Findings and remediation

This guide is part of the User Guides collection. It starts where a finding already exists. For turning an assessment issue into a finding, see Work the issues and Dispositioning issues. For what the module is, see Findings Manager.

Findings is an optional module. If you do not see Findings in the left navigation, ask your Coverbase representative to turn it on.

A finding is a problem you have decided to track: a control the vendor failed, a clause that deviates from your standard, a Radar signal that turned out to be real. It carries an owner, a due date, a status, and a link back to whatever raised it. The finding is yours. It outlives the assessment it came from. A commitment is the vendor’s side of the same problem. It is a request you send through the vendor portal (“encrypt backups by 30 June”), which the vendor accepts, negotiates, declines, or completes. A finding can have several commitments, and the finding’s status follows them. The mistake people make most is treating the finding status as a free field. Once a finding has commitments, Coverbase sets its status from them. Setting it by hand works, but the next vendor response resets it. Work the commitment, and the finding follows.

Where findings live

Click Findings in the left navigation. The page has three tabs across the top:

Tab	What it holds
Findings	Every open and closed finding in your organization, grouped.
Commitments	Every commitment across every finding, sorted by due date.
Sources	Documents you uploaded so Coverbase can extract findings from them.

Configuration for the module is on a separate page. Open the Actions menu on the Findings page and choose Findings Settings, or find Findings Settings on the Configuration page. Only people who can edit organization settings see it.

Findings list grouped by vendor with insight cards — The Findings tab, grouped by vendor, with the insight cards on the left.

How a finding gets raised

Every finding records a source. The Source column on the list names it, and the finding page links back to it.

Source	Where you raise it	What it links
Assessment	An issue on the Issues tab: Add Finding, or select several and choose Create one finding or Create a finding per issue	The assessment and the issues (Related issues on the finding)
Vendor	Actions, then New Finding on the Findings page, or from the vendor record	The vendor only
Document	The Sources tab, after extraction	The uploaded document and the quoted passage
Radar alert	A Radar signal’s actions menu, Bulk create findings	The alert and the vendors it exposes
Contract	A clause review: Create finding on a flagged clause	The contract and the clauses (Source clauses on the finding)
Zero Touch run	Create findings on a control in the run	The run’s assessment
Security intelligence	Raise finding or Generate findings on the vendor’s rating	The vendor
Screening match, Inspect evaluation, Risk	The match, the evaluation, or the risk register entry	That record

A vendor is required only on the manual path. A finding raised from an assessment inherits the assessment’s vendor. Bulk create findings in the Actions menu does two jobs at once: the Documents tab creates findings from accepted extraction candidates, and the Assessments tab lists an assessment’s open issues that do not yet have a finding, so you can create one per issue in a single pass with AI autofill all findings.

Reading the list

The list is grouped, and a page is a page of groups. Group by offers Vendor, Control Set, Assignee and Risk Level. The column that matches the grouping is hidden automatically, since the group header already shows it.

Column	What it shows
Title	The finding title. Click the row to open it.
Vendor	The vendor, or the assessment’s vendor.
Source	Source type and name. Hover for the full name.
Status	The finding status badge.
Controls	Up to two control badges plus a count. Hover one to see the expectation and open the control.
Assignee	The owner, or Unassigned.
Due Date	The date with a colored dot. The dot goes quiet once the status is in a terminal group.
Created	When the finding was raised.
Risk Level	The stored risk level.
Commitments	How many commitments the finding has.

Your custom fields on findings appear as extra columns. Use the display options button next to the filter to show, hide, reorder and pin columns, and Expand All / Collapse All to open or close every group. Filters cover Vendor, Status, Due Date, Created Date, Updated Date, Assignee, Created By, Source Type, Source document, Risk Level, Control Set and Commitment Count. The search box matches titles. Save a filter, sort and column layout as a view from the view selector; the built-in view is Findings, showing everything. The insight cards on the left summarize the whole dataset, not the current page: created versus resolved over 30 days, due dates split into pending, completed and overdue, the share of findings with a commitment, and leaderboards for assignees, vendors and control sets. Hide them with the arrow button next to the search box.

Acting on several findings

Tick rows, or the checkbox on a group header, and a bar appears with Change Stage, Change Assignee and Archive. Shift-click selects a range. Moving several findings into a resolution status asks you to confirm, because it also resolves their connected assessment issues (see Statuses). Each row also has its own menu: View details, View commitments, Request commitment and Archive. Archiving is not reversible from the UI.

The finding record

Click a row to open /findings/<id>/overview.

Finding detail page with lifecycle card, details card and overview tab — A finding record: status card and details on the left, Overview tab on the right.

The header shows the vendor (click it to open the vendor), the title (click to edit), a Due badge (click to pick a date or Clear due date) and a copy-link button. The Actions menu offers Show in context, which opens the finding inside its assessment’s Issues tab, and Archive. The left column holds four cards:

The status card. The current status with the path before and after it. Pick a new status here.
Details. Severity, Urgency and Risk Level (or just Risk Level, depending on your settings), Assignee, Watchers (people or departments) and External ID. The External ID row appears when your organization imports findings from another system, and it must be unique.
Risks. Risk register entries tied to this finding, with a link to add one.
Properties. Your custom fields, with Add Custom Field for admins.

The right column has five tabs:

Tab	What you do there
Overview	Edit the Description, manage Related issues and Assessments, see the source document, extraction evidence or source clauses, and read or add notes.
Commitments	The finding’s commitments. New commitment, Configure portal, and Review on a commitment with a new vendor response.
Documents	Upload evidence and add a note per document. Documents a vendor uploaded through the portal are marked From portal.
Emails	Emails linked to this finding, and New Email to draft one.
Activity	Every change, including system changes, with who made it and when. This is the audit trail.

A finding with a vendor commitment and no assignee shows a warning on the Overview tab. Nobody is notified when the vendor responds until someone owns the finding.

Statuses

Every organization starts with seven finding statuses. Open is the default a new finding lands in. The other six are set by the commitment workflow, so keep their meaning even if you restyle them or add your own under Configuration, then Statuses.

Status	Group	Meaning
Open	Unstarted	Raised and waiting for someone to act. The default for a new finding.
Finalizing response	Unstarted	A commitment is waiting on the vendor or being negotiated.
Mitigation underway	Started	The vendor accepted the terms and is doing the work.
Action required	Started	The vendor declined a commitment. Someone on your side has to decide.
Mitigated	Completed	The work is done and accepted.
Compensating control	Completed	Another control already covers the gap.
Risk accepted	Canceled	You accepted the remaining risk.

Three of them resolve the finding: Mitigated, Compensating control and Risk accepted. Moving into one of these while the source assessment is still running also resolves the connected issues. Coverbase asks first: “Mark finding as Mitigated? 2 connected issues on the ongoing assessment will also be marked as resolved.” Compensating control is different: it marks the issues no longer an issue, because the gap was never open. Issues on a completed assessment are annotated, not changed. A finding stops counting as overdue once its status is in the Completed or Canceled group, whichever status that is.

Severity, urgency, risk and due dates

What you see in the Details card depends on Findings settings:

Matrix mode. You pick Severity and Urgency, and the Risk Level is read from your organization’s matrix. It cannot be set directly.
Risk-direct mode. You pick the Risk Level yourself.
Neither. No level fields appear.

Either way, the due date follows the risk level when you have set offsets. When a finding’s risk level changes, the due date is recalculated from today plus the days configured for the new level. When the risk level does not change, a due date you set by hand stays.

Commitments

A commitment lives under a finding and is negotiated with the vendor through a portal. One finding can carry several, for example one per remediation step.

Request commitment dialog with one commitment per finding — Requesting commitments for several findings on one vendor.

Requesting one

Pick the findings

On the Findings tab, group by vendor and click Request commitment on the vendor’s group header. The group enters selection mode with the eligible findings pre-ticked. Adjust the ticks and click Continue. For a single finding, use Request commitment from the row menu instead, or New commitment on the finding’s Commitments tab.

Write the terms

The dialog opens as New commitments for <vendor>, one form per finding. Each needs a description of what the vendor must do and a due date. AI autofill drafts the description from the finding; Use finding description copies it verbatim. A finding that already has an open commitment offers Existing commitment so you update it rather than create a duplicate. Discard drops a finding from the request.

Send the portal invitation

Click Send portal invitation. The next step sends the vendor a portal link by email. Skip invitation creates the commitments without emailing, which is right when you will send the link yourself or the vendor already has it.

Every vendor has one persistent commitment portal. Configure portal on the group header or the finding’s Commitments tab opens it, including a per-portal Response window that overrides the organization default.

Commitment statuses

Commitments tab listing commitments with status, due date, latest response, awaiting since and response due columns — The Commitments tab. Every commitment across every finding, with its status, due date, the latest vendor response, and how long it has been waiting.

Status	Meaning
Pending response	Sent. The vendor has not answered.
Finalizing terms	The vendor answered with something other than a plain acceptance, and the terms are being settled.
Mitigation underway	Terms agreed. The vendor is doing the work.
Declined	The vendor refused.
Closed	Done, accepted, or closed by you.

Overdue is not a status. The due date badge turns red on its own, except on Closed and Declined commitments. A vendor can answer in the portal with Accepted, Proposed changes (a different date or wording), Compensating Control (an existing control already covers it), Declined, or later Commitment Completed with evidence. The Commitments tab lists Latest response, Awaiting since and Response due so you can see who the ball is with.

Working a commitment

Click a commitment on the Commitments tab, or on a finding’s Commitments tab, to open the Commitment Details drawer. The left side shows the status card with guidance and the actions for that state, the parent finding and its source, the Assignee, and the Commitment Terms with their due date. The right side has Responses (the vendor’s rounds and the portal URL), Documents, Notes and Activity.

Commitment details drawer with lifecycle actions and vendor responses — The Commitment Details drawer during a completion review.

When	Actions	What happens
Waiting on the vendor	Send reminder	Emails the vendor the portal link again.
Vendor proposed changes	Review proposal	Opens the terms for editing, with Use proposed date and Use proposed text shortcuts. Update request sends the revised terms back with an optional note to the vendor. The vendor’s acceptance then confirms the commitment.
Vendor claims a compensating control	Accept compensating control or Re-request	Accepting closes the commitment. Re-requesting sends the ask back with your message.
Mitigation underway	Mark complete, Send reminder, Revisit terms, Extend	Mark complete closes it without a vendor submission. Extend moves the due date, records a note, and emails the vendor. Revisit terms reopens the round if the vendor accepted by mistake.
Vendor submitted completion	Accept completion or Request more work	Accepting asks for an optional closing note, then closes the commitment and accepts the submission. Requesting more work sends the round back.
Declined	Accept risk or Re-request	Accept risk closes the commitment, records your rationale, and moves the finding to Risk accepted.

When a vendor submits completion evidence or claims a compensating control, an AI Review card appears on the Responses tab with a suggestion, a confidence level and the reasoning. Accept and close and Send back to vendor apply it; Re-run review tries again. Whether a review applies itself without you is a setting (see below). The status picker at the top of the status card is an override. It changes the status and nothing else: no email, no portal change. Use the actions above when the vendor is involved.

How commitments set the finding status

Every commitment change re-derives the parent finding’s status from all of its open commitments:

Commitments	Finding becomes
Any declined	Action required
Otherwise, any pending or finalizing	Finalizing response
Otherwise, any mitigation underway	Mitigation underway
All closed, at least one by compensating control	Compensating control
All closed, every one after a decline	Risk accepted
All closed otherwise	Mitigated

Emails and notifications

Internal notifications go to the finding’s assignee and to anyone named in a user-type custom field on the finding. Each person turns them on or off in their own notification settings; the defaults are in the notification catalog.

Notification	Fires when	Default
Finding assigned	A finding is assigned to you	On
Finding status changed	The status changes	Off
Finding risk changed	The risk level changes	Off
Finding due reminder	Due next week, due this week, and overdue	Off
Commitment created	A commitment is created on your finding	Off
Commitment status changed	A commitment changes status, including by AI review	Off
Commitment due reminder	A commitment is due next week, this week, or overdue	Off
Portal commitment submission	The vendor responds through the portal	On

Vendor-facing email is separate: the portal invitation when you send a request, Commitment updated when you change the terms or extend a due date, and Commitment reminder when you click Send reminder. Coverbase also sends vendors automatic reminders on open commitments; see Vendor-facing email.

Where findings show up elsewhere

Assessments. The assessment’s Findings tab and each issue’s Findings panel list the findings raised there. A finding can be attached to more than one assessment from its Overview tab.
Vendors. Archiving a vendor archives its findings that have no active linked assessment.
Risk register. The finding page’s risks card links register entries to the finding, and a finding can be raised from a risk.
Dashboards. The chart library includes findings charts, and they are available in every workspace.
Excel. Actions, then Download as Excel builds a consolidated findings report, optionally with the current filters and column visibility.
API and integrations. The Findings API lists, creates and status-syncs findings for GRC round-trips; finding and commitment changes emit webhook events; and the MCP server answers questions about findings.

Findings settings

Open Actions, then Findings Settings. Everything on this page applies to the whole organization, and only people who can edit organization settings can change it.

Choose your scales

Risk levels is the one that matters; Urgency levels and Severity levels are optional. Pick an existing level set or create one. Configure all three for matrix mode, only risk for risk-direct mode, or none. Two out of three is rejected on save.

Fill the risk matrix

With all three scales set, the Risk matrix appears with a suggested mapping. Pick a risk level in the bar, then click or drag across cells. Every severity and urgency pair needs a value before you can save.

Set due dates by risk level

Under Due dates by risk level, enter days per level. Leave a level blank for no automatic due date.

Save

Click Save changes. Leaving the page with unsaved edits prompts you.

Clearing the urgency or severity scale deletes the matrix. Clearing the risk scale also deletes the due-date offsets and removes the risk level field from every finding. Coverbase confirms before either.

Below that, Commitment Settings has its own Save changes:

Response window. Days a vendor has to respond after a commitment is sent. It drives the Response due column and the overdue-response state. Leave it empty to track waiting time without a deadline. A portal can override it.
AI Review. Auto-Apply decides whether an AI review acts on its own: Suggest only keeps a person in the loop; the high, medium and any-confidence options let it close commitments and send revision requests without review. Review Instructions is text added to every review, for example the evidence you require before accepting a completion.

Permissions

Admins and Members create and edit findings and commitments. Siloed Members can only touch findings on vendors they own, watch or analyze. Archiving, exporting and creating are separate permissions in a custom role, and portal actions (sending a reminder, re-requesting, pushing back a completion) need the portal update permission. A grayed-out action shows a “no permission” tooltip. Details: Permissions and roles.

Troubleshooting

What you see	What is happening
”I set the status to Mitigated and it went back to Finalizing response.”	The finding has an open commitment. Its status is derived from commitments. Close the commitment instead.
”Risk Level is gray and I cannot pick it.”	You are in matrix mode. Set Severity and Urgency; the risk level is read from the matrix.
”Your risk matrix is empty.”	Matrix mode is configured but no cells are filled. Open Findings Settings and fill the matrix.
”No risk level is mapped for this combination.”	The matrix has a gap for that severity and urgency pair. Fill it in settings.
”I changed the risk level and the due date moved.”	Due-date offsets are on. A risk change recalculates the due date from today. Set the date by hand afterwards if you need a different one.
”Request commitment is not on the group header.”	The group is not a vendor group, or the findings have no vendor. Group by Vendor, and give the finding a vendor.
”The vendor responded but nobody was told.”	The finding has no assignee. Notifications go to the assignee and user-type custom fields.
”Two connected issues were resolved when I closed the finding.”	That is the cascade. A resolution status on a running assessment resolves the issues the finding was raised from. Coverbase asked first.
”Extend is missing on the commitment.”	Extend only exists while mitigation is underway. Before that, edit the terms; after Closed or Declined there is no live deadline.
”Findings Settings is not in the Actions menu.”	You cannot edit organization settings. Ask an admin.

How to run an assessment

Where most findings come from: working the issues and promoting the real gaps.

Analyst and reviewer guide

Accept the risk, keep the follow-up open, or promote to a finding.

Email and notifications

Every email the platform sends, who receives it, and the defaults.

Findings API

List, create and status-sync findings from your GRC platform.

Start here

Workspace setup

Vendors

Assessments

Findings and obligations

Vendor intelligence

Monitoring

Risk

Contracts

E-signature

Documents

Workflows and automation

Dashboards and reporting

Sourcing

Internal controls

Where findings live

How a finding gets raised