Create a Compliance Review View in SharePoint: Mistakes to Avoid

When you need to audit documents or monitor content for regulatory requirements, a compliance review view in SharePoint lets you filter and display items that need attention. This view helps reviewers see only flagged documents, pending approvals, or content with specific metadata. However, many site owners create views that fail to show the right data or break permissions for reviewers. This article explains how to build a compliance review view correctly and highlights the common mistakes that cause the view to malfunction.

What Is a Compliance Review View and Why It Fails

A compliance review view is a custom SharePoint list or library view that filters content based on a compliance status column. SharePoint includes a built-in column called Compliance Status that shows values such as Pending Review, Approved, Rejected, or In Review. This column is populated automatically when you enable content approval on a library or list.

The view fails most often because the compliance status column does not appear or remains empty. This happens when content approval is not enabled. Without content approval, SharePoint does not track the review state of items. Another common cause is that the view filters are set incorrectly, such as using the wrong column name or applying a filter that excludes all items.

Prerequisites for a Compliance Review View

Before you create the view, verify that your library or list meets these requirements:

• Content approval must be turned on. Go to Library Settings > Versioning Settings and set Require content approval for submitted items to Yes.
• Major versioning must be enabled. In the same settings page, set Create a version each time you edit a file in this document library to Create major versions.
• At least one item must be submitted for approval so the Compliance Status column populates.

Steps to Create a Compliance Review View

1. Enable content approval on the library
   Open your SharePoint document library. Select the gear icon and choose Library settings. Under Versioning settings, set Require content approval for submitted items to Yes. Choose who can approve items. Click OK.
2. Confirm the Compliance Status column appears
   After enabling approval, SharePoint adds the Compliance Status column to the library automatically. If you do not see it, add it manually by selecting Add column and choosing Compliance Status from the built-in column list.
3. Create a new view
   Go to the library. Select the View options dropdown (usually shows “All Documents”). Choose Create new view. Name the view Compliance Review.
4. Set the filter to show pending items only
   In the view creation page, scroll to the Filter section. Select Show items only when the following is true. In the first column dropdown, choose Compliance Status. In the second dropdown, choose is equal to. In the third field, type Pending Review. Click OK.
5. Add columns needed for review
   In the Columns section, add Approver Status, Checked Out To, and Modified By. Remove columns that are not relevant, such as File Type or Size.
6. Group items by reviewer
   Scroll to the Group By section. In the first group by dropdown, select Approver Status. This groups items by their approval status so reviewers see their workload at a glance.
7. Save and test the view
   Click Create. Switch to the new view. Upload or modify a document so it requires approval. Verify that the item appears in the view with Compliance Status set to Pending Review.

Common Mistakes When Creating the View

Compliance Status column is missing or empty

If the Compliance Status column does not exist, content approval is not enabled. Go to Library Settings > Versioning Settings and set Require content approval for submitted items to Yes. If the column exists but shows no value for any item, the item was not submitted for approval. Edit the item and change its approval status manually, or have a user with edit permissions submit the item for approval.

Filter excludes all items

A common filter mistake is typing the exact value incorrectly. The Compliance Status column uses specific values: Pending Review, Approved, Rejected, and In Review. If you type pending or Pending without the full phrase, the filter returns no results. Always copy the value from an existing item’s Compliance Status field.

View shows items that should be hidden

If the view shows approved items or items with no status, the filter condition is not applied. Return to the view settings and confirm that the filter is set to Show items only when the following is true. If the filter is set to Show all items, the view will display everything.

Reviewers see items they cannot approve

The compliance review view does not change permissions. If a reviewer cannot see or edit an item, the library permissions are too restrictive. Ensure that the reviewer group has at least Contribute permissions on the library. To grant approval rights, add the reviewer to the Approvers group in the library settings.

Compliance View vs Standard View: Key Differences

Item	Compliance Review View	Standard View
Purpose	Filter items that need approval or review	Show all items in a library
Filter	Based on Compliance Status column	User-defined, often by date or author
Default columns	Compliance Status, Approver Status, Checked Out To	Name, Modified, Modified By
Permissions needed	At least Contribute; Approvers group for approval	Read or Contribute
Versioning required	Yes, major versioning with content approval	Optional

You can now create a compliance review view that shows only the items needing attention. After the view is working, train your compliance team to use the Group By Approver Status feature to quickly find their assigned documents. For advanced filtering, consider adding a Due Date column and extending the view filter to show only items past a certain deadline.