Download a free Excel-based ERM Toolkit designed to support risk assessments, documentation, and monitoring. Suitable for beginners and experienced practitioners looking to develop practical risk management skills or strengthen their existing processes.
Build, assess, monitor and report enterprise risks using a practical Excel-based toolkit.
Enterprise Risk Management is more than maintaining a risk register. It involves understanding business objectives, evaluating risks, assessing controls, monitoring risk appetite, tracking treatment actions and communicating exposures to decision-makers.
The GRC Workshop ERM Toolkit brings these activities together in a structured Excel workbook, helping aspiring and practising GRC professionals turn risk management concepts into practical workflows.
The toolkit is completely free and available in two editions.
Clean Template — Download Excel Workbook
Start with a ready-to-use workbook designed for entering your own risk assessments, controls, treatment actions and monitoring records.
Sample Workbook — Download Worked Example
Explore a populated workbook containing fictional risks, assessments and governance records to understand how the worksheets connect and how the outputs are generated.
Both editions are provided in Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) format.
The workbook brings together several important components of an enterprise risk management process.
Document identified risks, assign risk owners, assess inherent and residual exposure, and record information needed to support risk decisions.
Use the register to maintain a structured view of the risks affecting organisational objectives.
Understand and apply the scoring criteria used to evaluate likelihood, impact and risk levels.
Consistent assessment criteria help make risk evaluations more transparent and comparable.
Document risk appetite and tolerance thresholds and assess whether recorded risk exposures fall within approved boundaries.
The workbook includes governance checks intended to distinguish valid thresholds from incomplete, unapproved or invalid configurations.
Identify and monitor risks that exceed established appetite or tolerance levels.
Use the breach-monitoring functionality to support escalation, prioritisation and management oversight.
Record proposed actions, assigned responsibilities, target dates and treatment progress.
This supports follow-up and accountability after risks have been assessed.
Document formal risk acceptance decisions, approval information, conditions and expiry dates.
Track exceptions separately from the underlying risks and maintain visibility of exposures that require management attention.
Risk acceptance does not automatically eliminate a risk appetite breach.
Link identified risks to relevant controls and use the risk-control matrix to support assessment and assurance activities.
This helps practitioners consider the controls intended to manage particular exposures.
Track indicators that may signal changing risk exposure or emerging concerns.
KRIs help translate ongoing operational information into risk monitoring activities.
Review aggregated risk information through workbook dashboards.
These views are designed to support monitoring, prioritisation and communication of significant risk information.
Explore scenario-based risk analysis and consolidated views of risk exposure.
Scenario estimates depend on their underlying assumptions and should not be treated as precise financial forecasts.
Maintain historical risk snapshots and review workbook integrity checks intended to identify certain data-quality or governance issues.
Historical snapshots require appropriate recordkeeping controls; manually captured Excel records should not be treated as immutable audit evidence.
Best for: Users who want to complete their own assessments.
The clean edition is intended to provide the workbook's structure without the fictional operational records used for demonstration.
You can use it to:
Download Clean ERM Template (.xlsx)
Best for: Beginners, students and practitioners who want to understand a completed example.
The sample edition contains fictional risk management information illustrating how different worksheets work together.
Use it to:
Download ERM Sample Workbook (.xlsx)
All sample organisations, scenarios and records are fictional and provided for learning purposes.
Aspiring GRC Analysts
Gain exposure to the types of registers, assessments and reporting artefacts used in governance, risk and compliance work.
Early-Career Risk and Compliance Professionals
Develop confidence in documenting risk assessments, reviewing controls and managing treatment workflows.
Experienced GRC Practitioners
Explore an Excel-based reference model that can be reviewed and adapted to suitable organisational processes.
Small Organisations and Teams
Use the workbook as a starting point for developing more structured risk documentation and oversight, subject to appropriate review and governance.
Students and Career Changers
Connect risk management theory with practical exercises and examples.
Step 1 — Download the sample workbook
If you're new to enterprise risk management, begin with the populated example. Explore the worksheets and follow the relationships between risk assessments, controls, treatment actions and reports.
Step 2 — Review the methodology
Understand the workbook's risk scoring approach, assessment criteria, risk appetite configuration and governance requirements.
Step 3 — Download the clean template
Open the clean workbook and familiarise yourself with the available worksheets and input fields.
Step 4 — Complete a fictional risk assessment
Identify a risk scenario, document its potential consequences, assess likelihood and impact, evaluate relevant controls and consider appropriate treatment actions.
Step 5 — Review the outputs
Examine the resulting risk status, treatment information, monitoring indicators and dashboard views. Investigate any integrity warnings rather than bypassing them.
Step 6 — Adapt carefully for real-world use
Before using the workbook for organisational decisions, validate its suitability, establish appropriate approval responsibilities and align its methodology with your organisation's requirements.
Practical learning
Move beyond definitions and practise producing the artefacts used in risk management activities.
Connected workflows
See how risk identification, assessment, controls, treatment, acceptance and reporting relate to one another.
Structured documentation
Use consistent worksheets to record information and support traceability.
Governance awareness
Explore approval, exception, appetite and escalation concepts as part of the assessment process.
Accessible format
Work with a familiar Excel format without needing a dedicated enterprise GRC platform.
Free access
Download the resources without a subscription or payment.
The GRC Workshop ERM Toolkit is an educational and general-purpose professional resource.
It is not a substitute for an organisation's approved risk management methodology, governance arrangements or professional judgement.
Using the workbook does not, by itself, establish compliance with ISO 31000, ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 27005, COSO ERM or any legal or regulatory requirement.
Automated classifications and dashboard outputs depend on the quality of the underlying information, formulas, criteria and assumptions.
The workbook should be validated for its intended purpose before operational use. Organisations should also apply appropriate access controls, version management and data protection safeguards when handling real risk information.
Yes. Both the clean template and sample workbook are available free of charge.
The workbooks are provided in .xlsx format and are intended for use with Microsoft Excel. Compatibility with other spreadsheet applications may vary.
If you're learning ERM, start with the sample workbook to understand how completed records and outputs work. Use the clean template when you're ready to practise independently.
The toolkit may be useful as a starting point, but it should be reviewed and adapted to your organisation's risk methodology, governance requirements and operating environment. Permitted reuse is subject to the published licence.
The workbook includes formulas and calculated outputs to support risk assessment and reporting. These outputs require appropriate inputs and must be interpreted using the documented methodology.
No. ISO 31000 provides risk management guidance; downloading or using this workbook does not confer certification or demonstrate compliance.
The ability to modify and redistribute the workbook depends on the licence published with the download. Any organisational adaptation should preserve or appropriately revise the methodology, calculations and governance controls.