How to Automate Policy Reviews with Free Tools

Keeping your security and compliance policies up to date is essential—but let’s be honest, manual reviews are time-consuming, easy to forget, and usually buried under more urgent tasks.

Good news: You don’t need a fancy GRC platform to automate policy reviews. In this post, we’ll show you how to use free, simple tools to:

• Track review deadlines
• Send reminders
• Store version history
• Assign ownership

Perfect for small businesses or solo teams looking to stay compliant and organized—without a big budget or technical expertise.

Why Policy Reviews Matter

Outdated policies aren’t just a paperwork problem—they’re a risk and audit liability.

Regulators, auditors, and cyber insurers all expect documented policies to be reviewed at least annually.

Unreviewed policies signal:

• Lack of accountability
• Missed updates to laws (like GDPR/CCPA)
• Gaps in security controls

Free Tools to the Rescue

Here are a few free (or freemium) tools you can use to build a lightweight policy review workflow.

1. Google Calendar or Outlook for Deadlines

📅 Use Case: Annual policy review reminders
✅ Why: Everyone already has access

• Set recurring events (e.g., “Review Acceptable Use Policy – Due Feb 1 every year”)
• Add stakeholders or owners as invitees
• Include a link to the policy in the event description

2. Google Docs or Microsoft Word Online for Collaboration

📄 Use Case: Collaborative policy editing
✅ Why: Built-in commenting, version control

• Use comments to flag changes or questions
• View revision history to see who updated what
• Require “suggesting mode” for clarity during review

3. Trello or Asana for Task Management

📝 Use Case: Assign reviews to team members
✅ Why: Visual boards, checklists, reminders

Example Trello board setup:

• Column 1: “To Review This Quarter”
• Column 2: “In Review”
• Column 3: “Ready for Approval”
• Column 4: “Completed”

Each card = one policy
Add due dates, checklists, and owners

4. GitHub or GitLab (Advanced Users)

📁 Use Case: Formal version control
✅ Why: Ideal for teams already using Git

• Store .md versions of policies in a private repo
• Use pull requests for review/approval workflows
• Git tracks every version with timestamps

Great for showing audit evidence of change history.

5. Google Sheets or Airtable for Tracking

📊 Use Case: Policy register / dashboard
✅ Why: Easy to filter/sort and share

How to Set It Up in 4 Steps

1. Inventory your policies
   • List them all: security, privacy, IT, HR, etc.
2. Assign owners and set review dates
   • Use a shared calendar or Google Sheet
3. Set up review reminders
   • Via Trello, Asana, or recurring invites
4. Document changes
   • Use version history or comments in Docs/Word

Pro Tips

• Set reviews quarterly for high-risk policies (e.g., Incident Response)
• Add a “Last Reviewed” and “Next Review” field in the policy document header
• Print or export changes during reviews to show audit trail

Final Thoughts

Policy management doesn’t have to be expensive or overwhelming.

By using free, user-friendly tools, you can build a reliable, auditable process for keeping your policies fresh, accurate, and compliant.

And as your company grows, this simple system can evolve into a full GRC workflow.

👉 Need help getting started with your first policy review process or building a lightweight GRC toolkit?

Anchor Cyber Security helps small teams operationalize governance using the tools they already have.