CalmCompliance
Risks

Create a risk assessment

Create a risk assessment in the Risks module by choosing a content type, filling the form, and opening the draft. Structured assessments are built from composable sections and hazards. Upload PDF as Assessment keeps one uploaded PDF as the assessment content instead.

Before You Start

You need the Manager role (or higher) for the Risks module to create an ordinary risk assessment. Risk Members cannot create ordinary assessments; they can only create their own dynamic assessments from a work order run page. You also need Manager or higher to publish, set approval workflows, and configure review schedules. Roles are assigned per site in Settings > User Management. Site Managers can inspect access; Site Admins use Edit Access to change it. For a full role breakdown, see Risks roles and access. For dynamic assessments during a job, see Dynamic risk assessments.

How to create a risk assessment

  1. Go to Risks in the main navigation and open Risk Assessments.

  2. Click Create Assessment.

  3. Under How Would You Like to Start?, choose a content type:

    • Structured — build sections and hazards in CalmCompliance. After creation you can draft with AI or extract risks from a PDF into the structured draft. Continue to the structured creation steps below.

    • Upload PDF as Assessment — keep one uploaded PDF as the assessment content. No hazard extraction. Continue to the PDF assessment steps below.

Content type is fixed for the life of the assessment. You cannot convert a PDF assessment into a structured assessment, or the other way around.

Structured creation

  1. Fill the form:

    • Name

    • Description (optional)

    • Category — select a category or choose No Category

    • Template — select an existing template or No Template to start from scratch

    • Risk Matrix Type — select the scoring matrix for the assessment

    • Tags — add any tags for grouping

    • Approval Workflow — select an approval workflow or leave as Approval Not Required

    • Review Schedule — select a review schedule or leave as No Review Required

    • Effective Period — set an Effective From date and an Expires On date

  2. Click Create Assessment (or Create from Template if you selected a template).

Upload PDF as Assessment

Use Upload PDF as Assessment when the uploaded PDF itself is the assessment. The file is retained as draft content. CalmCompliance does not extract hazards or ask for a risk matrix.

  1. Under How Would You Like to Start?, choose Upload PDF as Assessment.

  2. Upload one PDF. Only PDF files are supported. The panel states that the file becomes the assessment content for this draft.

  3. Fill the same assessment metadata as a structured assessment:

    • Name

    • Description (optional)

    • Category

    • Tags

    • Approval Workflow

    • Review Schedule

    • Effective Period — Effective From and Expires On

  4. Click Create Assessment. While creation runs, the button shows Creating...

The assessment opens on the ordinary assessment page with the uploaded PDF shown as the draft content. PDF assessments have no sections, hazards, matrix, or scores. Duplicate is unavailable. Templates and assessments created from a template stay structured; PDF-backed content is not offered for templates.

PDF assessments still use the ordinary draft, approval, publishing, review, distribution, and version-history lifecycle. To replace the file later, use Upload New Version — see Working with risk assessment versions.

Upload PDF as Assessment is different from AI Extract From PDF. Retained PDF assessments keep the file as the content. AI extraction creates or fills a structured assessment and does not keep the source PDF as the assessment content.

AI Extract From PDF

AI Extract From PDF populates a structured assessment with suggested hazards. It does not create a PDF content-type assessment and does not retain the uploaded file as assessment content.

Where it appears:

  • On a blank structured assessment start hub after you create a structured assessment from scratch

  • When you create a new template, as a start option under How Would You Like to Start?

  1. Choose AI Extract From PDF.

  2. Upload a risk register or assessment PDF.

  3. Wait while the PDF is uploaded and processed.

  4. Review the extracted content. Edit the suggested name, optional description, and optional overview. Remove any suggested risks you do not want. You must keep at least one risk to continue.

  5. Confirm with the action shown for your context: Add Risks to Assessment when filling an existing blank structured assessment, or Create Template when creating a template.

After confirmation, continue building the structured assessment with sections and hazards as usual.

Build the assessment from sections

Sections apply to structured assessments only. When you create a blank structured assessment from scratch, the detail page opens to a start hub. Click Add Section, the Add Documents chip, the Add Image Gallery chip, or the Add Map chip, or the Risk Register chip to choose your first block, or use AI Extract From PDF to add suggested hazards.

Assessments created from a template, by duplicating an existing structured assessment, or by AI extraction already include sections and hazards. Assessments created from a template or by duplicating copy the full section layout, including Matrix Sections, Rich Text blocks, People & Groups sections, Hazard Classifications sections, Hazardous Materials sections, Equipment sections, Linked Documents sections, Image Gallery sections, Map sections, PPE sections, and Risk Register sections, together with their hazards and participants. AI extraction creates structured hazard content in the assessment.

PDF assessments do not use the start hub or section builder. Their content is the uploaded PDF for the selected version.

How to Add Risk Items and Controls

Risk items and controls apply to structured assessments.

  1. Open the assessment from the Risk Assessments list.

  2. In the Matrix Section where you want the hazard, click Add Risk Item.

  3. Enter the details:

    • Risk Description

    • Severity and Likelihood — the matrix calculates a Risk Score for each item

    • Existing Controls — controls already in place

    • Mitigation Controls — additional actions to reduce the risk

    • Residual Risk Assessment — optional, to record the severity and likelihood after mitigation

  4. Click Add Risk Item to save

  5. Repeat for each risk you need to document

If the assessment has multiple Matrix Sections, each section is its own register. Hazards added to one section do not appear in another. The assessment page rolls up scores across all Matrix Sections. Risk Register sections record hazards with a description and optional controls, without scoring; their hazards do not contribute to the rolled-up scores.

Assessments filled with AI Extract From PDF already contain risk items in the initial matrix content. You can edit them or add more items to any matrix section.

People & Groups from templates and copies

If you create a structured assessment from a template, or duplicate an existing structured assessment, the participant entries and the People & Groups section are copied into the new assessment. You can add, edit, or remove participants after the assessment is created. PDF assessments cannot be duplicated.

Review the assessment summary

On a structured assessment, an optional summary area can appear above the content sections. New assessments start with no summary widgets selected, so readers see no summary heading or placeholder until you add widgets.

On an editable assessment, click Add Widget to choose widgets such as Risk Overview, Highest Risks, Risk Matrix, Risk Level Distribution, Risk Matrix and Distribution, Tasks, and People Impacted. You can remove or reorder selected widgets; the layout is separate from section order.

Risk Overview shows Max Risk, Max Mitigated, Avg Risk, and Avg Mitigated, plus a mitigated reduction indicator, calculated across all Matrix Sections when scored risk items exist. Score-based widgets need at least one scored risk item. Tasks needs linked tasks, and People Impacted needs people or groups.

If you create an assessment from a template, the template’s selected widgets and order are copied into the new assessment. PDF assessments are unscored, do not support summary widgets, and insights place them under Unscored rather than treating them as zero-risk assessments.

For add, remove, reorder, availability rules, and what published readers see, see Customize risk assessment summary widgets.

How to Publish the Assessment

  1. On the assessment detail page, click Publish Assessment

  2. Enter Publish Notes describing what is changing

  3. If you selected an approval workflow, click Request Approval and choose an approver

  4. If no approval workflow is required, confirm to publish directly

Publishing works the same way for structured and PDF assessments.

Find PDF assessments in the list

On the Risk Assessments list, use the Content Type filter to show All Content Types, Structured, or PDF. PDF assessments show a PDF badge and do not display numeric risk scores in the list.

What’s Next

Equipment sections

When building a structured assessment, you can also add an Equipment section under the Linked records group. This links live equipment risk profiles from the register so the assessment always reflects the current profile name, categories, and emission values. You can add multiple Equipment sections to an assessment, each with its own title and linked profiles.

See Add Equipment sections to a risk assessment for linking equipment risk profiles and recording exposure measurements.

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