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NERS evidence should follow the work
By Saqib Shah · 19 May 2026
A competency assessment has been completed. A project review has been signed. A site record has been filed. The evidence exists, but can the responsible person find the right version and see who approved it?
That is a useful starting point for reviewing evidence management. Not the number of folders, or whether a dashboard is green, but whether the record supports the question being asked.
Start with a record, not an audit-week task
Consider an illustrative project review. Keep the project reference, the review date, the responsible person and the supporting documents together. Record the outcome and any actions separately from the evidence itself.
If an action is still open, show it as open. A document being present does not establish that it is adequate, approved or current.
Make the review trail readable
An index should help someone move from a requirement to the relevant evidence without guessing. Useful fields include:
- the record owner and project reference;
- the document or assessment being relied on;
- its date, revision and approval status;
- the reviewer’s decision and any outstanding action.
These are record-management examples, not a substitute for the applicable NERS scheme requirements. The responsible person must establish which requirements and evidence apply to the firm’s accreditation scope.
Prepare the pack, preserve the judgement
OpsWork’s document and compliance function brings the relevant records together for review. The value is in the preparation: a readable evidence index, the source documents and the gaps that need attention.
The assessor’s judgement remains the assessor’s. Accreditation is not conferred by a tool, and an assembled pack is not proof of compliance.
Use your own workload to judge the value
There is no universal saving to promise. A practice with well-maintained records has a different starting point from one rebuilding its evidence trail.
Use the ROI calculator to model your own preparation workload, including the review effort that remains. It is an illustration of capacity, not a report of results from a customer deployment.