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Trust Exchange: Assign Questions to Collaborators

Overview

Question assignment lets you split a security questionnaire across your team in Trust Exchange. Assign questions, whole sections, or raised risks to one or more collaborators so each person knows which questions are theirs. This means you can split a questionnaire across your team so each person knows which questions are theirs.

How it works:

  • You open a questionnaire you've been sent, or one you've imported.
  • You assign questions or sections to the people best placed to answer them — collaborators already on the questionnaire, colleagues in your UpGuard account, or someone new you invite by email.
  • When assignees open the questionnaire, it starts on the Assigned to me filter so they land on their own questions. They can clear the filter to see the whole questionnaire. On questionnaires sent to you through UpGuard, they're also notified by email.
  • You track who owns what with the assignee filters, then submit the questionnaire as usual.

This allows you to keep the work of answering inside the questionnaire, not across email and chat threads.

🎵 Assignments are only visible to the people answering the questionnaire. The organization that sent it can't see who's assigned to what.

Assign a question, section, or risk

You can assign three kinds of items:

  • Questions: Assign one or more people to any question.
  • Sections: Assigning a section covers every question in it, including sub-sections. The assignee's initials show on the section header only.
  • Risks: Risks are assigned separately from questions; assigning a question doesn't also assign the risk raised under it.

To assign an item:

1. Click the Trust Exchange icon in the left-hand navigation panel.

2. Click Answer Questionnaires.

3. Select the questionnaire. Questionnaires you've imported are on the Imported Questionnaires tab.

4. Click Start questionnaire (or Continue answering or Edit answers if you've already started or submitted it).

5. Click the assignee picker (person icon) at the right of the question, section header, or risk row you want to assign. An empty picker shows Assign someone to this question when you hover over it.

6. Select one or more people from the list. The list shows the questionnaire's collaborators, with you at the top marked (you).

a. To assign a colleague who isn't on the questionnaire yet, click + Add collaborator, select them on the Choose existing tab, then click Add collaborator. They're added to the questionnaire and assigned in one step.

b. To assign someone who isn't in your UpGuard account, invite them by email.

The person's initials appear on the item straight away — hover over them to see their name and email. Assignees also show in the questionnaire's Contents panel (except on risks).

To remove someone, open the assignee picker and untick them.


Invite someone new as an assignee

If the person you need isn't a user in your UpGuard account yet, invite them by email from the question.

1. Click the assignee picker on the question.

2. Click + Add collaborator.

3. Click the Invite someone new tab.

4. Enter their Name and Email.

5. (optional) Add a Message telling them which questions you need help with.

6. Click Send invite.

UpGuard emails them an invite and assigns them to the question once they accept. Until then, they show on the question with an Invited badge.

To give the same person more questions before they accept, select them in the assignee picker on each question — they're listed by email and marked Invited. When they accept, they become a regular assignee on every question you assigned them to.

🎵 An invite that isn't accepted in time expires and shows as Expired. You can remove an expired invitee but not assign them again; send a new invite instead.


Find your assigned questions

When at least one question you can see is assigned to you, directly or through a section, the questionnaire opens on the Assigned to me filter. It shows only your questions, with their section headers above them for context. If nothing is assigned to you, all questions show. Assignments don't hide anything, so you can clear the filter to see every question.

Click Filter at the top of the questionnaire's Contents panel to change the view:

  • Assigned to me: questions, sections, and risks assigned to you
  • Assigned to [name]: one filter for each person with at least one assignment
  • Unassigned: questions nobody owns yet, with a count

Filtering by someone who owns a section shows the whole section, including any questions in it that are assigned to someone else or unassigned.


Assignment notifications

On questionnaires sent to you through UpGuard, when someone assigns or unassigns you, UpGuard sends you one email per questionnaire about an hour after the first change. The email lists the changes to your assignments and links to the questionnaire. Its subject line reads Updates on "[questionnaire name]" for [requester's company].

Further changes in that hour are grouped into the same email, and changes that cancel each other out (assigned, then unassigned) are left out. You don't get emails about changes you make yourself.

🎵 On questionnaires sent to you through UpGuard, you can leave your assignees an internal note or @mention them in the questionnaire's messages. See Communicate within a questionnaire.

What affects assignments

Here's what happens to assignments when the questionnaire changes:

  • Submitted questionnaires: Assignments are kept. Click Edit answers to keep assigning.
  • Completed or archived questionnaires: Assignments become read-only. The assignee filters still work.
  • Removed collaborators: Removing someone from the Sent to list on the questionnaire's details page removes all of their assignments. If you add them back, you'll need to assign their questions again.
  • Questions hidden by an answer: If an answer hides an assigned question, the assignment is kept and returns when the question shows again.