1. Compliance in general

‪Compliance management involves establishing processes, policies, and controls to ensure that an organization operates within the legal and regulatory boundaries that apply to its operations.

This includes activities such as monitoring, reporting, and taking corrective actions to ensure that the organization and its employees are conducting their activities in accordance with the required rules and regulations.

Compliance is crucial for maintaining ethical practices, minimizing risks, and avoiding legal and financial penalties.

2. What is this module about

The Compliance module is designed to facilitate the effective management of legislation documentation for buildings and building elements (assets) in order to be compliant. In its core functionality, the module grants access to default legislation(s) (currently, only the Dutch legislation is available, but it is also possible to create your own set of regulations) related to buildings and building elements.

2.1 Legislation

A legislation object mainly consists of a PDF document that contains the details of the legislation and a list of document types needed to comply with this legislation. An example is the ‘Elevator' legislation with 8 document types. Some document-type examples are:

• ‘Inspection report’ which is required every 3 months

• ‘Logbook available’ which is required once

The legislation as a whole or the specific document type can be related to a building, an asset, or both. This will determine which legislation can be linked to which type of object (Property, Asset, or both) and for which document types the legislation documents are automatically generated.

2.2 Buildings and Assets

The compliance module is aimed towards being compliant with rules and regulations for buildings and building elements, therefore the use of both the ‘Properties and areas' and 'Assets’ modules is always needed in combination with the compliance module.

2.3 Linking legislation

Properties and assets both have a ‘Compliance' tab available, which is used to link the relevant legislation object(s) to the specific property or asset. It is possible to have multiple legislations linked to a single property or asset.

If a legislation is linked to a property or asset, the relevant document types are automatically generated as legislation documents, related to the property or asset.

Using codes

Linking legislation objects to a property or asset can be done by searching through the whole list of legislations, but in the context of assets, it is also possible to link a code (on the compliance tab). This will be used as a filter when linking legislation objects to the asset (only legislation objects are shown related to the code via the legislation object or the parent legislation object).

Legislation suggestions

If codes are linked to the assets, it is also possible to use the 'Legislation suggestions' functionality. This functionality automatically suggests applicable legislation objects for each of the relevant assets based on the code. Legislation suggestions are only generated if the asset has no linked legislation object yet. If more than one legislation object can be applicable based on the code, the user needs to make a choice.

2.4 Legislation documents

Once a legislation object is linked to an object (property or asset), legislation documents are generated in the context of this object, one for each of the document types related to the legislation object. This legislation document object is the object used to upload the actual document (e.g. an inspection of an elevator) and to keep track of the compliance status for this object and document type.

The next steps describe the legislation document process on a high level. See the ‘User Manual’ part down below for a more detailed description.

Register initial reference data

For every new legislation document, the initial reference data must be specified in the first step. This date is typically the construction date or the date the object was taken into production. The initial reference date and the document type conditions are then used to calculate the initial expiration date of the legislation document. These conditions determine among other things, if a document is only needed once, when the first document is needed, what the frequency of the document is, etc. If a document is needed immediately and none has been uploaded yet, the expiration date is likely to align with the initial reference date.

Upload document

If the legislation document is expired or is about to expire, a new document needs to be uploaded. This document is usually a new certificate or proof of inspection. The execution date of the inspection needs to be specified and is used to determine the new expiration date of the legislation document. The new expiration date will be generated if there are no remaining points and no approval is necessary. If a legislation document needs to be approved, is by default determined in the document type but can be deviated from the legislation document itself.

Compliant or expired

Based on the expiration date, the legislation document will automatically become compliant or (if the expiration date is in the past) become expired. To avoid legislation documents from expiring, the compliance overviews can be used to monitor all the legislation documents and upload new documents (versions) if needed.

Compliance overviews

There are several overviews and dashboards available to keep track of all relevant compliance subjects. The compliance tasks overview shows the legislation documents, where a task needs to be executed. Either registering the initial reference date, uploading the initial document, uploading a new version to stay compliant, legislation documents to approve, etc.

The compliance overview consists of multiple includes with all the relevant information and can be found via the startboard tab and the navigation menu.

2.5 Other relevant options

In order to help users get a grip on the whole list of legislation documents, and be signaled on time for new versions that will be required. There are two settings available on the legislation document level, which are worth mentioning here:

• Reminder expiration date: This will indicate how long before the expiration date, this legislation document will show up in the legislation overviews as a task to upload a new version. By default, this is set to 30 days but can be changed per legislation document.

• Additional reminder date: Per legislation document, an additional reminder date can be set resulting in the legislation document showing up in the compliance overview from this date onwards. For example, if a document is only needed once, but it is still advised to upload a new version after x years.

3. Why use this module

There are multiple reasons for a customer to use this module next to the modules they already use, or even as a complete stand-alone solution:

• Complex & changing regulations
  Regulations can vary significantly and may change over time, making it difficult for stakeholders to keep track of the latest requirements.  

• Lack of awareness
  Building owners and managers might not be aware of the legislation that applies to their specific property or the latest updates in building codes, environmental standards, safety requirements, etc.

• Inadequate Documentation
  Keeping track of all compliance-related documentation, permits, and certifications can be cumbersome, and failing to maintain accurate records may lead to compliance issues.

With this module, the default legislation will be kept up-to-date for you and it will also tell you exactly which documents are required and with which interval.

It also provides clear overviews and insights into your current state of ‘compliance’ in the form of graphs and exportable data overviews:

By using a workflow to track the status and control the actions for each document it is also possible to:

• Specify in general, per building or even per asset which users will be able to upload, approve, or completely manage the documents

• Make sure users get tasks and weekly e-mail overviews to notify them on time for the specific tasks they need to execute.

3.1 Choices to be made within the module

The most relevant choices that can be made when using this module are the following:

1. Does the customer want to use the available standard legislation, or do they want to create their own regulations?

   1. In case the customer is not from a country that has available default legislation, or the customer wishes to keep track of different types of rules and legislations (for instance, only company-specific regulations), it is out of the box possible to create your own regulations and related document types via the legislation navigation menu option. This is also possible in combination with the default legislation).

   2. In case the customer does want to use the default legislation, make sure to enable it for the required country(s). This can be enabled directly via the module activation process or later on via the Compliance settings:
      

      

2. Does the customer want to let every involved user manage their own tasks for the entire portfolio of assets and buildings, or do they want to split this up per (subset of) buildings or even assets?

   1. If the customer only has a few users managing the complete compliance process for every building, the easiest option is to add the relevant user groups to one general profile, or make general profiles per role (upload documents and legislation document approval) and assign this profile to the users. Each user will have access to and will get all relevant tasks for every building and asset.

   2. If the customer has many users each managing only a part of the entire portfolio of buildings and assets, or perhaps wants to give suppliers access to upload documentation for some buildings or assets, it is possible to enable contextual access. More information about contextual access can be found via <LINK TO MASTERDATA PROPERTIES AND AREAS>. With contextual access, authorizations can be created for users to specific properties and assets. Keep in mind this requires more active user management.

4. How to activate this module

As for every new module, use the ‘Module activation’ option on the administrator startboard (only available for level 2 and level 3 admins). For more general information about these 'Module activation' options, see Module Activations

There are two options to activate the Compliance module:

• As a complete solution (Complete solutions can only be rolled out initially if no other module has been activated yet).

• As a module (The compliance module is rolled out as an additional module next to other already activated solutions or modules).

In a new environment both the solution and individual module can be activated. If another solution or module is already activated, the compliance module can only be activated.

4.1 Prerequisites before enabling this module

The following prerequisites only apply to enabling the module and not to the complete solution, since the solution activation already takes all prerequisites into account.

The following modules need to be activated before the Compliance module can be activated:

• Masterdata: Properties and areas

• Masterdata: Assets

4.2 Module activation

For this specific module activation, only one setting applies:

• Enable default legislation. This is used to enable country-specific legislation. It is always possible to create your own regulations apart from or next to country-specific legislation.

After starting the module activation, the 'compliance assets' import is available to download in the next step. For more details, see further down (Data imports).
Starting the module activation will also enable the relevant user groups and these can be assigned to user profiles via the User profile management dashboard which can be found on the admins startboard. For more details, see further down (User groups and profile suggestions).

As a complete solution

If compliance is activated as a complete solution (instead of a module), the following additional actions are automatically executed:

• In Dutch, the word ‘Inventaris' is translated to ‘Assets' (as that is the general term in Dutch for compliance as well)

• Masterdata: Properties and Areas module is activated

• Masterdata: Assets module is activated

• If no custom corporate identity is set (can be set in the initialization wizard), the ‘Compliance' logo will be set via the corporate identity (instead of the default ‘Workplace’ logo)

• 3 user profiles are generated:

  • Compliance manager: Users with this profile can view master data (Properties and Assets), view legislations and manage their own regulations, view all compliance documents, view task lists and graphs, and assign suggested legislations. Users with this profile can also upload and approve documents.

  • Compliance document uploader: Users with this profile receive a task in the workflow to upload the actual document.

  • Compliance document approver: Users with this profile will get a task in the workflow to review the uploaded document if the document requires approval.

The ‘Compliance manager' profile is sufficient to manage the whole compliance module. The ‘Compliance document uploader’ and the 'Compliance document approver’ profiles can be assigned to users if you want to separate the tasks given to users in the legislation document workflow.

These profiles can be assigned to users (per user or via the user profile management dashboard).

4.3 Data imports

When activating this module, some data imports become available, which can be used to quickly import relevant data into the system (as opposed to manually entering this data, which is also possible).

Relevant data imports become available in the module activation after the activation has been started. Default data imports can also be found on the admins startboard (only for level 2 and level 3 administrators).

For more information on data imports in general, see: Data imports

Available data imports for compliance as a module

If compliance is activated as a module, the following default import connectors become available:

Available data imports for compliance as a complete solution

4.4 User groups

When a module is activated, user groups become available that can be assigned to user profiles. These user groups will give users access to (a subset of) navigation menu options, startboard tabs, and tasks in the relevant workflow(s).

For more general information on user profiles, user groups, users, and the user profile dashboard, see: [To be added Link+ content]

For the Compliance module, the following user groups become available:

Via the 'User profile management' option on the administrator startboard, these user groups can be assigned to existing user profiles or add them to newly created user profiles.

If the Compliance module is activated as a complete solution, user profiles which contain the relevant compliance user groups, are automatically generated in the Module activation. Use the 'User profile management' option on the administrator startboard to assign these profiles to users.

4.4.1 Relevant user groups from other modules:

For some modules, other (masterdata) modules might be of importance, in order to be able to fully use this module.
For Compliance, the Masterdata modules ‘Properties and areas’ and ‘Assets' are needed, therefore the following user groups also need to be assigned to users (If not already done in the past), to be able to create and edit (including linking legislation to properties and Assets as well as marking assets as ‘Applicable’ for compliance:

When generating the user profiles, it is advised to also include these groups in the profiles or have dedicated profiles (and users) for these modules.

4.5 Navigation menu and startboard options

When a module is activated, the relevant navigation menu options become available to users with the correct authorizations (based on the user groups). Next to that, a module specific key user startboard tab becomes available for that particular module and is visible depending on the user's authorizations. This tab gives users insights and day-to-day work overviews relevant to the specific module.

For more general information on the navigation menu and startboard, see: [To be added Link+ content]

For the Compliance module, the following navigation menu options become available:

For the Compliance module, the following starboard tab becomes available:

This tab is available for the following user groups:

• Compliance approve document

• Compliance manage documents

• Compliance manage legislation

• Upload Compliance document

• View Compliance navigation menu
  

This startboard tab has some buttons that are similar to the navigation menu options with the same names. Next to that, this tab has the following includes:

• Expired documents: An overview of expired legislation documents, so user can directly see where to take immediate action.

• Compliance tasks: An overview of all relevant compliance tasks for the user.

• Recently updated legislation: An overview of recently updated (country specific legislation objects, so the user is aware of any changes.

5. Additional reports

For some modules, additional reports can be available via the ‘Report’ navigation menu option.
For Compliance, there are currently no additional reports.

6. Additional settings and options after enabling

For some modules, additional settings can be configured after the initial module activation via the 'Module settings' option on the administrator startboard. A module is always activated with the most used settings pre-defined. After the module is activated, the module may have more advanced settings available, which can be managed via the Module settings as well.

To navigate to all Compliance settings, go to Modules settings → tab Compliance. Hover over the available settings to get more information:

7. Additional information

• This module was added in the September release of 2023. The ‘What’s new' page can be found here: Compliance What's new

• The default Dutch legislation is updated once every quarter and recently updated legislation is shown in the compliance dashboard (the tab on the general startboard).

8. User manual

For the user manual with a more step-by-step explanation of the process itself, see: Compliance user manual

9. Q&A

• Q: Is it also possible to authorize users only for specific legislation? E.g. give a user the task to upload the compliance documents for only the ‘Fire hazard legislation’.
  A: No, it is currently not possible to authorize users per legislation. This is only possible per Building or Asset.