Help centre / Reports & assurance / How control statuses are worked out
How control statuses are worked out
Every check on the Assurance page reads your records and applies a fixed rule. "Under control" means the evidence is there. "Needs attention" means we found a real problem. "No evidence yet" means we found nothing either way, so you can attest it yourself.
The Assurance page is a list of checks, one for each thing a well-run charity is expected to have in place. This article explains where each status comes from, so you can trust what you're looking at.
What do the four statuses mean?
- Under control: the check passed against your records, or a trustee has recently confirmed it themselves.
- Needs attention: the check found a concrete problem. For example, an adopted policy is past its review date.
- No evidence yet: nothing in your records proves it either way, and nobody has confirmed it. This is normal for a new workspace. It means "not recorded yet", never "you failed".
- Not applicable: the check doesn't apply to your charity. A charity with no staff never sees employment checks.
Where does a status come from?
Fixed rules, applied to your own records. The safeguarding policy check, for example, looks in your policy library for an adopted safeguarding policy and its review date. If it's there and in date, the check is under control. If it's past review, the check needs attention.
AI never decides a status. Checks with a small robot icon are checked automatically, and a status only changes when your records change. Looking at the page changes nothing.
Which checks apply to my charity?
The About your charity panel holds simple statements like "We employ staff" and "We claim Gift Aid". These answers decide which checks apply. We work them out from your records, and you can correct them by ticking or unticking. You can also open one check and select Mark not applicable if it genuinely doesn't fit.
What if the evidence isn't in CharityControl?
Plenty of real work leaves no trace in your records, so you can vouch for it yourself. Open the check, select Attest, note what you checked, and select Confirm attestation. The check turns green, marked as self-attested, and your name and date are kept with it.
An attestation lasts for that check's review period, then expires and asks again. And an automated check that has found a real problem can't be attested away: the status comes back from the data. Fix the record instead.
What if the board has accepted a gap?
Sometimes a gap is a considered choice. Open the check and select Accept exception, with the reason. The status stays honest, but the check now carries an exception accepted note, and the reason is kept in your history of changes. That's exactly what an examiner wants to see: a gap the board knew about and decided on.
How do I fix a red check?
Open it. Each check explains what's expected and why, and a Go fix this button takes you straight to the page where the gap is closed. You can also set an Owner, so one named person looks after each check.