CAPA Management

Keep every corrective action moving

A corrective action kept in a spreadsheet and an email thread stalls, and at the audit it is hard to show what it belonged to. In VisualQMS each one goes to the person responsible with a deadline, linked to the finding behind it.

  • An owner and a deadline for each action
  • Linked to the finding behind it
  • Escalated when a deadline passes
Three screens of VisualQMS: the portal of CAPA CAP-2026-004 with its title, description, scope, the non conformance it belongs to and its status; the CAPA's metadata card with QD approver Tina Smith and implementor Bill Rogers; and the CAPA board with a column per step and the implementor and deadline on every card
Evidence as you go

Ready when the auditor asks what you did

Linked to where it started

Link a CAPA to the non conformance, complaint or audit observation behind it, and to the change request and documents that came out of it.

Reminders until it is done

Actions are scheduled and people are reminded. When a deadline passes, the task is escalated.

The same steps every time

Every CAPA follows the workflow you have agreed, and each step goes to the people responsible for it. Each approval, review and verification is a record of its own, with the person's comment and their accept or reject.

When something goes wrong

Follow one problem from finding to fix

A corrective action keeps its links to where it started and to what it changed.

  1. Something is found

    A non conformance, a customer complaint or an internal audit observation is recorded in its own module.

  2. The action is assigned

    A CAPA refers back to the finding, and the workflow sends the actions to the people responsible.

  3. The procedure changes

    If a controlled document has to change and your rules require it, the change request is approved before anyone edits.

  4. The CAPA holds the whole story

    The finding, the actions and the revised procedure stay linked to the CAPA, so an auditor's question is answered from one case.

See a CAPA linked to the finding behind it

Deadlines on every card

Check where every CAPA stands at a glance

Each CAPA sits in the column for the step it has reached, with its implementor and deadline on the card. The number at the top of a column tells you how many CAPAs are at that step.

A kanban board titled CAPA with five columns: Registered, For Initial QD Approval, For Implementation, For Verification and Verified. Ten CAPA cards each show an implementor and a deadline and are coloured by person, each column has a count at the top, and buttons switch the view between List, Calendar, Kanban and Gantt.

The same CAPAs also open as a list, on a calendar or as a gantt chart, so managers can follow every CAPA and its deadline without asking for a status report.

Before and after the CAPA

A CAPA usually starts somewhere else

A CAPA can point back to what started it: a non conformance, a deviation, a recorded issue or an internal audit observation.

When the fix means updating an SOP, document control takes the new version through review and approval, and training management asks the people it covers to acknowledge it.

The 07. CAPA view in M-Files with CAP-2026-004, Inconsistent Documentation of the Customer Delivery Acceptance, expanded to what is linked to it: the people in each role, from QD approver and implementor to reviewer, the non conformance it belongs to, the recorded issue ISS-003 behind it, opened, its records and its task. CAP-2026-002 and CAP-2026-003 are listed above it.
Expand a CAPA in the list, and its recorded issue, its non conformance, its tasks and the people in each role appear beneath it.

Show us where your corrective actions stall

Tell us about one that ran late, and we show you in a personal demo how VisualQMS keeps a CAPA moving. We answer the same working day.

Questions about CAPA Management

Is CAPA part of the core or an add-on?
CAPA is an add-on module that you can add at the start or later, and you don't have to use every module. Controlled documents and the process maps usually come first.
Can the workflow follow the corrective-action method we already use?
Yes. The module is pre-configured, and set up for your organisation during implementation. It can also be configured further, or from scratch, so the workflow follows the method you use.
How do CAPAs stay on time?
The quality activity modules use standardised workflows with scheduling, reminders and notifications. Workflows route tasks to the designated people and escalate when a deadline is missed.
Can a record be held back until the information is complete?
Yes. A workflow can make certain fields mandatory in a given state, so the record does not move on until they are filled in.
What can a CAPA be linked to?
Non conformances, deviations, recorded issues, customer complaints, internal audit observations, change requests and documents. The add-on modules are fully cross-referenced to the other modules, so a CAPA links to the record itself.