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KCM GRC: Monitoring and Completing Tasks (a Guide for Contributors)

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Lauren Ashley
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How Do I Monitor and Satisfy My Assigned Tasks?

If your administrator has assigned you to one or more control tasks, this means that you have been selected to submit evidence for the controls that you or your team are responsible for.

In this article you will learn how to monitor your assigned tasks, learn tips for viewing task requirements or instructions, and learn the steps you need to take to complete and close your tasks. Use the jump links below to learn more. 

Note: If you need assistance with activating or accessing your account, please see: Account Activation, Account Access, and Resetting Your Password. 

Jump to:

How Do I Know if I'm Assigned to a Task? 

Navigating Your Account and Monitoring Tasks

Navigating to Tasks

Understanding Task Requirements

Adding Evidence & Completing Tasks

What If My Task Didn't Get Approved?

 

How Do I Know if I'm Assigned to a Task?

After you are assigned to a control task and the task becomes available in your account, you will receive an email notification from the KCM GRC console (click to view example). You will receive additional notifications as the task's due date is approaching. For example, you may receive a notification when: a task is due in seven days, a task is due tomorrow, and when a task is due today. For details about the email reminders that you will receive, please see the Control Task Notifications section of our Email Notifications and the Email Digest article. 

Note: If you are assigned to multiple tasks that are due on or around the same time, you may receive multiple task notifications in one email. If an email contains more than one notification, the email subject line will read "KCM GRC Email Digest".

As an alternative to depending on the email reminders, you can log in to your KCM GRC account to monitor and review your upcoming tasks. See the next section to learn more.

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Navigating Your Account and Monitoring Tasks

Once you're logged in to your account, there are three areas available to you from the navigation panel. See the following subsections to learn more about each area: 

My Dashboard

From the My Dashboard page, you can view and access all of the tasks that are assigned to you. To access My Dashboard, from the navigation panel on the left, click Compliance > My Dashboard. 

The Task Calendar on My Dashboard provides an easy way to monitor your upcoming tasks. You can click on a task from the calendar to open it.

The Task Calendar on the My Dashboard page.

Under the Task Calendar you will find the following:

  • Tasks are shown on their due dates.
  • Tasks that you are assigned to as the User Assigned, Approving Manager, or Second-level Approving Manager.
  • Tasks are shown in different colors based on the legend that is outlined below:
    Colored legend of task statuses for the task calendar
    1. Active: The task is active and the due date is approaching.
    2. Awaiting Approval: Evidence has been submitted and the task has been marked as complete; the task is currently awaiting approval from an approving manager.
    3. Satisfied: The task has been satisfied, approved (when applicable), and is now closed.
    4. Past Due: The due date for this task has passed. You can still complete a task once it has reached this status. 
      Note: Typically, a task will remain in Past Due status for seven days after the task's due date, before the status changes to Failed. However, this past due time frame may be shorter or longer for your account. Reach out to your account administrator for more information.
    5. Failed: Tasks that have not been satisfied and are now outside of the past due time frame. You can still complete a task once it is in the Failed status. If you complete a failed task, the task status changes to Completed Late instead of Satisfied.

As an alternative to monitoring your upcoming tasks from the My Dashboard area, you will also receive task reminder emails, as described in the above section: How Do I Know if I'm Assigned to a Task?.

Tasks

Navigate to the Tasks page by clicking Tasks from the navigation panel. From this page, you will see all tasks for the controls that you have access to. This may include tasks that are assigned to other users in your account. This page includes tasks from the past, present, and future.

See below to learn more about this page and how you can use the available filters to find your tasks.

The View All Tasks page, with alphabetical notation that coordinates with the list outlined below

  1. My Tasks: Click this checkbox to see only the tasks that you are assigned to. This will include any task in which you are the User Assigned, Approving Manager, or Second-level Approving Manager.
    • Additionally, if you are the Group Lead in a user group, you will see all of the tasks for the controls that your group is assigned to. To learn more about our User Groups workflow, see: Assigning User Groups to Controls.
  2. Name: The task's name. Click a name to open the task.
  3. User Assigned: The user who is responsible for completing the task.
  4. Approving Manager: The manager responsible for reviewing the task evidence (when applicable).
  5. Second-level Approving Manager: The manager responsible for reviewing the task evidence after the Approving Manager (when applicable).
  6. Status: The current status of the task.
    • To find your tasks that are currently due, make sure My Tasks is checked, then, select Active from the drop-down menu.
    • To find your tasks that are past due, make sure My Tasks is checked, then, select Past Due from the drop-down menu.
    • Additionally, make sure My Tasks is checked, then, select Failed, Satisfied, or Closed Late to find these tasks.
  7. Approval Stage: This column will show one of the following:
    • Open: The task has not been completed.
    • Awaiting Approval: Evidence has been submitted for the task and approval is required before the task can be closed.
    • Approved: The task has been approved by a manager and closed. Or, when evidence was not required, the task is closed. 
  8. Satisfied Date: The date that the User Assigned marked the task as complete.
    Note: Under the Compliance Management Module, time is recorded in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Therefore, it is possible that the date shown in this field is one day off. For example, if a user marks a task as complete at 5:30 PM PST on August 17, 2020, the system records this as 12:30 AM UTC on August 18, 2020. Under this example, August 18, 2020 would be displayed under the Satisfied Date field.
  9. Due Date: The task's due date.

As an alternative to monitoring your tasks from the Tasks page, you will also receive task reminder emails, as described in the above section: How Do I Know if I'm Assigned to a Task? 

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Documents

The Documents page shows the files or links to external information that have been submitted as evidence or control documents for the tasks that you have access to.

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Navigating to Tasks

There are three different ways you can navigate to your tasks in your account. See these options below: 

  1. The My Dashboard page: From the Task Calendar area, click on a task to open it. For details, see the My Dashboard section, above. 
  2. The Tasks page: Use filters to find your Active, Past Due, or Failed tasks. Then, click on a task name to open it. For details, see the Tasks section, above.
  3. Task reminder email notifications: Once you're logged in to your account, click the View Task link from the applicable email (click to view example), to navigate directly to that task.  

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Understanding Task Requirements

This section explains the areas of the View Task page where you can find helpful information about your task, such as the due date and whether approval is required. Additionally, there are three areas where your administrator may have provided instructions, requirements, or examples of evidence for your tasks. Expand the menus below to learn more.

Task Details

The top-left area of the View Task page includes task details such as the task name, description, and due date. See the image and details that are outlined below.

Image of the View Task page, showing the task information.

  1. The name of the task. The task name is also shown in the Task Calendar on the My Dashboard page, and in your task reminder emails.
    • The task may have the same name as the control, as shown in the example above.
  2. The task description. Your administrator may use the task description to provide details, requirements, or instructions for your task.
    • You will also see the task description in your task reminder emails (click to view example).
    • The task may have the same description as the control. If this is the case, be sure to check the other areas that are outlined in this section for task instructions.
  3. Starts On and Ends On: The date or dates on which the task starts and ends. 
  4. Due On: The task should be completed on or before this date.
  5. User Assigned: The user who is responsible for completing the task.
  6. Approving Manager: If this field is shown, this is the user who is responsible for approving task evidence before the task can be closed.
  7. Second-level Approving Manager: If this field is shown, this is the user who is responsible for approving task evidence, after the Approving Manager, before the task can be closed.
  8. Control Name: The name of the control that is associated with this task. If necessary, you can click the control name to open the control and view additional details.
    Note: Under this area, you may see two additional fields that are not shown in the image above: Group Lead and Group Assigned to Control (click to view example). If these fields are shown, this means that your administrator is utilizing the user group workflow and that the Group Lead must review your task evidence before the task can be closed. 
Task Notes

From the View Task page, check the Notes area at the top-right to see if your administrator has added any details, requirements, or instructions for your task, as shown below.

Image of the Notes area on View Task page.

Supporting Evidence

Check the Supporting Evidence area of the page to see whether evidence is required for the task and to see in which format you need to submit the evidence, as shown below.

An image of the Supporting Evidence area with interface text specifying the following: File Upload or Link Required.

The evidence requirement will show one of the following:

  • File Upload or DocuLink Required
  • File Upload Required
  • DocuLink Required
  • No Requirement

You may be required to submit evidence in one of two ways: you can upload a file to your account, or if your organization stores information on an internal server or uses an online file sharing service, you can provide a link to externally-hosted evidence. For information about submitting task evidence, see the Adding Evidence and Completing Tasks section of this article.

Control Documents
Scroll to the bottom of the View Task page and look for any items under the Control Documents area. Your administrator may have uploaded files or added links that point to external documentation that could help you complete your task. For example, this could be a policy that you need to keep in mind for your task, or an example of the evidence that you need to provide to successfully complete the task.

Example of a file under the Control Documents section of the View Task page.

  • If the control document is a file you will click the download icon () to download and view the file.
  • If the control document is a link you will click the link icon () to open the file.

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Adding Evidence and Completing Tasks

When required, you must add evidence before you can complete a task. See the sections below for details.

Adding Evidence

Depending on the requirements for your task, evidence may need to be supplied in one of two ways: you can upload a file to your account, or you can provide a link to externally-hosted evidence. 

If evidence is required, follow the steps below to add evidence for your task: 

  1. From the Supporting Evidence area of the View Task page, click the Upload Document or Create Link button.
    Evidence buttons under the Supporting Evidence section
    Note: Your task may only show one of these buttons.
  2. Follow the steps below for your format of evidence:
    • If you select the Upload Document button, do the following:
      1. In the Name field, enter a name that describes the file you are uploading. 
      2. Drag the file you wish to upload to the File to Upload area or click browse to browse your computer for your file.
        If you experience any issues uploading your file, please see here for evidence file limitations.
      3. You have the option to provide a Version and a Description of the file, but these fields are not required. 
        Tip: If you would like to provide information for your administrator about your task or evidence, we recommend using the Notes area of the View Task page (click to view example).
      4. Click the Upload button.

    •  
    • If you select the Create Link button, do the following:
      1. In the Name field, enter a name that describes the evidence that you are providing a link to.
      2. In the Link field, type or paste the URL, or web address, where the evidence is located.
      3. You have the option to provide a Version and Description of the evidence, but these fields are not required.
        Tip: If you would like to provide information for your administrator about your task or evidence, we recommend using the Notes area of the View Task page (click to view example).
      4. Click the Create button.
  3. To supply additional evidence for the task, repeat the above steps as needed.

 

Completing Tasks

Once you are certain that you have met the task requirements, you will need to mark the task as complete. If there is a group lead or an approving manager assigned to the task they will receive an email. Then, they will review your task evidence, approve the evidence, and then close the task. If there are two approving managers assigned to a task (or a group lead and approving manager), all of these individuals will be required to approve the evidence before the task is closed.

To mark the task as complete, click the Complete Task button from the Task Status area of the View Task page, as shown below.

Important: Ensure that you have submitted the necessary evidence before you mark the task as complete. Once you click the Complete Task button you will not be able to submit additional evidence. 

Note: When evidence is required for the task, this button will not be visible until you have provided evidence in the proper format. Additionally, this button is only visible to the user who is assigned to the task (with the exception of account administrators). 

If approval is not required for your task, once you've clicked the Complete Task button, the task is considered approved and the task will be closed.

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What If My Task Didn't Get Approved?

If an approving manager marks your task as insufficient, the task will reopen and you will receive an email notifying you that the task was failed. You will then have the opportunity to submit more evidence for your task.

When you open the task, be sure to check the Notes area for any details that the approving manager may have provided to help you successfully complete your task, as shown below.

Notes area with a message from the Approving Manager

Note: The timestamps shown for messages in the task Notes area are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

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