Compliance & Audit Readiness

How Govula supports your audit preparation and ongoing compliance demonstration.

This section is intended for: Technical Team, Auditor, Management. Unauthorised access is restricted.

Supporting the Audit Process

Govula is designed to support, not replace, the audit process. Certification bodies, external auditors, and regulators assess your organization's compliance. Govula helps you prepare for and demonstrate compliance throughout the audit lifecycle.

The platform provides the documentation, evidence, and traceability that auditors need to verify your compliance claims efficiently.

Evidence Preservation

Evidence is the foundation of audit success. Govula maintains evidence with the following properties:

Immutable Storage

Once uploaded, evidence cannot be modified. Updates create new versions while preserving the original. This ensures auditors see the same evidence that was available at any point in time.

Metadata Tracking

Each piece of evidence includes metadata: upload date, uploader, associated controls, expiration date, and any attestations. This metadata provides context for auditor review.

Freshness Monitoring

Evidence has a configured validity period. The platform tracks freshness and alerts when evidence is approaching or past expiration, ensuring auditors see current documentation.

Chain of Custody

All access to evidence is logged. Auditors can verify who uploaded evidence, who viewed it, and whether it has been accessed since the last audit.

How Auditors Validate Outputs

Govula outputs are designed to be verifiable. Auditors can:

  1. 1
    Verify Report Integrity

    Reports include cryptographic signatures (SHA-256 hash). Auditors can verify that a report has not been modified since generation.

  2. 2
    Trace Decisions to Evidence

    Each control status links to supporting evidence. Auditors can drill from a compliance claim to the underlying documentation.

  3. 3
    Review Audit Trail

    The immutable audit log shows all changes, approvals, and overrides. Auditors can verify that decisions followed appropriate governance.

  4. 4
    Compare Historical States

    Snapshots allow comparison of compliance state over time. Auditors can verify continuous compliance, not just point-in-time.

  5. 5
    Examine Justifications

    All applicability decisions include justifications that explain the reasoning. Auditors can assess whether justifications are appropriate for the organizational context.

Historical State Access

Compliance is evaluated continuously, but auditors often need to understand historical state. The platform maintains:

  • Daily Snapshots: Point-in-time captures of complete compliance state
  • Change History: Every modification is recorded with before and after state
  • Evidence Versions: All versions of evidence are retained
  • Decision Timeline: Chronological view of all applicability decisions and changes

This historical data allows auditors to assess compliance at any point in time, not just the current state.

Audit Preparation Workflow

Before an audit, you can use the platform to:

Generate Audit Pack

Create a comprehensive evidence package containing the SoA, all supporting evidence, and audit trail for the assessment period.

Review Gaps

Identify any controls that are not fully implemented or lack current evidence. Address these before the audit.

Verify Evidence Freshness

Ensure all evidence is current. Update any stale documentation before the auditor arrives.

Review Justifications

Verify that all applicability justifications accurately reflect current organizational context. Update any that have become outdated.

Auditor Access

External auditors can be granted scoped, read-only access to the platform:

  • Time-limited: Access expires after a configured period
  • Read-only: No modification capability
  • Scoped: Limited to specific frameworks or assessment periods
  • Logged: All access is recorded in the audit trail

Regulator Access

For regulatory examinations, specialized access can be configured:

  • Short-lived JWT authentication with defined scope
  • Data sanitization to remove non-relevant information
  • Immutable logging of all regulator access
  • Abuse detection for anomalous access patterns

What Govula Does Not Do

For clarity, the platform does not:

  • Certify compliance: Only accredited certification bodies can issue certifications
  • Replace auditors: Human auditors assess compliance; the platform supports their work
  • Guarantee audit success: Compliance depends on your implementation, not documentation
  • Implement controls: You implement controls; the platform tracks and documents them
Supported FrameworksGovernance & Disclosure