How it works
From first draft to signed, reviewed and retired
Policy owners set the rules once. Staff see what’s due and sign. Here is what Beacon does at each step, from a new policy to the audit log.
Create
Two ways to create a policy
Organizations rarely keep all their policies the same way, so Beacon takes both. Either way the policy gets the same approval, version history, review date and sign-off.
- Upload the Word or PDF file you already have. It’s kept in the Beacon policy library, and every approved version is kept
- Or write the policy as a SharePoint page from the Beacon template: purpose, scope, policy, responsibilities, breaches and related documents
- Set the owner, approver, audience, review cycle and re-signing rule as you create it
- Drafts stay private to the owner and approver until they’re approved
Upload suits policies drafted by legal or signed off offline. Policy pages suit policies staff read often, and search can find them.
Illustrative screen with sample data.
Approve
A named approver for every version
Each new policy or version goes to one named approver, who reads it beside the published version and either approves it or sends it back.
- Approving takes an explicit confirmation that shows how many people will be asked to sign
- Sending a version back needs a reason
- The approver can never be the author
- Publish on approval, or on a date you set
- Staff keep seeing the published version until the new one is approved
- Approvers can name someone to cover while they’re away
Illustrative screen with sample data.
Sign
One flow to read and sign
Each person sees every policy assigned to them, with its due date and status. Reviewing and signing is one flow: read the policy page or the document, confirm, and type your full name.
- A signature is a typed full name, recorded against that specific version with the date
- A new version is marked as new, with a summary of what changed
- Ask the policy owner a question before signing; the sign-off stays open until you sign
- Your own record of what you signed and when
- Managers can record a paper sign-off for people without a device, marked as such
Illustrative screen with sample data.
Versions
Only real changes ask people to sign again
When an owner starts a new version, they say whether it’s a major or a minor change. The change summary is shown to staff when they’re asked to sign.
- Major change: the rules change, so everyone in the audience signs again
- Minor change: wording, typos or links, so existing signatures still apply
- Full version history with author, approver, dates and change summary
- Signatures on replaced versions stay on file
Illustrative screen with sample data.
Keep current
Reviews and re-signing on schedule
Each policy has a review cycle of 12, 24 or 36 months, and reviews are flagged ahead of the date. Attestation cycles re-open a policy for sign-off on a schedule, on top of each new version.
- Mark a policy reviewed with no changes, which moves the next review date without asking anyone to sign again
- Or start a new version from the review
- Annual, biannual or quarterly attestation cycles for a policy and its audience
- Retire a policy with a reason and its replacement: cycles stop, unsigned sign-offs are cancelled, and every version and signature is kept
- A lifecycle audit trail of every draft, submission, approval, change request, publication, review and retirement
Illustrative screen with sample data.
Certifications
Certifications on their own expiry dates
Safety, first aid, privacy and other certifications are tracked separately from policies, each on its own issue and expiry dates.
- A catalogue of certification types, each with its validity period and evidence rule
- People add and renew their own certifications, with the certificate attached
- Managers check the evidence and verify it, or return it with a reason
- Reminders 60, 30 and 7 days before a certification expires, and the manager notified while it’s expired
- An expiry watch across the organization on the compliance dashboard
Illustrative screen with sample data.
Managers
Overdue sign-offs reach the manager
Managers see their whole team’s status for current policy versions, from the manager field in Microsoft 365, with an escalation list for anything overdue.
- How late each overdue item is, with a one-click reminder or Remind all
- Beacon reminds people itself; managers’ reminders are for when they want to nudge
- Team certifications, with evidence waiting to verify
- Export the team to CSV
- Name someone to cover while you’re away, with every action logged under their name
Illustrative screen with sample data.
Record
The record ready whenever an auditor asks
The compliance dashboard brings the program together, and the audit log exports every attestation for an examiner or auditor.
- Needs-attention list: reviews coming due, versions sent back, drafts and versions waiting for approval
- Overall completion, overdue attestations and expired certifications
- Completion by policy for each current version
- Questions from staff on the policies you own
- A CSV of every attestation, with the employee, version, signature, date and whether the version is current
Illustrative screen with sample data.
Accessibility
Designed to WCAG 2.2 AA
- Full keyboard use with visible focus
- A signature box that says what’s missing, and why
- Paper sign-off recorded by a manager for anyone who can’t sign on screen
- Takes your SharePoint site theme
A solution accelerator
Built for your organization, installed by iomer
Everything on this page is already designed on SharePoint. iomer builds your organization’s Beacon as a single deployment package, with your policies, owners, approvers, audiences, cycles, certification types and theme, and installs it in your tenant.
See Beacon with policies like yours
Book a 30-minute walkthrough set up with policies like yours, or take the evaluation kit away and come back when you’re ready.