SYPOL - Basic COSHH

Task 3 Summary

1. What do the EXP and CCS columns stand for in your Work Area?

EXP: ……………………………………………………
CCS: ……………………………………………………

2. What does each colour represent under the ‘Assessment ID’ column in your work areas?

…………………….. …………………….. ……………………..

3. What filter type would you require for sanding softwood for ½ to 2 hours per shift in a well
ventilated area?

FILTER TYPE AXP3 FILTER TYPE P3 FILTER TYPE A2

4. Complete the Hierarchy of Control diagram using the following terms:

• Substitution
• Engineering Controls
• PPE
• Elimination
• Administrative Controls

5. What is the number in the top-right corner on your COSHH Summary Sheet?

ASSESSMENT ID WORK AREA CODE MATERIAL CODE

6. Which risk rating would be assigned to a substance with no short term effects but does
cause ill-health a long time after exposure?

ACUTE CHRONIC

Check the table below to ensure you are fully comfortable with each of the functions
discussed.

FUNCTION UNDERSTOOD?

Completing a COSHH assessment by filling in a COSHH Control Sheet

Tailoring a COSHH assessment using the PPE database

Printing a COSHH assessment

pg. 50

8. Task 4 – Management of Alcumus Sypol CMS

For this task, we will be using all of the information we have learned in the previous tasks
and learning how to manage the system once it is populated with assessments and work
areas.

Task Goals:
• To understand how to acknowledge significant changes.
• To understand how to review assessments.
• To understand how to copy assessments between work areas.
• To understand how to archive and unarchive assessments.
• To understand how to create and run reports of the information on your Sypol

CMS.
At this point, we have looked at all functionalities that are involved in system setup and
assessment requests. Ensuring continued compliance of your Sypol CMS requires little
work, it can be easily managed from one section, To Do. There are also several options
that allow you to report the information on your Sypol CMS. Below are the different features
of system management that ensure your system remains compliant. Follow the steps to
learn how to use these additional functionalities and understand the different features
available.
Dashboard

1. Click Home on
the slide out menu.

pg. 51

2. Click Dashboard.

Note: Dashboard allows you to view assessment statistics for your Sypol CMS as seen below.

pg. 52

3. Scroll down
and click Print.

4. Click Generate Report. This will
download a PDF of all the system overview

stats. Once viewed, close the report.
To Do Section

Significantly Changed
1. Click on Home on
the slide out menu.

pg. 53

2. Click on To Do.

3. This will present you with a list of any
outstanding actions currently associated with your

assessments. Click on Significantly Changed.

Note: Significantly changed assessments are materials that have been changed by our consultants based on
legislative updates, new H&S guidance or updated SDSs.

4. Click on an assessment 5. Click ‘I’ to view what
of your choice. changes were made and when.

6. Click OK to
close the window.

pg. 54

8. Click Acknowledge 7. Click
Assessment. Action.

9. Click ok to remove
it from the list.

pg. 55

Awaiting Review

10. Click Awaiting Review.

11. Click on an assessment
of your choice.

12. Click Action.

13. Click Review
Assessment.

Note: If the system informs you a review has been completed recently for a material. It means that another
user on your Company ID has reviewed the assessment recently. Therefore, a review is not required, select
a different assessment and continue with the below steps.

14. Click
Yes.

pg. 56

15. Click
No.

16. Click
No.

17. Click
No.

Note: When on your live system, you will have situations where you may need to change the work practice or
SDS. When answering yes, refer back to steps followed in Task 2 for completing the request as an update.

Click ok to confirm the review, this will complete the process. It is important to access
Significantly Changed and Awaiting Review very frequently to ensure that your Sypol
CMS and hard copy assessments remain up to date.

Requests Tracking

This folder shows the status of assessment requests made through your Sypol CMS.
Assessments in this folder will show one of the following statuses as well as a due date.

• Accepted – The request has been accepted by Alcumus Sypol following various
quality checks and will be returned by the Date Due.

• Verifying – The request has been submitted to Alcumus Sypol and various quality
checks are being undertaken before the assessment is accepted for writing.

• Compiling – The request has been assigned to a consultant and is currently being
compiled. The assessment will likely be returned on the same working day the status
changes to Compiling.

• Pending – There has been an issue with the assessment request and it has been
put on hold pending further information/adjustments. When the status is changed to
Pending an email notification will be sent to your usernames linked email address
with reasons for status change. Common issues include:

- Unusual work practice
- No SDS uploaded
- Technical Data Sheet (TDS) uploaded instead of SDS
- SDS too old

pg. 57

- Dilution ratio required.

For more information on your pended assessment, please contact the Helpdesk on +44
(0)1296 678464 or by e-mail on [email protected].

Awaiting Your Attention

This is where all requests first appear once returned from Alcumus, you must acknowledge
them in order to confirm receipt of the assessment. Acknowledging assessments can be
done in this folder by selecting a record, followed by Action and then Acknowledge
Assessment. You can also acknowledge all assessments in one go by selecting
Acknowledge All Assessments.

Incomplete Assessments

Once assessments have been acknowledged in Awaiting Your Attention they will be
relocated into this folder. The next step is to complete the CCS, steps to do this can be
found in task three.

Complete Assessments

Once you have completed a CCS for an assessment, the record will be relocated to
Complete Assessments meaning that it is now suitable for printing as the document is
complete.

CCS for Completion

Assessments in this folder are also located in Completed Assessments, however, they
have been placed into this folder to allow easy identification when you have selected a Not
Yet Determined answer on your CCS.

Multi-Tasks Awaiting Review

In this folder you will find a list of multi-task assessments that have come due for review
based on Sypol CMS designed periodicity. These assessments should be reviewed as per
normal assessments.

Internal Requests

If your system supervisor has setup your system to allow viewer access accounts to
request new assessments, you may receive their assessments as internal requests before
they are formally submitted to Alcumus. These are uncontrolled copies of assessment
requests and the purpose of being assigned to you as an editor/coordinator is to control
assessments added to your system. Review an internal request by clicking an assessment
in this folder, followed by Action and Create Assessment. Then confirm the details of the
request by clicking Next and lastly Confirm Request when applicable.

If this functionality is not currently available to viewers on your system and you would like it
to be, contact your system supervisor. Alternatively, please contact the Helpdesk on +44
(0)1296 678464 or by e-mail on [email protected].

pg. 58

Additional Functionality on Sypol CMS.

You now know everything you need to about setting up and maintaining a compliant Sypol
CMS and we could leave it at that. Once you start using the system more frequently, you
will surely be looking for shortcuts to adding and moving assessments in your Work Areas.
This next task will take you through additional functionalities that are frequently asked about
on the CMS helpdesk.

Exposure Scenario Form

In some cases, the person requesting the assessment on Sypol CMS may not be carrying
out the task it corresponds to. An easy way to obtain information from those carrying out the
task is to provide them with an exposure scenario form as seen below.

1. Click Other in the
slide out menu.

2. Click Exposure 3. Click Create Exposure
Scenario Form. Scenario Form to open a
PDF copy of the document.

Copying Assessments Between Work Areas

You may find an assessment that matches the material you are using and your work
practice located in a different Work/Sub Work Area. If this is the case, you may be able to
copy them into your own Work/Sub Work Areas to save adding a new request onto the
system. Follow the below steps to copy assessments from Example Work Area into your
own Sub Work Areas.

Continue overleaf.

pg. 59

1. Enter Example
Work Area.

2. Select an 3. Click Action followed
assessment to copy. by Copy Assessments
From This Work Area.

4. Expand the Areas until you locate 5. Click Copy.
your Sub Area 1. Click Sub Area 1
to select it as a destination for the

copied assessment.

pg. 60

6. Click Ok.

The assessment you selected will now be copied into the selected Sub Area 1.
Archiving and Unarchiving Assessments

After using the system for a while, you may start to find assessments on your Sypol CMS
that you are no longer using. Therefore, you want to remove it from your Work/Sub Work
Areas in order to manage your allocation, this is because when you remove an assessment
that is not in another Work/Sub Work Area, it may return some of your allocation. You
cannot permanently delete an assessment for record keeping and auditing purposes,
however, you can archive it so that it is no longer visible on the system. Follow the steps
below to place an assessment into archive and then also unarchive it to make it active
again.

1. Click on Sub Area 1 and
then the assessment WD-40
Multi-Use Product [Aerosol].

pg. 61

2. Click Action.

3. Click Archive
Assessment.

4. Click Ok to archive
this assessment.

Once archived, it will be removed from view, however, it is possible to return it to view
should it ever be needed following the steps below.

5. Change this dropdown selection
from Current to Archived.

pg. 62

7. Click Action.

6. Click the assessment WD-40
Multi-Use Product [Aerosol].

8. Click Unarchive
Assessment.

Submitting a new Safety Data Sheet Through the System
If you receive a new SDS for your material, you can submit this via your Sypol CMS to put
the assessment the SDS is for through for a review by a consultant. Follow the below steps
to submit a new SDS for one of your assessments.

Note: This task is for reference, you will not have an SDS to upload therefore, review the below information,
then move onto Editing a COSHH Control Sheet.

1. Click Sub Area 1.

2. Click one of your assessments.

pg. 63

3. Click Action.

4. Click Review
Assessment.

5. Click Yes.

6. Click No.

7. Click Yes.

8. Click Request Update.

pg. 64

9. Type New SDS
received from supplier
under particular points of

interest or concern.

10. Choose
option Yes.

Note: If your screen now shows the message below, this means another user has already sent a new SDS
through for that material submitting it for review.

Editing a COSHH Control Sheet
If you have answered Not Yet Determined on one or more questions of a CCS, you will
need to revisit this assessment and change the answer to Yes or No, the steps of doing so
are shown below.

1. Click ‘?’ under
the CCS column.

2. Change the CCS answer from 3. Click Save.
Not Yet Determined to Yes.

pg. 65

Reports
There are numerous reports that can help you in matters such as; management of your
hazardous materials, improving purchasing policy, issuing suitable PPE and planning
occupational health procedures. Follow the below steps to generate reports for some key
parts of information on the system we have created today.

1. Click Reports from
the slide out menu.

2. Click View
Assessment Reports.

pg. 66

3. Click Hazard and
Control Measures.

4. Click Hazard.

5. Select Flammable
Liquids.

6. Click Generate Report.

Note: all reports on Sypol CMS can be printed in both PDF and Excel format to allow editing of the information
if you would like to add/remove information from the spreadsheet.

pg. 67

7. Click Action followed by Print Hazard Index.

8. Close the generated report
and click Hazard & COSHH
Control Measures to return.

9. Click PPE
Usage.

10. Select Respiratory Protective
Equipment (RPE) from the drop down menu.

11. Select All from the drop down menu.
This would allow you to identify all of your
assessments that require face fit testing.

pg. 68

12. Click on Hazard &
COSHH Control Measures.

13. Click COSHH
Control Sheet.

14. Change the answer dropdown
All to Not yet determined, this will

allow you to report assessments
that require further investigation.

15. Click Assessment
Reports Home.

pg. 69

16. Click REACH
Management.

17. Click
Authorisation.

18. Click Assessments containing Substances
subject to Authorisation. The resultant list will

identify any assessments in our facility which
contain a substance subject to authorisation
under Annex XIV of the REACH regulations.

pg. 70

Note: Under REACH (the Regulation for Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals),
all members of the supply chain have a variety of obligations related to Substances of Very High Concern
(SVHC) in preparations such as paints, inks and glues and/or articles, such as toys, furniture, textiles and
electrical products. SVHC’s have hazards that have serious consequences. For example, they may cause
cancer (carcinogenic substances), or they may have other harmful properties and remain in the environment
for a long time (persistent) and gradually build up in animals (bioaccumulative). One of the aims of REACH is
to control the use of such substances via authorisation and restriction and encourage industry to substitute
these substances with safer ones. For further guidance on REACH see ‘What is REACH?’ And ‘Understanding
REACH’ under REACH information of the REACH Management reports.

Logging out of Alcumus Sypol CMS
It is important to logout of Alcumus Sypol CMS correctly whenever you finish using it, as if
you do not the system will assume you are still logged in and prevent you access the next
time you try. The steps below tell you how to logout correctly, although if you ever forget and
find you cannot get in to Alcumus Sypol CMS the Helpdesk is always there to help! The
number for the helpline can be found on the front of this workbook.

1. Click Log Out in
the slide out menu.

2. Click Ok.

pg. 71

Task 4 Summary
1. Describe what it means when an assessments status is changed to ‘Pending’?

2. When does Sypol CMS flag an assessment for review?

High Risk: ……………………………………..
Medium Risk: ……………………………………..
Low Risk: ……………………………………..

3. List three reasons why you would submit an assessment for review outside normal

periods?
1. ………………………………………………………………………
2. ………………………………………………………………………
3. ………………………………………………………………………

4. What do the following acronyms stand for?

REACH:
SVHC:

5. What is the number to call should you have any health, safety, environmental or
software queries?

Check the table below to ensure you are fully comfortable with each of the functions
discussed.

FUNCTION UNDERSTOOD?
Acknowledging assessment changes

Reviewing assessments
Copying assessments
Archiving assessments
Creating and running reports

Logging out

pg. 72

9. Common Questions

Now you are ready to start using Alcumus Sypol CMS, it is important to understand
everything required in order to keep your system compliant. Below are some of the most
common questions which may assist you with staying compliant and up to date.

Contents

Q1 Batch printing assessments 83

Q2 Creating a material index within your work area 85

Q3 Placing requests for confined space activities 90
Q4 Assigning Internal Material Codes 94

Q5 Accessing the Audit Trail 97

Q6 Viewing system usage statistics 99

Q7 Resetting your password 100

Q1. I want to create a hard copy folder with all my COSHH assessments in, is it possible to
print everything in a work area without having to select all of them individually?

A. Yes

2. Click Action.

1. Open the relevant
work area.

3. Click Batch Printing.

pg. 73

4. Select the
assessments you
wish to include.

5. Click Add
Assessment.
6. Click Print.

Q2. I would like to access a list of all the materials I use rather than the assessments. Is there
a way I can do this?

A. Yes
Continue overleaf.

pg. 74

1. Open the 2. Click Action.
relevant work area.

3. Click Materials.
4. Click Action.

5. Click Print Material Index
followed by Generate Report.

Q3. I would like to submit an assessment for work that is to be undertaken in a confined
space, is any additional information required for the request?

A. Yes
When requesting an assessment for work being undertaken in a confined space, we must
first review a Confined Space Risk Assessment.
Continue overleaf.

pg. 75

1. Click Create
Assessment from
the slide out menu.

2. Search for the material being 3. Select the Material
used in a confined space. you are using, then
click Next.
4. Select Yes, now use the Upload
Files button to upload your Confined
Space Risk Assessment as well as a

more recent SDS if applicable.

5. Click Next.

Note: It is very important that a confined space risk assessment is attached, as all confined space exposure
scenarios are bespoke to the individual subscriber and not present on the shared database. Without the risk
assessment, the COSHH assessment cannot be completed.

If you are unsure or have any questions, please contact the CMS helpdesk on +44 (0)1296 678464 or by e-
mail on [email protected].

pg. 76

6. As there will be
no suitable activity

already on the
system, Click Next.

7. This is a new exposure scenario,
select *Appropriate method*; Confined

Space; and *Appropriate Exposure
Time* then click Add Selected Activity.

9. Click Next.

8. Remember, you must include a
quantity. Complete the remainder
of the exposure scenario being as

detailed as possible.

pg. 77

10. Due to the nature of confined space work,
the system at this stage will almost always
regard it as a High risk exposure scenario.

11. Click Next.
12. Click *Appropriate Work/Sub Work Area*.

13. Click Next.
14. Click Confirm

Request.

pg. 78

Q4. My company uses its own internal codes for each of the substances used on site, is there
a way I can add them to the system?

A. Yes

1. Enter your 2. Click on an assessment you
Work/Sub Work Area. wish to add an internal code to.

3. Click Action.
4. Click Assign IMC.

pg. 79

5. Click
Create IMC.

6. Enter your desired internal material code
(IMC) in the IMC field, this may contain both
numbers and upper and lower case letters.

7. Click Save.

8. Click Ok and this will
add the code to the list.

pg. 80

9. Select the IMC that you 10. Click Assign IMC and
wish to assign from the list. this will assign the code to
the assessment selected.

11. Once the IMC has been assigned,
click back into your Work/Sub Work Area.

12. To view the IMCs in your
work area, click Action,

followed by View/Hide IMC.

Q5. For auditing purposes is there a record that can be accessed to display what actions
have been carried out and by which user?

A. Yes
Continue overleaf.

pg. 81

1. Click on Reports.
2. Click on View Assessment Reports.

3. Click on View Assessment Reports.

pg. 82

4. Click on Audit Trail.

2. From within the audit trail, every action
that has been undertaken by an editor can

be viewed. This can be broken down by
changing the option in the drop down menu.

3. Choose an option to display the
actions completed by

Editors/Coordinators on your CMS.
Q6. Is there a way to view the system statistics regarding usage, to see how often and to
what level the users are utilising the system?

A. Yes
Continue overleaf.

pg. 83

1. Click Reports.
2. Click Management Reports.

3. Select Company Stats.

pg. 84

4. This screen will now display your system statistics,
including; number of logins, assessments viewed,

assessments printed and your overall allocation usage. If
you return to the management reports, you can then run

a similar report but with a break down for each user.

Q7. If I forget my password, can I reset it without contacting the Sypol CMS helpdesk?

A. Yes

1. If you do not enter the correct
password, this warning box will
appear; Your login details were
not recognised by the system.

2. Click Forgotten
Password?

3. This page will allow you to reset your
password. Enter either your Company ID
and Username, or alternatively the email
address associated with the user account.

4. Click Submit.

pg. 85

Note: If you enter your company ID and Username, an email will then be sent to the email address assigned to
the user account. Once the email has been sent, the link to reset your password will be valid for 24hours.

5. The below email will be sent to the email address associated with
the user account. To reset your password, click Reset Password.

6. Enter New Password
and Confirm Password.

7. Click Change Password.

8. Your password will now be reset, click
Return to Login which will take you

back to the main Sypol CMS login page.

pg. 86

10. Notes

pg. 87

pg. 88

Alcumus Sypol CMS Training Workbook - Sypol
Version 5 Revision: 01/10/2020
Alcumus Sypol Limited, Newhouse Farm Business Centre, Wootton Wawen, Edstone
B95 6DL
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: +44 (0)1926 844200

pg. 89