Updating an existing standard

The most common change you may see from one year to the next in the NRPA standards are changes in wording for:

  • The Standard itself
  • The Suggested Evidence of Compliance
  • The Informational Reference

To update these, you have two options:

  • Update the standard as-is
  • Create a new version of the standard and "activate" that version

The update option you choose depends a bit on how much work you've already done, and whether you want to keep an audit history of the change:

If you haven't yet added any evidence of compliance or documentation, we recommend updating the standard as-is. In this case, since you haven't already edited the standard in any way, the change doesn't seem meaningful. You can edit the relevant sections of text in the standard and Save it.

If you've added evidence of compliance or documentation, and you a) still feel it's all relevant, and b) don't need to maintain an audit history of when the change was made, you can update the standard as-is.

If you've added evidence of compliance or documentation and you would like to maintain an audit history of that previously-entered evidence, or when the standard itself was updated in your knowledge base,we recommend creating a new version and activating that version.

Creating a new version in essence creates a separate copy of the existing standard, which you can safely edit without touching the original version of the standard. The "active" version is the one displayed to your reviewers in the knowledge base; all other versions are only available in the app.

If you're maintaining your standards year-over-year as documents or policies change, versions can be a great way to maintain a full historical record of how you've updated your self-assessment over time. See Versions for more information on working with versions.

If you're creating a new version as a result of a standards change by the NRPA, we recommend adding a Version Note that explains why the new version was created. This just makes it a bit clearer for anyone editing the standard why there are multiple versions!