What changes in IMS-Audit Cloud

Until now, the entire toolbar in the question catalogue of a completed audit was greyed out, including showing and hiding columns, expanding and collapsing, filters, search and audit comparison; the answers could only be viewed via the printout. All viewing functions now remain available, as do the display language selection, the measure and document icons on the questions, the question references and navigation with the arrow keys. Only the editing functions are locked. Focus mode opens as a read-only view, an answer opens read-only, and empty answers show a dash instead of the input prompt. The same applies when a colleague is currently editing the audit or when you only have read permission.

With read-only permission, printing, the change history, downloading attachments, switching between the technical and the systematic 5-why view and opening a measure for reading now work. Long texts can be scrolled, and long 5-why entries show their full text as a tooltip. In the supplier portal, the supplier can still download attachments, switch the 5-why view and open measures after submitting. Editing remains locked.

After submission, long answers can also be read and scrolled in full. For qualitative ratings, the name of the selected level is shown next to the buttons, and empty answers show a dash instead of the input prompt.

In completed audits, a schedule entry now opens read-only instead of not responding at all. The “Building blocks” bar, move up/down and the insert commands in the context menu are greyed out; the Outlook synchronisation remains available.

With read-only permission, the “Measures” tab in the risk dialog is reachable, and the description and existing controls can be scrolled. In the audit master data, the link “View self-assessment in the question catalogue”, e-mail addresses and viewing and downloading documents work again; the notes are readable, and long titles show their full text as a tooltip. Remarks in the test equipment record and in the company profile as well as the description and period comments of quality objectives are readable in read-only mode, and the locked forms there are now shown greyed out. Upload areas are greyed out in locked sections.

In completed audits and for users with read-only permission, the order of the schedule entries could be changed by drag and drop, which also re-chained the times. This is now locked; nothing changes for editors of open audits.

In a locked question catalogue, clicking an answer opened the normal editor, and “Save” then silently did nothing; the answer now opens read-only. In addition, locked fields in the question catalogue and in the audit master data could still be reached and typed into with the Tab key. Nothing was saved, but leaving the page prompted about unsaved changes. Locked fields and buttons no longer respond to the keyboard.

From two characters on, a list of hits opens below the field, grouped by area with number, title and status; the arrow keys and Enter or a click jump straight to the record. If there are more hits, “all in the list” opens the respective overview with the search pre-filled. Ctrl+K puts the cursor into the search field from any page. The same permissions and sites apply as in the lists; archived audits and documents are excluded. On narrow screens the bar only shows the magnifier.

Under Settings → General → “My settings” there is a new “E-mail reminders” option: “Individual e-mails, immediately” (as before) or “Daily digest, 08:00”. With the digest, the cloud collects all automatic reminders of the day – measure escalation and advance notice, review dates of documents and handbook chapters, test equipment, qualifications, KPIs – and sends them at 08:00 as one e-mail in the company letterhead. Invitations with a calendar entry, welcome, password and sign-in code e-mails as well as messages sent manually still arrive immediately. External recipients without a user account always receive individual e-mails.

In the “New audit” dialog and when editing, a “Suggest date” button appears below the date. Using your connected Outlook account, the cloud queries the free/busy times of the participants and shows, for the next six weeks, the first time slot per working day between 8:00 and 17:00 in which everyone is free; you choose the duration (2, 4 or 8 hours). In the audit programme planning, the suggestion is available directly on every audit with an open date and then only searches within the audit period. Requires the Outlook connection in your own profile.

In a management review with the ISO/TS 22163 standard profile, you add the processes in the section “Results of the process reviews” and rate each process’s implementation level and performance using the 3×3 matrix (grade A–E), answer the five reflection questions on the process KPIs, record findings and create measures directly for the process. Last year’s grade is shown from the previous management review, and the printout contains the process table including the justifications. Finalising is only possible once every process added has a grade.

Audits imported from older data often carry no standard and are therefore missing from the clause coverage. A new quick filter “Without standard” shows the candidates, and the “Assign standard” command adds one or more standards to the ticked audits; existing standards are kept. The “Clause coverage” page shows how many internal audits of the year have no standard and jumps straight to this list.

The company administrator can enter the tenant ID of the company’s Microsoft Entra tenant in the settings (“General” tab, “Security” section). Microsoft accounts from exactly this tenant are then linked to the matching user automatically at the first sign-in – new users no longer need a password beforehand. If the field is left empty, the previous procedure applies: sign in with a password first, then link the Microsoft account under “Profile”.

Until now, an audit that did not take place either remained “Planned” for good or had to be deleted. Every company now has the system status “Cancelled”. A cancelled audit remains documented and, like a completed one, is read-only for everyone except the company administrator and cannot be moved in the calendar, but it never counts as carried out: not in the dashboard figures, not in the clause and site coverage and not in the follow-up date suggestions, and no more reminders are sent for its measures. The audit overview has its own quick filter “Cancelled”.

Previously, each chapter level indented the number and heading by one step. All chapters now start at the left margin like the questions, as in the question catalogue printout; main chapters and sub-chapters are still distinguished by font size and separator line.

If an account is rejected at sign-in because it is not yet linked to a user, the message now also mentions the “Forgot password” route for users without a valid password. The welcome e-mail explains how to link the Microsoft or Google account in the profile after the first password sign-in.

Two further standards can be selected when creating a review and in the header data. ISO 13485 adds the input section “Regulatory requirements and reporting to authorities” and the output section “Changes needed in response to regulatory requirements”. ISO/TS 22163 adds the inputs “Key issues from project reviews”, “Results of the process reviews”, “Analysis of the KPIs”, “Internal and external failures and their impact on safety”, “Outputs of business planning” and “Organizational knowledge” as well as the outputs “Decisions on objectives achievement” and “Decisions on customer satisfaction”. The 9001, 14001 and 45001 profiles remain unchanged.

The toolbar of the audit overview has two new icons: the closed lock completes the selected audit, the open lock reopens a completed audit. Users with the “Complete audit” permission and administrators may complete audits; if measures are still open, the same prompt appears as in the audit master data. Reopening is reserved for the company administrator. The status selection in the master data remains available as before.

In the send dialog, every recipient has a checkbox, plus “All”, “None” and, from nine people on, a search field; the send button shows the number selected. For the training e-mail from the settings, nobody is preselected. After sending, the sender receives a confirmation e-mail listing everyone invited, and the dialog shows the list as well. The bulk e-mail from the person list still has everyone preselected.

The follow-up audit command is still available in every row (arrow icon next to “Duplicate”) and in the right-click context menu. This makes the toolbar shorter again.

Previously the auditor's answer was printed in a narrow column next to the question. It now appears across the full width directly below the question, with the rating to the right: percentage, VDA points, yes/no or, for qualitative audits, the code of the finding type. Long answers take up considerably less space. This applies to all evaluation schemes.

The portal permissions for responsible persons and the 8D report in the portal now have their own “Portal” tab. Auditor behavior, test equipment management, KPIs and quality objectives, and document control are on the “Modules” tab. The “General” tab now only contains the personal and the general company-wide settings. The settings themselves are unchanged.

With the “Qualitative” scheme, the “Evaluation” section shows for each chapter how often each finding type was assigned, for example “3× N, 4× H, 5× BP”. The relevant questions of the chapter including its sub-chapters are counted, in the order of your selection list.

Once an audit has the status “Completed”, only a company administrator can still change it. For all other users, master data, schedule, question catalog and audit report become read-only, no new measures can be created for the audit, and deleting is reserved for the administrator as well; the pages show a notice. Existing measures continue to be tracked and edited as before.

In the audit, a contact can now be assigned the function “Department head” in addition to expert, observer and team lead, with its own symbol in the list. Like the other functions, it appears in the audit invitation.

If you set an audit to “Completed” while measures are still open, the cloud shows the list of these measures before saving and asks for confirmation. With “Close anyway” they are closed together with the audit so that they do not remain open in the measure overview, dashboard and portal; with “Cancel” everything stays as it was.

On laptops with a width of 1366 pixels the last settings tab was cut off, and on an iPad in portrait mode several were missing. The tab bar now wraps onto a second line, so all tabs remain reachable.

The width of the number column now adapts to the numbers of the respective catalogue. Deeply nested numbers such as “06.01.02.01.01”, chapter numbers in bold and numbers with a knockout marker stay on one line; with short numbers there is more room for the question text.

With the scheme “Qualitative (finding types)” there is no percentage value. The question catalogue printout and the audit report still printed “0 %” for every chapter, and the audit report additionally showed the lowest rating level in its “Evaluation” section. Both reports now behave like the catalogue page: for qualitative audits the chapters carry no percentage result, and the “Evaluation” section shows the number of findings per finding type instead.

With the “Qualitative” scheme, the answer column of the question catalogue printout and the audit report only showed the finding type; the auditor's answer text did not appear, and the rating column only showed dashes. The answer text is now printed below the question, with the code of the finding type to the right, for example “A”, “N” or “BP”.

The label “Default evaluation scheme for question catalogues” was partly covered by the selection box. The selection now sits to the right of the fully readable label.

In the measure plan of the audit report, the text under “Planned measures” was missing for some measures although it was present in the measure list. The height of the measure block was estimated without headings and blank lines, so the last line was cut off for texts that wrapped tightly. The estimate is now calculated line by line.

When typing a name into the search box of the person picker, the result row showed only the highlighted search term; last name, department, function and the rest of the e-mail were invisible. The focused row used white text on the light olive tone. The row is now fully readable.

The button in the header of the schedule was shown in German in every interface language.

When editing a master question catalog, the “Question pool” button opens a panel with your other master catalogs, just like in the audit question catalog. Drag questions or whole sections into the catalog via drag & drop or insert them behind the selection via ⊕. What you adopt is an independent copy with all properties and the translations in the languages of the catalog; a check mark shows what has already been adopted.

New evaluation under “Reports & Analytics”: which clauses of the standard were audited internally at which site during the year, and where are the gaps? Rows are the clauses of the selected standard, columns the sites; green means audited, yellow planned, red gap. A click on a cell lists the audits with their evidence, and the print function delivers the matrix as a report. Existing audits count without any rework because the clause of a question is derived from the section of the standard question catalog.

If a question has no standard reference, the program enters the clause of its section when the catalog is loaded into an audit or a question is inserted from the question pool; “04.01” becomes “4.1”. This applies to catalogs that belong to a standard and are structured by its clauses; process checklists stay untouched, and a maintained standard reference is never overwritten.

If a period ended 10 days ago and no actual value has been recorded, the responsible person receives an e-mail listing all open KPIs; a single repetition follows 14 days later, plus a notification in the bell. You maintain the text in the e-mail template “Kennzahlen-Erinnerung”, and the reminder can be switched off in the settings.

The overview prints exactly as shown on screen. The detail page produces the new KPI sheet with all periods, target, actual, traffic light and comment as evidence for the certification auditor. KPIs can also be included in change tracking: the clock icon shows who changed which value and when, optionally with a mandatory reason.

The question catalog print and the audit report optionally show the auditee’s self-assessment from the portal, as a separate line below the question with rating and evidence text. The option appears in the print dialog as soon as answers exist.

On the “News” page a button opens this change history in a new tab. Individual news items can additionally carry a “Learn more” link that leads directly to the matching article with screenshots.

Previously the remark and the standard reference were attached directly to the question text without spacing. Now each item sits on its own line below the question, as does the new self-assessment line.

With long question texts the pool panel became so wide that screens with a width of 1280 pixels left hardly any room for the question table. The panel now adapts to the available space.

In French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Czech and Chinese the “News” page showed the German version while the bell showed the English one. Both now show German for a German interface language and English otherwise.

New module under Management system: measurable objectives according to ISO 9001, clause 6.2, with target, direction, tolerance, responsible person and actual values per month, quarter or year. Traffic light and quick filter “At risk” show where action is needed; the management review fills the section on objective achievement automatically. New training guide 12.

The audited area or supplier rates the question catalog before the audit in the portal and submits it. In the question catalog the self-assessment appears as its own column and can be adopted per question, only for open questions or completely. The audit overview shows submitted self-assessments with a badge and quick filter.

The button “Create follow-up audit” creates a follow-up audit that takes over only the questions with a deviation: rating below a selectable threshold, triggering finding type or existing action. In the follow-up audit every question shows the actions of the previous audit for the effectiveness check.

The buttons above the audit question catalog now sit in frames with a small heading (New, Question, View, Scheme, Search, Tools, Columns, Self-assessment, Filter, Actions, Catalog).

In the settings you define a company-wide default rating scheme for question catalogs. Actions of archived audits disappear from the overview, dashboard, portal and reminders; the chip “Archive” in the action overview still shows them. The counters in the sidebar follow the selected site.

From the afternoon of 14 Sept until the morning of 15 Sept browsers reported “Your connection is not private” and login was not possible. The certificate has been renewed and renewal now runs fully automatically with early warning. Data was not affected at any time.

If the connection to the translation service dropped during automatic translation, the page had to be reloaded. Now only a notice appears, the page stays usable and the translation is retried on the next open.

The responsible supplier works on the complaint in the portal: steps D1 to D7, actions, 5-Why analysis, documents and submission. Header data, costs, D8 and closure stay internal. Enabled per company on request.

In the settings the administrator defines which steps the supplier may edit, as a company default or overridden per site.

After submission the report is read-only for the supplier; internally the badge “From portal” and a notification appear. The report can be returned for rework with a reason.

Portal users of all companies sign in at a dedicated address titled “Supplier portal”. Welcome and password emails to portal users link there.

The field is now named as in actions and is available when creating a complaint: the responsible person works, the tracker monitors.

A number already in use is rejected with a notice when creating, duplicating or renaming an audit, even for simultaneous entries.

A Microsoft account is no longer matched automatically by email address but linked once in the profile. Already linked accounts and Google accounts are not affected.

The second step is requested after signing in with a Microsoft or Google account just as after password sign-in.

Every open session checks every five minutes: deactivated users are signed out, changed roles and permissions apply immediately.

Setting up the authenticator app and the one-time email code are now strictly bound to the respective sign-in step. Re-enrolling the app is only possible via a reset by the administrator.

Document control, equipment certificates and action and question documents are now included. The backup was updated and verified immediately.

Larger files were rejected before reaching the promised 50 MB. Both operational limits are now set correctly.

When replacing a file, the new one is fully validated first and only then swapped in. On any error the existing file stays untouched.

The three tabs are shown to company administrators only; saving is additionally blocked on the server.

Dragging appointments in the schedule, process matrix, company profile, audit and 8D detail pages, overview prints, file upload and auditor competence now check read permission, edit permission and site scope.

A click on “ISO 9001” or “IATF / VDA” immediately deleted all ratings of all risk analyses. Now the number of affected ratings is shown and confirmation is required.

A reminder stage counts as due from its key date and is caught up for up to seven days. After requalification the application reminds again.

Saving an outdated version shows a notice to reload the review instead of overwriting the other editor.

When merging a duplicate, chapter responsibility in the QM manual and QM roles were lost. Both are now transferred.

The limit for postponing due dates now counts only from a date deliberately set by the auditor. An action closed in the meantime can no longer be changed from a portal dialog that is still open.

After a change of PIN or link password every visitor has to enter the new one; previously granted access no longer persists.

When deleting a complaint, a person or an action, associated files remained on the server. They are now removed after successful deletion.

Schedule assignments are saved in one step, deleted reminder stages no longer return, a failed deletion in Outlook is retried, email links follow a changed company subdomain immediately, a failed demo reset leaves no half-initialised environment behind.

Permissions for responsible persons apply as company default, per site or per finding type. Start date and title can now be released; text fields can be hidden. For postponements there is a mandatory reason and a limit in days from the auditor’s date.

The user interface and PDF reports are now also available in Simplified Chinese.

The Excel import of legacy inventories saves all valid rows together instead of one by one; large lists run noticeably faster.

The result column is summed in the database instead of from all answers in memory. Also applies to the report, Excel export and management review.

All stages now carry the email template marked as footer and arrive in the language of the respective recipient.

An action reported as done by the responsible person still appeared red after its planned end. Overdue now means only open or in progress, everywhere.

Documents, action images and question documents are removed with the audit and no longer occupy storage.

Newer texts that still appeared in German in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish and Czech are translated.

Column dragging stalled after a double-click on a column border, some styles were missing in the portal, and the header bar reported an error without a person photo. All three are fixed.

Question catalog export, audit planning as Excel and PDF and the process risk assessment now require the same read permissions as their pages.

Two switches in the settings, off by default. If the responsible person moves the date, the tracker is notified and the change is recorded in the history.

Open actions as CSV with Jira field names so the Jira import maps them automatically. The button sits next to the Excel export.

A plus button next to the field opens the master data dialog; the new entry is selected immediately afterwards.

Evidence is attached directly to the question via drag and drop, dialog or context menu. Actions created from the question show the documents as links.

Questions of the same catalog can be linked and appear as chips jumping to the target question. Create via context menu and a click on the target question.

A proven schedule is saved as a template and loaded into new audits, including days, times, processes and people.

Users without a password so far receive a welcome email with sign-in address and initial password.

Shows only audits whose auditor team includes the signed-in person.

Consistent, larger icons per module; default colours blue for actions and light green for tasks, adjustable per company as before.

The blocks for opening, break, evaluation, closing and tools are clear chips with icons in three groups.

The action column is pinned to the right and no longer scrolls out of view with many columns.

The tab now reads “page name – IMS-Audit Cloud”.

The dragged border now follows the mouse, and the drag handles no longer disappear after showing or hiding columns.

Users are asked to acknowledge a document and confirm with “Read and understood”, recorded with a timestamp. A new revision automatically requests confirmation again.

Daily reminders and the daily report arrive at the configured time in German local time instead of UTC.

All views and reports now calculate the same way, including the knock-out rule and open questions.

Question catalog and schedule now run fully in read-only mode for readers.

Columns marked with an asterisk are now mapped automatically.

The number is derived from the highest existing one; complaint numbers are additionally secured as unique.

Conflicts now appear as a clear message in the dialog.

Creation date, function labels and number formats now follow the selected report language.

After setting up the authenticator app, site assignment and module settings were temporarily missing. All sign-in paths now behave the same.