So an Evidence Template didn't pass? No worries — that's what Action Plans are for. They give you a structured way to acknowledge what went wrong, put together a fix, and confirm it's been carried out. Here's how the process works from start to finish.

If the evidence that has been submitted is not adequate or missed, the Reviewer can Fail the Period Review.

This is where the Action Plan gets set up. The person who created the Action Plan (the Reviewer) starts by determining who will be responsible for writing the plan — this is the Plan Author. From here, you'll also set the date the plan needs to be completed by and identify what evidence failed to trigger the Action Plan.

The Reviewer also fills in the "How did the Control Test fail?" field to document what went wrong. Once saved, the status shows as Assigned - Pending Plan, and the Plan Author is notified to begin writing their plan.

The Plan Author writes the remediation plan, detailing how they will correct the issue and prevent it from occurring again. They also set a Complete Plan By date for when they expect the work to be done. Once ready, the Plan Author submits the plan for review.

The Reviewer reviews the submitted plan and can either accept or reject it. If rejected, the Reviewer can add comments explaining what needs to change, and the plan is sent back to the Plan Author to update and resubmit. This back-and-forth can happen multiple times until the plan is accepted. Once accepted, the Action Plan moves forward.

Once the plan is accepted, the Plan Author carries out the remediation plan and then documents the results — describing how the plan solved the issue, whether it worked as expected, and any relevant outcomes. The Plan Author then submits the completion for review.

This is the final review stage. The Action Plan Reviewer reviews what was done and can either accept or reject the completed work.

The Reviewer reviews the completed work and can either accept or reject it. If rejected, the Reviewer can add comments requesting further details, and the plan is sent back to the Plan Author to provide additional information and resubmit. This back-and-forth can happen multiple times. Once the completion is accepted, the Action Plan is complete.

Once the plan is completed and accepted, the Action Plan is then moved to the Completion Accepted phase. This action plan is now complete and no further action is needed.

You will find a card on the Home Dashboard where you can keep track of all the Action Plans for your organization. You can find more information about this card here.

More information on how to Set up, Gather, and Approve Evidence can be found here.