Document control
Version, owner, review date, draft versus issued.
Document control is how an assessor tells a live ISO 9001, 45001 and 14001 system from a shared drive of Word files. PolicySystem numbers each policy, tracks version and owner, and marks draft versus issued. Printed copies are uncontrolled.
What assessors look for
A document number (POL-001 and so on), a version, a named owner, a review date, and a status that is clearly draft or issued. When they ask for the current WHS policy they should get one file, not three emails with "final_v2_USE_THIS". Clause 7.5 in ISO 9001 and 45001 is documented information. That is this.
How it works here
AI writes the pack as drafts. You review, approve and issue. PDF export carries the control block and an uncontrolled-when-printed footer. Ask answers from issued policies only, so the shop floor and the office quote the same words.
What this is not
Not an enterprise records system, not SharePoint consulting, and not a scan-to-archive tool. Not SWMS control for a site. If you need construction drawing transmittals, that is a different product. This is the company management system: policies, procedures and the registers that prove they run.
The document control fields, and why each one matters
| Field | What it proves |
|---|---|
| Document number (POL-001) | The document is part of a system, listed in an index, not a loose file. |
| Version (1.0, 1.1, 2.0) | Changes are tracked and the reader knows which copy is current. |
| Owner | A named person is accountable for keeping it accurate. |
| Issue and review dates | The document was approved on a date and will be looked at again by a date. |
| Status (draft or issued) | Only approved content reaches workers and clients. |
| Approval | Someone with authority signed off, which the standards require before release. |
Records are documents too
The standards split documented information into documents you maintain (policies, procedures) and records you retain (training records, incident reports, audit findings, management review minutes). Records need control as well: who created them, when, and proof they have not been altered. Register entries in PolicySystem are timestamped and attributed, which is exactly the trail an assessor follows when they pick an incident and ask to see how it was closed.
Why shared drives fail the test
A shared drive has no approval step, no status, and no reliable version. Three people save three copies. The footer says nothing. An auditor who finds "WHS Policy FINAL v3 (2).docx" next to "WHS Policy FINAL v3.docx" writes a nonconformity against clause 7.5 before they read either. Moving to a controlled system removes the whole class of finding.
Where to next
Management review · WHS policy · ISO 9001 and 45001 for tenders · ISO certification cost · FAQ
Common questions.
Clause 7.5, documented information. The standards ask you to identify each document, control its format and version, approve it before release, make the current version available where it is used, and protect it from unintended change. In practice: a number, a version, an owner, a review date, a status, and one place people go to find the current copy.
Yes, a short one. It should say who can approve a document, how versions are numbered, where the master lives, how superseded versions are kept, and what uncontrolled when printed means. PolicySystem writes that procedure and then enforces it in the software so it is not just a promise.
The moment a document is printed or saved to a desktop it can go stale without anyone knowing. The footer tells the reader that the live system holds the current version and the paper copy may be out of date. Assessors expect to see it on every controlled PDF.
Each policy carries a review date, usually twelve months from issue. The owner gets a reminder, reviews the content, and either reissues it unchanged (new review date) or revises it (new version). An assessor will pull a document and check the review date is not in the past.