Before you start

  • On screen the module is called Document Control. A Regular User sees Documents under it. A Supervisor or Administrator also sees Document Templates, Controlled Prints, Settings & Master and Audit Trail.
  • If a document is missing from your list, see I can't see a document.

How it works

A document goes through these stages. When it is created, only Authors must be named; Reviewers, Approvers and QAs are optional on the Roles step.

  1. Write. A new document starts in Created, with no file yet. An author uploads the file and the document moves to Draft. See Create a document from a template.
  2. Send it on. The Authors sign the draft, and the document moves to Under Review. See Send a document for review.
  3. Review and sign. The Reviewers sign in Under Review, the Approvers in Under Signing By Approver, and the QAs in Under Signing By QA. See Review and approve a document. A reviewer can send the document back to Draft with a reason instead: see Send a document back to Draft. Approvers and QAs see the same line, Escalate status back to Draft, in their own status.
  4. Approve. After the last QA signature the document is Approved Not Published, and its version becomes a whole number, for example 1.0. Then it is published: see Publish a document. Publishing does not ask for a signature.
  5. Revise. On a Published document, the status button opens the Force Review form: see Start a new version of a document (Force Review). While a newer version is in Draft, a Regular User who is not named on the document sees the published version. When a newer version is published, the earlier one is shown as Published & Substituted.

Result

You can see where any document is from its page. Open it from Document Control › Documents: the header shows its ID, its version and its title, and the status button at the top right shows the current status.

The document page header with the ID SOP-001, the version 2.0, the title and the Published status button
Tab What it shows
Workflows For each version, every status the document went through, when it moved on, the minimum number of sign-offs each role needs, and who signed.
Roles One table per role: each person named, the status they signed in, the version and Signed On.
Versions The versions with their status, for example 1.0 shown as Published & Substituted after 2.0 was published.
The Roles tab with a table for Authors and for Reviewers: Username, Signed During Status, Email and Version

Next: create a document — see Create a document from a template.

If something is different

You see the published version, not the version being revised.

A Regular User who is not named on the document sees its last published version in the Documents list until the new version is published.