How does Critter work alongside Risk Manager?

Risk Manager manages your broad H&S. Critter handles the layer above that: verified confirmation that your critical controls are in place and working, with board-ready reporting and at-a-glance insights built in. No changes to your existing configuration needed – Critter runs alongside Risk Manager.

Can we customise the modules to fit our specific industry requirements?

Yes. The system uses a highly flexible, modular approach that allows you to pick the specific features you need. You can build custom forms triggered by specific incident categories, integrate with your existing systems via API, and expand the software's capabilities as your business grows.

What does critical control verification actually mean?

A critical control is one that, if it fails, could result in fatality or serious harm. Verifying it means confirming it's in place and working right now – not just documented. For critical risks, that distinction matters. Critter formalises the process.

Critter

Critter gives boards, executives, business owners, and operational teams a continuous, verified view of their critical control effectiveness.

Critter: Critical control verification for boards and executives

Most health and safety systems tell you what has happened or confirm that documentation exists. Critter tells you something different: whether the critical controls that prevent serious incidents are in place and working right now, across your organisation – with contractor supply chain coverage coming soon.

Built by IMPAC from 20+ years of health and safety expertise, Critter is a purpose-built critical control verification platform for boards, executives, business owners, and operational teams with critical risk obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA).

Under section 44 of the HSWA, officers must take reasonable steps to verify that the resources and processes for managing health and safety risks are provided and used – not just that they exist.

The November 2024 conviction of the former Port of Auckland CEO – upheld on appeal in April 2026 – made this obligation concrete. Port of Auckland had documentation, not verified visibility. That is the gap Critter closes.

Working together with Risk Manager

Risk Manager handles your broad health and safety management – incidents, audits, hazards, training records, and compliance obligations. Critter handles the specific layer it wasn't built for: scheduled, verified confirmation of your critical control status – the small number of controls that, if not working, could result in fatality or serious harm.

These are not competing platforms. Risk Manager asks: are our compliance obligations being met? Critter asks: are the controls that prevent serious incidents in place and working right now?

When IMPAC recommends Critter to Risk Manager clients, the implicit message is clear: we built the system you're relying on, and we're telling you it doesn't cover this layer.

What Critter gives your organisation

Critter is a self-serve SaaS platform. There is no implementation project and no per-user licensing. An organisation can be up and running quickly, with verification schedules configured for their specific critical controls across all sites and their contractor supply chain.

Here’s what you get:

Scheduled critical control verification.
Define your critical controls and assign verification schedules – daily, weekly, or at whatever frequency the risk justifies. Operational teams complete verifications in the field; results feed directly into board-ready reporting without manual collation.
Board and executive visibility.
Boards and executives see a live view of critical control status across the organisation, expressed through the Critter Effectiveness Score – a continuously updated measure of critical control effectiveness – not a static report produced weeks after the fact. When a control is not verified on schedule, or when a verification reveals a shortfall, it surfaces immediately to the people who are accountable for it.
Supply chain coverage (coming soon).
For principals with contractors on site, the obligation to ensure critical controls are working doesn't stop with your own workforce. Critter is extending verified visibility to cover contractor-side controls, alongside your own teams.
Verification scheduling and reminders.
Critter keeps organisations on track with their verification discipline – sending reminders when verifications are due and flagging when they are overdue. The platform builds the habit of regular verification, not just compliance on paper.
Flat-fee, unlimited users.
Critter's pricing is straightforward: a flat fee per organisation, with no licensing fees or per-user escalation. Choose from two plans: Starter at $299 USD per organisation, per month; or Scaling at $899 USD per organisation, per month.

The gap between documented and verified

Consider a common scenario. A construction principal has identified working at height as a critical risk and documented the critical controls – harness inspection procedures, exclusion zone requirements, and daily pre-start checks. These controls are in the health and safety system. The last audit confirmed they were in place.

But the audit was six months ago. Since then, the crew on site has changed, the pre-start process has drifted, and the exclusion zone is not being enforced consistently. No one has verified the critical controls this week.

In a general H&S system, this gap is invisible – the documentation looks fine and the system shows the controls exist.

In Critter, the verification schedule flags that these critical controls haven't been verified this week. The board report shows a control shortfall, not a green dashboard built on stale data. The H&S manager knows before the auditor arrives, not after.

Built from 20+ years of H&S practice

IMPAC has been guiding New Zealand organisations through complex health and safety challenges since 1999 – auditing thousands of workplaces and helping boards and executives understand their HSWA obligations.

The pattern was consistent: organisations that had identified their critical risks, documented their critical controls, and built management systems still had no reliable way to verify those controls were in place and working. Critter is what we built to close that gap – purpose-built for boards, not a generic compliance module.

From 1 April 2027, the Health and Safety at Work Amendment Act 2026 will make critical risk the explicit focus of NZ’s H&S framework. That obligation already exists; the Amendment removes the ambiguity.

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The benefits of Critter

Verified visibility of critical control status across your organisation, with contractor supply chain coverage coming soon.
Board-ready reporting without manual collation or stale dashboards.
Supports officer due diligence under the HSWA – verified records, not documentation alone.
Self-serve deployment – no implementation project, no dedicated systems team required.
Flat-fee, unlimited users – no per-seat licensing
Built by IMPAC on 20+ years of New Zealand health and safety expertise.
Verification scheduling and reminders to build a sustained discipline of regular critical control checks.
Designed to work alongside your existing H&S platform, not replace it.

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