Controls
What the system refuses.
The rules below are built into the system that runs an engagement. The system refuses the forbidden move. Every rule on this list has a test that fails when the rule is removed.
Each line is a rule the system enforces, in plain words. A rule that is not on this list is not claimed. Before each release we remove each rule in turn, on a copy of the system, and require the tests to notice. What the agreements require of us is on /structure and the protections pages; this page lists only what the system itself refuses.
Selection and screening
An engagement cannot proceed past scoping until a documented business need exists and the Client has confirmed it.
Sanctions and exclusion checks are run afresh for every engagement, not only at onboarding.
A screening run, once recorded, cannot be edited or deleted.
A possible screening match is decided once, by a named person, with a reason.
A conflict check records which facts it considered, and a check that finds nothing is itself recorded.
Every conflict flag is decided once, by a named person, with a reason, before the engagement can be cleared.
Two kinds of conflict cannot be waived by anyone: acting on both sides of the same matter, and a subject the firm has declared off limits.
A declaration that a subject is off limits is made by a named person, in words, and cannot be withdrawn or edited.
An engagement touched by an off-limits subject can only be declined or cancelled.
An Expert's declaration of interests must be current; a stale one blocks clearance.
An Expert who amends their interests after clearance is re-screened before they can attest to the scope.
Clearance of an engagement is signed off by someone other than the person who prepared it.
Risk tier can be raised by a named person, never lowered below the computed level, and a raise must carry a reason.
No profile of an Expert is shown to a Client before that Expert has been screened.
Every person considered for an engagement, chosen or not, has a recorded reason.
Identity and consent
The engagement record cannot name an Expert to a Client without a recorded consent for that release.
A statement of work must belong to the same side as the framework agreement it sits under, and an instrument is only ever offered to its own side.
An Expert cannot be bound through their own company without a warranty of authority.
An agreement is accepted online only after a one-time code sent to the offered address has been verified, and the acceptance names the person who accepted.
What is accepted is exactly what was offered: the terms of an offer cannot change once sent, and the record of acceptance cannot be edited.
No agreement is formed on a version of the terms we have not published, and publication is a recorded, named act that cannot be edited.
A statement of work stays on the terms in effect when it was signed; a later change to the standard terms does not reach it.
No new work is offered to a counterparty on superseded terms.
A questionnaire link works once, and a submitted questionnaire keeps a copy of exactly what was submitted.
Money
The agreed rate must sit inside the documented fair-market-value band for the Expert's tier.
The band a rate was judged against is frozen with the record, so a later rate card cannot change it.
A fair-market-value record must cite comparables.
No Expert is instructed before the Client's advance has been received in full.
Every payment to an Expert names the Client advance that funded it, and that advance belongs to the same engagement.
A Client advance is not applied until every Expert on the engagement has been paid.
Every payment to an Expert writes a transfer-of-value record, and that record cannot be edited or deleted.
An Expert's payment due date is computed from the agreement, not typed in.
Late-payment interest owed to an Expert can be raised where the law requires it, never reduced.
Hours billed cannot exceed the cap on the statement of work.
The file
Every change of status is recorded and cannot be edited or deleted.
Every consequential decision is recorded against a named person and a time.
A consequential decision is one that changes whether an engagement may proceed, who is on it, what they are paid, or what the file says happened: screening, conflicts, risk tier, rate, clearance, release of a deliverable, and close.
An engagement cannot move forward until the gates for that step are met, and the list of gates is fixed.
A written deliverable is reviewed before release according to the engagement's risk tier.
Every document in the file is fingerprinted, stored, read back and checked against its fingerprint before any record of it exists, so a record always describes a document that exists.
A timestamp from an independent authority is either complete or absent; a partial one is refused.
The closing file is assembled in a fixed order and refused while any gate the engagement has passed is unmet or any required evidence is missing.
The record of a closing file must match what the system itself would produce; a record that does not match is refused.
Closing an engagement is signed off by someone other than the person who prepared the close.
Documents received from a Client or an Expert enter the file only after a named person has reviewed and accepted them.
What this list is not
This list is not a certification. It is not a statement that the firm is regulated or accredited. It is not a complete description of the system, and it is not a substitute for the agreements, which say what we owe each side and are published in full. It is the public list of what the system refuses.