The controls report

The controls report takes your substances register and tells you what controls your holdings require. It’s the SteadyOn equivalent of WorkSafe’s Hazardous Substances Calculator.

This page is deliberately exact about what it does and doesn’t do, because a compliance tool that overstates itself is worse than one that doesn’t exist.

New Zealand only

The report applies the New Zealand Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations 2017. Hazardous-substances law differs in structure between countries — not just in wording — so we don’t apply New Zealand thresholds anywhere else. Organisations outside New Zealand see an explanation instead. The substances register itself works everywhere.

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Inputs

Everything comes from your register. There’s nothing to type into the report itself.

Input	Where it comes from
Hazard classifications	The substance’s Classify fields
Quantity and unit	Each row on the substance’s Locations tab
Site and location label	The same rows
Jurisdiction	Settings → Organisation — must be New Zealand

Substances marked no longer held are excluded.

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What it does with them

1. Groups your holdings by physical place — by site and the label within it, not just by site. The flammables cabinet and the yard tank are separate places even on one site.

2. Adds up quantity per classification, per place. A substance carrying five classifications contributes its quantity to five separate totals, because each has its own threshold. Litres and kilograms are totalled separately and never combined.

3. Compares each total against the published thresholds — see the limitation below.

4. Flags what it won’t answer. Anything it can’t resolve without judgement is raised explicitly rather than passed over.

5. Lists the generic controls that apply to every hazardous substance regardless of quantity.

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Outputs

Per location:

• Controls required because of your quantities, each stating the classification, the total you hold, the threshold crossed, and a citation to the provision — so you can check our working
• Points needing expert input, described below
• Generic controls, listed once for the whole organisation

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What it does not calculate today

The quantity thresholds have not yet been transcribed.

The figures come from the Regulations, and they haven’t been read across into SteadyOn yet. Until they are, the report shows the generic controls in full and says plainly that quantity-triggered controls — signage, secondary containment, emergency response plans, certified handlers, location compliance certificates — are not being calculated.

The grouping and totalling described above all work today; there is simply nothing yet to compare the totals against. Use WorkSafe’s guide or their calculator for the threshold question in the meantime.

We would rather show you an honest gap than a confident wrong answer. A tool that told you no compliance certificate was needed when one was would be worse than no tool, because you’d have checked otherwise.

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When the report declines to answer

Some questions genuinely need an expert, and the report says so rather than guessing:

Substances with no classification. These can’t be counted against any threshold. Rather than quietly omitting them, the report names them and tells you they weren’t counted — silence would leave you assuming they had been.

A classification held in mixed units. If you hold the same hazard class in both litres and kilograms at one place, combining them needs the substance’s density. The report flags it and leaves the totals separate.

A flag is a useful answer. A confident wrong one isn’t.

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The generic controls

These apply to every hazardous substance you hold, whatever the quantity, and they’re the same in substance across every regime we support:

• Keep an inventory
• Hold a current Safety Data Sheet for each substance
• Label and package correctly
• Inform, train and supervise workers
• Provide suitable PPE
• Store safely and segregate incompatibles
• Restrict access
• Be ready for a spill
• Dispose of substances and containers properly

They’re deliberately things you can verify by looking, which makes them well suited to a monthly workplace inspection.

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What this report is not

It is not a compliance certificate. Only a compliance certifier can issue one.

It is not compliance advice. It reports quantities against published figures and links to the authority. What each control actually involves, and whether your particular situation is covered, is a question for WorkSafe’s guide or a qualified adviser.

It is only as good as your register. If a substance is missing, its quantity is out of date, or its classifications were never entered, the report can’t know. Keeping the register current is the work; the report is just the readout.

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Where to go next

• Hazardous Substances — how the register works
• Classify a substance — why classifications drive everything here