Keeping compliance registers current
Last checked 2026-11-13
Most businesses keep registers in Excel workbooks or SharePoint Lists. The hard part is not creating them. It is keeping hundreds of entries reviewed by the people who own them.
The registers most regulated businesses keep
Which registers you need depends on your industry, your jurisdiction and any management system you are certified to. These are the common ones:
| Register | What it usually holds | What makes it go stale |
|---|---|---|
| Risk register | Risks, ratings, controls, owners, review dates | Controls change on site but the register is not updated; reviews slip past their date |
| Legal register | Laws, regulations, licences, permits and conditions that apply to you, and how you comply | New or amended obligations are never added; licence conditions sit in a PDF nobody re-reads |
| Hazard register | Reported hazards, location, action taken, status | Hazards are fixed but never closed off, or reported verbally and never recorded |
| Chemical register | Chemicals held, location, quantities, safety data sheets | New products arrive without being added; safety data sheets go out of date |
| Plant register | Equipment, serial numbers, inspection and servicing dates, registration where required | Inspection dates pass, items are sold or moved without an update |
| Contractor register | Subcontractors, insurances, licences, inductions, approval status | Insurance certificates expire between jobs; nobody asks for the renewal |
This site does not tell you which registers the law requires of you. That depends on your jurisdiction and your work, and it is worth checking with your regulator's guidance or an adviser.
Why registers go stale
Registers rarely fail because they were badly designed. They fail because maintaining them is nobody's main job. The typical pattern looks like this:
- One person built the register and still "owns" it, but the information in it belongs to ten other people.
- Review dates are in a column that nobody filters on.
- Updates arrive by email or a conversation on site and never reach the register.
- Contractor documents come in when the contractor is first engaged, then nobody asks again.
- The register gets a big clean-up the week before an audit, then drifts again.
Each of those is a follow-up problem, and following up is exactly the kind of admin an AI worker can carry.
How an AI worker keeps them current
The Everything works with registers where they already live, in Excel workbooks and SharePoint Lists, so there is nothing to migrate. Typical routines:
Review dates
It checks the review dates in each register, and when an entry falls due it messages the owner in Teams or by email with the current entry and a simple question: is this still right, and if not, what has changed? It records the reply and the date against the entry, or proposes the update for you to approve.
Capturing changes as they happen
When someone mentions in Teams that a new chemical has arrived or a guard has been replaced, you can ask the AI to draft the register change. You see the proposed edit before it is made.
Contractor insurances and licences
It reads expiry dates from the certificates you hold and flags anything lapsed or about to lapse. Flagging subcontractors with lapsed insurance is already part of its quoting work. It can email the contractor asking for a current certificate and file the reply in the right folder.
A standing summary
It can send a weekly or monthly note to the register owner listing overdue reviews, open hazards and expiring documents, so the clean-up happens continuously instead of the week before an audit. The same records then feed your audit evidence and your training records.
What stays with a person
The content of a register is a set of decisions, and those belong to people:
- Risk ratings and controls. The AI can show the current entry and the last review. Whether the risk is acceptable is a judgement for the person responsible.
- What goes on the legal register. Deciding which laws and conditions apply needs someone who understands your operations, and often an adviser.
- Closing hazards. A hazard is closed when someone has checked the fix, not when an email says it was done.
- Contractor approval. Whether a contractor with a lapsed certificate may keep working is your call. The AI flags it and stops there.
Before you start
The Everything runs inside your Microsoft 365 tenant with tightly scoped permissions, but your data does leave the tenant for AI processing. Its privacy policy names Microsoft (Azure OpenAI) and OpenAI as AI providers and says providers may process information outside your country. The public site does not claim any certification such as SOC 2 or ISO 27001, and it does not name a hosting country.
Registers can include names, health details (for example in a hazard report) and commercial information about contractors. Before you connect them, check your own privacy and record-keeping obligations, and decide which lists and folders the AI should use. Keep the register itself as your system of record; the AI updates it with your approval and does not keep a separate copy as the official version.
Questions people ask
Do I need to move my registers into a new system?
No. The Everything works with Excel workbooks and SharePoint Lists in your Microsoft 365 tenant. The registers stay where they are.
Can the AI update a register by itself?
It can draft the change and, with your approval, make it. The Everything asks before anything important goes out, and you can set rules about which kinds of updates need sign-off.
Can it tell me which registers I am legally required to keep?
No. That depends on your jurisdiction, industry and work. Use your regulator's guidance or an adviser. The AI helps you maintain the registers once you have decided what they are.
How does it know a contractor's insurance has lapsed?
It reads the expiry dates on the certificates and records you hold. If you do not hold a current certificate, it flags the gap and can ask the contractor for one.
What happens if a register owner ignores the reminders?
The AI follows up, then tells you who has not responded. Escalation is something you decide; it does not override the owner.
Try it on your own compliance year
The Everything is an AI worker that lives in Microsoft Teams and works with the registers, documents and mailboxes you already have in Microsoft 365. It asks before anything important goes out. $400 AUD/month + GST per company, unlimited team members, with a 14-day free trial and no credit card.
See how The Everything works