Conducting an Audit on a Computer

When conducting an audit, there are two important things to note:

You do not have to complete your audit in a single session. In fact, it's highly unlikely you will! Anything you do on your audit (answer questions, mute questions, add notes, upload files, etc.) is automatically saved. You can close out of your audit at any time and come back later and complete it.
You can conduct your audit on a computer or on an iPad/iPhone using the Simplifya iOS app, or both. You can probably answer many of the questions on your audit while you're sitting at a desk. Other questions, you may need to be walking around and examining things. Simplifya's iOS app allows you to easily walk around and answer audit questions without lugging around a laptop, and even without wifi! Once connected to wifi, your audit data will automatically sync to the Simplifya database. This means you can start your audit on a computer, switch to the iOS app, and then switch back to working on your audit on a computer.

This article covers how to conduct an audit on a computer. For details on how to conduct an audit using the iOS app, check out this article.

Getting Started

Log into your account on a computer (or tablet) and go to the Audits module. Find the audit you'd like to conduct, click on it, and then click the "Start" (or "Continue") button. The question set for your audit will now generate and you'll be taken to your audit.
The same steps can be taken when using a web browser (e.g. Chrome) on a mobile device.

Once the audit is opened, you'll see:

The Question Tree in the Left-Navigation
The Question View in the center of the screen

The Question Tree

In the left-nav, all of the audit questions are displayed. There is a "question topic" for each question in the category. The question topic is an abbreviated description of each question, intended to help you identify and locate questions as you jump around from question to question. Every facility is laid out differently and every auditor has different preferences on the order of how they'd like to conduct the audit, so we've categorized the audit questions and allow the auditor to jump around from category to category, and question to question.

The purpose of the question tree in the left-nav is to help you:

easily jump around to different questions;
see how many questions still need to be answered and easily identify them;
search for questions;
reorder your questions;
mute questions; and
identify questions that have files uploaded and/or notes added to them.

In the question tree, there are two different ways to view the questions: "Category View" and "List View." To alternate between the two, just click the icon to the right of the "Search" feature:

Category View: The category view displays questions grouped by category. Every Simplifya and custom question is required to have a category. You are able to drag and drop questions to reorder them, but only within their category. When Question Groups are in use, any questions in a Question Group will display under the group name, and not the category.
List View: The list view displays all question titles in one continuous list. Because there are no categories, you're able to drag and drop to re-order your questions.

Icons in the Question Tree

In addition to being a table of contents for the questions in your audit, the question tree also shows:

Answered questions: Once a question has been answered, you'll see a green checkmark next to the question in the category list. Once all questions in a category have been answered, you'll see a checkmark next to the category name in the category list.
Muted questions: In the question tree, you can mute questions that are not applicable to your business, or to this particular audit. Muted questions do not have to be answered and will display a icon next to them.
Questions with auditor notes: Questions that the auditor has added a note to will have a icon next to them.
Questions with attachments: Questions that have files uploaded to them will have a icon next to them.

For audits using custom questions, the question tree displays the "Question Title" added to custom questions.

Child questions

Some questions on your audit will trigger sub-questions, or "child" questions, depending on how you answer it.

For example, a Colorado audit might ask:
"Do you have a valid state license from the State of Colorado to engage in your specific type of commercial cannabis activities?"

If you answer "Yes", the following child question will be asked:
"Do you ever conduct any commercial cannabis activity that was not granted under the state licensing authority?"
If you answer "No", no child questions will be asked because no follow-up is required if you don't have a valid state license.

The question tree shows the relationship between questions and child questions. As in the screenshot below, child questions appear below and slightly indented to the right of their parent question. There can be multiple levels (parent, child, grandchild, etc.), and each level will be indented slightly more to the right.

The Question View

The question view in the center of the screen shows the question you're currently on, all of the aspects of it (defined terms, citations, applicable licenses, etc.), and all of the functionality for each question (answer buttons, add notes, upload files, apply risk, etc.). On the Question View of the screen, there are two views, which you can toggle between when conducting an audit: "Full" Question View or "Condensed" Question View.

"Full" Question View

The Full question view includes the following components:

Question and Citations: This includes the question content, as well as the citations it references and the business licenses its relevant to.
Answer options: As you go through the audit, you'll answer the questions in one of three ways: "Yes", "No", or "Pending" (in some states, a fourth option is available). You can change answers when reviewing the audit answers later.
"Mute" button: Muting a question means that question doesn't need to be answered to complete your audit.
"Report Question" button: Flag a question if you think there's an issue with a question. For more on flagging questions, see: Reporting an Issue With An Audit Question.
"Assign Risk" button: Assign a risk ("High", "Medium", "Low") to your questions in order to identify the most important remediation items in your reports.
"Previous" and "Next" buttons: The Previous and Next buttons allow you to navigate sequentially through your audit questions. "Previous" and "Next" are only available in the "Full Question View".
Auditor notes and attachments: During the audit, you can add notes, documents, and pictures to any question. Think of these as references for review later, or a way to provide proof of why a question was answered a certain way.
Activity Log: The activity log shows the history of actions on a question including selected answers and documents added.

Answering "Yes" doesn't necessarily mean compliant and "No" doesn't automatically mean non-compliant. Our questions are written as needed to best reflect the regulations.

"Condensed" Question View

The condensed question view shows multiple questions at once. Each question is condensed to only show the question and its answer buttons. This is to allow for speedier auditing.

Completing the Audit

Once all questions have been answered, a modal will appear prompting you to now review your audit. Click the "Review Audit" button in the modal to begin reviewing your audit.

Permissions

Only Managers and Administrators on the account can add and edit licenses. The following permissions apply:

Administrators: Can assign audits at all locations, and access all audits (even if they aren't assigned to the audit).
Managers: Can assign audits at the locations they belong to, and access any audits at locations they belong to (even if they aren't assigned to the audit).
Employees: Employees can not assign audits, and can only conduct audits on which they are an assignee.

Next: Reviewing and Finalizing a Self-Audit