# Edit answers

As an HR employee or member of the executive leadership, you can correct a participant's answers after the fact. This is useful when someone submitted the wrong answer by mistake or a correction has to be made.

## Before you start

Answers can only be edited when all of the following are true:

* The person's participation is **finished** (status: completed).
* The participation group is **not sealed** and no sealing process is running.
* The feedback is **not anonymized**.
* You have the **HR employee** or **executive leadership** role.

:::info
For feedbacks with Diplomatic Status (protected access) enabled, only users with the executive leadership role can edit answers.

:::

## Edit an answer

1. Open the feedback overview from the **Feedbacks** entry in the sidebar.
2. Click the name of the feedback process you want (for example "Annual review").

 ![Feedback overview listing feedback processes](/attachments/feedbacks/antworten-editieren/feedback-uebersicht.png)

3. Switch to the **Invitations** tab and find the person whose answer you want to change.
4. In that person's row, click **Show review**.

 ![Invitation list with the Show review button](/attachments/feedbacks/antworten-editieren/einladungsliste.png)

5. On the result page, click the small pencil icon next to the question you want to change.
6. In the dropdown, use **Select participant** to choose the person whose answer you want to edit.

 ![Pencil icon and participant dropdown on the result page](/attachments/feedbacks/antworten-editieren/stift-dropdown.png)

7. The answer now appears as an editable form. Make your change.
8. Click **Save** to apply the change, or **Cancel** to return without changing anything.

 ![Edit form with Save and Cancel buttons](/attachments/feedbacks/antworten-editieren/bearbeitungsformular.png)

:::info
After you save, related calculations are updated automatically, such as strength values and competency scores. If the AI analysis is enabled for this feedback process, the affected analysis is marked as invalid and has to be regenerated if you still need it. If the edited answer affects the conditions for follow-up questions, follow-up answers that no longer apply are removed automatically.

:::

## Audit log

Every change to an answer is logged automatically. To see the change history for a specific question, click **Show audit log** in the pencil dropdown. You are taken to the audit log, which lists every change with its timestamp and the person who made it.

:::info
The audit log is only visible if you have permission to view audit logs.

:::

## How this differs from "Subsequent changes"

Editing answers, as described here, is meant for HR employees and executive leadership who want to correct individual answers on purpose. It is different from the [Subsequent changes](/en/c/feedbacks/subsequent-changes) feature: that one lets reviewers and moderators reopen their own finished participation and make changes themselves. The two features are independent and can both be active at the same time.

## Related articles

* [Reviews: status page](/en/c/feedbacks/review-status-page) — overview of the status page with its Invitations, Results and History tabs
* [Sealing](/en/c/feedbacks/sealing) — how the sealing process works and why it prevents answer editing
* [Subsequent changes](/en/c/feedbacks/subsequent-changes) — self-correction by reviewers and moderators