Built for Mac and iPad, with a full-function iPhone version when you're on the go. Genuinely capable safety risk assessment and compliance software — map hazards, barriers and consequences, offline and completely private.
A bowtie diagram lets you demonstrate a comprehensive risk management approach. It maps naturally onto what WHS legislation means by managing risk "so far as reasonably practicable," what UK law means by a "suitable and sufficient" assessment, and the documented process OSHA's general duty clause expects.
The hazard event sits in the centre. Every cause feeding into it sits on the left with its prevention barriers between them. Every consequence flowing from it sits on the right with mitigation barriers between them. An auditor or inspector can see exactly how each hazard is being controlled, not just that a risk was rated.
This matters because the same document has to satisfy two very different readers: the site worker who needs a clear toolbox talk, and the regulator or auditor who needs evidence of a systematic, defensible process. A bowtie diagram is one of the few formats that genuinely serves both — which is why ISO/IEC 31010 names it explicitly as a risk assessment technique, and why UK HSE guidance cites it as an appropriate method for the safety reports required from major hazard sites.
Bowtie diagrams work best on hazards with multiple causes, layers of barriers, and consequences that vary depending on which controls fail. Here's how the method applies across common workplace risks.
Multiple failure points — edge protection, fall arrest equipment, training — each with its own barrier. A bowtie maps all of them on one page, showing exactly which control gap led to which outcome.
Atmospheric testing, isolation, rescue planning — confined space work has layered, interdependent controls that a single risk score can't represent. A bowtie makes the barrier chain explicit.
Maintenance schedules, isolation procedures, guarding — mechanical hazards need documented, auditable barriers. A bowtie shows inspectors exactly what's in place and what isn't.
Chemical, biological and airborne exposure risks require both engineering and procedural controls. A bowtie distinguishes prevention barriers from the mitigation and medical response that follows exposure.
Loss of containment and major hazard events are exactly what the bowtie method was built for — often used alongside HAZOP studies, with UK HSE guidance explicitly citing bow-tie as an appropriate method for upper-tier COMAH safety reports.
Pedestrian-vehicle interaction on site involves exclusion zones, spotters, and traffic management working together. A bowtie shows how each barrier backs up the others.
BowTie Risk is designed for safety professionals who need to move quickly on-site without sacrificing rigour. The workflow is direct.
Define the specific moment you're analysing — "Fall from height during roof access", "Loss of containment at storage tank", "Vehicle strikes pedestrian in loading bay". Specificity matters here — a precise hazard event produces a useful bowtie; a vague one produces a vague one.
Map the threats feeding into your hazard event, the prevention controls between them, the consequences that follow, and the mitigation controls that address each one. Edit and refine as you go — the full structure is visible and adjustable at every step.
Each risk can be given an effectiveness rating. Degraded or failed controls are immediately visible on the diagram. The risk register view shows all your safety bowties with sortable risk ratings — which risks are rated, which are unrated, which have control gaps.
Export your bowtie diagram as a PDF for a full visual record, or export a Detail Report — all controls and ratings — or a Summary Report for toolbox talks and audits as CSV. The visual format communicates the full risk picture to any audience without translation.
Site work happens where signal doesn't reach and incident data is sensitive. BowTie Risk is built with that in mind from the ground up.
All diagrams, risk registers and reports are stored on your device using Apple's on-device storage, unless you choose to save or sync them to another location such as iCloud or SharePoint. Nothing is transmitted anywhere without that choice. Appropriate for incident data, worker information and organisations with strict data handling requirements.
Mine sites, offshore platforms, rural construction, remote facilities — BowTie Risk works without any internet connection. Complete a hazard assessment wherever the work is — your data stays on your device the whole time, whether you're connected or not.
Export your bowtie diagram as a PDF, and Detail and Summary Reports as CSV, designed to communicate hazard risk clearly to auditors, regulators and executives. The visual bowtie structure removes the translation layer between field observation and management decision-making.
Run a hazard assessment on your iPad on-site, review a diagram on your iPhone between walkarounds, and build reports from your Mac in the office. One app, all your Apple devices, with iCloud sync available for seamless continuity across devices.
Bow-tie analysis is named directly in the standards below. Bow tie diagrams produced in BowTie Risk are accepted for audit, governance and regulatory purposes across all of them.
ISO 45001 occupational health and safety management and IEC 61882, the standard guiding HAZOP studies, both build on the same barrier-based structure — HAZOP identifies deviations and causes, and a bowtie maps the resulting barriers and consequences on one page. The same hazard / cause / barrier / consequence structure is taught as the control-barrier model in NEBOSH and IOSH qualifications, and echoes the safety-critical barrier reporting recommended in IOGP Report 456 for oil and gas operations.
Yes. The app structures hazards, causes, controls and consequences using the bowtie methodology, which ISO/IEC 31010 — the international standard for risk assessment techniques — lists by name as a method supporting ISO 31000. It's widely used in WHS and HSE practice across construction, mining, manufacturing and public sector safety programs, and UK HSE guidance separately cites bow-tie diagrams as an appropriate method for the safety reports required from upper-tier COMAH sites.
Yes. BowTie Risk is a native app for Mac, iPad and iPhone that stores data locally on your device, so you can complete site inspections, hazard assessments and audits in areas with no signal or Wi-Fi, then export once you're back online.
Yes. The bowtie diagram format maps cleanly onto the hazard identification and control-barrier thinking taught in NEBOSH and IOSH qualifications and expected under OSHA risk management guidance, making it suitable for training, audits and documented safety cases.
A spreadsheet can record risks, but it can't visually represent the relationship between a hazard, its causes, the controls in place and possible consequences. BowTie Risk renders that relationship as a diagram, which is faster to read, easier to present in safety reviews and clearer for identifying control gaps.
Risk registers and bowtie diagrams can be exported as CSV and shared across a team, so safety officers, supervisors and consultants can work from the same hazard data even if they're not editing the same device simultaneously.
Yes. The risk matrix editor supports configurable likelihood and consequence dimensions, so you can match your organisation's existing WHS, ISO 31000 or internal risk scoring framework rather than being locked into a fixed scale.
Built for Mac and iPad, with iPhone as a companion.