July 30, 2024 4:34 pm
Combined Assurance Combined assurance is an integrated approach to assurance activities within an organisation. It involves collaboration and coordination among various assurance providers to ensure that risks are effectively managed and that the organisation achieves its objectives. King IV states that a Combined Assurance Model incorporates and optimises all assurance services and functions to enable an effective control environment that support the integrity of information used for decision making by management, the governing body and its committees; and supports the integrity of the organisation’s external reports. Implementing combined assurance in line with King IV principles helps organisations achieve better governance... Read more
May 8, 2024 1:51 pm
Did You Know? BarnOwl enables you to define key indicators (KIs) with targets & thresholds at every level of your organisation. BarnOwl provides all KI owners with access to the BarnOwl portal (intranet) to view and capture their KI values (unlimited free license). KIs can be defined and linked to: Objectives (Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)), Risks (Key Risk Indicators (KRIs) Controls (Key Control Indicators (KCIs) KI values can be captured manually by KI owners, or alternatively, can be updated automatically by 3rd party data analytics tools configured to test operational data / transactions and update BarnOwl KI values based on... Read more
March 13, 2024 12:12 pm
Did You Know? BarnOwl makes it possible to send out risk and control self-assessments (RCSAs) to all risk and control owners across your organisation at the click of the button with no additional license costs. The risk profession has for many years spoken about embedding risk management within the organisation, however, in a recent BarnOwl info sharing session, presented by Mark Victor, Partner, Deloitte Risk Advisory Services, Mark says that in his experience, “accountability and ownership is still not embedded well enough and that the risk function needs to help people understand the risks that they are running and for... Read more
October 26, 2023 12:12 pm
Did You Know? One of the most significant reasons for the failure of any system or process is the principle of ‘garbage in, garbage out.’ This holds true whether you are dealing with a highly sophisticated IT system or the basic tools like Excel or Word. Essentially, if you feed low-quality or irrelevant data into a system, it will produce outputs of similar quality, if not worse. In essence, a system or process inundated with poor-quality data does little more than expedite the generation of undesirable results. Such a system or process, cluttered with useless information, provides no value. To... Read more
August 17, 2023 10:03 am
Did You Know? Version 11 offers our clients a fresh, modern and simplified web application enabling you to easily capture and maintain all your risk management related activities. In addition, Version 11, provides access to BarnOwl’s standard Power BI reporting and tabular SSRS reporting. Step 1: Capture and maintain risk information: BarnOwl’s web app provides an easy and structured way to capture and maintain all risk information (i.e. objectives, risks, contributing factors, controls, action plans, loss events etc.). In addition, BarnOwl builds your risk library as you go which facilitates a common risk taxonomy across multiple units / sites and... Read more
August 1, 2023 1:29 pm
Introduction and Agenda Thank you very much to everyone who joined the Spotlight session on the 27th July 2023 and to Lizelle for presenting our new and exciting BarnOwl Power BI and SSRS report packs. One of the most important benefits of a system is to be able to generate value-add reports at the click of a button. BarnOwl’s interactive, drill-down Power BI reporting makes it easy to view aggregated information as well as analyse information at lower levels showing the effects of all inter-related risk information. BarnOwl’s standard SSRS reporting allows for detailed tabular-type (printable) reporting at any level... Read more
July 4, 2023 1:32 pm
Did You Know? That there are two main approaches when creating an annual audit plan in BarnOwl: Create high level Audit Projects in advance with future start dates enabling you to generate an audit plan for the year ahead. Create an overarching annual Audit Plan/s against which individual Audit Projects are created. Audit Plans are particularly useful when you have a complex audit universe (multiple processes and business units) with a large-scale audit team with many hours (resources) which need to be allocated efficiently across your audit universe. 1. Create audit projects in advance with skeleton information Step 1.1 Create... Read more
May 26, 2023 4:24 pm
Introduction and Agenda Thank you very much to everyone who joined the Spotlight session on the 25th May 2023 on Version 11. We trust that you found the session informative and that you like the new version 11 interface. Although the new interface takes a bit of ‘getting used to’, we have no doubt that you and your team will find it easy and a pleasure to work with in time. We also trust that you will get a lot of value out of the standard Power BI and SSRS reports that are now included with BarnOwl at no additional... Read more
May 24, 2023 11:50 am
What is the benefit of an Upgrade? BarnOwl is constantly striving to enhance and improve our product. Each time a new version of BarnOwl is released, it contains not only the latest new features, but also performance enhancements and fixes. It is therefore highly recommended that you always work on the latest version of the product. In addition, older versions (major version-1) will no longer be supported by BarnOwl. Who is responsible for upgrading BarnOwl? Historically (version 8.5.3 and lower), the upgrade process involved manual steps and therefore required assistance from the BarnOwl Support team. However, after version 8.5.3, our... Read more
April 17, 2023 3:08 pm
Did You Know? That with BarnOwl it is possible to send out automated compliance checklist/s (survey) to the relevant respondents and use the % compliance scores to more objectively rate your compliance risks: Step 1 – Import compliance content (Acts, provisions and questions per provision) from BarnOwl’s 3rd party compliance content provider or use your own compliance content. Step 2 – Send out compliance checklist/s to the relevant respondents. Step 3 – Use BarnOwl’s compliance dashboard to compare the % compliance score with the provision risk rating. Step 1 – Import an Act to create a Compliance Risk Management Plan... Read more
April 4, 2023 10:15 am
Presented by: Jade Hiralal: Customer Services Specialist Thank you to all who attended the BarnOwl Spotlight Session on the 30th March 2023, where Jade demonstrated the Internal Audit review and sign–off process including how to raise review notes in documents and all other PFO items, as well as bulk review items. In the session, Jade demonstrated how to send items (such as documents) with review notes back to the preparer and how to close review notes and sign off documents within the PFO as well as sign off all other PFO items and how to perform a bulk sign off.... Read more
March 22, 2023 9:16 am
Did You Know? BarnOwl enables residual risk to be derived in one of three ways, namely: Manually rated whereby the residual risk is manually captured by the user, informed by risk-related information. Control factor percentage whereby a control factor % is captured and applied to the inherent risk to derive the residual risk. Auto rated whereby the residual risk is calculated based on a formula taking into account the controls linked to the risk. 1. Manually rating of residual risk and dynamic risk reassessment BarnOwl is dynamic in that it not only enables the risk owner to view everything that... Read more
March 1, 2023 12:33 pm
Did You Know? BarnOwl’s eagerly awaited, state of the art, new web-based version has just been released. Version 11 offers our clients a fresh, modern and simplified web-based user interface utilising the latest web-based technology. In addition, Version 11, will over time, incorporate much of BarnOwl’s extensive desktop app ‘rich’ functionality including built-in reporting. We are very excited to announce the release of version 11.1. Some of the reasons for upgrading to BarnOwl version 11 include: Upgrade BarnOwl to the latest web-based technology Modern and fresh user interface Simplified navigation Standardised look & feel across all registers and forms (pages)... Read more
December 2, 2022 11:19 am
Did You Know? BarnOwl is a fully integrated risk, compliance and audit software solution supporting true risk and control based auditing enabling risks and controls to be ‘pulled through’ automatically from risk management into audit where they can be audited independently. The audit results are then ‘aligned’ back to risk management on acceptance by management of the audit’s ratings (risks and control) and findings. Audit objectives simplify audit execution by grouping risks and controls into manageable work items. Please note: ‘Audit Objectives’ are not the same as risk management ‘Objectives’. Setting up audit objectives in advance as per point 2... Read more
October 5, 2022 3:03 pm
Did You Know? BarnOwl enables residual risk to be derived in one of three ways, namely: Manually rated whereby the residual risk is manually captured by the user, informed by risk-related information. Control factor percentage whereby a control factor % is captured and applied to the inherent risk to derive the residual risk. Auto rated whereby the residual risk is calculated based on a formula taking into account the controls linked to the risk. 1. Manually rating of residual risk and dynamic risk reassessment BarnOwl is dynamic in that it not only enables the risk owner to view everything that... Read more
August 2, 2022 7:59 am
Did You Know? That all client server applications (such as BarnOwl ‘Rich’) require a stable and well-performing network to operate and therefore do not operate well on a VPN (Virtual Private Network / Internet connection) or a WAN (Wide Area Network). VPN and WAN networks are inherently unstable and performs poorly in areas such as bandwidth, latency and quality. A major problem with using a client server application over VPN’s and WAN’s (or any unstable connection for that matter), is that it can lead to data loss, data corruption, and incomplete updating of records. It is extremely difficult if not... Read more
June 3, 2022 8:24 am
Did You Know? How easy it is to use the basics of BarnOwl and get immediate value out of the system? (1) capture information into a system in an easy but structured way, (2) get meaningful insights / reports out of a system quickly and easily and (3) make it easy and non-intrusive for the average user to update his / her information on an ongoing basis. Whilst people love to capture data in Excel, this is not ideal for numerous reasons such as, it’s impossible to draw consolidated reports, there is very little data integrity and data quality assurance,... Read more
April 7, 2022 10:35 am
Did You Know? The BarnOwl GRC (Governance, Risk and Compliance) and Audit software solution integrated with Arbutus data analytics can greatly assist any audit function in adopting an integrated audit approach. An integrated audit approach can increase the internal audit activity’s credibility, resulting in increased relevance of its work and a greater opportunity to be seen as an essential participant in major projects from the outset. Other advantages include increased coverage, improved reporting and more effective risk assessments and audit planning. Integrated Auditing With reference to IIA Standard 2000 outlined in the IPPF (International Professional Practices Framework): Managing the Internal... Read more
January 31, 2022 12:32 pm
Did You Know? BarnOwl version 10.5.1 has been released. Being a local product, we pride ourselves in listening to our clients and being able to enhance the software to meet our clients’ needs. Version 10.5.1 introduces additional functionality for our clients (What’s new in BarnOwl document). In addition, from version 10.0.0 (first released September 2019) onwards, our clients are able to self-upgrade easily without any assistance from our technical team. BarnOwl has been going strong for over 20 years and is getting better and better all the time. Development of BarnOwl started in 2001 as a joint project between Deloitte... Read more
November 22, 2021 3:36 pm
Did you know ? BarnOwl GRC is fully integrated with Arbutus data analytics giving you the ultimate in real-time risk management and continuous monitoring. Continuous monitoring enables management to determine more quickly and accurately where they should be focusing their attention and resources to improve processes and manage risks that threaten the objectives of the business and to take proactive and preventative action in time. Arbutus is a powerful data analytics solution specifically developed for auditors, business analysts, and fraud investigators. Its robust performance and user-friendly features offer you the ability to access and analyse data quickly and simply. Arbutus... Read more
October 8, 2021 9:25 am
Did you know ? BarnOwl takes the administrative burden out of compliance and enables you to identify compliance gaps, monitor and report on the progress of compliance across all business areas / departments within your organisation. BarnOwl enables compliance checklists (Surveys) to be sent automatically to all compliance owners across your organisation and enables you to monitor and report on compliance progress at the click of a button. Now more than ever, especially with the advent of GDPR and POPIA (effective 1st July 2021) and the new information regulator of South Africa, compliance is foremost on the radar even for... Read more
August 20, 2021 11:58 am
Did you know ? BarnOwl makes it possible to send out risk and control self-assessments (RCSAs) to all risk and control owners across your organisation at the click of the button with no additional license costs. The risk profession has for many years spoken about embedding risk management within the organisation, however, in a recent BarnOwl info sharing session, presented by Mark Victor, Partner, Deloitte Risk Advisory Services, Mark says that in his experience, “accountability and ownership is still not embedded well enough and that the risk function needs to help people understand the risks that they are running and... Read more
June 2, 2021 3:28 pm
Did you know ? There are various ways in which BarnOwl can be used to capture and report on combined assurance. This article will show you how to configure and report on Combined Assurance in BarnOwl. Combined Assurance rating methods in BarnOwl Within the Risk Management module, control effectiveness ratings can be input (imported or captured) per assurance provider from different lines of defence per period. See point 1 below. In line with risk and control based auditing, the Audit module allows the auditor to automatically ‘import’ risks and controls from Risk Management specific to the business units and /... Read more
April 14, 2021 12:23 pm
Did You Know? You can customise the BarnOwl Compliance Module for your Internal Policy or Procedure content. This article will show you how to configure certain aspects of the BarnOwl Compliance Module from within the Server Management Console. 1. Important To Note When Making Changes To Accommodate Your Internal Policies And Procedures By default, the levels of a regulatory requirement are named: Section, Heading and Provision, in line with the Compliance Institute of South Africa’s guideline. These can be renamed as required. You also have an option to determine how many levels (maximum of three) of data is required for... Read more
February 24, 2021 11:08 am
Did You Know? BarnOwl Lite enables an organisation to embed risk management throughout its organisation effectively and non-intrusively. The BarnOwl Lite module is designed for risk champions who need to manage their risk environment at their level of the organisation. The BarnOwl Lite module is a user friendly, web-based intranet (platform independent) application. In addition, the BarnOwl Open license which is free to unlimited users, enables users/owners to complete risk and control self-assessments (RCSA) online, complete checklists / surveys /questionnaires online and most importantly update their action plans online. BarnOwl sends out automated email notifications, reminders and escalation to the... Read more
December 4, 2020 1:31 pm
Did You Know? You can easily access the BarnOwl Internal Audit dashboard report from within a project? From version 10.3.5 onwards, you no longer need to exit a project in order to extract or generate an Internal Audit Dashboard Report. This article will show you how to easily access the BarnOwl Internal Audit Dashboard Report directly from within a project, add it to a project and update it directly in the Project File Organiser (PFO). 1. How To Access The Barnowl Internal Audit Dashboard Report It is important to note that you can access the BarnOwl IA Dashboard in one... Read more
October 27, 2020 12:34 pm
Did You Know? You can easily access the BarnOwl Help Manual to find out how to carry out a certain task or procedure at your convenience. This article will show you how to access the BarnOwl Help Manual, search for the help you need and print or save any manual pages as needed. 1. How to Access BarnOwl’s Help Manual It is important to note that you can access the BarnOwl Help Manual in one of two ways: Through your BarnOwl App or on the BarnOwl Website. Please note: it is not advised that you make use of the in-app... Read more
August 18, 2020 7:55 am
Did You Know? You can configure BarnOwl to identify and report on any Covid related risks / and or contributing factors. Similar logic applies to any filtering that you may wish to perform on risks and contributing factors such as ‘Strategic’ related risks. The following example shows you how to filter your global / local risk register to only show Risks that are Covid related. The filters shows risks that are specifically Covid related as well as risks that are linked to a Covid related Contributing Factors (CF). 1. Step 1: Setup a custom field on the Risk and Contributing... Read more
June 30, 2020 8:35 am
Did You Know? BarnOwl ‘Eclipse’ is the web-based version of the BarnOwl risk management module. It is platform independent and can operate in most browsers. BarnOwl Eclipse can be accessed by the following types of user license: Type of license holder Functionality by license type BarnOwl Open (free) License (available to everyone in your organisation at no cost) Update action plan progress online (where the user is the owner of the action plan) Complete checklists online (compliance and any type of checklist) Complete Voting online (RSAs (Risk Self Assessments) and CSAs (Control Self Assessments)) Capture Key Indicator values online BarnOwl... Read more
May 19, 2020 1:39 pm
Did You Know? You can now attend BarnOwl Training from the comfort of your home or office space! Generic and Client Based Training is now offered for: BarnOwl Risk Management BarnOwl Lite / BarnOwl Eclipse BarnOwl Compliance BarnOwl Internal Audit If there is anything that you are struggling with or that you require training on / a refresher, we have started carrying out specialised remote training sessions. You are more than welcome to contact us for additional information or for a quote. Fig 1: The BarnOwl remote online training sessions are more convenient and cost effective than standard training sessions:... Read more
November 22, 2019 1:11 pm
Did you know? From BarnOwl version 10, you have access to maintain the libraries for the following objects (items): Objectives Risks Contributing Factors Controls Key Indicators Library records for each of the items listed above have always been created in the library automatically whenever a new object is captured in the system. The challenge was that it was not possible to maintain, and more specifically, delete library objects if they were de-linked from all organisational units in the system. Version 10 now makes it possible for a user with relevant permissions to maintain (new, merge, delete) library objects ensuring an... Read more
October 21, 2019 10:41 am
Did you know? BarnOwl supports the ability to prepare, review and sign off work within an audit project. The preparer and reviewer may not be the same user. This ensures that all work prepared is reviewed by a manager. Once the preparer has prepared the work, the preparer checks out the work to the reviewer for the reviewer to review the work. The reviewer can accept the work or choose to raise review notes (sometimes called coaching notes) on specific items and send these back to the preparer for him / her to correct. A work item can go forwards... Read more
September 2, 2019 11:04 am
Did you know? You can use the BarnOwl Offline Synchronisation feature to take online data offline, continue working and then synchronise back online. Offline synchronisation is primarily used with BarnOwl’s Audit module, but can also be used in the Risk Management module. Audit offline is used by auditors in remote areas who have very limited Internet connectivity. The BarnOwl audit module enables an audit manager to ‘check-out and lock’ relevant work within an audit project to each of his / her auditors. The auditors can choose to work online or offline by synchronising their work to their offline database (on... Read more
July 26, 2019 7:59 am
Did you know? Many BarnOwl audit clients are not aware of the value that the ‘Project Registers’ can provide especially when configured with favourite views. Registers can be viewed globally as well for a specific unit or a process. Global means that a user can view information across the entire organisational structure and process structure (or part thereof) as opposed to views based on single units and / or processes. The ‘Project Listing’ navigation bar is used for global views. Alternatively use the ‘Organisational Structure’ navigation bar or ‘Process Tree’ navigation bar to view projects specific to a unit or... Read more
June 3, 2019 9:49 am
Did you know? You can differentiate between item-specific information and unit/process/template information in the following item capture forms: Objective Risk Contributing Factor Control This means that you can add item-specific data which will remain constant, no matter where the object is applied. If changes are made to the risk itself, these changes will be carried out wherever the item is applied. You can also add unit-specific data to the item when it is applied to different units, or to a process or template. Example ABC Corporation has a corporate head office, as well as a factory warehouse. One of... Read more
April 24, 2019 9:03 am
Did you know? Many organisations, especially in the public sector, are required to view and report on what their risk universe looked like at the end of every financial year. Whilst most risks carry over from one year to the next, some risks need to be deleted and new risks added. In addition, the organisational structure changes over time with units coming and going and / or being split up into ‘child’ units or consolidated into a ‘parent’ unit. Risk categories and /or taxonomy also change over time. BarnOwl’s Data Period and Risk Trend reporting functionality allows you to see which... Read more
February 27, 2019 8:27 am
Did you know? From BarnOwl version 9, the Risk form has been updated to include a range of new functionality, as well as making existing functionality easier to view and update. Overview The new layout of the Risk form enables you to see the full context of the risk in one place. On the left side, information which is risk-specific is displayed. This information will not change, no matter where the risk is applied. Note: you can disable changes to the left side of the Risk form in the Server Management Console. For more information, see Item Specific Field Editing.... Read more
January 23, 2019 12:03 pm
Did you know? BarnOwl enables you to rate your risk in two ways: Qualitatively – by using a risk rating matrix based on impact rating x likelihood rating Quantitatively – by using a currency amount based on the financial impact or loss that the organisation would suffer if the risk is realised Impact values can now be specified in each unit for each risk category. This means that you can specify currency amounts in the Quantitative tab in the Risk form, and the qualitative rating (impact x likelihood) will automatically be updated based on the Impact values specified for the... Read more
December 5, 2018 11:09 am
Did you know? You can differentiate between item-specific information and unit/process/template information in the following item capture forms: Objective Risk Contributing Factor Control This means that you can add item-specific data which will remain constant, no matter where the object is applied. If changes are made to the risk itself, these changes will be carried out wherever the item is applied. You can also add unit-specific data to the item when it is applied to different units, or to a process or template. Example ABC Corporation has a corporate head office, as well as a factory warehouse. One of the risks... Read more
November 1, 2018 8:33 am
Introduction BarnOwl has a very powerful voting function, which enables you to configure and distribute surveys, questionnaires and Risk and Control Self-Assessments (RCSAs). RCSAs ensure that your owners are constantly assessing the adequacy and effectiveness of controls, as well as the inherent and residual ratings for risks. BarnOwl’s voting templates can be configured to recur at regular intervals, and you can use the Voting Template User list instead of having to add users each time a new vote is sent out. The voting template user list is not specific to a single unit, so you can add all users across... Read more
October 5, 2018 10:58 am
Did you know? You can capture control ratings for different assurance providers according to level of defence in BarnOwl Risk Management. Before you start, you need to configure the Combined Assurance parameters, which is done in the BarnOwl Server Management Console. Note: You require permissions to work in the Server Management Console. There are four settings you need to specify in the Sever Management Console: Level of Combined Assurance: SMC > Risk Management > Parameters > Controls > Level of Combined Assurance. For more information, see Level of Combined Assurance Form. Combined Assurance Level (i.e. levels of defence): SMC >... Read more
August 31, 2018 7:22 am
Did you know? You can create a follow-up Audit project in BarnOwl, based on a previously completed Audit project. After you complete an Audit project, you can create a follow-up audit to ensure that any findings against the unit or process have been addressed. BarnOwl will automatically use all the unit and process information from the original project, and you can set new audit dates and add resources. An Audit project must have one of the following statuses to enable the creation of a follow-up Audit. Completed Closed Archived To create a follow-up project: 1.Open the project for which you... Read more
July 24, 2018 12:36 pm
Did you know? BarnOwl has created an Updater tool, which enables you to quickly and easily upgrade your version of BarnOwl to the latest version. The BarnOwl Updater can be run on your BarnOwl Application server, and once the update has been completed, all user workstations will be updated when the user opens the BarnOwl application. Note that the user workstation must be on the network, and must be able to access the Application server. There are 5 steps to running the BarnOwl Updater: Downloading and running the BarnOwl Updater Creating a Master Database Creating & Configuring Database Environments Specifying... Read more
June 28, 2018 11:20 am
Did you know? Most organisations have the requirement to start afresh or at least monitor their risk registers from one year to the next. However, Risk Management does not work in the same way as a financial system, which is ‘closed off’ at year end. Whilst it may be necessary to add and/or delete risks that no longer exist, most risks carry on from one year to the next, albeit with risk and control rating re-assessment. By using BarnOwl’s Data Period functionality you can monitor the movement of all risks and controls from one period to the next whether monthly,... Read more
June 21, 2018 11:06 am
The versatility and scope of BarnOwl Action Plans was demonstrated. This BarnOwl functionality is useful for so much more than Risk management and Audit. The attendees learned how to assign, update, escalate and manage the teams’ activities and responsibilities. They also learned how to use Action Plans to manage many more processes in BarnOwl. Please see the presentation here.
June 4, 2018 9:44 am
Did you know? BarnOwl provides several ways for you to get assistance. An online help is available on our website, and you can also access this help by pressing the F1 key in the BarnOwl application. However, sometimes you might need to talk to someone, and for this, BarnOwl provides a Support function, where you are assigned a ticket, and can track your issue through our BarnOwl Customer Hub. Access to the BarnOwl Customer Hub is through our website, and you are required to register as a customer. Once you have a customer account, you can access the ticket logging... Read more
May 8, 2018 8:38 am
Did you know? In the new version of BarnOwl, version 8.6, you can capture and link new items at the same time. In this example, we are going to capture an objective, and then link the objective to a unit and to risks. This feature enables you to see which objectives are available for addition to the unit, and which objectives are already linked to the unit. Creating \ Linking a New Risk Item If you want to capture a new risk item (objective, risk, control or contributing factor), the first step is to open the register of the item... Read more
April 5, 2018 6:25 am
Did you know? You can differentiate between item-specific information and unit/process/template information in the following item capture forms: Objective Risk Contributing Factor Control This means that you can add item-specific data which will remain constant, no matter where the object is applied. If changes are made to the risk itself, these changes will be carried out wherever the item is applied. You can also add unit-specific data to the item when it is applied to different units, or to a process or template. Example ABC Corporation has a corporate head office, as well as a factory warehouse. One of the... Read more
March 2, 2018 1:24 pm
Did you know? BarnOwl objects all have a History log, which keeps track of changes made to any item by operation type: Capture Edit Delete You can view the History for an item by clicking the button at the top of the item form. In this example, we are going to use the Risk form as an example, but all BarnOwl object forms contain this button, except for the Key Indicator capture/edit form. The History form shows you the name of the user, the date and time when the change was made, and what changes were made. From version 8.5,... Read more
January 18, 2018 1:10 pm
Thank you to those who joined us for the Spotlight on BarnOwl Security and Permissions. This session proved most valuable in resolving some of the challenges experienced in this area. This spotlight demonstrated the versatility and depth of the security options within BarnOwl to facilitate the provision of information to those who need to have the required data and to safeguard data from those that should not have access. Please click here to view the presentation. Click here for more information.
December 4, 2017 7:55 am
Did you know? BarnOwl enables you to set Moderation mode for users working in BarnOwl Lite. Users make changes as usual, but when the Moderation session ends, it is not updated directly to the BarnOwl database. Instead, a moderator can review the changes that have been made, and can then either approve or reject changes. When the moderator is satisfied with the changes made by the moderation user, he/she can update the BarnOwl database. Setting up Moderation Mode Before users can start using Moderation mode, you need to configure the settings. This is done in the Server Management Console (General... Read more
September 27, 2017 11:05 am
Did you know? In the BarnOwl Dashboard reports, you can save a layout and then share it with other users. This means that you don’t need to configure the Dashboard reports each time you use them. For more information about working with Dashboard Reports, see Introduction to the Dashboard Reports in the BarnOwl Online Help. Setting up the Dashboard Report Set up the Dashboard report by selecting the units you wish to report on. For more information, see the online Help topics Setting Up the Dashboard Report and Selecting Items to Include in the Dashboard Report. Saving a Dashboard Report... Read more
August 17, 2017 5:55 am
On the 17th August we directed our Spotlight on the Risk Management Dashboard Reports. BarnOwl offers the opportunity for the user to configure reports with the information that is relevant to them and helps one make more meaningful business decisions. The Dashboard information is available on this link: Working with Dashboard Reports Introduction to the Dashboard Reports Setting up the Dashboard Report Selecting Items to Include in the Dashboard Report Saving and Sharing a Report Layout Specifying Filter and Sort Options Generating a Dashboard Report
August 1, 2017 11:31 am
Tip of the Month – Quantifying Risk Appetite Did you know? You can quantify your organisation’s risk exposure for each unit including the aggregated risk exposure for sub-units. You can specify risk appetite thresholds which are based on your inherent and residual impact values, and view your organisation’s risk exposure in the Unit Exposure register. To set unit risk appetite thresholds: 1. In the Unit Capture/Edit form, click the Appetite tab on the right side of the screen. Specify a threshold start value corresponding to the unit quantitative values for each threshold colour. You can change the colours by clicking... Read more
July 3, 2017 8:56 am
Did you know? BarnOwl has introduced a new form for selecting users. The aim of this is to make searching easier and much faster especially when the number of users run into the 1000s. You can search, filter and add users as owners, originators, voting users and reviewers, mail recipients and workshop facilitators. You can access the form by right-clicking in the Owners tab of a form (for example, the Capture Edit Risk form) and clicking the Owner menu. You can also access the form by clicking the button. This is usually a field where a single user is selected.... Read more
May 30, 2017 7:51 am
Did you know? BarnOwl enables you to set up data periods, which can be used to view changes to your risk profile over a specified period of time. Setting up Data Periods You can set up data periods in the BarnOwl Server Management Console. Server Console > General Setup > Data Periods In the New Data Period form, a list of all data periods is displayed. To capture a new data period, type a name for the new data period in the text box, and click Save. It is possible to create automatic data periods, but this will need to... Read more
May 4, 2017 5:57 am
The May Spotlight focused on BarnOwl Custom Fields. We demonstrated the versatility of the custom fields which gives the customer the power to record their unique information in BarnOwl and extract the information into a meaningful report. To view the Spotlight on the BarnOwl Knowledge Base please click on Spotlight on Custom Fields
May 3, 2017 11:02 am
Did you know? You can set up recurring votes, surveys and questionnaires in the Template tree, and then apply them once to the relevant unit(s). The template will be automatically recreated based on the specified time period, using the following rules: Title, Reference, Description, Originator, Escalation rules and Owners are duplicated from the original template Start date will be the date that the voting template is automatically created Due date will be calculated based on the number of days between the original start and end date Status is set to “”Active” for vote templates There are two steps to creating... Read more
March 27, 2017 6:42 am
Did you know? BarnOwl enables you to create custom ‘incident’ registers, which can be used to record and monitor many different activities in your organisation. BarnOwl contains three standard Incident registers: Consequence Loss Event Risk Experience You can, however, create your own additional registers, and customise them to meet your exact requirements using custom fields. For example, different types of custom registers may include: A Gifts register to keep track of all gifts received by employees over a certain amount A Contracts register to keep a library of contracts, including a link to the document as well as renewal /... Read more
March 23, 2017 6:04 am
BarnOwl’s first Spotlight for 2017 focused on the use of the BarnOwl Workshop functionality and demonstrated the seamless integration of the Turning Point voting devices. The power of the technology was demonstrated with easy-to-use procedures to create your workshop, capture your results, update your Risk Registers with the results and report on your risks. The help on this topic can be found here.
February 20, 2017 7:47 am
Did you know? You can customise the BarnOwl registers to display only the information you wish to see. You can save this view as a Favourite View, and share it with other users. Customising a Register Registers can be customised to suit your requirements. You can add or remove columns in the register to view specific information. Example This picture shows the default display for the risk register. As the HR Manager, I would like to see when the risks were captured, and I want to see how they are ranked. To add these fields, you can use the... Read more
November 30, 2016 6:05 am
BarnOwl presented their Last session for the year on 30 November 2016. The topic under discussion was BarnOwl Libraries: Organising your data. Information set up within the libraries can be linked and applied in different areas without having to perform the same set-up repeatedly. To view the details on the session please click here. Thank you to Ali for presenting this session and thank you to our customers for continuing to make use of these sessions to update your BarnOwl knowledge. As always, we appreciate your feedback which will be used to continually enhance BarnOwl.
November 28, 2016 12:24 pm
Did you know? BarnOwl has enhanced the Select Unit and Select Process forms to make it easier to find units and processes for selection. The Select Units form is accessed wherever you see the button, and the Select Processes form is accessed wherever you see the button. The Select Units and Select Processes forms work in the same way, displaying a hierarchy tree of the Organisational structure (Select Units) or the Process tree (Select Processes). Additionally, the tree displays icons which tell you which units/processes are available for selection. If your configuration of BarnOwl limits tree access, you will only be... Read more
October 24, 2016 3:06 pm
Did you know? In addition to standard and global registers, you can open a flat register in BarnOwl. A flat register displays information about a selected item for a unit (or sub-unit). Each record is displayed in one row, similar to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. There are flat registers for the following items: Objectives Risks Contributing Factors Controls Action Plans Risk Incidents The register does not immediately load all items linked to an item. For example, if you open the Flat Risk Flat register from the Organisational Structure tree (View menu > Risks > Flat Risk Register), only the risks captured against the selected unit... Read more
September 28, 2016 2:17 pm
Did you know? Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Key Risk Indicators (KRIs) can be used to drive accountability and ownership in Risk Management. A key indicator is a measurable value which can be used to determine how effectively your organisation is achieving key business objectives. In BarnOwl, you can use key indicators (Key Risk Indicators and Key Performance Indicators) throughout your organisational structure. Key indicators can be linked to risks, controls, objectives and units, and you can generate the Key Indicator reports to obtain an overview of the company’s performance over a period of time. You can also run the... Read more
July 25, 2016 1:52 pm
Tip of the Month – Maximising Screens in BarnOwl. Did you know? In the latest version of BarnOwl, you can maximise certain Capture/Edit screens as well as the History screens in the Enterprise Risk Management module. You can maximise the Risk Capture/Edit screen and the Contributing Factor Capture/Edit screen. In the Risk or Contributing Factor Capture/Edit screen, click the maximise button in the top right-hand corner: The screen is maximised to display fully on your screen. In any Capture/Edit screen where you can view the Audit trail history, click the History button to open the Audit Trail. Click the Maximise... Read more
July 19, 2016 6:05 am
BarnOwl presented their July Spotlight session on Tuesday 19 July. The topic discussed was “Helping you to Help Yourself”. Three primary means of support were discussed: The Knowledge Base on the BarnOwl Website, the BarnOwl Support Portal and the Embedded Help. Of most importance is the 1st line of support – your BarnOwl Champion. If our customers do not have access to the support portal they should direct their request to support@barnowl.co.za. To view the... Read more
June 28, 2016 1:06 pm
Tip of the Month – Closing Unused Register tabs to Speed up Performance Did you know? You can speed up BarnOwl’s performance by closing unused Register tabs. In BarnOwl, you can have several tabs open at a time, which enables you to switch between registers quickly and easily. However, if you are working in a very large register, it can slow down the loading time if you have multiple register tabs open for different organisational units and objects. Let us imagine that you have an organisation comprised of several business units throughout the country. Each regional sub-unit has its own... Read more
May 30, 2016 1:54 pm
Did you know? You can set up recurring votes, surveys and questionnaires in the Template tree, and then apply them once to the relevant unit(s). There are two steps to creating a recurring template: Create the original template in the BarnOwl Templates library Apply the template to the business unit(s) where it will be used To set up a recurring template: In the Templates tree, from the View menu, point to Voting, and select Voting Template register. The voting template register opens. Right-click in the Voting Template register, and from the menu that appears, select Template (or survey or questionnaire).The... Read more
May 17, 2016 6:07 am
BarnOwl proudly presented a “Spotlight” session on 17th May 2016 covering the topic of Compliance. BarnOwl’s Compliance functionality enables you to maintain, view, monitor and report on your regulatory universe across your organisation. This session also introduced attendees to third party content in the form of Compliance Risk Management Plans (CRMP) and how this can easily be imported into BarnOwl. ... Read more
April 26, 2016 8:15 am
Did you know? In BarnOwl version 8, all BarnOwl Capture and Edit screens open automatically in Edit mode. This means that when you open a Capture or Edit screen, you no longer need to click the Edit button. In all Capture/Edit screens, the Edit button is greyed out. After you have captured or edited information in a screen, you can save in two ways: By clicking the Save and Close button By clicking the Save button to continue editing If you click the button, the item will be saved, and the screen will be closed. However, if you click the button, all... Read more
March 29, 2016 2:36 pm
Did you know? In BarnOwl version 8, a Save and Close button was introduced to all BarnOwl Data forms. When you click the Save and Close button, you have the option to select whether the “Save Successful” message is displayed. There are two ways to do this: By selecting the option in BarnOwl Preferences By clicking the checkbox on the message By default, BarnOwl’s “save successful” messages are displayed whenever you save a change in any BarnOwl form. Whether you are saving information for the first time, or updating data, the message is displayed to let you know that your... Read more
March 15, 2016 6:10 am
BarnOwl proudly presented a “Spotlight” session on 15th March 2016 covering the topic of Incident Management. BarnOwl’s Incident Management functionality allows for loss events or incidents to be captured including the tracking of actual and near miss incidents thus providing insight into possible control breakdowns and enabling pro-active remedial action. This session also highlighted the value of using BarnOwl’s custom fields to create specific Incident registers, the power of conditional fields and the always important reporting. Thank you to Dionne for delivering such an informative and... Read more
February 25, 2016 6:10 pm
Did you know? BarnOwl enables you to wrap the text displayed in the Register grids. If a field contains more than one line of text, such as for example a “Description” field, you can click the Wrap Text button on the Register Toolbar. By default, a register will display as follows: The Register shown in this picture has been customised. Click the Wrap Text button on the toolbar. The Register will display the complete text. By default, BarnOwl opens a register without wrapping text. If you would like BarnOwl to automatically open every register in wrap-text mode, you can... Read more
January 27, 2016 6:11 am
BarnOwl proudly presented a “Spotlight” session on 27th January 2016 covering the topic of KRIs and KPIs. BarnOwl’s Key indicator functionality covers Risk indicators (KRIs), Control indicators (KCIs) and Objective indicators (KPIs). We highlighted features such as the ability to capture Key indicators in the Process or Template trees, building a library of re-usable standard data for applying to relevant business units and reporting. Many questions were asked ensuring this session was very interactive. Thank you to Ulrigh Nel for explaining the KRI... Read more
January 22, 2016 2:31 pm
Did you know? You can sort any of the grids in BarnOwl using multiple columns. To do this: 1. Open a Register (or any other grid-view item in BarnOwl). In this example, the Risk Register is shown. If you do not see the column you wish to sort by, you can use the Field Chooser to add the column to your grid. To do this: Right-click outside the grid, and from the menu that appears, select Field Chooser. From the Field Chooser, select the Field item from the drop-down list. In this example, “Risks” has been selected. All fields... Read more
November 17, 2015 6:13 am
BarnOwl proudly presented a “Spotlight” session on 17th November 2015 on the topic of Reporting. In this session customers experienced an in-depth look at BarnOwl’s extensive reporting capabilities plus the latest reporting functionality was highlighted. We had the best Spotlight attendance so far and received many useful questions from our customers. Thank you to Ali Ditta for explaining the reporting functionality in such detail. We also thank all the customers who made the time to attend and really welcome the feedback received.... Read more
November 10, 2015 1:56 pm
Did you know? BarnOwl can be configured to send periodic, scheduled e-mail reminders to control owners. Control Self Assessments can be set up to be tested on configurable Control Frequency intervals, for example daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. You can specify an automatic e-mail rule for each frequency, according to its own control rating recurrence schedule. Automatic e-mail reminders are set up by the system administrator in the BarnOwl Server Management Console. This is where the schedules are set for each control frequency. For example, if you have controls that need to be assessed on a weekly basis, you can... Read more
October 2, 2015 2:51 pm
Did you know? BarnOwl has built in scorecard reports, which enable you to view an average score of a selected unit or process by risk category and other dimensions displayed as a register. You can then click a score to view all the different values which make up the average score. There are four scorecards which can be viewed: Unit vs Risk Category Process vs Risk Category Process vs Unit Regulatory Requirement vs Unit You can view scorecards from any of the template trees. However, only the registers relating directly to the template tree will be enabled. For example, in... Read more
September 3, 2015 11:25 am
Did you know? BarnOwl has an online Help which you can use to quickly find assistance. BarnOwl F1 Help In the BarnOwl modules, press the <F1> key or from the Help menu, select View Help. The BarnOwl Embedded Help for the module is displayed. In the left-hand pane, on the Contents tab, double-click a topic to view sub-topics. You can also search using the Index or Search tabs. BarnOwl Lite Web Help In the BarnOwl Web Interface and BarnOwl Lite, you can open a Web Help File containing help relating specifically to the Web interface. Click the Help button. The BarnOwl... Read more
August 11, 2015 6:14 am
BarnOwl proudly presented a “Spotlight” session on 11th August 2015 on the topic of Voting, Surveys and Questionnaires. In this session customers experienced an in-depth look of BarnOwl’s voting and survey functionality plus the latest functionality was highlighted. This was an interactive session with may useful questions from our customers and some possible ideas for future versions of BarnOwl. Thank you to Madeleine Black for explaining the voting and survey functionality in such detail.... Read more
August 4, 2015 12:22 pm
Did you know? You can save reports that you use frequently to the “My Favourite Reports” menu. This means that instead of having to search through all the reports each time that you want to run a specific report, you can access it quickly in the My Favourite Reports menu. To save a report to the Favourite Reports menu: From the “File” menu, select “Favourite Reports”. The Favourite Reports screen opens. All BarnOwl standard reports are listed. You can filter the list according to a column header. For example, you can filter the list by category. Drag the... Read more
July 22, 2015 6:15 am
BarnOwl was proud to present their first “Spotlight” session on 22nd July 2015 with the maiden topic being Audit objectives. The focus of this session was to show the latest functionality and added value of using Audit objectives in BarnOwl. Spotlight sessions will he held on a monthly basis with various topics. The topics have been chosen based on the latest release functionality, customer feedback and requests received by... Read more
July 1, 2015 1:53 pm
Did you know? You can “select all” or “deselect all” in BarnOwl checked Tree View controls by right-clicking in our risk and compliance software. This function is helpful when you need to select many processes or units quickly. For example, if you are creating a new Audit project, you can select all processes required for the audit without having to click each process and sub-process individually. This function is particularly useful in your search for quality risk and compliance data and specifically, in BarnOwl reporting. For example, if you are creating an Action Plan per Unit report, you can select... Read more
