Marking a requirement statement ''Not Applicable (N/A)'' requires careful justification. In r2 assessments, compliance factors such as HIPAA, PCI-DSS, GDPR, or state-specific laws may trigger requirements that would not otherwise apply. Therefore, an assessor must verify that all compliance factors have been considered before permitting an N/A designation. For example, a requirement related to cardholder data might seem irrelevant unless PCI-DSS was selected as a compliance factor; in that case, it becomes mandatory. HITRUST QA scrutinizes N/A markings to ensure they are not misused to exclude applicable requirements. Incorrect use of N/A may result in CAPs or QA rejection. Thus, compliance factors must always be reviewed first to confirm whether the requirement is truly outside scope.