Cyber Essentials Workspace: In-house guided tour

Welcome to Cyber Essentials Workspace. Let me show you around and explain where everything fits. We're using Norton and Frey, a fictional company whose assessment we've already started.

This is Overview. It shows how much of the questionnaire you've marked ready, and gives you a Continue button to pick up the next unfinished question. Our example has two ready answers, with the rest still to work through.

I'll open Questions. This is where you'll spend most of your time. The section list keeps the questionnaire organised, and each question shows its progress. Select a question to see the wording and record your answer.

You can also find a question directly. I'll search for A two point six, then select it. This is the question about laptops, desktops and virtual desktops.

The answer format follows the question. Here, a table separates quantity, make, operating system and version. The grey text shows examples of what to enter; this answer is still blank. Other questions use written answers or choices.

I'll open Guidance from IASME. You can read the guidance with the question while you prepare your answer. Work saves locally as you go, and Mark ready and next lets you record your progress when you've checked an answer.

Next, Actions brings your follow-up work together. Here's the employee-count reminder from our example. Each action belongs to a question, and you can give it an owner, a target date and a status so you know what still needs attention.

Notes holds the wider context for the assessment: who's responsible, who will sign off, your certification body and important deadlines. There's also space for readiness notes and how you keep things up to date between renewals. Use this to keep the practical details with your work.

When you're ready to transfer answers, open Copy to portal. Your recorded answers appear in questionnaire order, with individual Copy buttons. You paste them into the official portal, review your application there, and submit it there. The workspace doesn't submit it for you.

Export brings together your output and recovery options. An Evidence Pack packages the work you've recorded for review, and Print or Save PDF provides a printable record. The open-action notice reminds us that this example still has work outstanding.

Workspace Backup is for restoring your work later. Answers save on this computer, so keeping a separate backup is useful. Create Workspace Backup saves that copy, and Restore Workspace Backup brings it back into the app.

For an existing assessment, Renewal Import helps you reuse previous answers. You can choose the official portal's answer-export PDF or assessment report. The app prepares a review step, where you check what to carry across before confirming the import.

The Start next year's assessment button keeps the previous record and opens a new assessment with answers offered for review. When a new question set is released, install the updated app and review the relevant changes before reusing last year's answers.

Tender Outputs is useful when you need to describe your security position to a customer. You can record certificates and prepare documents from the information in this workspace. Missing information stays visible, so the output reflects what you've actually recorded.

Plus preparation helps you organise the record ahead of a Cyber Essentials Plus assessment. It draws on your answers to show what needs preparing. Your certification body's assessor carries out the technical tests and decides the outcome.

Let's return to Overview. For everyday use, start with Questions, keep track of anything unresolved in Actions, and use Overview to see your progress. The other areas are there when you need to share, back up or renew your work.