Governance

Governance gives your board one place to find policies, board papers, minutes and important records. Select Governance under Review and plan in the sidebar. It opens the Governance register: one ledger of your governance functions, with a rail on the left for choosing the entity, opening Actions and browsing By function. Activity log and Source documents sit at the foot of the rail. Headings and text use Geist, while dates, figures and version details use Geist Mono to make them easier to scan.

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Choose the entity you are viewing

The entity selector is the drop-down at the top of the rail, above Actions. Choose All entities, Shared organisation documents or an individual entity. Entities appear alphabetically. Your selection stays with you when moving between the register, a function, Actions and the Activity log. The document total in the register heading, the counts beside each function, review counts and deadlines all reflect that location. Selecting an entity shows its own records; select Shared organisation documents for group-wide policies and records. The selector always shows your current location, including when you open a folder. Change it to browse another entity, or choose All entities to return to the whole organisation. New folders use the selected location. Uploads suggest a filing location from the document, which you can change before applying. Colour helps you find your way: blue identifies constitutional documents, teal identifies policies and Actions, and violet identifies board and committee records. Every section keeps its name and labelled controls, and the colours adapt to light and dark mode.

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The register

The register lists every governance function on one ledger for the selected entity. Each row shows the number of active documents, how many need review, the last change and the next due date drawn from upcoming reviews, expiries and deadlines. A grey dot marks a function with nothing filed; a flag-coloured dot marks documents to review. Select a row, or the same function in the rail, to open its documents. With All entities selected, it includes all entities and shared organisation folders:

• Constitutional Documents includes constitutions, trust deeds, agreements and other foundational documents.
• Policy Documents includes policies, investment mandates and delegated authorities.
• Board includes papers, minutes, resolutions and other board and trustee records.
• Committees shows Audit & Risk Committee, Investment Committee and Remuneration Committee, plus your other committee folders, indented beneath the Committees row.
• Other documents contains tax, compliance, registers and other folders.

Select a function to open its documents. Change the entity in the rail to narrow the results while keeping your function selection. Clear function filter returns to all documents in that location, and Governance register in the breadcrumb returns to the ledger. Search, document status and Load more documents work within the selected function. The register uses your existing folder kinds and names. Foundational folders appear under Constitutional documents, policy folders under Policy documents, and governance folders with “Committee” in their name under Committees. Other governance folders appear under Board. Compliance and custom folders each become their own function under Other functions, matched by name across entities, so a “Tax and compliance” folder in three entities appears once in the rail. Archived folders are excluded from the counts.

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Add committees and functions

Members who manage folders see New committee beneath the committees in the rail and register, and New function beneath the other functions. A standard committee without a folder shows + Add in the rail and + Create committee folder in the register. Each opens the same dialog: give the committee or function a name, choose one or more entities (or Shared organisation documents) from the entity picker, then set a description, kind and visibility. A folder is created in every location you choose. Committee names are saved ending in “Committee” so they are recognised as committees. To change which entities carry a committee or function later, open it from the rail and select Edit committee or Edit function in the library heading. Adding an entity creates its folder; removing one archives its folder and keeps its documents; renaming updates the folder in every location.

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Follow actions

The Actions summary appears above the register, and its count stays visible beside Actions in the rail. Chips in the summary name what was found, such as expired documents, reviews due, drafts to confirm or open deadlines. Dismiss the summary to keep a compact Actions chip in the register heading instead. The count adds documents needing review to open deadlines that are overdue or due within the next 90 days. A document needing review with a separate deadline contributes to both parts of the count. A loading or unavailable message appears when actions cannot yet be checked. Select View actions or Actions to open the follow-up workspace. Green highlights identify items needing attention; status labels explain why each document is flagged. The colour changes to mint in dark mode. For your attention shows up to six documents, with the reason each is flagged, its location, any due date and a suggested next step. Drafts, overdue reviews, expired documents and search issues appear here. Select a document to open it, or View all to see the full review list. Next on the calendar shows the next six review or expiry dates within 90 days, in date order. Add these dates to a document’s details to keep it on the board’s radar. Open deadlines shows actions due within the next 90 days, including overdue actions, in date order. Select Show more deadlines to see further actions. Select an action to open its document and reminder settings. Members with View governance activity also see Recent activity, with the person, change, document and time together.

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Find a document

Select Open document library beneath the register to see every document in the selected location, or select a function in the rail to see only that function’s documents. Change the entity in the rail to move between locations. The library heading takes the colour of the function you are browsing: blue for constitutional documents, teal for policies, violet for board and committee records. Each document row shows its title, type and version, a coloured Folder pill, its Location, status and last update. Select a document to open its details and version history. Filter with the bar above the list: search by title or version label, choose a Folder, a Document type and a Document status (current, drafts, archived or needing attention). Results appear in alphabetical order. Select Load more documents when more results are available.

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Upload documents

Select Upload document on the main Governance page, use Choose files, or drop files onto the workspace. You can upload several files together, up to 50 MB each. Each file is read to suggest its details before it is saved. Review each document separately:

1. Check the Entity and Folder or committee. Suggestions use existing folders across your organisation, even if you are viewing a different entity. If a match is uncertain, choose the location yourself. Create a missing folder or committee in Governance before uploading.
2. Confirm or change the title, record type and status.
3. Check the effective, expiry and review dates. Leave dates blank when they do not apply.
4. Edit the summary, version label and version notes as needed.
5. Select Apply and upload to save the documents with the details you approved.

Nothing is added to the register until you apply. Cancel closes the review without saving documents that have not been applied. If details cannot be extracted, use Retry extraction or enter them manually. Retrying extraction replaces the suggested fields, so make your final edits afterwards. Files that fail to upload keep their details for another attempt; successful files are not uploaded again. Each file keeps its own version history. To update the file later, download it, edit it in your preferred application, then use Replace on the document page. Choose Draft for a document still being prepared. Use in AI answers is on by default for every upload, in every folder. Documents are prepared automatically so the assistant can find and explain their contents. Turn it off beside a file before uploading to exclude that document. Changing folders keeps your choice. You can also change this setting later in the document’s Details; it applies to all its uploaded versions. Existing exclusions are kept. Use Archived in the status filter to find archived documents and access archived folders. Files attached to a tax year’s evidence fields on the AU tax year page are saved here too, in the entity’s Tax and compliance folder, with a summary naming the year and field.

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Ask governance

With Use governance assistant, select Ask governance to open a conversation alongside the page. Your workspace stays visible; on a smaller screen, the conversation appears above it. Close the panel when you need more space, then reopen it to carry on. Ask a question or choose a suggestion. The assistant reads available document text, explains the implications and suggests next steps. Answers include links to the source document, version and page or clause where available. Open a source to check the wording while keeping the conversation beside it. On a document page, the assistant focuses on the document and version you are viewing. In a folder, it searches that folder; in an entity location, it includes the entity’s documents and shared policies. Choose Search all to broaden the next question, or Use this page to return to the page’s context. The scope shown above the conversation applies to your next question; earlier answers keep their original sources. Your questions and answers are saved automatically. The open conversation and your draft stay with you as you move between Governance pages. Returning after a refresh loads your most recent saved governance conversation. New governance chat starts a separate conversation, keeping earlier chats in your history. Select Open in AI v2 to continue the same saved conversation in the Assistant. You can also find it in the Assistant’s chat history. Conversations are private to you unless you choose to share them there. If an answer is interrupted, use Retry answer. If a conversation cannot be loaded, retry loading it before sending another question. The assistant can explain previously uploaded drafts and older published documents when opened directly, but their wording is not current authority. General searches use current published documents for board decisions. Documents must be enabled for AI and have readable indexed text. Review sources before acting; missing evidence does not establish approval or permission.

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Follow activity

Members with View governance activity can open Activity log from the foot of the rail or Full activity log in Actions. Follow document changes, access and assistant use across the organisation. Filter events by entity, folder, action, person or date. Load more shows older events. Export CSV downloads up to 50 events matching your filters. Select Governance register in the breadcrumb, or a function in the rail, to return to your board’s documents.

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Set deadlines and email reminders

With Manage governance deadlines, open a document, choose Details on the right, then select Set deadline under Deadlines and reminders.

1. Describe what needs to be done, such as approving a policy or uploading signed minutes, and choose the deadline date.
2. Add the email addresses of everyone who needs to act. Press Enter after each address, or paste several separated by commas. Remove a tag to remove that recipient. You can add up to 20 people.
3. Choose when reminders should arrive. Select a week before, a day before, on the deadline, or add your own number of days before. You can choose several timings, up to 12 per deadline.
4. Choose the sending time and time zone, then select Save deadline.

Each person receives a separate reminder email with the action, deadline and a link to the document. Adding an email address does not grant access to the document. Recipients still need the appropriate access to open it. Reminder times that have already passed are skipped. At least one reminder must be in the future when you create or reopen a deadline. Review and expiry dates alone do not send reminder emails. Use Edit deadline to change the action, date, recipients or reminder schedule. The saved settings replace future reminders. Mark complete stops future reminders; use Reopen if more work is needed. If the reminder times have passed, edit the completed deadline to choose a future date before reopening it. Cancel deadline removes it from the active list and stops future reminders. Changes remain in the document’s activity history. Emails already being sent may still arrive. Archived or deleted documents do not send reminders. You can have up to 20 open deadlines on each document. If a reminder cannot be sent, the document shows a message so you can check the recipients and choose a future reminder time.

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Access

An owner or authorised member can set access from Settings → Organisation → Members → select a member → Governance. Admins and owners receive every Governance permission automatically. Every organisation member can see Governance in the sidebar, open the register and read documents in organisation-visible folders. No separate viewing permission is needed. Restricted folders and the actions below still require their own permissions. Document, folder and deadline management are separate permissions. Access to restricted folders, downloads, discussions, activity and the assistant must also be granted separately. The ordinary Documents permissions do not grant Governance access. The workspace shows actions that match your access. If an action is missing, ask an owner or authorised member to review the relevant permission.

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Discuss changes beside the document

Use Discuss on the right-hand side of the document page. On a narrow screen, discussion appears below the document. With Comment on governance documents, write a comment and use Tag people to notify one or more people who have document access. Select Quote a passage to paste the wording you are discussing. The comment keeps a link to the uploaded version you are viewing. Comments show their formatting, such as headings, bulleted and numbered lists, bold text, links, quotes, tables, and code, in both light and dark themes. Select Reply under a comment to keep the conversation in that thread. Tagged people are notified, and the original author is notified of replies. Email delivery follows each person’s notification settings. Tagging someone does not give them new document permissions. An author with commenting access can Resolve their own discussion. Members with Moderate governance discussions can resolve or reopen any discussion they can access. Use Show resolved discussions to find it again, and Reopen if more work is needed. Select the version link above a comment to return to its source.

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Potential extension: collaborative documents

A future extension could let boards create and edit Word documents and Excel workbooks together inside Governance, track changes, insert researched content with Copilot, and reuse a meeting document for the next meeting. It could also add working revisions such as v0.1 and an approval flow that publishes a PDF as v1. This extension is not currently available and has no committed release date. Document uploads, version history, discussions, deadlines and AI document analysis remain available.

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Documents filed against an investment

You can also create folders and upload formation documents, subscriptions, deeds and agreements from an investment’s Documents tab. These records use the same document permissions, review, version history and AI processing as Governance. The investment name identifies their filing location.