 or GOV-1.
• Title, with a small icon showing how the document is kept: ControlMap content, an uploaded file or an external link.
• Owner.
• Status. You can change it from the drop-down on the status.
• Review date.
• Updated.
• Objectives, the framework objectives the document is linked to.

Use Display to add Acknowledgment, Contributor, Controls, Tags, Classification and Comments. Select a title to open the document.

Add a document

To add a policy, procedure or governance document:

1. Go to Documents and choose the Policies, Procedures or Governance tab.
2. Select Actions › Add Policy. On the Procedures tab the item is Add Procedure. On the Governance tab it is Add Document.
3. Type the name of the document.
4. Choose how the document is kept: Manage in ControlMap, Upload as a document, or Provide a link to an external system. This choice decides the first tab the document opens with: Overview, Document or Link.
5. For a policy kept in ControlMap, you can also choose Prebuilt content, a starter policy. Use its eye icon to preview it first.
6. Select Save. The new document opens.

You can also start from a ready-made document:

1. Select Actions › Add from template.
2. In the Select policy template panel, search for a template or look through the list. Each template has a preview and a download icon.
3. Tick one or more templates and create them. Ticking several creates several documents at once.

The Actions menu has more ways to add content:

• Create with Copilot: opens Copilot with a policy-drafting action (Policies tab only).
• Add from Confluence and Add from Notion: shown only when that integration is connected.
• Refresh Mappings: re-reads the links between your documents and controls.

Open and edit a document

Select a document's title to open it. Use Prev and Next at the top to step through the list you came from, or the back arrow to return to the list. You can rename the document by editing its title.

An opened document has these tabs: Overview, Mappings, Comments, Activity, Watchers and Versions. The first tab depends on how the document is kept: Overview for ControlMap content, Document for an uploaded file, or Link for an external link.

To change the content:

• Policy: select a section to edit it, then select Save section. Select Add a section to add one. Use the arrows on a section to move it up or down.
• Procedure or governance document: select the content to edit it, then select Save document. The content is one block of rich text, and it can include tables and images.
• Uploaded document: on the Document tab, select Upload document. You can upload from your device, Google Drive or the document library, up to 20 MB per file. You can preview, download, replace (Update Document) or remove an uploaded file.
• External link: on the Link tab, select Add a link and enter a name and the link.

Other tabs:

• Mappings: link or unlink controls, framework objectives and related documents (procedures on a policy, policies on a procedure).
• Comments: the discussion about the document.
• Activity: the change history.
• Watchers: the people notified of changes.
• Versions: every version of the document (see "Create a new version" below).

Set the owner, approver, review date and tags

The Properties panel on the right of an opened document holds the document's details:

• Version
• Status
• Acknowledgment progress
• Owner
• Team and Team members
• Approver
• Contributors
• Review date
• Data classification
• Tags

Use the drop-downs and pickers to change a property. Each change saves straight away and a short confirmation appears, for example "Owner updated." When you change the review date, you are asked to confirm the new date first. Owner, review date, classification, tags and team can still be changed after a document is approved.

Select Preview in the panel to see the rendered document, with the values of your Organizational Parameters filled in. You can download it from there.

Review and approve a document

A document moves through five statuses, in this order: Draft, In Progress, In Review, Ready For Approval and Approved.

To send a document for review, select Send for review at the top of its first tab and confirm. The status changes to In Review.

To approve a document:

1. Change Status to Approved, either from the drop-down in the list or in the Properties panel.
2. In the confirmation that opens, check the Next review date. It starts one year from today. Change it if you need to.
3. If people have already acknowledged the document, an Employee Acknowledgement Review box offers a reset. Tick Reset existing acknowledgements to clear their acknowledgements and ask them to acknowledge again.
4. Select Approve.

Other status changes ask you to confirm with Yes.

Once a document is approved, its content, status, approver and contributors are locked. To change the content, create a new version.

Check review dates

The Review date column shows when each document is due for review. When the date has passed and the document is not Approved, the date turns red and "(Overdue)" appears under it.

Create a new version

To change an approved document:

1. Open the approved document. A notice explains that changes are not allowed to an approved policy.
2. Select Create new version.
3. Choose a minor version or a major version. The dialog shows the version number each choice creates, for example Minor version 1.2 or Major version 2.0.
4. Create it. The new version is a Draft that you can edit.

Earlier versions stay in the Versions tab. Each entry shows the version label, notes, who published it and when, and a View version button. Earlier versions are read-only.

Get people to acknowledge a document

People acknowledge documents in My Compliance. To acknowledge a document:

1. Go to My Compliance and open the Mandatory Documents section.
2. Select Acknowledge.
3. Read the statement "I have read and been informed about the requirements, and expectations of" the document, then select Acknowledge again to confirm.

To follow progress, add the Acknowledgment column in Display, or look at Acknowledgment progress in the Properties panel. Select the percentage to see progress by group, then select a group to see each person's name, who acknowledged, the date and the status.

Resetting acknowledgements when you approve a document asks everyone to acknowledge it again.

Export documents

To export one document, open it and select Preview, then download the rendered document.

To export several documents:

1. Tick the documents in the list. Tick the box in the header to select all of them. A bar appears with Export, Owner, Approver, Contributors, Tags, Status and Delete.
2. Select Export.
3. In Export format, choose "Each document as its own file" or "All documents in one file".
4. For a policy export in one file, you can reorder the documents. Tick Save this export order for reuse and enter an Export name to keep the order.

Saved orders are listed under Actions › Saved exports, where you can download or delete them.

The same bar lets you change the owner, approver, contributors, tags or status of many documents at once. Each choice asks you to confirm.

Use Organizational Parameters

Organizational Parameters are values you use in many documents, such as your company name. You add a variable once and insert its token wherever you want the value to appear.

To add a variable:

1. Go to Documents › Organizational Parameters.
2. Select Add variable.
3. Enter a Variable name (letters, numbers, spaces and hyphens only) and a Variable value. A live example of the token appears below.
4. Save the variable.

To use a variable, select the copy icon next to its token, then paste the token into a policy, procedure, governance document or an objective's implementation notes. The token looks like $$COMPANY_NAME$$. Wherever it appears, the value is filled in. The document preview and policy view show the value. The editor shows the token.

Use the pencil icon in the Actions column to edit a variable, or the bin icon to delete it. Deleting asks you to confirm.