Running Compliance Audits

Learn how to execute compliance audits, interpret results, and track violations across frameworks.

Quick Start

Understanding Your Audit Results

Compliance Score (0-100)

Your compliance score is calculated as:

Score = 100 - (Violation Points)

Critical violation = -25 points
Serious violation = -10 points
Moderate violation = -5 points
Minor violation = -2 points

Score Interpretation:

• 90-100: Excellent — minimal compliance risks
• 75-89: Good — address critical violations
• 50-74: Fair — multiple areas need work
• 0-49: Poor — comprehensive compliance overhaul needed

Violation Severity Levels

Violation Details

Each violation includes:

• Framework: Which compliance framework flagged it (WCAG, GDPR, SOC2)
• Description: What the issue is and why it matters
• Affected Element: Specific page element with selector
• Remediation Guidance: How to fix it (code suggestions included)
• Evidence: Screenshots and technical details
• Impact Score: Contribution to overall score

Example violation:

Framework: WCAG 2.1 AA
Issue: Missing alt text on image
Element: img#hero-banner
Severity: Serious
Fix: Add alt="[descriptive text]" attribute

Compliance Roadmap

The roadmap view shows:

1. Score Trend — Historical compliance scores (last 30 days)
2. Violation Breakdown — Pie chart of critical/serious/moderate/minor issues
3. Top Violations — Most common compliance gaps by framework
4. Priority Queue — Recommended fix order by impact

Use the roadmap to:

• Track improvement over time
• Identify patterns (e.g., all GDPR issues in forms)
• Plan sprint work around compliance goals

Re-Auditing

When to Re-Audit

• After fixing critical violations
• Before major releases
• After UI redesigns
• Monthly compliance check-in

Scheduling Recurring Audits

BugBrain can auto-audit on a schedule:

1. Settings → Compliance tab
2. Create Schedule → Select framework + frequency (daily/weekly/monthly)
3. Target URL → Or audit all project URLs
4. Notifications → Alert on score drop

Scheduled audits run automatically and send reports to Slack/Email.

Exporting Audit Reports

Generate compliance reports for stakeholders:

Export Options:

• PDF Report — Executive summary + violation details + remediation steps
• CSV Data — Raw violation data for analysis
• JSON — Full audit metadata for tooling integration

Report Includes:

• Compliance scores for each framework
• Violation severity breakdown
• Page-by-page analysis
• Trending data (if multiple audits)
• Remediation cost estimates

Use reports for:

• Compliance team reviews
• Stakeholder communication
• Board/investor presentations
• Security audits

Troubleshooting

Audit Fails to Start

• Issue: “Failed to load target URL”
• Fix: Verify URL is accessible, not behind login, firewall allows crawling

Score Seems Inaccurate

• Issue: Critical issues not detected
• Fix: Some issues (e.g., backend-only GDPR) require manual review. Audit covers surface-level checks only.

How Long Do Audits Take?

• Typical: 2-5 minutes for small sites
• Large sites (100+ pages): 10-30 minutes
• Timeout: Audits automatically stop after 1 hour