Build a customized questionnaire template

You can create a custom questionnaire template that reflects your organization’s specific security requirements and the information you need from vendors.

In the Questionnaires tool, you can either create a new template from scratch or duplicate an existing template and modify it. Duplicating a template allows you to retain established industry frameworks while tailoring the questions to your needs.

For a more advanced configuration, you can build a template using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. This option provides greater control over template structure and enables you to assign validation scores to responses.

Create a new custom template in the platform

1. Go to Communications > Questionnaires > Templates and select Create new from the Create Template drop-down menu.
   
   
    
2. Enter a title and version number for the template. If needed, switch from the default scoring model to Custom scoring. Custom scoring allows you to define scoring at the individual question level. See Custom scoring for more details.
3. Enter a category name. You can add additional categories as you continue building the template.
4. Add questions to the template. For each question, enter the question text, select a response type, and configure any required options.
   1. For Yes/No questions, select Single Select and add Yes and No as the answer options. You can optionally include a third option, such as N/A. 
   2. For Single Select and Multi Select response types, you can define Preferred Answers.
   3. To make it a required question, toggle it on.
   4. By default, questions use the system-generated ID format (A.1, A.2, B.1, B.2). You can edit the ID field to use a custom structure.
5. (Optional) Configure conditional logic. To display a question only when a previous question meets specific criteria, open the Show if tab and define the condition using the relevant question ID.
   
6. Map SecurityScorecard issues to a question. Open the SecurityScorecard issues tab and select relevant issues. This mapping can provide additional context during questionnaire review.
   
7. Reorder questions as needed by dragging them to the desired order in the left panel.
   
   
8. (Optional) Attach an instructions PDF to the template. Vendors can review this file before responding to the questionnaire. 
9. You can preview the question at any time to review how the questionnaire will appear to vendors.
10. When your changes are complete, select Publish. Before publishing, the platform validates the template and flags any issues that must be resolved.

After publishing, the template appears in the Templates table.

Tip: Your questionnaire is continually autosaved, so you can pause and resume your work on the draft at any time.

Custom scoring

When you switch from default scoring to Custom scoring, you can define scoring at the individual question level.

With question-level points enabled, you can configure additional point adjustments for each question, including points for a full answer, an unanswered question, or the presence of an attachment.

These adjustments align with the template’s answer-scoring model. Turning off question-level points disables only these per-question adjustments and does not affect the overall answer scoring configuration.

Build a new template from an existing one

You can create a new template by duplicating an existing template and modifying it. This allows you to start from an industry-standard framework or reuse one of your organization’s templates.

1. Go to Communications > Questionnaires > Templates and select Create from existing from the Create Template drop-down menu.
2. Update the duplicated template as needed, including the title, version number, questions, categories, or scoring configuration.
3. When your changes are complete, select Publish.

The duplicated template appears in the Templates table as a separate entry.

Create a customized template in Excel

You can create a questionnaire template in Microsoft Excel and upload it to the platform.

1. Go to Communications > Questionnaires > Templates and select Upload Excel template from the Create Template drop-down menu.
2. Download the template file (Questionnaire_Create_Template.xlsx). 
3. Open the spreadsheet and follow the instructions provided to format your questions. The template includes examples of formatted questions, conditional logic, custom scoring, reviewer instructions, and multiple-answer options. Conditions are case-insensitive. 
4. Save your completed questionnaire as a .xlsx file. 
5. On the Upload Excel template page, select Upload, then select your file, or drag the file into the designated upload area.

After upload, the template appears as a published template in the Templates table, where you can use it to send questionnaires.