Use cases by role
Management: knowing you are up to date without asking anyone
What to check once a week to spot risk before it turns up in an audit.
The question management asks is not "how does the tool work", it is "are we up to date or not". And the honest answer in most companies is "we think so", because the data is spread across four people and three spreadsheets.
The four numbers
| Indicator | What it tells you | When to worry |
|---|---|---|
| Incomplete cases | Work started and not closed | If it grows week on week |
| Expired documentation | Live risk, right now | Any non-zero number on anything critical |
| Expiring within 60 days | Work coming your way | If nobody has started requesting it |
| Average time to close | Whether the process works | If it rises without volume rising |
Why volume misleads
Two hundred open cases says nothing on its own: it may just be a busy company. What does say something is how many have been stuck for over a month waiting on the same person. That is the number that predicts the problem.
Worth knowing
If the team has to prepare a report for management to see this, the system is set up wrong. The data should come out of the work, not out of a meeting.
Signing without being the bottleneck
Management is usually the last signer on everything, and therefore the point where things pile up. Signing from a phone, notified when it arrives rather than when somebody remembers to chase, takes calendar days out of processes that were only waiting on a signature.
Frequently asked questions
›Do I need to log in daily?
No. Once a week is enough if the expiry alerts are configured properly: anything urgent reaches you on its own.
›Can I see everything without being able to change anything?
Yes, with the reader role. Though management usually wants administrator, so as not to depend on someone else for a change.
›Can it be exported for the board?
Yes. And exporting beats screenshots: the export carries the dates.
›What do I look at first if I only have five minutes?
Anything expired at critical suppliers or people. It is the only indicator that is a problem today rather than a trend.
A real case
The situation
A board asks whether the company is exposed on supplier documentation.
What you do
- Checks the number of expired documents at critical suppliers: two
- Confirms the renewal was already requested a week ago
- Exports the status with its dates
What you get
An answer with a number and a date in five minutes, instead of "we will look into it and come back to you".
The situation
The team is asked whether everything is up to date.
What you do
- Checks the status without asking anyone
What you get
The answer arrives there and then.
The situation
The monthly report is built by hand.
What you do
- Checks the status already calculated
What you get
The close stops taking an afternoon.
The situation
A problem is spotted once it is already large.
What you do
- Reviews what has been stalled too long
What you get
The blockage shows in days.
The situation
Decisions are taken without knowing how long closing a file takes.
What you do
- Checks the average time per process
What you get
The decision is taken with data.
The situation
Each department gives its own version of the status.
What you do
- Checks the same source for all of them
What you get
The meeting starts from a common picture.
This article answers
- documentation compliance dashboard
- how do I know if my company is up to date
- risk from expired documentation
- compliance indicators for management
- visibility of contracts and expiries