Who this is for: Anyone who can view the Coverage view can see which locations are Critical. Marking and removing the tag needs permission to set audit requirements (Manage Audit Settings, Audit Administrator by default).
Marking a location as Critical flags it as one of your most important sites, so it stands out when you plan and review audits. It is a label only: it doesn’t change coverage, due dates, the Audit Plan or any scores.
Marking a location as Critical
Go to Audits > My Audit Templates and select Coverage.
Make sure View by is set to Location.
Under the location’s name, select Mark as Critical.
A message confirms it, for example “Head Office marked as Critical.”, and a red Critical badge appears next to the name.
Removing the tag
Under the location’s name, select Remove Critical tag. A message confirms it, for example “Critical tag removed from Head Office.”
How it shows
The badge shows in both views — next to the location name when viewing by Location, and under the column heading when viewing by Standard.
The tag isn’t passed down. Marking a parent location doesn’t mark the locations below it.
Critical Only shows just the Critical locations. Their parent locations stay in the list, without a badge, so the tree still makes sense.
Sort → Critical first moves Critical locations to the top of their own branch. Every location stays under its parent.
Export includes a Critical column (Yes or No) for each location with a requirement.
What it doesn’t change
Marking or removing the tag doesn’t change any cell’s coverage status, the next due date, the Audit Plan, dashboard widgets or reports. It doesn’t add a priority or score.
If this doesn't work
There’s no Mark as Critical option — you can see the badge but don’t have permission to set audit requirements.
A location is missing — you only see locations you have access to.
A Critical location isn’t in the export — the export only lists locations that have audit requirements.
Related articles
Audit coverage: what the Coverage view shows
Setting audit requirements for a location
Scheduling and exporting from the Coverage view