---
sourceDocument: Australia Governance, Risk, and Compliance
sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/governance-risk-compliance

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    - australia

ft:locale :

    - en-US

ft:publication_title :

    - Australia Governance, Risk, and Compliance

ft:clusterId :

    - grc

bundleId :

    - grc

workflow :

    - Technology


---

# Association of citations to controls

# Association of citations to controls {#ariaid-title1}

Release version: Australia  
Updated March 12, 2026  
![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 2 minutes to read
Summarize  
![AI sparkle icon](https://servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ai-sparkle-icon) Summarized using AI  
This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.  

## Summary of Association of citations to controls

The Association of Citations to Controls feature in ServiceNow's compliance management enables direct mapping between citations and controls, enhancing the accuracy of compliance scores.
This capability addresses challenges arising from multiple citations referencing the same control objectives across different standards, helping to avoid control duplication, misinterpretation, and inaccurate compliance reporting.
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By allowing users to associate controls directly with citations, this feature moves beyond indirect relationships through control objectives, providing flexibility and improving the precision of compliance assessments.

## Key Features

* **Direct Citation-to-Control Mapping:** Utilizes the `sncompliancemtmcitationcontrol` association table to manually link or unlink controls with citations, ensuring relevant and flexible associations.
* **Dynamic Compliance Scores:** Compliance scores update automatically based on the status of directly linked active controls, using the formula: *Citation compliance score = Average(Child Citations) + Average(Directly Linked Controls)*, reflecting only pertinent controls.
* **Configurable Enablement:** This feature is disabled by default and can be enabled via the property "Association of Citations to Controls Mapping".
* **UI Enhancements on Citation Page:** When enabled, a related list shows controls associated with a citation. Adding controls respects hierarchy-based eligibility rules, displaying controls from directly associated control objectives, their child and grandchild objectives, and independent controls.
* **UI Enhancements on Control Page:** Similarly, the control page shows associated citations and allows adding citations filtered by hierarchical eligibility---citations linked to parent, child, or directly associated control objectives, or all citations if the control is independent.

## Practical Impact for ServiceNow Customers

* Improves compliance score accuracy by basing calculations on directly linked controls rather than indirect associations.
* Offers granular control over citation-to-control relationships, enabling better management of compliance across multiple frameworks and regulations.
* Supports active control status filtering to ensure compliance scores reflect current control effectiveness.
* Facilitates easier navigation and management of associations through enhanced UI elements that apply logical hierarchy rules, reducing the risk of erroneous associations.
* Requires enabling the feature through system properties, allowing customers to adopt it when ready without disruption.  
A direct citation-to-control mapping feature that improves compliance score accuracy and provides flexibility to manage associations between controls and citations without relying on control objectives.
In many compliance frameworks, a single control objective may be referenced by multiple citations across different standards, regulations, or policy requirements. Without proper association management, organizations risk
duplicating controls, misinterpreting coverage, or inaccurately reporting compliance. The association of citations to controls feature addresses this challenge by enabling users to associate controls with citations directly. When
this feature is enabled, compliance scores update dynamically based on the status of directly associated active controls.

## Direct citation-to-control mapping for accurate compliance scoring {#citation-to-control-mapping__section_jtw_zcl_jhc}

The new Citation to Control Mapping feature remedies this by introducing an association table
called
\[sn_compliance_mtm_citation_control\],
which allows direct mapping between citations and controls. This enhancement enables users
to manually associate or disassociate controls with citations, ensuring flexibility and
accuracy. It also improves compliance score calculations by basing them on controls rather
than indirect relationships through control objectives.

To enable this feature, a property named
Association of Citations to Controls Mapping is added. This property is disabled by
default. To enable this feature, see [Enable associations of citation to controls mapping](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/wAH204ZD7~RJDyztrVQOdA "Enable associations of citation to controls mapping. Enable the Citation to Control Mapping feature for more accurate compliance scoring and management.").

## New compliance score formula {#citation-to-control-mapping__section_rpy_1dl_jhc}

When this feature is enabled, the compliance score formula changes to:  

    Citation compliance score = Average(Child Citations) + Average(Directly Linked Controls)

This shift ensures that the compliance scores reflect only the relevant controls associated with each citation. For more information on compliance score calculations, see [Compliance score calculation for a citation](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/2pHf86z91ROQnt0FIuIZ3g "Two methodologies determine a citation's compliance score. The previous method averaged child citations and associated control objectives. The current method averages child citations and directly linked controls.").

## UI changes to Citation page {#citation-to-control-mapping__section_rbx_wjl_jhc}

When the Enable association of Citations to Controls Mapping property is set to true, the following changes appear in the Citation page:

* You will see a related list of controls that are currently associated with that citation.
* When you click Add to associate more controls, the system does not show all the available controls. Instead, it applies hierarchy-based eligibility rules.
* The Add list displays the following eligible controls:
  * All controls from control objectives directly associated with the citation.
  * Controls from child control objectives of those directly associated control objectives (traverse downward in the hierarchy).
  * Controls from grandchild control objectives, until the last level.
  * All the independent controls (those without any control objective) are always eligible for association.
  {#citation-to-control-mapping__ul_mzh_1ll_jhc}
* When you add controls to the citation, the compliance score will change based on the compliance or non-compliance state of the controls.  
  Note:  
  Controls must be active for them to be included in the compliance score calculations.
{#citation-to-control-mapping__ul_hfs_vkl_jhc}

## UI changes to Control page {#citation-to-control-mapping__section_d3j_pkl_jhc}

When the Enable association of Citations to Controls Mapping property is set to Yes, the following changes appear in the Control page:

* You will see a related list of citations that are currently associated with that control.
* When you click Add to associate more citations, the system does not show all citations in the instance. Instead, it applies hierarchy-based eligibility rules.
* The Add list displays the following citations:
  * All citations directly associated with the control objective linked to the control.
  * Citations associated with parent control objectives (traverse upward in the hierarchy).
  * Citations associated with child control objectives (traverse downward in the hierarchy).
  * If the control is independent (not linked to any control objective), all citations are available for association.
  {#citation-to-control-mapping__ul_egn_mll_jhc}
{#citation-to-control-mapping__ul_dgn_mll_jhc}