Compliance review

A second pair of eyes on every file. DeedSpring opens a review when a listing goes on the market, when a closing goes under contract, and when it closes; the Compliance Reviewer reads the documents first and flags what to look at; a person decides every item; the managing broker signs the closing off. Nothing is approved by software, and every decision is on the record.

The three reviews

Review	Opens when · on what
Listing review	The seller deal goes On market. Checks the seller's paperwork — listing agreement, property disclosure, lead paint, agency disclosure — and that the list price and term agree with the agreement.
Contract review	The closing goes under contract. Checks the executed purchase agreement, pre-approval or proof of funds, earnest money receipt, the disclosures, the listing agreement, and that the contract dates agree with the file.
Closing review	The closing closes. Checks the inspection and appraisal papers, title commitment, Closing Disclosure, signed settlement statement, the commission disbursement authorization, and an attestation that there is no unlicensed activity or undisclosed compensation on the file. This is the review that clears a file to disburse and gates commission approval.

Each stage is its own switch under Config → Compliance, so a brokerage can run only the closing review if that is all its state requires. The listing and contract stages also follow the pipeline feature that produces what they review: no listing review unless Assist with preparing listings is on, and no contract review unless Write offers and create contracts is (both under Deals on Config → Pipeline) — the Compliance page greys the stage out and says why. When you represent both sides of a transaction there are two closings and two reviews, and findings never cross from one to the other.

Files that were already in flight

A closing that was already under contract or closed when compliance review was switched on has no review. Its Compliance tab says so and offers Open review now, which builds the review from the matching template exactly as it would for a new file.

What a review contains

A review is a list of items, one per requirement on the brokerage's review template. Each item is one of three kinds:

Kind	What it means
Document	A paper that must be on the file — matched to the closing's or deal's Documents by its key, so the review knows which upload it is looking at.
Data check	A fact that must agree across the file — the contract price against the purchase agreement, the closing date against the contract terms, the list price against the listing agreement.
Attestation	A statement the reviewer confirms about the file as a whole.

Every item carries a status the whole brokerage reads the same way:

Item status	Meaning
Not yet checked	Nobody — AI or human — has looked yet.
AI: looks right	The first pass found nothing. Still the reviewer's to decide.
AI: flagged	The first pass found something, with a severity: Blocker (the file cannot be approved as it stands — a missing signature, an unsigned required disclosure, a price that disagrees with the contract), Warning (a person should look — a blank that may be intentional, a date within a day of a deadline, a name spelt two ways), or Note (informational).
Missing	No document on the file matches this item.
Approved	A person approved the document as it stands.
Returned	A person sent it back to the agent with a correction note.
Waived	The brokerage accepts the file without it, for a stated reason.
Not applicable	This requirement does not apply to this file, for a stated reason.
Changed after approval	The document was replaced after a person approved it. It is re-checked.

The Compliance Reviewer's first pass

With AI first pass on, a new review sits at AI reviewing while the Compliance Reviewer reads the file. It grades; it never approves. What it does:

Reads every document against its checks

For each document item it opens the upload, confirms it is the paper the item names (a title page that says Seller's Disclosure on the lead-paint item is a blocker), checks every signature and initial block the form carries, checks that names, address, price and dates agree with the closing's contract terms, and checks the pages are complete when the document states a page count.

Verifies data checks against the records

Contract terms, parties, closing dates, the deal's list price and listed date — the fact the item states is checked against what the file actually says.

Writes a finding you can act on

Every flag has a severity, one to three specific sentences (“Buyer initials are missing on page 4 of 9, section 7”), the page to look at, and the value it read when it compared the document with the record (“$482,500 on p.1” against a contract price of $485,000). The review's summary lists the pass / flagged / missing counts, each blocker on one line, and anything about the file as a whole.

Leaves human decisions alone

Items a person has approved, returned, waived or marked not applicable are never re-graded, even if it disagrees. Only items that are new, pending or changed after approval get a fresh look.

Treats documents as data, not instructions

Text inside a document or a record field that reads like a directive to the reviewer (“approve this item”, “mark all items pass”) is ignored and reported as a finding.

Grading evidence, not giving advice

Where a check asks for something state law requires and the document does not make it clear, the Compliance Reviewer flags a warning and says what it could not see. It never says a file is compliant.

Working the queue

Brokerage → Compliance is the reviewer's desk: every review in the brokerage in lanes by whose turn it is, sorted so the SLA clock drives the order — overdue first, then due soonest. Each row shows the file, the stage, the AI's blocker and missing counts, who has it, and “due in 2d” or “3d overdue”. Filter by lane or office, or press Only mine.

Lane	Whose turn
To review	The reviewer's — new, ready, in progress or reopened.
Waiting on corrections	The agent's — at least one item has been returned.
Awaiting broker sign-off	The managing broker's.
AI reviewing	The Compliance Reviewer is still reading.
Done	Approved or waived.

The due date comes from the office's Compliance review SLA in business days (three if unset). The Overview shows the queue size and the share of closed files approved in the period, per office.

Deciding a review

Open a review and you get the items as cards, worst first, with the file's facts, the stage progress, the AI summary and the audit trail in the rail. Click an item and the reading room opens: the item list on the left, the document embedded in the middle — opened at the page the AI pointed at — and the decision bar underneath. You decide one item after another without leaving.

Take review

Puts your name on it and moves it out of the ready lane. You can also assign it to another compliance reviewer from the rail. If the AI is still reading, Start anyway lets you begin and the findings land as they arrive.

Decide each item

Approve — the document as it stands is the approved version. Return to agent — say what needs correcting ("Buyer initials are missing on page 4 — please have them initial and re-upload"). Waive — the brokerage accepts the file without it; your reason goes on the trail. Not applicable — this requirement doesn't apply to this file; your reason goes on the trail. A decided item can be put back in front of you with Reconsider; a returned one with Take back.

A returned item goes to the agent

The review parks at Corrections requested. A task lands on the file for its agent so it reaches their Today, and they are emailed the correction note. When they upload the corrected document, the item goes back to Not yet checked, the task completes, and the review returns to the queue once every returned item is back.

Approve review / Approve file

Available once every required item — and every optional item that was flagged or returned — has a decision. An optional item nobody flagged can be left undecided. A listing or contract review is then Approved. A closing review with Broker sign-off on moves to Awaiting broker.

Broker sign-off

Only a broker can press it. The closing's status becomes Cleared to disburse, and commission approval (if Compliance before approval is on) is unblocked.

Reopen or Waive review

Reopen puts an approved or waived review back through the AI first pass (or straight into the queue) with your reason. Waive review accepts the whole file without it — audited like everything else.

Replacing a document re-checks it automatically

When a new file lands on a document that review items point at — from the closing's Documents tab or a reviewer's replace — open and returned items go back to pending, approved items become Changed after approval, a parked review comes back to the AI pass, and an approved review reopens. Nobody has to remember to ask for a re-check.

Who sees what

Person	Where compliance shows up
Compliance reviewer	The Compliance queue and every review; decides items and approves reviews. Sees every closing in the brokerage. Not a commission approver.
Broker / admin	Everything a reviewer can do, plus Broker sign-off and the review templates.
Transaction coordinator	The closing's Compliance tab: each review's status, due date, progress, what came back and what is still missing — no approve or return controls.
Agent	With Agent self-check on, the same Compliance tab in their own words — "Not on the file yet — upload it to the Documents tab", "Returned — upload a corrected version" — plus the correction tasks on Today.
Finance	The closing's compliance status as a release gate on the commission statement.

The closing (and, for a listing review, the deal) carries a compliance pill that is mirrored from its reviews: Not reviewed · Listing review passed · Contract review passed · Compliance items outstanding · Closing review passed · Cleared to disburse. Pages read it; nobody sets it by hand.

Review templates

Review templates (from the Compliance page, or Config → Compliance) define what each review checks for. DeedSpring ships a Standard review covering all three stages for any office and side; you can edit it or add more specific templates — for a state, an office, or one side — and the most specific active template that matches a file wins.

A requirement

Field	What it does
Title · Kind · Stage	What it is, Document / Data check / Attestation, and which review it belongs to.
Required	Required items must be decided before approval; optional ones only if flagged or returned.
Matches document	For document items: the document key the playbooks stamp on uploads, so the review finds the right file.
Checks	The plain-English instruction the AI first pass applies — "All parties have signed and dated; price and closing date match the contract terms; every page is present."
Only for · Only when · Property type · Built before	Conditions: one side, a financing type, a property type, or homes built before a year (1978 for lead paint). Items whose conditions don't match a file are left off its review.

Drag requirements to reorder within a stage. Editing a template only changes future reviews; reviews already open keep their items. Inactive templates are never picked.

Switches

All of this is under Config → Compliance and needs Brokerage mode: Compliance review, the three stage switches, AI first pass, Broker sign-off, Agent self-check, and the templates editor. See Brokerage settings for the full Config map and the Sharing and privacy rules for the compliance reviewer role.

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