How to Prepare for Compliance Audits with Looker

The words "compliance audit" can send a shiver down the spine of even the most organized data teams. It often means a frantic scramble to pull reports, justify numbers, and prove that everything is secure and documented. But if you’re using Looker, you already have a powerful ally in your corner. This article will show you how to leverage Looker’s built-in features to turn audit preparation from a chaotic fire drill into a streamlined, confident process.

Why Looker is Your Secret Weapon for Audits

Unlike traditional reporting tools where logic is scattered across spreadsheets and one-off SQL queries, Looker provides a centralized, governed environment. This structure is naturally audit-friendly. Auditors love predictability, consistency, and traceability - all things Looker is designed to deliver.

Here’s what makes Looker so effective for audit readiness:

A Single Source of Truth: At its core, Looker uses a LookML data model to define all your business metrics and logic. This means the formula for “Annual Recurring Revenue” or “Active User” is defined once, centrally. When an auditor asks how a number is calculated, you can point to a single, version-controlled file instead of digging through a dozen different reports with conflicting formulas.
Built-in Version Control: Every change to your LookML model is tracked through Git. Did someone change the definition of a key performance indicator? Auditors can see exactly who did it, when they did it, and the commit message explaining why. This creates an unchangeable audit trail for your business logic.
Granular Access Controls: Compliance is all about ensuring the right people see the right data. Looker’s robust user permissions, roles, and data access filters allow you to define precisely who can view or edit specific dashboards, explores, or even specific columns and rows of data containing sensitive information (like PII).
Automated Monitoring and Reporting: You can schedule reports to be automatically sent to compliance officers or stakeholders on a regular basis. You can also set up alerts to proactively notify you of unusual activity, like a spike in downloads of a sensitive data report.

Setting the Stage: Pre-Audit Housekeeping in Looker

Being prepared is half the battle. Instead of waiting for auditors to start asking questions, you can use Looker to get your house in order proactively. Think of this as your pre-audit checklist.

Step 1: Review and Document User Access

One of the first things an auditor will ask for is a list of who has access to what. In Looker, you can easily pull this information. Navigate to the Admin panel and review your user permissions.

Roles and Permission Sets: Check that your defined roles (e.g., 'Marketing Analyst', 'Sales Rep', 'Finance Viewer') have the appropriate permission sets. Does the 'Sales Rep' role really need the ability to create new data models? Probably not. Clean up any overly permissive roles.
Groups and User Attributes: Ensure users are in the correct groups. Document how user attributes are being used to manage row-level security. For example, if a sales manager can only see their team’s data, you should be able to quickly show an auditor how that rule is enforced via user attributes.
Conduct an Access Audit: Generate a list of all active users and their assigned roles and groups. You can explore the internal i__looker model to build a dashboard specifically for this. Deactivate any stale accounts for users who have left the company or changed roles.

Step 2: Validate Your Data Models

Your LookML model is the brain of your analytics operations. Auditors will want to know that the logic inside is sound, documented, and properly managed.

Review Key Measures and Dimensions: Open your LookML project and review the definitions for your most critical business metrics. Add description tags to any measures that are complex or non-obvious. This in-model documentation is invaluable. An auditor can see the description directly in the UI when they hover over a field.
Check Your Git History: Be prepared to walk through the Git history for important files in your LookML model. You can use this to demonstrate a clear change management process. For example: "Here is the commit from Q2 where the finance team requested we change the logic for 'Net Revenue' to exclude shipping fees. It was reviewed by two developers and deployed on this date."
Run the Content Validator: Use Looker's Content Validator tool to find and fix any Looks or dashboards that have broken due to changes in the underlying model. A clean bill of health here shows you have control over your analytics environment.

Step 3: Organize Audit-Related Content

Don't make auditors (or yourself) hunt for information. Create a dedicated Space (now called Folders in Looker) specifically for audit-related materials. This serves as your centralized "go-bag" for all necessary reports and dashboards. Grant view-only access to this folder to relevant stakeholders and auditors.

Key Looker Features for Compliance Reporting

Beyond basic organization, specific Looker features are indispensable for digging into the detailed activity auditors want to see.

Using `i__looker` for Detailed Audit Logs

Looker keeps a detailed internal log of nearly everything that happens within your instance, and you can access it through a special "Explore" called i__looker. This is the single most powerful tool for compliance purposes. You can build dashboards to answer questions like:

Who viewed a specific dashboard? Use the History view in i_looker to filter by a dashboard ID and see a list of every user who has accessed it and when.
What queries are users running? See the exact queries a specific user has run to ensure they aren't trying to access data outside their responsibilities.
Are there unusual download patterns? Create a report that shows users who have downloaded an unusually high volume of data or accessed reports at odd hours.

For example, you could easily create a report showing all views of your "Customer PII Dashboard" in the last 90 days, grouped by user. This demonstrates your ability to monitor access to sensitive data.

Automating Reporting with Schedules and Alerts

Proving compliance isn't just a point-in-time activity, it's an ongoing process. Use Looker's scheduling capabilities to automate key compliance reports.

Scheduled Deliveries: Set up a weekly schedule to email the "User Access Review" dashboard to your security team. Create another schedule to save a PDF of the monthly financial summary report to a secure S3 bucket for archival purposes.
Data-driven Alerts: Configure alerts to proactively monitor for potential issues. For instance, you could set an alert on your i__looker dashboard to trigger an email to your compliance officer if any user in the 'External Contractor' group accesses a dashboard tagged as 'Internal-confidential'.

Your Audit "Go-Bag": Key Reports to Have Ready

When the auditors arrive, having these reports pre-built and ready will demonstrate preparedness and build confidence. Build these in your dedicated "Compliance Audit" folder a week or two before the audit begins.

1. User Access and Permissions Report

A simple table built from i__looker that lists all active users, their email addresses, their assigned roles, and the last time they logged in. This is ground zero for any access audit.

2. Sensitive Data Access Log

A dashboard that shows who has accessed dashboards or Looks containing sensitive information (e.g., customer PII, financial results). You can filter this log by date range and user, providing a clear trail of access.

3. Content Activity Report

This report shows which dashboards and Looks are being used the most and which are stale. While not strictly a compliance report, it helps demonstrate that you have an actively managed and healthy BI environment, which auditors appreciate.

4. Key Metric Definition Sheet

While this isn't a Looker dashboard itself, you can easily use your LookML model to generate it. This document should list your top 10-15 company KPIs and provide their plain-English definition along with the specific LookML measure used to calculate it. This bridges the gap between business terminology and technical implementation.

Best Practices for Maintaining Audit-Readiness

Compliance isn't a one-time project. Integrate these habits into your regular operations to stay perpetually ready.

Quarterly Access Reviews: Don't wait for an audit to clean up user permissions. Make it a quarterly recurring task for department heads to review and approve the list of users who have access to their data.
Mandatory Git Workflow: Enforce a strict pull request (PR) process for all LookML changes. Require that all changes be reviewed by at least one other developer and that commit messages clearly state the "what" and "why" of the change.
Educate Your Users: Train your users on data governance best practices. Remind them not to share logins and to report any suspicious activity. The more a culture of security is baked in, the easier audits become.

Final Thoughts

Using Looker transforms audit preparation from a reactive, stressful event into a proactive, manageable process. By leveraging its centralized data model, robust access controls, and detailed internal logs, you can build a transparent and easily defensible analytics environment that keeps auditors satisfied.

While powerful tools like Looker offer a ton of control for compliance, we know there's a significant learning curve to becoming proficient with LookML and administration. That’s why we built Graphed. We connect directly to your core business systems and allow anyone on your team to build real-time reports and dashboards using simple, natural language. It handles the difficult data work behind the scenes, so you can focus on getting answers and insights in seconds, not weeks.