Hi, because we manage so many assurance documents across so many clients, we thought we share what we’ve learnt. This information is made freely available and provided in good faith on the basis that it may explain various assurance, risk and compliance documents.
That being said, according to Deloitte, over 60% of all compliance requirements are self-inflicted, i.e not regulatory. We hope this knowledge base will help simplify things and help you set up efficient and effective GRC (Governance Risk and Compliance) policies, procedure and processes to help you meet your regulatory, industry and internal obligations…..and if you need help managing all the paperwork it generates, please get in touch.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Can I mix and match MISSOT and SSOT compliance modules?
Yes you can. We have some members who manage all their own business and staff documents but have asked us to manage all their property related documents.
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Do you provide SaaS for external supplier and contractor compliance?
No. Because we are verifying supplier documents for multiple buyers, we cannot offer this as SaaSproduct.
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Do you provide a self-service SaaS product?
For many reasons, we advise against a SaaS solution because we’ve seen it fail so often. Compliance administration is a people problem, not a software problem. Keeping everything up to date is the most difficult part.
That said, we recognise that some companies do have the resources to keep their business and staff compliance up to date, so yes, we do offer SaaS product (ISSOT) for company and staff compliance. SaaS for facility compliance is a lot more complicated and is only available on request.
We’ve specifically designed Strytex as a managed service because
- we do a far better job than anyone else as this is all we do,
- we’ve learnt that compliance administration is a people problem. It’s a job everybody hates, so very few people do it well, but it’s a job we love.
- only 2% of business are large enough to manage their own compliance administration, and even then, we are often better at it than they are.
- Members who sign up for a SaaS subscription, must agree to keep their compliance above 80% at all times. If it drops below 80% for a period of time, the problem is that either the documents are not being kept up to date, or the compliance control matrices have not been set up correctly. We don’t want our subscribers to waste their money if they can’t keep the documents up to date or haven’t been set up the matrices correctly up to date so we retain the right to step in and fix the problem for a fee, up to and including revoking the SaaS subscription and restricting the service to a managed service.
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Can you tell me what documents I need to load to become pre-approved for specific organisations?
I’m afraid we can’t as that information is confidential to each organisation and depends on what type of products and services you supply. However, if you have a particular company in mind, who already uses the Strytex service, you could use the “Contact us” form on their company profile and ask them directly.
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So how does a buyer find me and see that I meet their pre-approval requirements?
All our Premium Members set their unique compliance documentary requirements for each of their supplier categories.
When a buyer is looking for suppliers and contractors, they search by keywords as well as applying their relevant documentary requirements.
For instance if they are looking for Plumbers they would search for keyword = “Plumber”. They can also specify the plumber must have current certificates for Public Liability Insurance of at least $10M, Workcover (OR Income Protection for Sole Traders) and a relevant plumbers licence. Schools may also require a Working with Children card.
The search produces a short list of all plumbers that meet the documentary requirements, i.e a list of Pre-Approved list of potential suppliers.
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So how do I become “pre-approved”?
As you probably know, potential customers keep asking for similar packs of compliance certificates. For example, nearly every buyer asks for liability insurance, relevant industry approvals, licences, copies of company policies etc.
To maximise your chances of pre-approval, simply upload all of your compliance documents and you will satisfy the pre-approval requirements of most organisations.
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Does Strytex pre-approve suppliers?
On behalf of our Premium Members, we manage all types of suppliers, from food manufacturers to plumbers. Each of our Premium Members sets their own, unique, documentary requirements for each of their supplier categories so there is no industry standard assurance pre-approval.
Because every customer has unique requirements, Strytex cannot pre-approve suppliers or issue “Pre-Approved by Strytex” certificates.
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Do you load all our documents?
Members as Buyers
When you subscribe to our managed services, we load all current (or active) documents.
If you subscribe to our supplier managed service, we also load the mandatory documents you specify for those suppliers.
Members as Suppliers
If you are a supplier, we will load the documents mandated by your customers. You are free to load any other documents you like.
Archived / expired / historical documents
Because some companies have boxes and boxes of archived documents, we do not load any previous versions of related certificates, however, we do offer this as an additional service if you want to create a single secure online source for all your compliance related documents.
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Do you offer a service to load all our archived documents?
Yes but only for compliance related documents.
Please contact us for a quote.
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Can I mix and match MISSOT and SSOT compliance modules?
Yes you can. We have some members who manage all their own business and staff documents but have asked us to manage all their property related documents.
-
Do you provide a self-service SaaS product?
For many reasons, we advise against a SaaS solution because we’ve seen it fail so often. Compliance administration is a people problem, not a software problem. Keeping everything up to date is the most difficult part.
That said, we recognise that some companies do have the resources to keep their business and staff compliance up to date, so yes, we do offer SaaS product (ISSOT) for company and staff compliance. SaaS for facility compliance is a lot more complicated and is only available on request.
We’ve specifically designed Strytex as a managed service because
- we do a far better job than anyone else as this is all we do,
- we’ve learnt that compliance administration is a people problem. It’s a job everybody hates, so very few people do it well, but it’s a job we love.
- only 2% of business are large enough to manage their own compliance administration, and even then, we are often better at it than they are.
- Members who sign up for a SaaS subscription, must agree to keep their compliance above 80% at all times. If it drops below 80% for a period of time, the problem is that either the documents are not being kept up to date, or the compliance control matrices have not been set up correctly. We don’t want our subscribers to waste their money if they can’t keep the documents up to date or haven’t been set up the matrices correctly up to date so we retain the right to step in and fix the problem for a fee, up to and including revoking the SaaS subscription and restricting the service to a managed service.
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Do you charge per user or per seat?
No we don’t. We don’t want businesses worrying about how much extra it will cost to provide whole departments or teams to their Single Source of Truth.
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Do you charge per document?
No, we charge per entity (staff, property, asset, product etc) so you can load and track as many documents per entity as you like.
We don’t want to stop our Members from adding documents in case of bill shock.
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What’s the difference between a Subscription and a Licence?
With thanks to the Solid works blog
The two main difference are Updates and Support:
Updates
When you buy software with a licence, your licence never expires and you can use it forever. However, that doesn’t give you the right to any new updates to the software. If you licence is a couple of years old and you want the new updates, you have to renew (pay) for a new licence.
Under a subscription model “you receive software updates automatically, so you have the latest and greatest version as soon as new functionality is ready and released. As the software becomes more efficient, you become more efficient too!”
In both cases, access to new features are generally excluded. Licence holders have to buy licences for new features and subscribers need to subscribe to new features when they are released.
Support
Under a licence, you generally get 1 year support and then you have to pay for support after that.
With a subscription, support is automatically included.
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Can you tell me what documents I need to load to become pre-approved for specific organisations?
I’m afraid we can’t as that information is confidential to each organisation and depends on what type of products and services you supply. However, if you have a particular company in mind, who already uses the Strytex service, you could use the “Contact us” form on their company profile and ask them directly.
-
So how does a buyer find me and see that I meet their pre-approval requirements?
All our Premium Members set their unique compliance documentary requirements for each of their supplier categories.
When a buyer is looking for suppliers and contractors, they search by keywords as well as applying their relevant documentary requirements.
For instance if they are looking for Plumbers they would search for keyword = “Plumber”. They can also specify the plumber must have current certificates for Public Liability Insurance of at least $10M, Workcover (OR Income Protection for Sole Traders) and a relevant plumbers licence. Schools may also require a Working with Children card.
The search produces a short list of all plumbers that meet the documentary requirements, i.e a list of Pre-Approved list of potential suppliers.
-
So how do I become “pre-approved”?
As you probably know, potential customers keep asking for similar packs of compliance certificates. For example, nearly every buyer asks for liability insurance, relevant industry approvals, licences, copies of company policies etc.
To maximise your chances of pre-approval, simply upload all of your compliance documents and you will satisfy the pre-approval requirements of most organisations.
-
Does Strytex pre-approve suppliers?
On behalf of our Premium Members, we manage all types of suppliers, from food manufacturers to plumbers. Each of our Premium Members sets their own, unique, documentary requirements for each of their supplier categories so there is no industry standard assurance pre-approval.
Because every customer has unique requirements, Strytex cannot pre-approve suppliers or issue “Pre-Approved by Strytex” certificates.
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Can you recommend what documents to load to maximise my chances of Pre-Approval?
You probably have a better idea of what’s required in your industry than we do. To get a handle on things, we suggest you split it up as follows
- Company
- Staff
- Product
- Property,
- Assets or Plant and Equipment (PP&E)
Potential buyers will first want to check your Company is compliant with
- government regulations,
- industry standards, and then
- their own policies, e.g. do you have an Anti-Bullying policy and procedure. These types of policies are not government requirements, nor are they formal industry standards but some organisations are asking their suppliers whether they have them. Some large customers ask for these types of documents to reduce risk in their supply chain to reduce potential damage to their brand.
We suggest you collect all your company related documents and load these, e.g. certificates of currency for insurances, company licences, company policies, any industry standards certificates etc.
If you supply services or contracting, buyers will want to check your Staff are compliant. We suggest you load all your staff related licences and certificates.
If you are supplying Products, buyers will want to check that the products you supply meet relevant standards or that batches meet agreed quality standards
Depending on the industry, buyers may want to check that the Property and /or Assets you use to manufacture the products, provide the services or bring on to their site is compliant. This could includes things like vehicle registration documents, Test and Tag registers for portable electrical equipment, annual calibration certificates for scientific equipment, annual food safety audits for complete manufacturing sites, etc.
So to make the process less daunting simply split the task into these five sections. You probably have a far better idea of what is required in your industry than we do.
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Policies, Procedures, Template Forms and Completed Forms
A Policy is a clear, simple statement of how your organisation intends to conduct its services, actions or business. They provide a set of guiding principles to help with decision making. They do not need to be long or complicated – a page or a couple of sentences may be all that is required for each policy area.
A Procedure describes how each policy is put into action in your organisation. Each procedure should outline:
- Who will do what
- What steps they need to take
- Which forms or documents to use.
Procedures might just be a few bullet points or instructions. Sometimes they work well as forms, checklists, instructions or flowcharts.
Template Forms are the template blank documents to be completed as part of the procedure.
Completed Form are all the forms completed as part of the procedure.
The Manual is simply the collection of all of the above. Maybe with electronic filing, we don’t need manuals anymore.
Review periods
We recommend reviewing policies, procedures and forms at least every 5 years to ensure they are all up to date and relevant to each other.
Policy Every 2-5 years Depending on the importance of the policy or the risk that the policy is addressing, these should be reviewed every 2-5 years. It also depends on how quickly your organisation is growing. Procedure Every 2-5 years Template forms Every 2-5 years Forms don’t often change but they should be checked whenever the policy or procedure changes. Completed forms Never Once a form is completed it does not need to be reviewed, just filed. -
How do I get a Workcover Exemption Certificate?
If your business is based in Victoria Australia, you must take out WorkCover insurance if
- you expect to pay more than $7,500 a financial year in rateable remuneration, or
- you have any apprentices or trainees.
This applies even if you’re a small company with only one worker. Worksafe VIC
If you don’t meet these criteria, it’s a little known fact, but you can apply for an exemption certificate.
Simply email Advisory_Service@worksafe.vic.gov.au as follows
Dear Worksafe
Please may I apply for a WorkCover insurance certificate of exemption for this financial year.
Regards
[your business signature]
They should then send you an email with only a few questions for you to confirm.
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How do I find my business registration number?
Business Registration numbers are generally unique reference numbers that a government issues to businesses in that country.
If you do not know your business registration number, it may be on
- your business website
- your annual company report (see your business website)
- your invoices
- etc.
Alternatively, we’ve found a few government sites that might help
Country Australia https://abr.business.gov.au/ New Zealand https://www.nzbn.govt.nz/ United Kingdom https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/companies-house or try Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_company_registers
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For how long is a Certificate of Currency valid?
Certificates of currency are only valid on the date that they are issued!
Certificates of currency are very carefully worded. They generally state something along the lines of “This certificate confirms that the undermentioned policy is current as at the date shown below.” The key phrase is “As at the date shown below”. It means that the certificate is valid today but may not be valid tomorrow.
In the very extreme, someone could
- take out insurance, on Jan 1st
- pay for it and get a Certificate of currency dated Jan 2nd that states that the period of insurance is from Jan1st to Dec 31st
- cancel it on Jan 3rd and get a refund.
- use this certificate of currency to imply they are insured for the year.
This example is very extreme and we have not yet come across this. We simply put it forward as an example to highlight that certificates of currency are only valid on the day they are issued.
We have seen at least one CoC that highlights this by stating something along the lines of “Whilst an expiry date has been indicated, it should be noted that the policy may be cancelled at any time before the expiry date. Accordingly, reliance should not be placed on the expiry date.”
So what am I supposed to do?
In the near future, we will be working with organisations that issue certificates of currency to ask them if we can interrogate their databases on a nightly basis. That way we can update the currency of the certificate every day.
This will take quite a few years to achieve.
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How do I add a Client’s Staff, Location or Supplier
Because this is set up within the clients site, you need to raise a MAC with Strytex for us to effect this change.
Simply raise a ticket by clicking on Raise a request at the top right of this page and provide the following information
- Your company name
- Company name of your Client
- Details of the Staff/Location or Supplier
We will then add the relevant details and link it to your site.
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When is a document marked “About to Expire”?
Because we have documents with renewal periods ranging from weeks to decades, we’ve set the following default expiry warning periods. Your administrator can reset these in your subglossary.
About to expire warning in calendar days Monthly 1 week before the expiry date Quarterly 2 weeks before the expiry date Six monthly 3 weeks before the expiry date Yearly 1 month before the expiry date More than yearly 2 months before the expiry date Never Not applicable