What is compliance evidence?
Compliance evidence is the documentation and data that show a control is designed and working as claimed. Here's what makes evidence acceptable to auditors.
Compliance evidence is the documentation, records, and system data that show a control is designed and working as claimed, like configuration exports, access review records, logs, tickets, policies, and test results. Good evidence is relevant to the requirement, traceable to a source, dated, complete for the period being assessed, and protected from changes.
Types of evidence
- System-generated: configuration states, logs, and scan results pulled directly from tools.
- Documents: policies, procedures, diagrams, and contracts.
- Activity records: access reviews, change approvals, and training completions.
- Attestations: third-party reports such as SOC 2 or ISO certificates.
Common problems
- Screenshots with no date or source.
- Evidence collected only at the end of a period, leaving gaps.
- Files not linked to the requirement they support.
- Out-of-date evidence presented as current.
What to look for
If your evidence is screenshots in a folder, every audit costs you time. Look for evidence that's dated, attributed, linked, and collected on a schedule.
Questions
Are screenshots acceptable evidence?
Sometimes, but timestamped evidence generated by the system itself is stronger and easier to verify.
See it run on your own data.
Book 30 minutes with a GRC specialist. Bring a real document, like a SOC 2 report, risk register, or vendor list (redacted is fine), and we'll show TruOps AI working on it.