Pre-flight Check

The pre-flight check is the "we checked your return" moment for a compliance cycle. Before you hand a package to your QSA, Ankos scans every entry in the cycle and surfaces the things an assessor is most likely to flag — narratives that are too short to defend, evidence with placeholder-looking filenames, sign-offs over open findings without context. You see them first; you fix them first.

What it checks

Pre-flight runs a set of validators across every signed-off entry in the cycle, looking at the things a QSA is most likely to flag during their own review:

• Narrative quality. Sign-offs with narratives too thin for a QSA to follow without follow-up questions.
• Evidence file naming. Filenames that look like leftover stubs from a draft cycle rather than real artifacts.
• N/A justification. not_applicable entries missing a defensible reason for the QSA to read.
• Sign-off context. Reviewers who signed off over an open needs_attention finding without leaving a note in the audit trail.
• Cycle-window sanity. Evidence uploaded with timestamps outside the cycle's start/end dates — usually fine, occasionally a real issue.
• Ownership. Active entries (not N/A) without an assigned owner.

Findings are split into warnings (advisory) and errors (structural issues worth fixing before export). The specific thresholds, filename patterns, and validator settings can change between releases — check the in-product list for the authoritative shape.

Where it shows up

Two surfaces:

• Dashboard "Next steps" card — once your cycle is at 100% sign-off readiness, pre-flight runs automatically. The card shows the top three issues with deep-links into the offending entries, plus a count of how many more there are.
• Cycle detail page — a collapsible banner sits just above the Export button. Same content, more space for the full issue list.

Click any flagged entry ID to jump straight to that entry and fix it.

Workflow

A typical use:

1. Get your cycle to 100% signed off.
2. Open the dashboard — the Next Steps card runs pre-flight.
3. If issues are listed, click each one, fix the underlying problem, and come back. Re-runs are automatic on page refresh.
4. When the card says Ready for QSA, click Share with QSA (or Export Evidence Package for an internal copy).

Most teams find that pre-flight catches a handful of quick wins — narratives written in shorthand, "screenshot.png" filenames that should be descriptive — that materially shorten the QSA review.

Why advisory, not blocking

You can always export with open warnings. The check is designed to inform, not to gatekeep — there are legitimate reasons to ship with a flagged entry (you have a brief narrative because the evidence speaks for itself; you signed off over an open finding because the QSA already accepted the compensating control verbally). Pre-flight surfaces the shape of those decisions so your audit trail is honest about them.

What pre-flight doesn't do

• It doesn't grade the quality of evidence. A perfectly named PDF can still be a bad piece of evidence; pre-flight only checks structural signals.
• It doesn't replace your QSA's review. The final compliance determination is made by your QSA.
• It doesn't block automated submissions. The check runs in the UI; API exports bypass it.

Next steps