Edit tags

Create, rename and remove tags used across compliance elements.

Edit Tags — Keeping Your Compliance Reference Data Accurate

The Attributes section of Compliance Settings is the backbone of every dropdown, classification field, and selection list you see throughout DPMS. When a tag name changes — say a personal data category is renamed after regulatory guidance is updated, or a risk likelihood label is recalibrated by your risk team — the Edit Tags screen is where you make that change happen. This screen is used primarily by Data Protection Officers, compliance managers, and IT administrators who own the reference data that powers ROPA records, DPIAs, vendor forms, risk assessments, and more. Getting these values right is a quiet but high-stakes maintenance task: every form in the platform draws from them.

How to open it

Navigate to Compliance Settings → Attributes in the main sidebar. On the Attributes list view, find the tag entry you need to update and either click directly on the row, or open the three-dot menu at the end of the row and choose the edit option. DPMS will open the Edit Tags screen for that specific entry.

Permission required: You need edit access to Compliance Settings tags. If you only have read access, the edit icon on each row will appear greyed out with a tooltip explaining the restriction. If you navigate directly to an edit URL without the right permission, the system shows a "Forbidden" page instead of the form.

Note that default system-managed tags (such as built-in status values for DSARs, assessments, or meetings) have their edit links disabled in the list view. If you are unsure whether a tag is system-managed, look for the "default" indicator next to its row.

What you see

When you arrive at the Edit Tags screen, the experience is deliberately minimal. There are no sidebar tabs, no secondary navigation — just a single focused form card in the centre of the page. In the upper-left corner you will see a back arrow followed by the screen title. For most general tag types, the title reads "Add new [type name]" even when you are editing an existing record — this is expected behaviour, since the create and edit flows share the same form component. For attribute templates, the title shows just the template type name.

A thin blue accent line runs across the top of the form, visually marking your active editing context. The form body below it changes depending on the type of tag you opened — there are four distinct form layouts. All layouts share the same back button in the upper-left and a Save button to submit your changes.

Depending on your DPMS instance configuration, a clock-icon button may appear in the upper-right area of the content region. This opens the activity log, which shows the full change history for this tag record — useful for auditors verifying when a value was last modified and by whom.

Working with this screen

Renaming a general tag (most tag types)

The vast majority of tags you will edit here — personal data categories, purposes of processing, legal bases, TOMS classifications, ROPA and DPIA classifications, vendor types, task types, meeting types, DSAR types, and many more — use the standard general tag form. It contains a single translatable text area labelled "Description."

When you open the record, the text area is pre-populated with the existing name in each of your platform's configured languages. Use the language switcher embedded in the field to move between languages.
Click into the language you want to change, clear the existing text, and type the updated name.
If your DPMS instance supports automatic translation, click the translate icon inside the text field. DPMS will generate translations in all other configured languages for you. Review the auto-generated translations — they are flagged as machine-generated to remind you to check them before saving.
Once you are satisfied with all language versions, click Save.

After a successful save, a confirmation notification appears briefly and you are returned to the Attributes list. Immediately and without any page reload needed, every dropdown across the platform that references this tag type will display the updated label. That means an open ROPA form in another browser tab will reflect your change the next time that field is rendered.

Heads up: The Save button will refuse to submit if any configured language has an empty name. If your DPMS instance supports three languages and you have filled in only two, you will see an error toast. Use the auto-translate button to quickly populate the missing language, then review and refine.

Updating an attribute template (personal data or purposes of processing templates)

Attribute templates are named groupings that pre-populate a set of personal data attributes or purposes of processing in ROPA and related forms whenever the template is selected. If you need to rename a template or adjust which attributes it includes, open it from the attribute template tab on the Attributes list.

The form shows a Name field at the top (single-line, multi-language) and a linked attributes table below it. The table lists all attributes or purposes currently grouped under this template, with a search bar at the top.
To rename the template, edit the Name field in each language, using the same language-switcher mechanism described above.
To add a new attribute to the template, type its name in the table's search bar, find it in the results, and select it. The table tracks your selection.
To remove an attribute, use the remove action on its row in the table.
Click Save. DPMS merges your newly selected attributes with the existing ones, removes duplicates, and saves the updated template.

From this point forward, any ROPA form or similar record that uses this template will pre-populate using the updated set of attributes. Records that were already created before your change are not retroactively affected — only new records benefit from the updated template.

Heads up: You cannot save an attribute template with zero attributes. If you want to fully replace the attribute list, add your new attributes before removing the old ones. The merge logic at save time handles deduplication automatically.

Updating a number of affected persons value

This tag type stores text-formatted numeric ranges — for example, "1–100" or "More than 10,000" — used to categorise the approximate scale of data processing in ROPA records. Unlike other tags, this type has a single plain text input rather than a multi-language field.

The form shows a single field labelled "Number of affected persons," pre-populated with the current range label.
Click into the field, clear the existing value, and type the corrected range string. You can use any text format that is meaningful to your organisation (e.g., "101–500" or "500–1,000").
Click Save.

After saving, ROPA records that previously displayed the old range label will reflect the updated value. The field accepts any text, so formatting is up to you — just make sure the value is not empty, as the form will block submission if it is.

Updating a country group

Country groups are named sets of countries used as filter conditions in assessment template questions. For example, a group called "Restricted Transfer Countries" might contain all jurisdictions subject to a particular data transfer restriction. When an assessment respondent selects a country from this group, conditional logic in the template can trigger or suppress follow-up questions.

The form shows a Name field (multi-language) and a Countries multi-select dropdown.
Update the name if needed using the language-switcher approach described above.
To add countries to the group, click the Countries dropdown, search for the country by name, and select it. You can select multiple countries in one operation.
To remove a country, deselect it in the dropdown.
Click Save.

The updated country group takes effect immediately in any assessment template that references it.

Tip: There is no minimum-countries validation on this form — you can technically save a country group with no countries selected and the system will not stop you. A country group with no members is functionally useless (no assessment condition will ever match it), so always verify the group has at least one country before saving.

Field reference

Name / Description (general tags, attribute templates, country groups, departments) — The display name of the tag, stored per language. Required in every configured language. Use the language-switcher to enter translations, or click the translate icon to auto-generate them. If any language is left empty, the form will not submit.

Linked attributes table (attribute templates only) — The set of personal data attributes or purposes of processing grouped under this template. Use the built-in search bar to find and add attributes. Remove attributes using the row-level remove action. At least one attribute must be selected when saving.

Number of affected persons (number of affected persons tags only) — A free-text field for the range label shown in ROPA records. Accepts any non-empty string. Required; the form will show an inline validation error if you submit an empty value.

Countries (country group tags only) — A multi-select dropdown of all countries available in the platform, grouped into EU Countries and Other Countries. No minimum selection is enforced at the form level, but a group with no countries is not useful in practice.

Status and responsible person (department tags only) — A compact action bar at the top of the department form showing the current workflow status (Active, Draft, Inactive, Review, etc.) and the responsible person(s). Use these controls to reassign ownership or change operational status. If no responsible person is set, the system defaults to the currently logged-in user.

Description (department tags only) — A multi-language text area for a longer description of the department's function or scope. Optional.

Organisational units (department tags only) — A multi-select control for linking the department to one or more organisational units. A permanent warning banner above this field alerts you that changes here have structural downstream effects. When you save, the system runs a background synchronisation to reconcile attribute differences across the linked organisational units. If many records are involved, this may take a moment.

How this connects to the rest of DPMS

The Edit Tags screen sits at the end of a simple but frequently used workflow: you notice an outdated or incorrect value in a dropdown somewhere in the platform, navigate to Compliance Settings → Attributes, find the relevant entry, and correct it here. The change propagates instantly to every open session.

Because tags feed into so many modules — ROPA, DPIA, Vendor Management, TOMs, Assessments, Risk Settings, Data Subject Requests, Projects, Tasks, Documents, Meetings, and Organisational Units — the impact of keeping them accurate is felt platform-wide. For risk occurrence likelihood tags specifically, saving a change here also triggers a recalculation of risk settings for both processes and assets, so any open risk assessment views will reflect updated values on their next data load.

After saving changes here, you do not need to take any further action for the updated values to appear in the platform. If you were editing a tag in the context of building an assessment template or a ROPA form, the Save button will return you to the originating screen so you can continue your work there.

Tips & common pitfalls

Heads up: The page title reads "Add new [type]" even when you are editing an existing tag. This is intentional — the create and edit flows share one component. For attribute templates the title shows just the template type name. Neither is an error.

Tip: Use the auto-translate button whenever your DPMS instance supports multiple languages. It fills in all language fields in seconds, and the auto-translated indicator reminds you to review the output before saving. This is much faster than typing each translation manually.

Saving is blocked when any language field is empty. Every language your DPMS instance is configured for must have a non-empty name before the form will submit. The error toast will identify which language is missing.
Removing all attributes from an attribute template will also block saving. Add your replacement attributes before removing the old ones. The deduplication logic at save time ensures no duplicates are created.
Country groups can be saved with zero countries — but don't. The form allows it, but a group with no countries will never match any assessment condition. Always add at least one country.
The back button goes where you came from, not always to the Attributes list. If you arrived at this screen from an assessment template or another module that launched the tag edit flow, clicking the back arrow will return you to that originating screen. If you want to reach the Attributes list directly, use the main sidebar navigation instead.
System default tags cannot be edited. Entries marked as default in the list view have their edit links disabled. Attempting to reach their edit URL directly may show the form but saving changes could be blocked by backend validation. Check for the "default" indicator before investing time in edits.
Department changes trigger background synchronisation. When you save changes to an organisational unit's linked departments, a background process reconciles attribute differences across all linked records. The warning banner in the department form exists precisely to flag this impact — read it before saving if you are working with a department linked to many organisational units.