Reviewing Answers (Assessment Survey)

Overview
📋 Note: Some information may apply only to assessments using the original workflow. For information about the simplified assessment workflow, see Understanding the Simplified Assessment Workflow.

The Questions and Responses tab (1) on the Assessment page lists all assessment sections, the questions within each section, and respondents' answers.

Questions and Responses tab showing sections, questions, and respondent answers

Questions with issues are marked with a flag icon. Whether a question has an issue depends on the respondent's answer and the Compliance logic defined in the assessment template.

When the assessment has Survey Complete status (2), you can reassign sections back to respondents using the Reassign All Sections button (3). For more information, see Reassigning Assessment Sections.

At any time, you can download all assessment questions and answers by clicking the Download Report button (4). You may find it more useful to rely on the Reporting functionality instead.

Viewing Question Details

Expanding a survey section lets you immediately view responses, comments, and attachments or supporting documents under the Responses and Evidences column (1). Click an attachment to download and open it.

Expanded survey section showing responses and evidences column

If the assessment is in In Review state, you can edit a respondent's response by clicking the Edit icon (2) next to the response. For more information, see Changing the Respondent's Survey Responses.

Response row showing the Edit icon for modifying a respondent answer

At any time, you can expand a question using the plus (+) button to add comments (3) and attach supporting documents (4). Click the corresponding area to expand existing comments or attachments, or to add new ones. See Adding Comments and Attachments for more information.

Expanded question showing comments and attachments areas
Assigning Risk Score

Each question can have one of seven risk levels: Unassigned, No Risk, Low, Low-Med, Medium, Med-High, and High. The risk score is typically assigned automatically based on respondent answers as configured in the assessment template. You can always overwrite it manually by clicking the button where the risk is displayed.

Question row showing the risk score button

The highest risk score across all questions defines the overall risk of the assessment, which is used in Aggregate Reporting.

Creating Question-Associated Tasks

Once all respondents submit their answers and an approver moves the assessment to In Review state — the issue remediation stage — you can assign question-related tasks to individual stakeholders. You can assign tasks to any question, though this is most common for questions with issues. Click Create Tasks next to the question you want the task associated with.

Question row showing the Create Tasks button

For more information about question-related tasks, see Adding Tasks.

Resolving Issues

Once all respondents submit and an approver moves the assessment to In Review, approvers can mark identified issues as Accepted or Accepted with Exception. All issues must be resolved before the assessment can move to Approved. For more information on assessment states and transitions, see Assessment Manager Workflows and Assessment States.

⚠ Note: Only designated Approvers can resolve issues. Assessment Owners, Creators, and other Participants — including Admin users who are not Approvers — will not see the Resolve button.

To resolve an issue, click Resolve next to a question with an issue.

Question with an issue showing the Resolve button

The Resolve Issue modal appears. Mark the issue as Accepted or Accepted w/Exception. For an exception, add a comment in the Comment field (2) to describe it. You can also attach supporting files using the Add Attachment button (3).

Resolve Issue modal showing Accepted, Accepted with Exception, comment, and attachment options

Once resolved, the flag icon next to the question changes to a checkmark icon, indicating the issue has been addressed.

Adding Comments and Attachments

You can add comments and attach supporting documents to any question at any time. To add a comment, expand the Comments area (1), and then click Add Comment (2).

Question showing the expanded Comments area and Add Comment button

Type your comment and click Save (3) to submit. You can attach files to your comment separately from question-level attachments using the Add Attachments button (5). Click Cancel (4) to discard the comment.

Comment input field showing Save, Cancel, and Add Attachments buttons

You can delete a comment at any time using the Delete icon next to its header, edit it using the Edit icon, or reply to it using the Reply icon.

Comment showing Delete, Edit, and Reply icons

You can also open and remove attachments added to a comment or to the question itself.

When you add a comment or attachment, it immediately becomes visible to all respondents in their surveys (provided they have not yet submitted), as well as to all approvers, the Assessment Owner, the Assessment Creator, and other participants who can access the Assessment Report.

You can also send a comment to any person who is not in the system by placing their email address inside [~ ] at the beginning of the comment. For example:

[~jerusz@yahoo.com] My Comment 1

The system sends an email to jerusz@yahoo.com containing the assessment name, your comment, and the full question text. If the recipient replies to the email, their response is automatically added as another comment to that question.

Email showing the assessment name, question, and comment sent to an external recipient
📋 Note: The recipient must not change the email subject in order for the system to correctly recognise and attribute their reply.

To tag multiple recipients, separate their email addresses with spaces at the beginning of the comment. For example:

[~Sharon.Lasher@mail.com] [~Elaine.Hanson@mail.com] My Comment 2

Both Sharon.Lasher@mail.com and Elaine.Hanson@mail.com will receive the comment email and can both reply to add their responses as comments in the system.

📋 Note: Recipient email addresses must appear at the beginning of the comment — not in the middle or at the end. Separate multiple addresses with one or more spaces, not any other symbol.
Creating Remediation Tasks
📋 Note: Some information here may not apply to assessments using the simplified workflow. See Understanding the Simplified Assessment Workflow.

Once an assessment moves to In Review state, you can create an unlimited number of question-related remediation tasks for any registered user. Click Create Tasks to the right of the relevant question.

Question row showing the Create Tasks button in In Review state

In the Create Task window, complete the following fields:

Create Task window showing all task fields
SummaryA short task title displayed in the Tasks list on the Dashboard and Tasks pages.
PriorityLow, Medium, or High.
Due DateOptional due date by which the assignee should complete the task.
Level of EffortLow, Low-Med, Medium, Medium-High, or High.
LabelSelect a label.
Level of RiskLow, Low-Med, Medium, Medium-High, or High.
TrustArc FrameworkSelect which of the 17 TrustArc Framework L2 Standards this task maps to.
Assigned ToSelect the person to assign the task to — including yourself. You can reassign tasks you create to another person later. To assign to a non-system user, click the Non-System Users radio button, search for the user, or click the plus (+) button to add a new one. A task notification email is sent to the non-system user after the task is created; replies to that email are added as task comments. Whoever clicks Mark as Complete completes the task.
Email RemindersChoose whether to receive reminders or a completion notification.
DescriptionEnter a task description for the assignee.

Click Save & Exit to save. Click Save & Add Another to create another task immediately.

For more information about managing tasks after creation, see Managing Assessment Tasks. To see all tasks associated with the current assessment, see Understanding the Assessment Tasks Section of the Assessment Report Page.

Reassigning Assessment Sections
📋 Note: Some information may not apply to assessments using the simplified workflow. See Understanding the Simplified Assessment Workflow.

While the assessment is in Survey state or has just moved to Survey Complete, you should verify the accuracy of submitted answers before advancing to the In Review issue-remediation stage. If you are not satisfied with any answers, you can reassign sections back to the same or different respondents. Once the assessment advances to In Review, section reassignment is no longer possible.

To reassign a section, check the checkbox (1) next to that section's name and click Reassign Sections (2). To reassign all sections at once, check the checkbox (3) next to the Reassign Sections button. When sections have many questions, collapse them first for easier selection — click the section name (4) to expand or collapse it.

Questions and Responses page showing section checkboxes and the Reassign Sections button
📋 Note: The Reassign Sections button (2) is only visible to Approvers, Assessment Creators, and Assessment Owners.

After clicking Reassign Sections, the Reassign Section window appears.

Reassign Section window showing respondent selection, answer visibility, and custom email options

Here you can select the respondent (5) to reassign the sections to, specify whether the respondent should see the previous respondent's answers (6), and add custom content for the automatic email notification to that respondent (7). You can reassign to the same or a different respondent, including someone outside your organization — switch the toggle next to the Reassign To field (5) to do so. For more information, see Creating an Assessment. To assign different sections to different respondents, select each set of sections one by one and click Reassign Sections separately for each unique respondent.

⚠ Important: Clicking Save (8) in the Reassign Section window only changes the assessment status from Survey Complete to Survey Incomplete — it does not complete the reassignment. To finalise the reassignment, click the arrow on the Survey Incomplete status button and select Resend Survey from the context menu.
Survey Incomplete status button showing the Resend Survey option

Enter the reasons for resending and click Next > Send. The system sends notifications to the reassigned respondents and the assessment status returns to Survey. All respondents must re-answer their assigned questions before you can move forward. You can repeat this process as many times as needed.

Once satisfied with all submitted answers, click the arrow on the Assessment Status button and select Review Issues from the context menu to move the assessment to the In Review issue-remediation stage.

Assessment Status button context menu showing the Review Issues option

For more information about assessment stages and transitions, see Assessment States.

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