Document Approval

Document approval is used to automate the workflow of sending a new or amended document for internal or external reviews, allowing the reviewers to raise comments on the documents, provide marked up copies if required, and to sign off documents as in a state for further distribution.

Whenever a new or updated document is submitted to the Metamation document repository, the author has the ability to perform a number of check in actions against the document to indicate what will happen with the document, and to allow document review or approval to take place. Depending on the configuration of the system, the type of user and the type of document, document review may be a mandatory process during document check-in.

When documents are marked for review or approval, the documents enter the review workflow.

The common workflow for documents will be as follows:

Document Review or Approval List

Once a document has been checked in to the document repository, depending on the actions required for document review or approval selected during check in, directly following the check-in, the document Review or Approval screen will be displayed. This process allows the document author to indicate the system users who are required to review or approve the document.

When reviewers or approvers are marked against a particular document, the system will remember this user list for future reference. Whenever future versions of the same document are uploaded, the same review and approval list will be available for the new versions. However, for different versions, additional people can be added or removed from the list as required.

On the review or approval list, users are added for review or approval from the drop down list of available users. When the number of registered users grows to a large number, this dropdown turns into a search facility, allowing users to be entered by quick searching based on first name, last name, user code or department. The users listed for review will be both internal and external users. As names are added to the review/approve list, so extra lines are automatically added to allow other people to be included.

Once all the names have been added, to the right of the names, the user review responsibilities can be indicated by the tick boxes. Each user can be indicated as a reviewer, an approver, or can be ticked to be removed from the list. Users can be both reviewers and approvers as required. Once review has been completed by the named reviews, if all reviews have signed off the document as review complete (without rejecting the document for amendment), then the document will automatically enter the approval phase. If there are no approvers listed against the document, then the document will automatically be approved for general circulation.

Against each reviewer, the status of the document review will be shown. Where a document review status is being viewed, the author can easily see against each reviewer or approver, the status of their review/approve tasks, who has still to review or approve the document, who has accepted or reject the document, who has left comments etc.

Before the document can be submitted for review or comment, it is important to enter the number of days for review at the top of the review/approve list. This indicates the number of calendar days that each named person has to review or approve the document. If configured, this will default to the standard review time, but can be entered or changed before submission.

When the review or approve list has been completed and submitted, an Alert is sent to each named reviewer or approver to carry out their actions on the document. As the review cut-off date is reached, Metamation will nag the reviewers or approvers to carry out their actions. Once ALL review or approval is complete, the document author will be sent confirmation of the review process and any comments received. The document author will then perform their own review of the received comments to update the document as required (to a new version).

Document Approval or Rejection Process

If you have been asked to review or approve a document entered into the Metamation repository, you will receive an Alert or email pointing you to your required action, the document details, and a review icon to review the document.

Once you select the document or review icon from the alerts window , you will have the ability to carry out the document review. All reviews must be carried out within the Metamation environment, but reviews can be carried out in one of two ways:

Review comment entry - this allows you to build up a list of review comments on the submitted document/version to which the author can comment, accept (and update a new version) or reject with a reason. This is the preferred method of document review as it allow the best form of communication between all reviewers/approvers and the document author.

Marked up version - This allows you to mark up a version of the document with your corrections and comments. This method relies of the native product (such as word) to track the changes and comments, and provides the lowest level of functionality.

When you select a document to review from the Alerts system, you will be taken to the review screen. Any previous comments or marked up documents will be available in this screen. The options available within the review screen are as follows:

Information and Icons: At the top of the screen, the document details (reference, title and version) are shown for confirmation. Next to this, icons are available for; ( ) watching future changes in the document, and ( ) reading the current version of the document. Before starting the review, you should use the book icon to read and review the document.

Action
The action will depend on the outcome of the review/approval process. The next action is available in a drop down list and allows you to Defer (you are not going to review) the document, Reject the document as changes are required, leave the document pending (allows you to come back to this document later) or accept the review/approval. If you accept, the alert will be removed from your Alerts list, and this will end you current involvement with the document.

View Documents
Where other people have submitted marked-up versions of documents, this button allows you to view who has submitted a marked up version and the marked up documents themselves. If you need to add your own comments to a marked up version, update the marked up document and then reload the document as detailed below.

Review Grid
Comments you may have on the document can be entered into the review grid. The grid is made up of a new row for every comment. The columns entered into the grid are as follows:

Number: This column is generated automatically by the system as you enter comments, and generates a unique reference number for your comment for the document/version combination.
Page/Section: Enter the page number, section number, paragraph number to reference the area of the document you have a comment on. this should be as brief as possible, e.g "All doc." or "P6, S4.6"
Comment: Type this pull down list allow you to select the type of comment you want to leave from the drop down list. This space allows you to enter as much text as you need to identify the problem to the document author.
Status: The status is not applicable to document reviews or approvers, but is set by the document author when they respond to your comments. When reviewing the comments left on your review comments, this indicates if the author has accepted or rejected the comments.
Response By: Again, this is not applicable to document reviews or approvers, but is set by the document author when they respond to your comments. This shows who responded to your comment (took action, rejected your comment etc).
Accept/Reject Notes: Again, this is not applicable to document reviews or approvers, but is set by the document author when they respond to your comments. Where applicable, this is a notepad that allows the document author to indicate what they changed in the document to accept your recommendation, or why they rejected the comment.
Delete: If you want to remove any of you comments as no longer relevant, use this tick box to delete review comments.

Upload Document

If you have decided to mark up a copy of the document using the native application, at the base of the review screen you will find a facility to upload your marked up copy. Either enter the file path to your local marked-up version, or use the browse button to locate the marked up file. When you save the review, the marked up copy will be posted into the database for others to see.

Author review of comments

If you have asked people to review or approve documents, once the last reviewer/approver has either carried out their action or has Deferred the process (decided not to review or approve), you will receive an Alert or mail indicating the outcome of the review/approval process, letting you know if your document needs further attention (review comments have been returned) or the document has been accepted and moved to the next stage (either moved to the approve phase for review, or been marked as an approved document).

Once you receive the alert or email notification, where the document has had review comments returned, you as document author have the ability to view the comments and act on them, either accepting the comments (and creating a new version of the document), or rejecting the comments. To view the comments returned, select the document or review icon from the alerts window , you will have the ability to respond to all the comments returned.

When you select a document to review the comments returned, you will be taken to the review screen. All comments returned from all reviewers or approvers will be listed in this screen. The options available within the review screen are as follows:

Information and Icons
At the top of the screen, the document details (reference, title and version) are shown for confirmation. Next to this, icons are available for; ( ) watching future changes in the document, and ( ) reading the current version of the document (that you checked in). If you decide that you need to make amendments to your document, before accepting or rejecting comments on the document, you should check out the document for review using the check out icon ( ).

View Documents
Where people have submitted marked-up versions of documents, this button allows you to view who has submitted a marked up version and the marked up documents themselves. Once you have checked out a new version of the document, you can review the marked up version as you normally would, and then upload the reviewed marked up copy as the new version. Any comments returned in the review grid which do not appear in the marked up version should also be included.

Review Grid
Comments others have put against you document will appear in the review grid. This grid is made up of a new row for every comment. The columns entered into the grid are as follows:

Number: This column is generated automatically by the system as the review/approvers enter comments, and generates a unique reference number for their comment for the document/version combination. This is useful for communication with the reviewer/approver.
Page/Section: The page/section entered by the reviewers/approvers details the area of the document with the comment. You cannot amend this.
Comment: Type the type indicates the type of comment. You cannot change this entry. This is the comment entered by the reviewer or author. When viewing comments left, you can scroll but cannot amend these comments.
Status: The status allows you to indicate if you accept or reject the comment. The acceptance options are available from the drop down list.
Response By: As you accept or reject comments left, this will automatically be populated with your name to record who responded to the comments.
Accept/Reject: If you want to leave comments on why you rejected comments, answer questions or note changes you made to the document, this area allows your notes to be recorded.
Notes: Once you have processed all comments, when you save the changes, notification of your review will be sent back to the original reviewers/approvers for reference. From this point, they cannot use the system to respond to your acceptance or rejections.