Cyber Essentials Workspace: Consultant guided tour

Welcome to the Consultant edition of Cyber Essentials Workspace. Let's imagine you're getting ready for a client review. We'll use Norton and Frey, a fictional company, to see how you organise their assessment, track outstanding work and prepare something useful to take into that conversation.

First, open the Client menu at the top. This is where you choose the engagement you're working on. Each client has a separate local workspace for their answers, actions and records. Keep an eye on the client name in the header as you move between engagements.

New client starts another engagement within your plan's active-client allowance. When an engagement is finished, archiving it keeps the local record and frees an active slot. You can reopen it later if you have capacity. Creating and reopening clients needs an internet connection for the licence check.

Now open Questions. Choose a question to see its wording and answer fields. Here, the device table gives you a structured way to record the client's computers and operating systems. Open the guidance alongside it. Mark ready records your preparation progress; it doesn't confirm that the client has passed.

If you still need information, use Add action on the question. Actions brings those follow-ups together, with an owner, a target date and a status for each one. Before your next client call, you have a practical list of what needs checking and who's responsible.

Notes holds the wider engagement details: the people responsible, the intended signatory, the certification body and important dates. Keep your renewal notes here too, so you can pick up the context when you return to this client.

When the answers have been reviewed, Copy to portal puts them in questionnaire order with individual Copy buttons. You transfer them into the official portal and complete the application there. The client's board member or equivalent signs off the self-assessment, and the certification body's assessor evaluates it.

For your client review, open Export. Check the outstanding-work notices before preparing an Evidence Pack or using Print or Save PDF. These give you a record of the work you've collected. You can use them to discuss progress and agree what still needs attention.

Further down, the Consultant portfolio summary brings together your active clients on this computer: readiness, gaps, recorded renewal details and the latest backup or export date. Export CSV gives you that overview in a spreadsheet-friendly format. For one engagement, Export Quick Report produces a concise Markdown update for the selected client.

There are two backup options. Client Workspace Backup covers the selected client. Consultant Workspace Backup includes every local client, including archived engagements and previous assessment years. Your working files stay on this computer, so keep a separate backup. Moving work between computers uses backup and restore; it doesn't sync automatically.

A client may also need to explain their security position to a customer. In Tender Outputs, you can prepare documents such as a Tender Security Pack or a Certification Status Statement. They use the client's recorded information and certificate details, with missing information left visible for you to resolve.

Practice branding lets you add your practice name and an accent colour to styled outputs. Growth and Practice plans can also hide the prepared-with-RightCyber line. The assessment disclaimer remains, so these documents stay clear about what they represent.

If a client already has answers from an earlier assessment, open Renewal Import. You can bring in the official portal's answer-export PDF or assessment report, then review the proposed answers before confirming what to import. Check them against the client's current setup; existing answers aren't overwritten.

For an existing workspace, Start next year's assessment is in the Client menu. It keeps the previous year read-only and offers answers for review in a new assessment. When RightCyber releases an app update for a new question set, install it and check the requirements that apply before reusing answers.

For clients working towards Cyber Essentials Plus, Plus preparation helps organise the work ahead of testing. Plus still requires an independent technical assessment by a certification body. The workspace supports your preparation; the assessor determines the outcome.

Your existing client work remains readable, editable and exportable offline. RightCyber uses an online service for licensing and client administration, including client names. Keep that distinction in mind when planning access and backups for your practice.

For each engagement, start with the right client, review the answers, follow up the actions and prepare your review output. The portfolio then helps you see where the rest of your client work needs attention.