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For AI agents: a documentation index is available at https://docs.coverbase.com/llms.txt. This page is also available in markdown by appending .md to the URL.
This guide is part of the User Guides collection. It covers the Assessment Method card on an assessment, service-level questions in the questionnaire editor, and the due diligence features of the supplier portal. It sits beside How to run an assessment and The issue acceptance chain. For what the module is, see Due diligence.
Your Risk Groups gather evidence in more than one way, and vendors answer through more than one person. This guide covers the parts of due diligence that change how that happens: the assessment’s method and review sessions, delegation and carried-forward answers in the portal, reviewer edits the supplier approves, and service-level sends. Your Coverbase representative turns on the third-party lifecycle features for your organization. The mistake people make most often is wondering why a vendor cannot submit a questionnaire they have clearly finished. A request with carried-forward answers cannot be submitted until every one of them is confirmed or changed.

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Choose the assessment method

Open the assessment. The Assessment Method card in the sidebar offers: Changing the method needs permission to update the assessment. With Onsite, the card adds Upload onsite evidence and Record control effectiveness.

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Schedule a review session

On a remote or onsite assessment, click Schedule session on the card.
1

Describe it

Give a Title, choose the Format (Remote or Onsite), pick When (shown in your time zone) and the length in Minutes.
2

Say where

Enter a Location or Link: a meeting link or a site address.
3

Invite people

Choose Internal Participants, and type each Vendor Attendees email address followed by Enter. Add the Agenda and Notes.
4

Schedule

Click Schedule session. Participants are notified with the time, place and agenda, and vendor attendees get an email.
The card lists Upcoming sessions and Past sessions. Use the session’s menu to Edit it, which notifies participants again, or Cancel session, which tells them by email. The next session also appears on the engagement’s tracker.

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Let the supplier delegate questions

In the supplier portal, a respondent can hand parts of a questionnaire to colleagues who are portal members.
  • Who Is Answering What lists each section with its Owner and Progress. Click Assign on a section to hand it to one colleague.
  • Assign several questions lets the respondent select questions and assign them together. Done ends the selection.
Who Is Answering What card listing an Access control section with an Assign button and an Encryption section owned by Dana Okafor, each with progress 0 of 3, and an Assign several questions link

Who Is Answering What in the supplier portal, with one section assigned and one waiting for an owner.

A question assignment wins over its section’s, and a section’s wins over the whole form’s. Each answer shows Answered by with the people who answered it. Nothing on your side needs configuring.

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Carry answers forward

When a vendor receives a questionnaire they have submitted before, their previous answers are copied into the new request, marked Carried forward. Questions are matched across versions of the questionnaire, so an edited question keeps its answer, while a question added since starts empty. Nothing already answered on the new request is overwritten. In the portal, the vendor sees how many answers were carried forward, from which submission, and Still accurate? beside each. They Confirm an answer, or click Confirm all with the count, or change it. A changed answer stays marked Updated since last time. On your side, the review workbench labels each answer Carried forward, not confirmed, Carried forward, confirmed or Changed since last time, so you can go straight to what moved.

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Have the supplier approve your edits

When a reviewer edits a vendor’s answer, the vendor is asked to agree. In the portal, Changes From followed by your organization’s name shows each edit with Your answer and your organization’s edit. The vendor clicks Approve edit, or Suggest a change with Suggested wording. Approve all with the count approves every waiting edit at once.
Changes From Harbor Consumer Brands card showing the vendor's original answer Yes struck through beside the reviewer's edited answer, a quoted reason, and a field for suggested wording with Cancel and Send suggestion buttons

A reviewer's edit in the supplier portal, with the vendor writing a suggested change.

In the workbench, the answer shows Edit awaiting supplier, Edit approved by supplier, Supplier suggested a change or Edit superseded (when a later edit replaced it).

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Send service-level questions only

A vendor whose company-wide due diligence is current should not answer company-wide questions again for every new service.
1

Mark the questions

In the questionnaire editor, turn on Service-level question for each question that is about the service rather than the company. Save the questionnaire first if it is new.
2

Send

When you send the questionnaire for a new service, turn on Send service-level questions only. The vendor sees, and must answer, only the marked questions.
The option is available only when the vendor has a completed assessment and its next assessment date has not passed. Otherwise it reads Available once the vendor has a completed, current assessment.

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Raise a finding on a question

In the review workbench, open an answer and choose Raise finding on this question. The dialog quotes the vendor’s answer, and the finding records the question it was raised on. On the finding, Raised On shows the level (question, domain, questionnaire, assessment, service or vendor), and Other Open Findings lists the vendor’s other open findings across assessments. A finding can also name the Service it applies to. What happens next to the finding’s risk is covered in The issue acceptance chain.

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Troubleshooting

How to run an assessment

The full assessment lifecycle.

The issue acceptance chain

Routing a decision to accept a finding’s risk.

The supplier portal, for suppliers

What your vendor sees.

Questionnaires

Building and sending questionnaires.