From proposed change to verified improvement

Observe and Competence — no assessment required

Sign in, select your company, then select Sentinel Observe or Sentinel Competence in the top product bar. No assessment needs to be selected or created. The company must have the relevant module allocated. An active annual licence is required to create or edit records.

Supported files and limits

JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP, PDF, Word (.doc/.docx) and Apple Pages. Export Google Docs to Word or PDF, and HEIC photographs to JPG. Maximum 5 MB per file and 100 files / 50 MB per record, subject to hosting limits. Uploads retain the original bytes with an integrity hash and protected downloads; they are not published in the WordPress media library. Sentinel does not authenticate certificates or scan uploads for malware.

Existing records and workflow boundaries

Earlier assessment-level observation and competence records remain in their original assessments. Select Open assessment records and choose the relevant assessment to use them. The company register is a separate source of records: linking an assessment does not automatically copy data, create actions, or grant access to the linked assessment. Company-register expiry email alerts are not included in this release; existing assessment-level alerts are unchanged.

Assessment-based workflows

The new registers extend the existing Incident, Investigate, Investigate Pro, Bowtie and Assure workflows. Records link within the selected company assessment. An action retains its source record, and Assure’s effectiveness review remains separate from action completion.

1. Install the release on a test copy after taking a database and plugin backup. Replace the existing bowtie-sentinel plugin; do not uninstall it or delete its tables.
2. In Sentinel module settings enable the purchased additions. Allocate the same products to the company in its product settings. Existing module allocations are preserved. Assure includes the expanded audit registers; the optional Audit allocation also allows access to those registers independently.
3. Sign in as a company member, select the company and assessment, then choose the module button. For Assure audits select Assure, then Audits, Checklist items, Findings, Templates or Management reviews in navigation.
4. For practice, use a separate training assessment and select Add fictional example. Examples are unassigned Drafts and do not replace existing records. The module example buttons can add another copy when used again.
5. Create the record and complete its required fields. Save the Draft with a named owner, a different named reviewer and a review due date. Both people must already have company membership and editing access to this assessment.
6. The owner opens the saved record and changes its stage to Submitted. The reviewer then signs in using their own account, records a decision and follows the next permitted stage. A person cannot approve on someone else’s behalf.
7. Add linked actions from the register, then use Action allocations to assign accountable people and verification. Use Effectiveness reviews in Assure to test whether completed action achieved its purpose.
8. Save changes. Check history, record dates and remaining open actions before proceeding to the next stage.

Save the new module record, then select View / upload evidence. Use Upload files or drag and drop PDFs, JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP, Word (.doc/.docx) or Apple Pages (.pages) files. Export Google Docs to Word or PDF first. Files remain linked to that record and protected by company and assessment access. Limits: 5 MB per file, 100 files or 50 MB across the assessment; hosting limits may be lower. Download attachments separately: JSON and printable exports contain records, not attachment bytes. Uploads are not virus-scanned by Sentinel. Reviewed records must be reset to Draft before evidence is added; for active submitted work only its owner or reviewer may upload. Keep personal information within the appropriate company permissions.

Change

Control proposed operational changes before implementation.

A temporary pedestrian diversion follows an incident. Record its risks, affected barriers, consultation, readiness checks and reinstatement plan. The owner submits; the separate reviewer approves. The owner implements and supplies evidence, then the reviewer closes after checking the outcome.

Compliance

Connect applicable requirements to retained evidence and controls.

Record a client-approved requirement reference and jurisdiction. Explain applicability, link supporting barriers, assess the evidence and document gaps. Allocate actions where needed; a reviewer records the conclusion. Maintain and periodically review the source yourself; no automatic legislation feed is supplied.

Audit within Assure

Plan, sample, test, record findings and review improvement.

Create an audit with scope, site, date and sampling approach. Prepare an approved reusable template, then use it to create checklist items for the audit. Complete each item with the actual sample, evidence reference and result. Partial or non-conforming checks require a finding in the same audit. Allocate corrective actions and review their effectiveness in Assure. Close findings and review every check before the audit reviewer closes the audit. Use Management reviews to record trends, resource decisions and follow-up.

Observe

Capture hazards, positive observations and improvement suggestions.

Record when and where the observation was made, the account and immediate response. Triage potential harm and link any relevant incident or barriers. Propose a linked Change when required. Allocate follow-up and retain evidence before reviewer closure.

Competence and authorisation

Distinguish training attendance from demonstrated competence and permission to work.

Define task criteria and the renewal rule, then obtain approval of the requirement. Create a person’s competence record, document practical assessment and evidence, and submit to a different reviewer. The reviewer authorises within stated restrictions and dates. Expired records and withdrawn requirements are flagged as no longer current; this does not control physical access or external HR systems.

Connected training exercise

Fictional Northbank Engineering: a temporary dispatch-bay diversion exposes pedestrians to a vehicle route. Start with Incident to record and triage the near miss. Use Investigate and Pro to test causes against evidence. Transfer supported findings into Bowtie and review the relevant barriers.

1. Observe: record the missing temporary pedestrian separation and immediate response.
2. Change: propose a time-limited revised route; link its source observation and affected barriers. Set expiry and reinstatement requirements.
3. Compliance: record the internal traffic-plan requirement and the evidence needed to show conformity.
4. Competence: approve a task requirement, assess the marshal against it, and authorise only within the demonstrated scope.
5. Assure Audit: create a dispatch-bay audit. Sample route checks and marshal records. Raise a non-conformance against failed criteria and allocate corrective action.
6. Assure Effectiveness: after implementation, review a defined sample of observations and inspections. Record whether the action worked, and further follow-up if it did not.
7. Management review: summarise results, residual concerns, resource decisions and the next review.

Assessment: learners should demonstrate a traceable requirement, linked evidence, independent decisions, named actions and a separate effectiveness review. Challenge an attempted early audit closure and a self-approval: the server should reject them.

Review controls and recovery

Only an assessment owner or company manager can delete Draft extension records. Reviewed records are retained. To revise submitted scope, use Reset to Draft with a reopening reason and clear the previous decision. Reviewed decisions and scope cannot silently be overwritten; assessment history retains saved revisions. Record fresh decisions after resubmission.

Imports must contain unassigned Draft extension records with no decisions, including no assigned competence subject. Assign people and conduct approval again in the destination assessment. Importing is not a transfer of approval authority.

An audit cannot close until its checklist is reviewed, its findings are closed and its linked actions are closed. A non-conforming checklist needs a finding from that audit. Closing actions does not itself prove effectiveness: schedule and record the effectiveness review.

Temporary change expiry and competence validity produce flags. An already expired temporary change cannot be approved or implemented, and an expired authorisation cannot be issued. Review dates do not renew themselves.

Notifications and operational boundaries

Configure recipients and enable the new review-due, temporary-change-expiry and competence-expiry alert types under Email alerts. Delivery requires the existing authenticated mail service and scheduled worker. Alerts are opt-in; test delivery before relying on them.

Change, Compliance and Audit retain assessment-scoped registers and approval workflows. Observe and Competence also have independent company registers as described above. It does not add a legislation subscription, organisation-wide audit scheduling dashboard, certificate authenticity service or physical access enforcement. Existing investigation, Bowtie and assurance records remain the shared source for their respective workflows.

Acceptance check before production

1. Confirm company separation using two test companies and different member accounts.
2. Confirm purchased module visibility, annual licence restrictions and the Pro button remain correct.
3. Submit an audit as its owner and review it using the assigned reviewer account.
4. Try closing an audit with unfinished checklist items, findings and actions; confirm rejection.
5. Confirm previous assessments open, save and export with existing content retained.
6. Confirm SMTP delivery, scheduled work and guide links on the Hostinger installation.

Keep the backup until acceptance is complete. If rollback is needed, restore the matching database and plugin backup together; the earlier release does not understand the new registers.