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 the user's record - including the user's department. A direct link to the Department 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 Document Manager. If the user is not prepared to submit the record immediately, they 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 Approver(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 Approver(s), the Document Manager will select the appropriate approvers by adding approver 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 pop-up selection list and filtered to people on the Document Reviewers Team.

After selecting the appropriate Approver(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 approvers to the form.

When the record is saved, an approval record is created for each approver by a conversion process from the approver'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 approvers 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 approver 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 approver can click the link to open the document, allowing the approver to mark up the document which can then be uploaded to the approval record. Approvers 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.

Approving, Requiring Changes for, and Rejecting Documents

The approver may approve, reject, or require changes for the document and provide Approval Notes.

Approving

When an approver clicks Approve, the Status of the approval is updated to Approved. Approval Notes are not required in order to approve. 

Requiring Changes

In order to mark a document as requiring changes, the approver must enter an explanation in the Approval Notes field. Any other approvers for the document are notified that a change is required, and so if they have already approved, they may need to re-approve once changes are complete. Another email to the Document Manager explains that a change has been requested, and the Document Manager will need to make changes and re-send the document for approval.

Permanently Rejecting

In order to mark a document as permanently rejected, the approver must enter an explanation in the Approval Notes field. Upon permanently rejecting, the Status of the approval is set to Permanently Rejected, and the Status of the document is set to Canceled. The document may not be re-submitted for approval. 

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