---
sourceDocument: Yokohama Governance, Risk, and Compliance
sourceDocumentLink: https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/r/yokohama/governance-risk-compliance

 Release :

    - yokohama

ft:locale :

    - en-US

ft:publication_title :

    - Yokohama Governance, Risk, and Compliance

ft:clusterId :

    - grc

bundleId :

    - grc

workflow :

    - Technology


---

# Manage control objectives and policies

# Manage control objectives and policies {#ariaid-title1}

* Release version: Yokohama
* 
* Updated January 30, 2025
* 
* ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 3 minutes to read

Summarize  
![AI sparkle icon](https://servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ai-sparkle-icon) Summarized using AI  
This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.  

## Summary of Manage control objectives and policies

The Policies and Procedures module in ServiceNow provides comprehensive management of policy approvals, policies, and control objectives.
It offers an executive-level overview of compliance requirements, status, and breakdowns to quickly identify areas of concern.
Users with compliance administrator and compliance manager roles can access detailed compliance reports and dashboards.
Show full answer Show less  

## Policies and Procedures Overview

* **Control compliance:** Donut chart showing overall compliance of all controls.
* **Control details:** Donut chart breaking down controls by owner, category, or type.
* **Control Overview:** Stacked column chart showing total controls per policy and their compliance status.
* **Control Issues by Policy:** Line chart tracking control issues opened weekly by policy.
* **Policy Exceptions List:** Lists control issues accepted without remediation.
* **Total Control Objectives by Policy:** Stacked bar graph showing control objectives count by type per policy.

## Policy Approval Process

Policies undergo a strict approval workflow to ensure compliance and reduce risk exposure. Compliance managers set validity periods to ensure timely reviews. Policies can be categorized as policies, procedures, standards, plans, checklists, frameworks, or templates.

**Approval States:**

* **Draft:** Policies are editable by all compliance users.
* **Review:** Policy owners and reviewers can modify and advance policies.
* **Awaiting Approval:** Policies are read-only; approved policies move to Published, unapproved return to Review.
* **Published:** Approved policies are published as knowledge base articles and become read-only. Policies have a validity period, after which they automatically revert to Draft/Review based on configured settings.
* **Retired:** Policies removed from active use and their KB articles deleted.

## Managing Policies and Control Objectives

* **Create a policy:** Define internal practices as policies, procedures, standards, etc.
* **Approve and publish:** Policies are automatically published upon approval.
* **Acknowledge a policy:** Launch campaigns for employees to acknowledge published policies.
* **Retire a policy:** Remove outdated policies as part of lifecycle management.
* **Create GRC article templates:** Customize templates for publishing policies.
* **Create and manage control objectives:** Define objectives that guide company operations, categorize them, relate them to policies, and deactivate when obsolete.
* **Relate control objectives:** Link objectives to policies during draft or review states and map objectives to multiple citations for cross-compliance testing.
* **Manage citations and authority documents:** Create, activate/deactivate, and relate citations and authority documents to control objectives to manage compliance references.

## Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

This module enables compliance administrators and managers to centrally manage policies and control objectives, ensuring consistent compliance with internal standards and external regulations. The approval workflows, validity management, and acknowledgement campaigns help maintain policy relevance and enforce accountability. Visual compliance reports facilitate quick identification of issues and gaps. Integration of control objectives with multiple citations improves testing efficiency and regulatory alignment. Overall, the module supports effective governance, risk management, and compliance processes.  
The Policies and Procedures module contains overview and detailed information related to policy approvals, policies, and control objectives.

## Policies and Procedures Overview

Policies and Procedures Overview is contained in the Policies and procedures module and provides an executive view into compliance requirements, overall compliance, and compliance breakdowns so areas of concern can be identified quickly. Users with the compliance administrator and compliance manager roles view the Policies and Procedures Overview.{#r_PoliciesAndProcedures__table_p_and_p_overview__entry__3}

| Name | Visual | Description |
|-|-|-|
| Control compliance | Donut chart![Donut icon]() | Displays the overall compliance of all the controls in the system. |
| Control details | Donut chart![Donut icon]() | Displays a breakdown of controls grouped by owner, category, or type. |
| Control Overview | Column Chart![Column icon]() | Displays the total number of controls related to each policy. The chart is stacked to display the overall control compliance status for each policy. |
| Control Issues by Policy (Opened Date) | Line Chart![Line icon]() | Displays the number of control issues opened each week, grouped by policy. |
| Policy Exceptions | List | Displays a list of control issues that have been closed with a response value of accept, meaning the issue was not remediated. |
| Total Control Objectives by Policy | Bar graph | Displays a count of the overall number of control objectives in each policy. The chart is stacked to display control objectives by type. |
[Table 1. Policies and Procedures Overview reports in the base system]

{#r_PoliciesAndProcedures__table_p_and_p_overview}

## Policy approval process

Policies are part of a strict approval process that ensures compliance and reduces exposure to risk. When a policy is published, it is automatically incorporated in the approval process. Compliance managers set the length of
time that policies are valid, ensuring that the team reviews the policy often to affirm its validity. Policies have a type, such as a policy, procedure, standard, plan, checklist, framework, or template.

{#r_PoliciesAndProcedures__table_amh_4kb_cv__entry__2}

| State | Description |
|-|-|
| Draft | All policies start in Draft state. In this stage, all compliance users can modify the policy and control objectives. |
| Review | The owner, owning group, and reviewers can modify the policy and control objectives and send it on to the next state. |
| Awaiting Approval | The policy is read only in this state. Approved policies transition to the Published state. Unapproved policies return to Review. If no approvers are identified on the policy form, the state is skipped and the policy is published without an approval. |
| Published | Approved policies are automatically published to a template-defined KB article, and the policy remains in a read-only state. The Valid to field on the policy form defines how long the policy is valid. Note: After the policy is published and when the valid to date on the policy is reached, then based on the value of the Number of days after reaching a policy "Valid to" date in which the expired policy will automatically move from its Published state back to a Draft/Review state property, the policy moves back to the Draft/Review state. For example, if the value of the property is 10, then the policy moves back to review state 10 days after the valid to date is reached. When a policy reaches the end of the Review state and is Approved for publishing, it is automatically published to the GRC knowledge base (as defined in Policy and ComplianceAdministrationProperties. The Article template field on the policy form defines the style of the published policy. |
| Retired | When a policy is put into the Retired state, its associated KB article is removed. |
[Table 2. Policy approval states]

{#r_PoliciesAndProcedures__table_amh_4kb_cv}

## Policies

Compliance managers catalog and publish internal policies that define a set of business processes, procedures, and or standards.

## Control objectives

Compliance managers catalog the control objectives and generate controls from those control objectives.  
Note:  
UCF refers to control objectives as controls. When UCF data is imported, controls are imported into the control objectives table.
* **[Create a policy](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/vqncqI2kfHgB2xPtK9_qFA)**   
  A policy defines an internal practice that processes must follow. Policies are defined as policies, procedures, standards, plans, checklists, frameworks, and templates.
* **[Approve and publish a policy](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/ZbQ_cBkMfvuCCVlEpnYtBg)**   
  When a policy is approved, it is automatically published.
* **[Acknowledge a policy](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/HASI3WNU~tro7AKCzA163Q)**   
  After a policy has been published, you can create an acknowledgement campaign to define a group of your employees who must provide an acknowledgement that a particular policy is in compliance. When the campaign has been defined, you can submit the request to the audience.
* **[Retire a policy](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/PfdB3RpCBHJOQSOFaPqbZQ)**   
  Retiring a policy is part of the policy management process.
* **[Create a GRC article template](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/yzTdulRi6yQL3OlyaIhigg)**   
  Policy and Compliance managers can create templates for policy article publishing.
* **[Create a control objective](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/gIblu0oyLt7qED_NffDD7w)**   
  A control objective is an objective, direction, or standard that acts as guidance for company interactions and operations. Control objectives can be categorized, classified, and related to policies.
* **[Deactivate a control objective](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/EB9HwSMOF4keRgm2eHX4bA)**   
  Deactivate control objectives that are no longer relevant to their citation or parent control objective.
* **[Relate a control objective to a policy](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/AFgWMJh0l0tXVh1Ou9zoVg)**   
  Associate the control objective to a policy individually when the policy is in the review or draft state by clicking the edit button in the Control Objective related list.
* **[Relate a control objective to a citation](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/fAZEQp3NCqjvLQ2pVbOSOg)**   
  A single control objective can be mapped to many citations from different authority documents. This function allows you to test a control objective once while complying with many different citations.
* **[Create or deactivate a citation](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/GoQ2Ao1PRgSUVjUx9Fgqwg)**   
  Usually, authority documents, citations, and control objectives are downloaded from a third-party provider. However, citations can be created manually from an authority document. The Active option in a citation indicates whether the citation is active or inactive.
* **[Create an authority document](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/Rry5QW~DbWthFHt0bVFpcg)**   
  Authority documents manage a process and citations are created within them to manage points of the process. For example, the process called Building Security contains a citation for Entry Control.
* **[Deactivate an authority document](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/CQLd9_m2zDzHhh1lkVLQRQ)**   
  The Active option in an authority document indicates whether the authority documents have been retired.

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