Review and Sign-Off Workflow

The general workflow for reviewing and signing off on a document is:

1. From the Administration tab on the Document Detail page, the Review Group Administrator  places the document into review. Activity notifications are automatically sent to reviewers.
2. After receiving an activity notification, reviewers can view the activity by using the link provided in the e-mail or by going directly to their My Activities page. The reviewer checks out the document (which downloads onto their local workstation or their home drive on the network), makes changes or adds comments, and then checks the document back in (which uploads the file to the TMS server).

   While checked out, other users can view the current and revision versions of the document, but cannot make changes to it. For example, if you are working on Revision C of a document, Revision B can be viewed by all users (depending upon permissions). Revision C will only be viewable by the individuals who are part of the review group.

3. After completing their review, each reviewer updates their notification activity to indicate that their review task has been completed. Depending on an Application Option setting, after checking in the document, this will occur automatically or by selecting the Complete checkbox after checking the document in.
4. When all reviewers have completed their reviews (and indicated so on their review activities), the system notifies the Review Group Administrator.
5. The Review Group Administrator checks out the document, verifies the changes, and determines whether the revision is ready for signoff, or must go through the review cycle again.
6. If ready for signoff, the Review Group Administrator places the document into the signoff cycle. Notifications are automatically sent to users who have been designated “approving members” of the review group. If the organization does not use electronic sign‑offs, the administrator can cancel this notification activity.
7. After opening the sign‑off activity record, each signer views the document for verification and, if approved, performs an electronic signoff.

   If the document type has been selected for PDF conversion, the signer will view and sign-off on a PDF version of the document. If the document is not converted to PDF, the sign-off is actually an electronic approval vs. an electronic signature.

8. When all signatories have completed their signoffs, the system sends a notification to the Review Group Administrator to indicate this.
9. The Review Group Administrator completes the review cycle by indicating to the system that the document revision is ready to Move to Current and Publish.

In response, the system archives the old document revision. The new revision becomes the current version with the ability to send retraining notifications to users who need to be trained in the newly published revision.