Regulatory Compliance Management Software

Regulatory compliance management software is the system an organisation uses to track obligations imposed on it by an external regulator, evidence that it has met them, and report on time. It differs from general compliance software in one respect that matters. The deadlines and the record keeping are set by law, not by internal policy.

Australian regulators work to hard clocks. Under the model Work Health and Safety Act a business must notify its WHS regulator immediately after becoming aware of a notifiable incident, and keep a record of that incident for at least 5 years. NDIS providers work to tighter timeframes again, with initial notification of a reportable incident due within 24 hours and the full written report within 5 business days. A system that cannot show who was told, when, and on what evidence leaves the organisation exposed at the moment it is being examined.

In practice a regulatory compliance system needs to hold:

• a register of obligations, each mapped to the regulator that imposes it
• completion records for role specific training such as NDIS courses and restrictive practices
• a defensible incident reporting trail with dates and decisions attached
• periodic reporting duties such as modern slavery statements

Posts tagged here look at how Australian organisations choose and run these systems, and what an auditor actually asks to see. Obligations differ by sector and across states and territories, and they change, so treat this as general information rather than legal advice. The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission sets out the reportable incident rules in full. To see how records, policies and incidents sit together in one place, visit the Sentrient compliance management system.