Policy Record Edit Tab

Edit

The Edit tab allows you to manage different versions of the Policy before it is ready to be published. From here you can check out a policy document, submit the Policy for review and view previous versions. Once a Policy has been approved for publishing it can be published from this tab. Whilst the Policy is in Draft only users with the role of Policy Owner will be able to view the record.

Check Out Policy

To check out a Policy click on the  button under the current version; the document will then be downloaded to your PC. After checking out the Policy the other buttons will also be updated.

• The 'Check Out' button has changed to a 'Check In' button.
• Two additional buttons for 'Undo Check Out' and 'Remove Check Out' have been added
• The option to Submit For Review has been greyed out and will not reactivate until the Policy has been checked back in
• The 'Publish' button remains greyed out

Whilst the Policy is checked out it will be unavailable for other users to edit. If another Policy Owner navigates to the Edit tab of the checked-out Policy they will be presented with the screen below. They will be unable to check out the document and a message will display to inform the user which user has checked out the Policy. However, they can still download the current version and view all information about the Policy during this time.

Once you have finished making changes to the Policy Document you can check it back in by clicking on the Check In button; this will open a link to your PC and allow you to upload the new version of the document. After uploading the new Policy, the version number will be incremented by 0.1, the Uploaded By column will update to show the new publisher of the document, and the Check In Date will also be updated. All previous versions of the policy will be available to view under the Previous Versions tile.

If a Policy was checked out by mistake the action can be undone by clicking the Undo Check Out button; this will once again allow other users to check out the document without increasing the version. Alternatively, an Admin user can use Remove Check Out to forcibly check in the document without increasing the version; this function may be useful is a user has checked out the document and forgotten to check it back in before going on holiday.

After the new version of the policy has been checked in there are two options available; either a user can check out the policy and make further changes to it, or it can be submitted for review.

Submit for Review

To submit a Policy for review, click on the Submit for Review button, this will open the window shown below.

From here you can select a number of Reviewers to review the Policy and select a due date for when you would like them to have completed their review by. Please note that only users with the role of Policy Reviewer will be populated in this list.

You also have the option to add your own message to the notifications that will be sent to the Reviewers; these will be displayed in addition to a standard message. The Request Message refers to the notification that will be sent to Reviewers informing them that there is a Policy for them to review; the Reminder Message refers to the notification sent to Reviewers if the due date is nearing and they have not yet completed their review of the Policy.

Once you have completed the required details click on the Submit button to submit the Policy for review, or alternatively you can click on the Cancel button to return to the Edit tab without submitting the Policy. Once the Policy has been submitted for review all Reviewers will receive a notification informing them of a request for review.

For more details on the review process see Review.

Publish Policy

Depending on the outcome of the review the Policy Owner will then be able to publish the Policy, or will be required to make changes before it can be published.

If the Policy version has been rejected the Policy Owner will be able to check out the Policy and make further edits to it using the supporting documents and comments from the Review tab for guidance. It is not possible to publish to Policy without approval from all Policy Reviewers.

If all Policy Reviewers have approved the version of the Policy for publishing, the Publish button will be activated on the Edit tab of the Policy record.

To publish the Policy, click on the Publish button, this will open the page shown below.

From here you can select a Review Date; if for example you review your policies on an annual basis you could select the date one year from the date of publication. When the review date is reached a notification will be sent to the Policy Owner who will then be able to determine whether or not the Policy needs to be updated.

From this tile you also have the option to set a Version Prefix; if for example you wanted to denote all of your Fire Safety Policies with 'FS' you could enter it here, all future versions of the Policy would then contain this prefix.  

Once you have published the Policy you will be able to send review requests and review the published Policy from the Live tab.