When a spreadsheet is enough
A spreadsheet can work well if you have a handful of AI tools, no agents that take actions, little or no regulated data, one person who owns it, and no one outside the company asking for evidence. In that situation, our free AI risk assessment template in a spreadsheet may be all you need — and we would rather you do that than nothing.
Where spreadsheets break down
- Consistency. Two people rate the same issue differently. Severity drifts over time, so this quarter's "High" is not last quarter's.
- Scoring you can explain. A formula cell is hard to defend to a board, auditor, or customer. It is rarely versioned.
- Remediation tracking. Status, owner, due date, and evidence live in columns that quickly go stale.
- Evidence. Screenshots and agreements end up scattered across drives and email.
- Access control and audit trail. Anyone with the link can change a rating, and there is no record of who did.
- Reporting. Producing a board- or customer-ready report means manual formatting each time.
Side-by-side
| Capability | Spreadsheet | FlashTower |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Free scan; paid plans for full reports and ongoing management |
| Setup | Build your own columns and rules | Guided questionnaire |
| Risk rules | Whatever you write | Versioned, deterministic ruleset with published conditions |
| Score | Custom formula | Documented formula; calculation shown on every assessment |
| Framework references | Manual | Mapped per finding (NIST AI RMF, NIST CSF, HIPAA Security Rule, SOC 2, ISO 27001, OWASP LLM) |
| Remediation workflow | Columns | Status, owner, due date, and evidence per finding |
| Audit trail | Limited file history | Audit log of security-relevant actions |
| Team roles | Share settings | Role-based access (Owner, Admin, Security Admin, Analyst, Viewer, Billing) |
| Reports | Manual | Executive summary, findings, 30-day plan, PDF |
What FlashTower does not do
FlashTower's current release assesses AI risk from the information you provide in the guided questionnaire and inventory. Optional read-only integrations for 12 providers can add discovery from connected systems; each one is listed in the app with its current availability, and the assessment works fully without them. FlashTower does not certify compliance with any framework or law.
Moving from a spreadsheet
If you already track AI tools in a spreadsheet, you do not lose that work. The FlashTower Scan asks for the same fields most AI inventories capture — name, vendor, owner, purpose, data, capabilities, and account type — plus the fields that drive risk rules: autonomy, credentials, logging, and vendor terms. Re-enter your inventory, then use the findings to decide what to fix first.
Frequently asked questions
Can we export our data from FlashTower?
Yes. On paid plans, reports can be downloaded as PDFs, and organization owners and admins can request a full data export from Settings in the app or by emailing privacy@flashtower.com.
Is the FlashTower scoring model public?
Yes. The formula, severity points, and how repeated findings are weighted are documented on the methodology page, and every assessment shows its own calculation.