A compliance snapshot is a point-in-time capture of your organisation's full compliance posture, used for audit preparation and demonstrating improvement over time.
(Confirm internally: the exact UI surface for taking and viewing compliance snapshots has not been validated. The capability pack describes the feature; the in-product surface is pending confirmation.)
Snapshot captures every framework's progress, every control's status, and every evidence item's state at a single moment
Snapshots are retained so you can compare current posture to a historical baseline
Use snapshots before audits, after major framework activations, or at fixed intervals (annually, biannually)
Compare two snapshots side by side to demonstrate progress
Why snapshots matter
A snapshot is the closest equivalent in ReFresh to a "save state" of your compliance posture. Use cases include:
Audit prep: capture posture immediately before an external audit so the audit's reference point is stable
Improvement evidence: show the board how posture has improved between two snapshots
Regulatory inspection: provide a point-in-time view that matches a specific date in question
Year-end close: lock the year-end position for governance archiving
What a snapshot captures
A snapshot includes:
Framework activation states and progress percentages
Every control's status, owner, evidence count, and effectiveness rating
Every document's and policy's expiry, version, and sign-off status
Risk register state including assessment statuses and ratings
Open incidents and investigations counts
Outstanding tasks
Snapshots do not include the underlying transactional history (use the audit trail for that, article 6.11).
Comparing snapshots
Side-by-side snapshot comparison shows:
What has improved (lifted from Needs Evidence to Complete, or from Partially Effective to Effective)
What has regressed (lifted from Complete back to Needs Evidence after a renewal)
New items added in the period
Items removed or archived in the period
Related articles
The Quarterly Board Report (6.6)
Compiling an evidence pack for a regulator inspection (6.10)
Using the audit trail (6.11)
Audit management (6.9)