Manage controls using the Compliance Workspace › Use › GRC Compliance workspace › Policy and Compliance Management › Governance › Risk › and Compliance

Release: Australia · Updated: 2026-03-12 · Official documentation · View source

Create a control using the Compliance Workspace

Controls are automatically generated when you associate a policy with an entity type, or an entity type with a control objective, or when an entity is added to a control objective. A control is created for each entity listed in the entity type for the control objective. Controls can also be manually created using the Compliance Workspace.

Before you begin

Role required: sn_compliance_ws.corporate_compliance_analyst, sn_compliance_ws.corporate_compliance_manager, sn_compliance_ws.it_compliance_manager

Procedure

Navigate to All > Policy and Compliance > Compliance Workspace.
Select the Create list and click Control.
On the form, fill in the fields.

Field	Description
Number	Unique identification number.
Name	Name of the control.
Entity	Related entity.Note: If you change the state of the entity to Active from Retired state, then the manually created control on the entity also moves to the Draft state.
Status	Control status. Possible choices are:- Compliant - Non-compliant - Not applicable
Inherit from control objective	Option to indicate whether the control is created through an item generation process. For more information, see Multiple controls for a unique entity–control objective combination.
State	Control state. Possible choices are: - Draft In this state, all compliance users can modify the control. Only available when creating a one-off control. One-off controls are possible but not recommended. - Attest When the control is created from a control objective, the controls are in this state. Note: When a control is set back to draft, the attestation is canceled. Review Controls are automatically moved to review from the attestation phase. Monitor In this state, all compliance managers can move the control from review to monitor. Retired Compliance managers or administrators can move a control from Monitor to Retired. Note: When a control is retired: Related indicators do not run Associated attestations are canceled Changes to the associated control objectives do not update the control
Key control	Indicator that the control is a key control.
Exempt	Mark the control as exempted from the attestation cycle. When a control is marked as exempt, an attestation is stopped triggering for that control. Attestations are not created when the control moves to the Attest state.
Control Objective	Related control objective. If you're creating a common control, you must select a control objective.
Enforcement	List of options:- Mandated - Voluntary
Function	Read-only function field. All controls created are Standard control by default. When you convert the control to a common control, the value changes to Common control.
Weighting	Weight used to calculate the control failure factor of a risk. Set the weighting between one and 10.
Frequency	Frequency at which the control is tested. This field is for the control's testing and reporting purpose.List of options:- Event Driven - Daily - Weekly - Monthly - Quarterly - Semi-annually - Annually Note: For information on the difference between theFrequency field for a control and theAttestation Frequency field in an entity, see KB0694607.
Category	List of options:- Acquisition or sale of facilities, technology, and services - Audits and risk management - Compliance and Governance Manual of Style - Human Resources management - Leadership and high-level objectives - Monitoring and measurement - Operational management - Physical and environmental protection - Privacy protection for information and data - Records management - System hardening through configuration management - Systems continuity - Systems design, build, and implementation - Technical security - Third party and supply chain oversight - Root - Deprecated
Type	List of options:- Acquisition/Sale of Assets or Services - Actionable Reports or Measurements - Audits and Risk Management - Behavior - Business Processes - Communicate - Configuration - Data and Information Management - Duplicate - Establish Roles - Establish/Maintain Documentation - Human Resources Management - Investigate - IT Impact Zone - Log Management - Maintenance - Monitor and Evaluate Occurrences - Physical and Environmental Protection - Process or Activity - Records Management - Systems Continuity - Systems Design, Build, and Implementation - Technical Security - Testing - Training
Classification	List of options:- Preventive - Corrective - Detective - IT Impact Zone
Description	Description of the control.
Additional Information	Additional information about the control.
Assignment
Owning group	Group that owns the policy.
Owner	User that owns the policy.Note: The owner is always added as a respondent. The control owner that you select belongs to the owning group.
Attestation
Attestation method	Defaults to Classic attestation.- Classic attestation: ServiceNow AI Platform classic method of control assessment. - Attestation: Method by which controls are assessed.
Attestation	Select from a list of options. Other attestation types can be configured. If this field is populated, then the Attestation Respondents field automatically becomes mandatory, and the owner is made the respondent. Note: If the user changes the attestation type in the control objective, all the related controls are changed also.
Attestation respondents	Users assigned to the attestation of this control. Only a user with the sn_grc.user role can be added as a respondent. Note: When both the Attestation and Attestation respondents fields are set, attestations are created when you click Attest.
Attestation frequency	Frequency at which attestations on the control are triggered. If the field has no value selected, then the associated entity's Attestation frequency value defaults to this field.Options for attestation frequency: Daily Weekly Monthly Quarterly Semi-Annually Annually Note: After the attestation is complete, the control moves to Review and Monitor states. The control is then monitored for its next due date of attestation. You have the option to trigger the control's attestation frequency based on the attestation's Created date or the last completed attestation's Updated date. This option is based on the value in Trigger control attestations based on the created or updated date of the last completed attestation system property.
Activity Journal
Additional comments	Public information about the control.

Select Copy entity frequency related link to copy the value of the Attestation frequency field of the entity to the Attestation frequency field of the control.

When you select the Copy entity frequency related link, the respective entity’s attestation frequency gets copied to the Attestation frequency field in the Attestation section of the control table, and does not update the Frequency field of the control table.
Click Save.

The control is created and all related lists are visible.

If you had created a common control, then there are Reliant entities and Reliant entity types related lists along with other related lists of the control. Use the Reliant entities related list to associate entities to the common control. Or, you can use the Reliant entity types related list to add a group of entities of an entity type instead of associating them one by one.

Image omitted: RelEntitiesRelList.png
Related lists to associate entities as reliant entities.

**Note:** For more information on the reliant entity association for a common control, see [Convert standard control to common control and add reliant entities](convert-standard-control-common.md).

From the Overview page, click the Issues.

You can add existing one or more related issues to the control that you created. By mapping the existing issues to the control, you can reduce the count of open issues on the document.

When you add an issue to a control, a record is created associating the item that is the control with the issue, in the Issue to Control [sn_grc_m2m_issue_item] table.
1. To add an issue to the control, click the Add button.
2. Select the issue or issues related to the control from the Issues pop-up.
3. Click the Add button.
  
  The selected issues are added to the control as related issues. You can also create an issue for the control by clicking the New button.
4. To remove an issue that is already added to the control, select the issue and click Remove.
  
  The associated record mapping between the issue and control is removed from the Issue to Item table.
  
  Note: The UI action buttons such as New, Add, Remove aren’t available if the control is in Retired state.