There are a number of reasons why you may not be able to close an audit finding:
- You are not the Responsible Person - for each audit finding a Responsible Person(s) must be selected. It is only the Responsible Person(s) that can close audit findings.
- The audit is not in a permissible status for finding management - even if you are the Responsible Person for that audit finding, if the audit is not in a status where finding management is permissible then you will not be able to close a finding.
- There are more than 1 Responsible Persons - if an audit finding contains multiple Responsible Persons then all Responsible Persons must close an audit finding for it to be closed in the system. This can mean that for another Responsible Persons it can appear that there is no action to be taken as the other users need to close the finding too.
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Approval from host or auditor is required - Depending on the module settings, the closure of the findings may have to be approved. If so, after the responsible user closes the finding, it gets updated to status Pending Approval. In Audits » Module Settings » Signature settings, you can find the corresponding option "Incoming / Internal - Host sign off should be required and Outgoing - Lead Auditor / Additional Auditor sign off should be required". If the toggle is on, for incoming and internal audits, the host will have to approve the closure of all findings. For outgoing audits, the lead auditor or additional auditor will have to approve the closure of all findings.
Only after all finding are closed and approved, will you be able to move the audit to the next workflow stage. This is the message you will likely see if you can't close an Audit Finding: