Objective

Having a detailed record of communication helps to keep all stakeholders informed. Additionally, an audit trail of all compliance activities is a crucial tool for risk mitigation when dealing with regulatory requirements, particularly when the regulatory agency has the authority to audit your organization for compliance, or when there is an incident for which compliance with a particular mandatory regulation is called into question. For this reason, it is important to document all aspects of your compliance activity, such as meeting summaries, phone calls, and communication attempts.

Solution

Communication logs are a method of documenting all aspects of your compliance activity. For example, when managing your compliance programs, you might need to communicate with regulatory agencies, vendors, government agencies, internal personnel, and other contractors. These communications might entail several notes or documents that you need to track. In addition to the audit trail provided by scheduled events , notifications , and the document library , the Compliance application enables you to add communications logs to track notes, phone calls, emails, meetings, conversations and any other type of communication associated with a regulation , program , requirement , location, or event .

Procedure

1. The Compliance Program Manager enters communication log records as needed for regulations, programs, requirements, or events. See Adding Communication Logs for Compliance Records.
2. Compliance Program Coordinators enter communication log records as needed for requirements or events assigned to them.
3. Web Central users with access to the Operational Reports process can locate and view communication logs using the following reports:
   • Compliance Drill-Down: View communication logs entered for the selected regulation, compliance program, requirement, event
   • Regulations and Initiatives: View communication logs entered for regulations or initiatives.
   • Compliance Programs. View communication logs entered for programs.
   • Compliance Requirements. View communication logs entered for requirements.
   • Compliance by Location. View communication logs entered for locations.
   • Compliance Event Finder. View communication logs entered for events.