Documents Table
Purpose: This table can be used to manage the creation and publication of documents of various types, from marketing collateral to employee procedure manuals. A light-weight parallel publication approval process is included.
Examples of documents that may be covered: FAQs, official memos, published company policies, user manuals, newsletters, press releases, and so on. The table may be used to manage documents that are accessed only through Agiloft (though the records in this table) or documents that are published at the company website, intranet or printed and distributed. Access to the documents is controlled through permissions based on a choice field within the record.
Use Case
End User Record Submission
An end user belonging to the Document Creator team can create a document through the EUI. Action buttons will be provided to the end user to move the document through the workflow.
When a user submits a document for review, the contact information fields are automatically populated based on the details in his/her record - including the user's department. A direct link to the Department and the Department Manager will be auto-populated based on the submitter's department.
The record will be created in a default status of Draft. After supplying the required information and uploading a document, the user will click the Submit for Review button to begin the review process. The status of the record will be updated to Pending Review. If the user is not prepared to submit the record immediately, then can save the record and make further updates.
Technician Record Submission
Staff users in the Document Management, Admin and Document Creator groups can submit documents. Support Staff members may also convert to create a new FAQ Document from an Incident or Service Request. Only Admins and Document Managers can update the status of a Document record manually. All other groups will use Action Buttons to move the document through the workflow.
The record will be created in a default status of Draft. After supplying the required information and uploading a document, the user will click the Submit for Review button to begin the review process. If the user is not prepared to submit the record immediately, they can save the record and make further updates.
Processing of Records
When a document record is submitted, the Document Management Team is assigned by default and notified. A Document Manager reviews the document for content and formatting, and to determine if the document requires additional review.
If there are any issues with the initial document, the Document Manager clicks Return to Submitter to send the document back to Draft status. A rule then notifies the Submitter that the document requires revision. The user makes appropriate updates to the document and record, then clicks Submit for Approval again.
Handling Approvals
The Requires Approval field on the Progress tab determines whether approvals are needed before publication.
If the document does not require approval by document Reviewer(s), the Document Manager clicks the Publish without Approval action button. The Submitter is notified that the document has been published. If the Requires Approval field is set to Yes, a validation rule notifies the Document Manager that approval is required if the Document Manager attempts to publish without approvals.
Selecting Approvers and Creating Approvals
If the document requires approvals by Reviewer(s), the Document Manager will select the appropriate reviewers by adding reviewer names under the Potential Reviewers heading on the Progress tab. This field is a link to a single field (Full Name) with multiple values enabled in the Employee table, displayed as a multiple value box with a popup selection list and filtered to people on the Document Reviewers Team.
After selecting the appropriate Reviewer(s), the Document Manager clicks Submit for Approval, or manually changes the Status of the record to Pending Approval. A validation rule checks to see if the Document Manager has actually added reviewers to the form.
When the record is saved, an approval record is created for each reviewer by a conversion process from the reviewer's Employee record. A linked record action updates the Last Document ID field in the Employee record.
When the system detects a change in the Last Document ID field it performs a data conversion action, using the employee record to create an Approval record. The approval record is linked to the document record through the mapping of Last Document ID field to the linked Document set in the approval record. Additional reviewers can be added during the approval process; automation rules and actions will prevent the creation of multiple approval records for existing approvers.
The default Approval Status for new approval records is Pending Approval. When an approval record is created, the reviewer is automatically notified that they have a document to review and approve. In the Approval record, the linked field set from the document record includes a hyperlink to the document using the view only source field display option for the Document(s) field under the Attachment heading. The reviewer can click the link to open the document, allowing the reviewer to mark up the document which can then be uploaded to the approval record (reviewers are not able to upload the document to the source record). All updates to the document will be done by the Submitter, the Document Manager or an admin.
Rejecting Documents
The reviewer may either approve or reject the document and provide Approval Notes. If the approval record is rejected, the reviewer must provide Approval Notes explaining why the document is rejected. A validation rule reminds the reviewer that they must provide rejection notes if a reviewer attempts to reject the approval without providing notes.
When any of the approvals are rejected, a rule in the Document table detects this via a calculation on multiple linked records field that keeps track of the number of rejections. When this field is updated by rejections, the rule sets the document's Status to Draft, emails the Submitter that the document requires an update, and sets a trigger field named Document Rejected, Requires Update in each of the linked approvals to Yes.
Setting the Document Rejected field to Yes in the approvals then triggers the rule below that sets the Approval Status field in all of the linked approvals to Requires Reapproval, unless that Approval already has a value of Rejected.
Since any rejected Approvals set the Status of the document back to Draft, the process essentially starts over. The Submitter can review the comments made by the reviewers and see any red-lined documents that have been attached to the approval records. Then the Submitter edits the document and presses the Submit for Review button again to change the Status of the Document to Pending Review and notify the Document Manager. The Document Manager can then keep the same Reviewer(s) or change them and Submit for Approval again. If a document is rejected by an approver and then accepted again (and the Status therefore changed from Pending Approval to Draft and back to Pending Approval), the status of all of the linked approvals is restored to Pending Approval, and all Reviewer(s) are notified by email.
Publishing Documents
Once all approvals are completed and the value of the field Total Number Still Awaiting Approval is 0, a rule sets the Status of the document to Ready for Publication. Both the Submitter and Document Manager are emailed that the document is ready for publication.
The Document Manager can then attach the final approved document to the Published Files field and update the Status to Published. A validation rule checks again to see if there are still any pending approvals.
Once the Document is published, an email notification is sent to the Submitter.
Workflow
