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Evidence and immutability

This page explains why a training version freezes the moment someone completes it, why approved document versions and their cited sources freeze too, and why this protects the record rather than getting in your way.

Who this is for

Quality and compliance owners and auditors. Administrators meet this control as the "version locked" behaviour when they try to edit content that already has completions.

The problem immutability solves​

If you could edit a training version in place after people had completed it, every completion record would point at content that no longer existed. An auditor asking "show me exactly what Maria completed on 4 March" would get today's content, not what Maria actually read and signed. That defeats ISO 9001 §7.5.3, ISO 13485 §4.2.4, and 21 CFR Part 11 §11.10(c).

Better Comply prevents this by freezing the record instead of trusting people not to edit it.

How training versions freeze​

The moment one completion record (one piece of evidence) references a training version, that version becomes read-only:

  • Its content, quiz, passing score, attempt limit, signature requirement, version number, and learning objectives can no longer be changed.
  • The version row can no longer be deleted.
Enforced by the database, not the app

The freeze is a database trigger plus a delete-blocking policy, not an application check. Even a direct database write that tries to edit content-bearing fields of an evidenced version, or delete it, is rejected. The application's "version locked" banner is a courtesy on top of a guarantee that holds regardless of how the change is attempted.

Editing means a new version, with a reason​

Because the evidenced version is frozen, an edit cannot overwrite it. Instead, authoring produces a brand-new version that:

  • Lands in pending review, not active.
  • Carries a mandatory change reason of at least 10 characters.
  • Does not deactivate the version currently in force until a different person approves and activates it.

The prior version stays effective until that approval happens, so the chain of evidence is never broken. See Segregation of duties for who can approve.

Sources freeze too​

A training version cites the controlled documents it is based on. Once the version is evidenced, that source set is also frozen and delete-blocked. An auditor can therefore see not just the content a learner completed, but the exact document versions that content was derived from, and trust that neither has shifted.

Approved documents follow the same pattern​

Controlled documents use the same shape:

  • A document version requires a change reason of at least 10 characters when it is created, and that reason can never be cleared later.
  • An approval record (the signature that moved a document to approved) is append-only: its signature, IP, manifestation, decision, and approver are frozen after it is written, and it cannot be deleted.
  • A read-and-understood acknowledgement is append-only too, with a uniqueness constraint per version and user and a delete block.

Why obsolete, not delete​

You retire records, you do not erase them

The lifecycle has no "delete the history" action for evidenced or approved records. A document that is no longer in force is marked obsolete; a superseded training version stays in the history. Destructive deletion is replaced by retirement so the record remains available to an auditor. A controlled document that is still referenced by a training version cannot be deleted at all; it must be made obsolete instead.

What to tell an auditor​

  • Once a version is completed by anyone, its content and quiz are frozen and the row cannot be deleted.
  • An edit produces a new pending version with a change reason, approved by a different person, never an in-place overwrite.
  • Approval records and acknowledgements are append-only and delete-blocked.
  • These guarantees are database triggers and policies, so they hold even outside the application.