Linking issues to multiple objects using Many-to-many table relationship

Release version: Australia

Updated March 12, 2026

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Summary of Linking Issues to Multiple Objects Using Many-to-Many Table Relationship

This functionality allows ServiceNow users to link issues to various objects such as risks, controls, and policies through many-to-many (m2m) tables. This capability enhances impact analysis and management of related issues by consolidating information and reducing duplication efforts.

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Key Features

Linking Mechanism: Issues can be linked to multiple objects using m2m records, such as Issue to Control and Issue to Policy, stored in their respective m2m tables.
Visibility: Users can view and manage all issues related to a control, providing a comprehensive impact analysis.
User Roles: Specific roles (e.g., corporate compliance analyst, manager) can create and delete m2m records, while updates require the GRC admin role.
Comprehensive Linking: Users can create links for various compliance objects including controls, control objectives, authority documents, and audits within the Compliance Workspace.

Key Outcomes

By utilizing this feature, ServiceNow customers can achieve a clearer understanding of the relationships between issues and compliance objects, improving their ability to manage compliance effectively. This leads to better decision-making and streamlined processes in handling compliance-related issues.

Issues can be linked to different types of objects such as risk, entity, control, control objective, engagement, policy, authority document, and others to determine issue impact. Use the many-to-many relationship tables for each of the objects to link similar issues to an object.

Note:

The Issue record has controls, control objectives, authority documents, policy, and engagements that can be associated with it as related items. However, you must associate the issue and each object as a corresponding m2m record which is stored in the corresponding m2m tables.

For example, issues are configured as a related list in the Controls form and you can link the issue to the control parent object. When you add an issue to a control, a record is created associating the item that is the control with the issue, in the Issue to Control [sn_grc_m2m_issue_item] table.

Viewing the issues related to a control was mainly only for reference. However, you can also link as many issues that are related to the control within the Control form. With this enhancement, you have the ability of:

visibility of viewing, and consolidating all related issues raised on the control
determining the impact analysis of all related issues
reducing the effort in working on duplicate issues and manage issue impact analysis

A user with sn_compliance_ws.corporate_compliance_analyst, sn_compliance_ws.corporate_compliance_manager, sn_compliance_ws.it_compliance_manager, or sn_compliance.admin roles can create and delete the records in the many-to-many tables. However, users with these roles cannot update an existing record in the m2m tables. To update a record, you require GRC admin (sn_grc.admin) role.

Many-to-many tables used in Compliance Workspace for creating and deleting the issue to object relationships are:

sn_grc_m2m_issue_item – Issue to control
sn_grc_m2m_issue_content – Issue to control objective
sn_grc_m2m_issue_engagement – Issue to Engagements
sn_grc_m2m_issue_document – Issue to Policy and Issue to Authority document

For more information, see:

Tables installed for descriptions of the m2m tables.
Create GRC issues for the different compliance objects that are linked to the issue.
Create a control using the Compliance Workspace to link issues to a control.
Linking automatically generated issues to a control in Many-to-many relationship to know how multiple issues linked to a control are categorized as automatically generated or manually created.
Create an authority document using the Compliance Workspace to link issues to an authority document.
Create a control objective using the Compliance Workspace to link issues to a control objective.
Create an audit engagement in Audit Workspace to link issues to an engagement.
Create a policy using the Compliance Workspace to link issues to a policy.
360° view of compliance objects and issues for a comprehensive and detailed overview of all object data that the issue is linked to in a many-to-many relationship.