When a large customer, an investor or an auditor takes a look at you, it is rarely the product that holds the deal up. It is the paperwork. The right set of compliance documents can be the difference between a quick close and weeks of firefighting. This list covers the seven that matter most to a smaller Swedish company, in priority order, with a deeper guide behind each one. There is a five-minute checklist at the end.
Most companies have some of these and are missing others, without knowing which. The point is not to produce binders. It is to have the right things ready when someone asks. Why that increasingly decides deals is covered in compliance as a competitive advantage.
1. The record of processing activities (GDPR)
The foundation of all data protection work: a record of how you process personal data. It is mandatory for almost every company and the first thing IMY asks for. How to build one that holds up: the record of processing activities.
2. Data processing agreements
Every time an outside supplier processes personal data for you, an agreement is required: payroll, CRM, cloud services. Without them you are exposed if the supplier is breached. The five most common mistakes: data processing agreements, a template and 5 pitfalls.
3. The information security policy
The overarching document for how you protect information, systems and data. The umbrella that the concrete routines hang under, and something larger customers nearly always ask for. What it should cover: the information security policy.
4. A working security policy for the everyday
Where the information security policy is the frame, this is the short, practical version people actually read: passwords, devices, email and phishing, on one page. How to write it: the one-page security policy.
5. An incident response plan
When something happens, the first few hours decide whether the consequences stay manageable. A plan says who does what and how you make the 72-hour reporting deadline. The template flow: incident response in 72 hours.
6. The Employee Handbook
The employment law equivalent: the document that gathers your rules and routines so they can be communicated, and that stands up to union scrutiny. A structure that works: the Employee Handbook.
7. A privacy notice for customers
The outward-facing counterpart to the record of processing activities: how you describe your handling of personal data on the website and in customer contracts. It rests on the same groundwork as the rest of your data protection work: the GDPR for smaller companies.
Checklist: do you have the seven?
Compliance documents: a quick check
Tick all seven and you have a strong base. Where some are missing, fixing it is rarely a large project, it is a few weeks of structured work. What usually triggers the need is a customer’s security questionnaire, and how to answer that is covered in supplier security requirements.
Which documents are you missing?
You get a position per area, and which of the seven documents to deal with first.
