What risk assessments do
A risk assessment records the hazards in a part of your operation and the controls that manage them. Paddl covers the usual categories: fire, food, chemical, equipment, customer, and team. Each one carries a review schedule and optional staff sign-off.
Creating one
Go to Risk Assessments
Click Create New Risk Assessment, or Generate to have AI draft one from your business context
Set the title, category, hazards, and control measures
Choose a review frequency: monthly, quarterly, or annually
Decide whether to require staff sign-off
You can also start one from a chemical. Open it under COSHH and click Generate risk assessment, or generate a single assessment for every chemical on site from the COSHH list. Paddl uses the chemical hazard data as the starting context.
The "requires staff sign-off" setting
Turn this on and:
All current staff are notified to read and sign
Anyone added later is automatically asked to sign too
You can see who has and has not signed in the admin panel
Important: Sign-off is separate from the review schedule. If you want staff notified, tick "requires staff sign-off" when you create or edit the assessment.
Reviews
When a review falls due, Paddl alerts you. Open the assessment, click Complete Review, update any hazards or controls, and confirm. If you change anything, staff are asked to sign the updated version.
Fire risk assessments live with the rest of your fire evidence under Fire & Safety.