⚠️ Select your experience
The steps to understand audit date ranges and evidence sampling depend on your interface version. Select a link to skip to the instructions for your version.
Customers who joined Drata on or after Feb 24, 2026 are automatically on the New Experience.
Instructions for the New Experience ⬇️
Auditors can see only the evidence that falls within the audit date range and has been sampled for the audit. If evidence appears missing, blank, or outdated, it's usually because of how the audit period or evidence sampling is configured.
What controls auditor access to evidence
Auditor access to evidence is controlled by you, not the auditor. Two things determine what auditors can see: the audit date range and evidence sampling. To ensure auditors can access evidence, it is crucial to associate evidence with the relevant controls in Audit Hub. Evidence attached directly to an audit request thread will not be visible to auditors. Instead, upload your evidence (e.g., Word or PDF files) directly to the corresponding control and mark the audit request as "Prepared." This ensures all evidence is properly linked and accessible to auditors.
Common scenarios and how to fix them Evidence visibility controlled by 'Prepared' status: Evidence is only shared with auditors when a request is moved from "New" to "Prepared" in Audit Hub. Before marking a request as "Prepared," you can review and exclude evidence. Excluded items will not be shared with auditors.
Auditor reports missing or blank evidence: Check the sampled date. If the auditor sampled a future date, no automated test evidence will exist yet. Ask the auditor to re-sample after the date has passed.
New evidence uploaded outside the audit date range:
Update the audit date range to include the new evidence date
Notify the auditor that the range has been updated
The auditor must re-sample the evidence package
Updating the audit date range The evidence cutoff period acts as a snapshot of a specific date range. When you set start and end dates for an audit, Drata requests evidence within that selected period. This helps define the scope of the audit and ensures that only relevant evidence is included.
Open the Audit page.
Select the edit icon next to the audit period.
Update the start or end date as needed.
Save your changes. Only the admin of the Drata tenant can modify the audit period. This ensures that all evidence, including newly uploaded files, falls within the defined audit window.
Instructions for the Classic Experience ⬇️
As a Drata customer, you control the scope of evidence that your auditor has access to in their Audit Hub. When you create an audit in Drata, you can select a date range for the audit, and then the auditor has access to your evidence within that range.
Key points:
You control evidence access, not the auditor: Auditors can only access evidence within the date range you set for the audit.
New evidence uploads: If you upload evidence outside the set date range, your auditor won't have access to it unless you adjust the range.
Auditor reports missing evidence: Confirm whether the auditor requested a date outside of the range you set. If they requested within the date range, ensure that they have resampled a new evidence package.
Admin-only restriction: Only the admin of the Drata tenant can modify the audit period, ensuring proper control over evidence visibility.
Setting the Audit Date Range
When creating an audit in Drata, you select a specific date range. Your auditor can only access evidence within this range. To view or update the audit date range:
Navigate to the Audit Hub page.
Select the active audit.
Adjust the audit period by updating the start and end dates.
Notify your auditor to re-sample the evidence package.