How to save a risk register filter on Mac
You can do this with RiskOS, a risk register for macOS. Build the view once, name it, and stop rebuilding it every Monday.
Most registers get read through the same three or four questions. What sits above appetite. What is Critical or High and therefore needs a plan. What was closed this year, for the audit. Rebuilding those views by hand every time is small work repeated often, and it is exactly the kind of work a register should absorb. RiskOS lets you set a combination of filters once, give it a name, and bring it back whenever the question comes round again.
A filter changes what the table shows, never what the register holds. Hiding a row does not close it, and closing a risk never deletes it.
Where the filter controls live
Choose Risks in the sidebar. The register fills the middle of the window as a sortable table — Ref, Risk with its category, Owner, Inherent, Residual, Target, Trend, Appetite, Status and Review — and above it sit the two controls that decide what you are looking at: a search field and a filter control.
The filter control holds the band filter, an over-appetite only switch, and the settings for showing closed and accepted risks. Save Current Filter… is in the same place, and it is the one that turns a combination you have built into a view you can return to. The filter icon fills in whenever any filter is on, so a short table is never a mystery.
Three separate things decide what you read: the filter chooses the rows, the sort chooses their order, and the columns choose how much of each row you see. A saved filter is about the first of those.
Save a view, step by step
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Open the risk register
Choose Risks in the sidebar of RiskOS. The table opens on your active risks, with the newest rows pinned to the top. Clear anything left in the search field before you begin, so that the view you are about to build is made of filters alone and not of a word you typed last week.
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Open the filter control
Click the filter icon above the table. The band filter, the over-appetite switch and the options for closed and accepted risks are all here. Nothing you do in this menu edits a risk, so you can try a combination, look at the table behind it and change your mind as often as you like.
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Tick the bands you want to see
Bands follow the score: Low is 1–4, Medium 5–9, High 10–16 and Critical 17–25. Tick the ones the view is about. A treatment view usually wants Critical and High together, while a sweep for rows that have quietly drifted downwards wants Low on its own. Leave every band ticked when the view is about appetite instead.
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Decide whether closed and accepted risks belong
The register reads as live work, so closed and accepted rows stay out of the way until you ask for them. Bring them in when the view is a record rather than a to-do list: a year-end pack, an audit walkthrough, a handover. Leave them out when the view tells somebody what to do this month.
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Switch on over-appetite only when that is the question
This narrows the table to risks whose residual score sits above the appetite threshold that applies to them. It is the sharpest filter in the register, because it compares each row against a threshold you have already agreed rather than against a band boundary. In a register of twelve active risks it is the four rows that need an answer.
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Read the table before you save it
Close the menu and look at what you have. Count the rows, and check that a risk you expect to see is actually there. A view is easiest to trust when you have confirmed it once against something you already know — if RSK-0007 should be in your over-appetite view at a residual of 15 against an appetite of 9, make sure it is.
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Choose Save Current Filter…
Open the filter control again and choose Save Current Filter…. RiskOS takes the combination on screen — the bands, the appetite switch, the treatment of closed and accepted rows — and keeps it under the name you give it. The table does not change when you save; you have named what you are already looking at.
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Name it after the question it answers
Call it Over appetite, Board pack, Everything including closed. A name that states the question survives the six months in which you forget how the view was built; a name like Filter 2 does not. Keep the names short enough to recognise at a glance, and use the same wording your team uses in meetings.
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Bring the view back when the question returns
Return to the filter control and choose the saved view by name. The bands, the appetite switch and the closed and accepted settings all snap back into place together, the filter icon fills to tell you a filter is on, and the register shows the rows that answer the question today rather than the ones that answered it when you saved.
What each filter control does
There are not many controls, which is deliberate. Each answers a different sort of question, and most useful views are two of them used together.
| Control | What it does | Reach for it when |
|---|---|---|
| Band filter | Limits the table to the severity bands you tick | The view is about how bad things are |
| Over-appetite only | Shows only risks above the threshold that applies to them | The view is about what is unacceptable |
| Closed and accepted | Brings rows that are normally out of the way back into the table | The view is a record rather than a task list |
| Search field | Matches title, reference, category, owner, detail and tags | You are looking for something specific, now |
| Save Current Filter… | Names the combination on screen so you can return to it | You have built the same view twice |
How the band filter behaves
The band filter reads the residual score — where a risk stands once its controls are taken into account. That matters more than it sounds. A risk can sit at an inherent 20 and a residual 9, and a band view will place it with the Mediums, because that is the honest reading of it this morning. To see untreated exposure instead, sort on the Inherent column.
Colour is never doing the work alone. Every band badge pairs its colour with a symbol and the written word, so a narrowed table reads the same to everyone who opens it. VoiceOver reads a whole row as one sentence, which means a filtered view is as clear spoken aloud as it is on screen.
What over-appetite only actually means
Appetite is the highest residual score you are willing to tolerate. RiskOS resolves it for each risk in a fixed order: an override on the risk itself, then the threshold on its category, then the organisation-wide threshold, and then nothing at all if none of those has been set. The over-appetite switch compares every row against whichever of those applies to it.
Because of that, an over-appetite view is not the same as a High-and-Critical view, and the difference is the point. A Medium risk in a category you have deliberately given a tighter threshold — compliance, often — will appear in the appetite view and not in the band view. If the switch returns nothing at all, check that a threshold has been set in Settings ▸ Appetite.
Why closed and accepted sit apart
Risks in RiskOS are closed, never deleted, so nothing ever leaves the register. A closed row keeps its reference, its history and every assessment ever made against it. Hiding it by default keeps the working table about live work, and switching it back on is how you turn the same register into an audit trail without keeping a second copy of anything.
Views worth naming
A handful of combinations do most of the work. Save the ones you recognise and leave the rest.
| Name it | Combination | The question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Over appetite | Over-appetite only, closed and accepted hidden | What are we not willing to live with? |
| Needs a plan | Critical and High bands only | Which rows need an owner and a date? |
| Working register | All bands, closed and accepted hidden | What is live right now? |
| Full record | All bands, closed and accepted shown | Everything, for an audit or a handover |
| Quiet end | Low band only | What has drifted down and stopped being read? |
The last one earns its place more often than people expect. Risks that fall into Low stop being looked at, and a register that never revisits its quiet end eventually carries rows that are wrong rather than small.
Filters, search and columns
These three controls are easy to confuse, because they all make the table look different. They are doing separate jobs, and knowing which is which saves a great deal of time.
Search narrows what the filter already chose
The search field matches across the title, the reference, the category, the owner, the detail and the tags, and it narrows whatever the filter has already selected. Use it for the specific — a reference, a supplier's name, an owner you need to chase. Use the filter for the general. Search is a question you ask once; a filter is a view you keep, which is why one of them is the thing worth saving.
Columns are a separate arrangement
Right-click the table header to show, hide and reorder columns. RiskOS remembers how you leave them, so the arrangement describes how you like to read the register rather than something a view carries. Keeping Ref, Risk, Owner, Residual, Appetite and Review visible suits most work, with Inherent and Target brought back for a scoring session.
Sorting decides the reading order
Click any column heading to sort on it. Residual is usually the right default, because it describes where you stand rather than how bad the world could be. Sort on Review before a review session, and on Owner before talking to one person about everything they hold.
Troubleshooting
Rows I know exist are missing from the table
Look at the filter icon above the table. It fills in whenever a filter is on, which is the fastest way to tell a short register from a narrow view. Open the control, check which bands are ticked, and check whether over-appetite only was left switched on from last time.
A risk vanished after I closed it
Closing takes a risk out of the live view; it does not remove it. Switch on the option to show closed and accepted risks and the row comes back with its reference, its assessments and its full history intact. Nothing in RiskOS deletes a risk, so a reference such as RSK-0007 always means the same thing.
My saved view shows a different number of rows than last month
That is the view working correctly. A saved filter keeps a question, not a snapshot of answers. If your over-appetite view showed four rows in August and shows six now, two risks have moved above their threshold since — which is the information the view exists to give you.
The filter is off but the table still looks short
Check the search field. Text left there keeps narrowing the table even when no filter is on, and a single word typed in passing can hide most of a register. Clear the field and the rows return.
I want a saved view to work differently
Build the view you want now — set the bands, the appetite switch and the closed and accepted options the way you need them — and save that combination with a name that says what it does. Naming views after the questions they answer makes this painless, because a new question deserves its own name anyway.
Habits that keep saved views useful
A saved view is only as good as the routine it belongs to. A few habits make the difference between a shortcut and a shelf.
- Save the view you have built twice. The second time you assemble the same combination is the signal. Anything you have only ever needed once is not worth a name.
- Name it after the meeting or the question. Board pack and Over appetite tell you what the view is for; a number tells you nothing six months later.
- Keep the set small. Four or five views cover most organisations. A long list of near-identical names costs more to read than rebuilding a filter would.
- Pair a view with an action. Open the over-appetite view before a monthly meeting, select the rows in it and use Mark Reviewed, or open the bulk editor and set an owner and a review cadence across all of them at once.
- Use a view to prepare a report. Reading the Critical and High rows before you build a report tells you what the executive summary has to carry, and how many top risks to include.
- Check the quiet end quarterly. A Low-only view is where stale ratings hide.
- Turn the filter off when you are finished. Leaving a narrow view in place is the single most common reason a register looks as though rows have gone missing.
Frequently asked questions
How do I save a filter in a risk register?
Open Risks, set the band filter, the over-appetite switch and the closed and accepted options the way you want them, then choose Save Current Filter… from the same filter control and give the combination a name. Choosing that name later restores every one of those settings together.
What does Save Current Filter do?
It names the filter combination you are looking at so you can return to it. It does not copy the rows, so the view always shows what matches the question today. Nothing about your risks changes when you save, and the table on screen stays exactly as it was.
What is the difference between searching and filtering a risk register?
Search matches text across the title, reference, category, owner, detail and tags, and answers a question you have right now. A filter selects rows by band, by appetite and by whether closed and accepted risks are shown, and describes a view you come back to. Search narrows whatever the filter has already selected.
How do I see only risks above appetite?
Switch on over-appetite only in the filter control. Each row is compared against the threshold that applies to it — an override on the risk, then its category threshold, then the organisation-wide one. Save the combination and that view is one click away whenever somebody asks what is unacceptable.
Why does the filter icon look filled in?
Because a filter is on. The icon fills whenever the table is showing less than the whole register, which stops a narrow view from being mistaken for a short register. Open the control to see which settings are active, and clear them when you want the full table back.
Can I get a closed risk back into the register?
It never left. Risks are closed rather than deleted, so a closed row keeps its reference, its assessments and its history. Switch on the option to show closed and accepted risks and it appears in the table again, which is also how you build a view for an audit or a handover.
Do saved filters change my risk data?
No. Filters decide which rows the table shows and nothing more. Scores, owners, controls and history are untouched by any view you build or save, and a risk hidden by a filter behaves exactly as it did before — it still counts on the dashboard, and it still appears in a report unless you exclude it there.
Is my risk register stored anywhere other than my Mac?
No. Everything here happens on your Mac. There is no account, nothing is uploaded, and your register never leaves the machine. Saved views, columns and settings stay on the Mac you set them on, and the only network use is Apple's App Store, for purchases.