Who is this article for?

Administrators wanting to learn more about this solution release.

No special access or permissions are required.

We're excited to introduce v2.9, a release that puts your reporting on autopilot. With the new Query Schedules, your saved queries run automatically on the timetable you choose, so up-to-date results are waiting whenever you need them. Reports gain a ready-made audit scope table and new ways to link findings to the audit work behind them. Across the product, overdue dates now stand out wherever you look, copying is no longer blocked by archived values, and bulk actions put the commands you can use front and center.

Features

Query Schedules: your queries, on autopilot

Fresh results, without lifting a finger. Until now, every query result had to be created by hand. You can now schedule any active query to run automatically and create a new result each time. Your weekly overdue actions extract, your monthly findings summary, or your daily risk register snapshot is simply there when you need it.

You'll find Query Schedules in the Reporting menu, and on a new Query Schedules tab on every query. Setting one up takes moments:

• Choose how often it runs: hourly, daily, weekly on the days you pick, or monthly on a chosen day, at the time you choose. For more complex timetables, you can enter a cron expression directly.
• Runs in your time zone: schedules run at the times shown in your own time zone, all year round.
• Helpful safeguards: you'll be warned if a monthly day doesn't exist in every month, and a timetable that could never run, such as 31 November, can't be saved.
• Pause and resume a schedule whenever you need to, and see its last run, last outcome and next run on the schedule itself.

Each result belongs to the schedule's owner and contains exactly what that person is allowed to see, just like a result they created themselves. Every result links back to the schedule that produced it. Schedules also look after themselves. If the owner leaves your organization and their account is deactivated, the schedule pauses and prompts you to assign it to someone else. If the query is archived, its schedules are archived with it. Deleting a schedule never removes the results it has already produced.

Four new permissions let you decide who can create, edit, delete, and change the status of query schedules. Your administrator will need to grant them to the relevant groups before users can start scheduling.

A ready-made audit scope table for your reports

Building on the audit Scope data you could add to reports in our last release, the Report Designer now includes a ready-made Audit Scope Table block for audit report templates. One click adds a clear table of every location and process the audit covers, with its suggested rating and final rating. Ratings are color-coded to match your configuration, and anything excluded from scope is clearly labelled. Your report states exactly what the audit covered and how each area was rated, with no table to build by hand.

Connect findings to the audit work behind them

When you start a query or report from Findings, you can now bring in the audit objectives, audit risks, audit controls, audit tests, phases, and steps each finding is linked to. That makes it easy to show, for example, which control each finding relates to, or which step it was raised against. These links work in the Query Designer and as nested data blocks in your report templates.

Spot overdue work at a glance

Overdue dates now stand out wherever you look. A red "days overdue" marker now appears next to due dates on action, incident, review point, and questionnaire response records, in the Review panel and in assurance summaries. The same marker appears in the matching registers, including Actions, Assurances, Incidents, Questionnaire Responses, Reviews, and Review Points. Actions also show it on their original due date. Hover over the marker to see the date that was missed. Completed, closed, and cancelled work is never marked as overdue, so the marker always points to work that still needs attention.

Copy with confidence

Archiving an old risk perspective, control type, or list value is good housekeeping, but until now it could stop you copying records that still used it. Copying now just works. Whether you're using Copy, copying a register, or getting content from the library, universe, or another audit, the new record keeps the same values as the original, archived ones included. And when you get from the library, items whose type has been archived are no longer offered, so every choice you see is one you can use.

Bulk actions that show what you can do

When you select records in a register, the bulk action bar now shows only the commands you can use for that selection, and moves them into view. No more hunting under More for the one action you're allowed to take.

When you bulk-update several risks or controls, Next Assessment Date and Next Assurance Date are available again, as long as every selected record's type supports them. Rescheduling assessments across a whole set of risks or controls is quick once more.

Smaller improvements

Clearer audit plan schedules. If an audit plan has no audits yet, its Schedule tab now tells you so and links straight to the plan's Audits tab, rather than showing an empty table.

Better language support for assistive technology. Once you sign in, the page now declares your language, helping browsers and screen readers read content correctly.

Better-looking reports. Colored cells in generated reports now always use a text color with strong contrast against the fill, making them easier for everyone to read. Grouped report sections, such as Findings by Severity, now show one heading per group. Times in PDF reports display correctly, and report file names allow for the file extension when checking length.

Behind the scenes

We've simplified how the product stores the rules that govern each record's statuses, which makes the platform leaner and easier to maintain. You'll see no change in how statuses work. This release also includes the performance and security improvements delivered in our recent updates, and brings several platform components up to date .

Fixes

This release also includes fixes for accuracy and reliability across the product:

Reporting and queries:

• Fixed custom fields not being available to select on audit objective, audit risk, audit control, and audit test sub-queries. 
• Fixed audit risk queries failing to generate when Risk ID was selected on an inherent assessment. 
• Fixed audit risk sub-queries returning no results when Trend was selected on an assessment. 
• Fixed an error when viewing a query schedule's audit trail.

Audits and risks:

• Fixed an unexpected error message when changing an audit's type, even though the change had saved.
• Fixed Get From Audit, Library, and Universe offering items you don't have permission to create. 
• Fixed the risk matrix editor allowing Set as Active while bandings were being edited, which could lose your changes. 
• Fixed deleting a risk, objective, or control with assurances occasionally failing. 
• Fixed newly added incident reports being hidden on an incident's Reports tab.

Administration:

• Fixed users who had permission to create roles, groups, custom fields, and custom list items being unable to do so unless they were administrators. 
• Fixed a role's Applies To list sometimes appearing unset when first opened.

Records and editing:

• Fixed the expand option missing from long descriptions on record headers. 
• Fixed the add-link dialog appearing off screen when editing long text. 
• Fixed custom date fields on record headers not showing their time.

Notifications:

• Fixed due and overdue reminders sometimes following the wrong notification settings. Reminders now always respect the settings for the instance the work belongs to.