> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://www.docusnap.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Understanding Compliance

> What a regulation consists of and when an objective counts as complete, applicable, or a gap.

Compliance shows how many objectives of the activated regulations the
organization has fully implemented. Each regulation breaks down into
objectives that are assessed individually.

## Regulations, laws, and objectives

*Regulation* is the umbrella term for what compliance is measured against.
The interface distinguishes four types: *Standard*, *Law*, *Catalog*, and
*Custom*. Active regulations of all four types appear together under *Active
Regulations* in the overview. Every regulation also carries a short
code derived from its issuing body, for example "ISO" for "ISO/IEC".

A regulation breaks down into *objectives* — the assessable leaves of a tree.
Structural sub-headings above them are not themselves assessable and stay
visible as context rows for as long as a visible objective remains beneath
them.

## Origin and activation

Regulations sit ready as available entries and are activated by the
organization. On first activation, Docusnap365 imports all of the
regulation's objectives and creates their assessment. If a regulation is
deactivated and later reactivated, its assessments, justifications, review
dates, and relations to controls and documents are kept — a fresh import
does not run again.

<Note>
  Deactivating deletes no assessment. The number of complete and applicable
  objectives from before deactivation stays visible on the available
  regulation's tile.
</Note>

## Objective status and completeness

Every objective of a regulation carries one of five statuses:

| Status | Meaning |
| - | - |
| *Pending* | not yet worked on |
| *Not implemented* | assessed, not met |
| *Partial* | assessed, partially met |
| *Complete* | assessed, met |
| *Not applicable* | marked as not applicable |

A regulation shows how many of its applicable objectives are *Complete*, as a
number and as a percentage. *Applicable* covers all objectives except those
explicitly excluded as *Not applicable*.

<Note>
  An unconfirmed objective, whose applicability has not been decided yet, also
  counts as applicable. Every applicable objective that is not *Complete* counts
  as a gap: *Pending*, *Not implemented*, *Partial*, and unconfirmed objectives.
  *Assessed* counts the applicable objectives with any status other than
  *Pending*.
</Note>

<Tip>
  Mark objectives your organization is not concerned by as *Not applicable* —
  otherwise they count as applicable and as gaps.
</Tip>

## Controls, documents, and assets

An objective can be linked to controls, documents, and assets. Linking to an
asset ties the assessment to a system Docusnap365 has actually inventoried,
not just to a statement in the regulation. You can also create a new control
directly from the assessment.

## Limits

The number of complete objectives is a self-assessment by the organization:
it reflects what was classified as *Complete* or *Not applicable*, not an
external audit.

## Related

[Activate and Assess Regulations](/docs/en/isms/regulations) walks through the
assessment editor step by step. The compliance dashboard's KPIs are covered
in [Check Compliance Status](/docs/en/isms/compliance). [ISMS
Fundamentals](/docs/en/isms/understanding-isms) places compliance next to risk
management.


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