The requirement-to-evidence map
What this is: A structure for tracing every licensing, accreditation, contract, and funder requirement to the specific document that demonstrates it, and to the person who owns producing it.
It assumes: You can list your obligations. If you cannot, start with the guide below.
Change before use: Everything in the requirement column — this is a frame, not a filled-in answer.
The problem this fixes
Most regulated organizations are more compliant than they can prove. The work happens; the evidence is scattered across drives, inboxes, and memory. When a licensing analyst, a county monitor, an accreditation surveyor, or an auditor asks for proof, the answer is assembled by hand under pressure — and what cannot be found in time reads as absent.
The map fixes the structural cause: nobody has ever traced each requirement to the specific artifact that satisfies it and the person who owns producing that artifact. Once the trace exists, a request for evidence becomes a lookup instead of a project — and the gaps become visible before someone else finds them.
Where requirements come from
Build the requirement column from the primary sources, not from memory. For a typical licensed human-services organization the sources are:
- The license — the regulations for your facility or program type, plus any waivers and conditions on your specific license.
- Each government contract — the scope of work, the insurance clause, the reporting clause, the records clause, and the monitoring clause. Every contract, read separately: they differ.
- Accreditation standards — the current edition for your accredited programs.
- Funder terms — grant agreements, including pass-through federal terms where they apply.
- Your own adopted policies — a policy the board adopted is a commitment a reviewer may test you against.
- Employment and payroll law obligations that require records — postings, notices, training completions.
The map
One row per requirement. The discipline is in the third and fourth columns: the evidence must be a specific artifact, and the owner must be a person.
| # | Requirement (verbatim source and cite) | Evidence — the specific artifact | Owner | Where it lives | Refresh | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | e.g. Personnel files contain a criminal record clearance before client contact [cite] | Per-employee clearance record in the personnel file, dated before start of client contact | [HR lead] | [Personnel files, section 2] | On hire | ☐ Evidenced ☐ Gap |
| 2 | e.g. Liability coverage at $[X]M per county contract §[Y] | Current certificate of insurance naming the county as required | [Ops lead] | [Insurance binder] | On renewal | ☐ Evidenced ☐ Gap |
| 3 | e.g. Quarterly report to funder by the 15th [grant §] | Filed report plus submission confirmation | [Program lead] | [Grants drive / award folder] | Quarterly | ☐ Evidenced ☐ Gap |
| … |
Rules for filling it in
- Quote the requirement and cite it. A paraphrase drifts; a cite lets anyone check the current text.
- Name an artifact, not a practice. "We always do background checks" is a practice. "The clearance record in the personnel file, dated before start" is evidence.
- Name a person, not a department. A department owning something means nobody owns it.
- Mark gaps honestly. The map’s first draft always contains gaps. A gap you found is a work item; a gap a monitor finds is a finding.
- Give every row a refresh cadence — on hire, on renewal, monthly, annually — and put the cadence items on the obligations calendar.
Operating the map
- Review the map whenever a contract renews, a regulation changes, or a policy is adopted — the owner of the change adds or amends the rows.
- Walk the full map once a year, confirming each artifact can actually be produced within the hour. Sample, do not assume.
- When a reviewer asks for evidence, answer from the map and record what was asked — repeated requests reveal what your next reviewer will ask.
Free to adapt and use. No registration, no fee, no attribution required. This is a working template, not legal, tax, or accounting advice — the requirements that apply to your organization are confirmed by your own counsel, auditor, and licensing authority.