QDMS - Document Profile

Introduction

The document profile, which you can find under the QHSE module, is where you create, send for approval, and maintain all governing documents in your company.

While the governing documents are located in a read-only library accessible to the entire company, the document profile is a restricted and specialized document library with:

• Unique document creation functions
• Revision history
• A two-step workflow for publishing documents

These are in accordance with various standards such as ISO-9001:2015.

General

You navigate to the library by clicking on the Document Profile link from the quick menu in the QHSE module. The document profile is a specialized document library tailored for managing the source files of the governing documents.

Searching

The search field in the library is an active filtering tool that narrows down the list of qualified results for your search. The documents will be narrowed down to only show those that match your search.

The search field requires a minimum input of 2 characters and will search across all columns that are visible in the selected view.

Permissions

The documents in the document profile are not available to all users. As shown in the overview of Access, only personnel in the QDMS-DC role have access to view, create, and maintain governing documents. System administrators also do not have access to the library without this role.

Personnel in this role can

1. Create new documents
2. Edit documents
3. Distribute documents for approval.

Documents sent for approval to users outside the QDMS-DC role are given some temporary customized permissions. The user who is to approve must be able to see the document in order to make a decision on approval or rejection of the workflow.

Read more about document approval in the Workflow section.

Document Profile Columns

The document profile library contains a number of columns you can specify when creating the document, and some that are filled in automatically based on the document's approval status.

Document Name

The name consists of the document number and the title of the document. The title is entered when creating the document, and the number is generated based on the department and document category set, followed by a serial number for each combination of these.

Each department and document category value is linked to a code that translates the text value into an abbreviated string.

Example:

See Department and Document Category under QDMS configuration to set up these selection values and corresponding codes.

Status

The value in this column indicates where the document is in the approval process or if it has been sent for approval. This value and the version/revision number indicate whether the file has been published.

If the version/revision has a value of 1.0 or higher, the document has been approved at least once. The document will now be a published document in Governing Documents.

Version and Revision

The version is the SharePoint versioning system for a document library. The revision only contains what a SharePoint version would call a major version, which is the published version of a document.

The version has a minor version for each document and changes made to the document. The revision is updated only when a document is approved and published to governing documents.

Document Management

The specialized document library contains some functions for adding and maintaining documents in a structured way. You can interact with existing files by

1. Clicking + New document to create a new document profile
2. Clicking the document name to open the document
3. Clicking the three dots to open the dropdown menu

Creating a New Document Profile

To create a new document profile, click + New document at the top left corner, below the search field. A form will now open on the right side of the screen.

Create from

This is a central choice when creating a new document in Document Profile.

Template - List of system templates that contain the company's approved color scheme and metadata placeholders for use in future documents. This should be the basis for all Word documents in the document profile.

If the document is likely to be imported into projects (usually working documents for projects or the CRM hub), select the system templates with "Workspace" in them. These documents will include the metadata for the workspace document number and revision, not just the document number and revision generated in Document Profile.

Profile - List of all documents in the Document Profile library. Use this to base the new document on an existing document in the system. It will use the base content to create a brand new file with its own content and metadata.

Attachment - Select a file from your local storage that you want to upload to the document profile, which can be approved to become a governing document. You can revise the attachment file at any time by clicking edit and then replacing the file. The document will get the status draft and must then be sent on a new workflow to be published in governing documents.

Next Revision Date

This date field is optional, but allows you to set reminders for the revision of certain documents that must be revised at a certain frequency or describe a case that is subject to frequent changes. This can cause the content to become outdated if it is not maintained regularly.

A reminder will be sent to the document responsible 30, 14, and 7 days before the set date (provided that the document has not received a new revision date by then).

Verifier / Approver

The users set in these fields are people with quality assurance and/or leadership roles who will decide whether a document is good enough to be published or not. The fields are, however, not locked and can be changed after the document is created and before the document is sent for approval.

Editing a Document Profile

There are two types of changes you can make to a document. The first is to make changes to the document itself, and the second is to edit the document's properties. Both of these actions will result in a minor version increase and require the document to be approved in order for the changes to be published in Governing Documents.

Editing the Document

To edit a document, simply click on the document name. This will prompt the application to open the document directly for editing.

Editing Document Properties

To edit the document properties, click on "Edit document" from the document's dropdown menu. This will open the editing form on the right side.

From here, you can change most of the details you can specify when creating the file, except for department and document category.

Workflow

The workflow is a central feature in the document profile library. It is a two-level approval process, where an originator initiates the workflow by sending a verification request to a verifier who then marks the document as ready to be reviewed by the final role – approver.

The workflow ensures that all files are quality assured and approved by the correct personnel before they are published to governing documents and made available to the entire company.

Originator

The originator is the person who starts the workflow. It is usually (but not necessarily) the same user who is responsible for the document.

Sent for Approval

To start the workflow, select Send for verification and approval in the document profile's dropdown menu. This will open the approval request form on the right side.

Verifier

The verifier is the person who is tasked with reviewing the document before it is sent to the approver and thus published. The verifier's function is to

• Reduce the time spent by the approver reviewing the document
• Reduce the chance of missing something by having an extra set of eyes before approval

The verifier can find the approval task on My Page, from one of the notifications distributed via e-mail or Teams, or directly from the document profile.

The verifier can see the originator's comment under the document details and open the document by clicking on the document title.

If the verifier rejects, the workflow will be reset and the Document Status will be set to Rejected. If the verifier approves, the workflow will continue to the approver.

Approver

The approver is the one who receives the approval task from the originator. The approver's task is to be the decisive link that determines whether the document is published to Governing Documents or not.

The approver can find the approval tasks on My Page, from one of the notifications distributed via e-mail or Teams, or directly from the document profile.

In the approval form, the approver can see the originator's comment and the verifier's approval comment. The document can be accessed by clicking on the Document Title link.

If the document is rejected, the workflow will be reset and the Document Status will be set to Rejected. If the document has been approved, it will be published to governing documents with the current metadata, document version, and published in the file format defined in Publishing Format. In the document profile library, the document will

• Increase the major version and reset the minor version to 0
• Increase the revision
• Set document status to Published

A notification will also be sent to the originator via email and Teams.

Publishing Format

If you select PDF, the document will be converted to a PDF file when it is published to the governing documents library.

If you select Original, the document will be published in the current document type when it is published to the Governing Documents library.

There is also a limitation that is warned about when you hover over the warning icon.

The publishing format can only be set for the first approval of the document. All future approvals will publish the document in the format it was first published as.

Invalidation, Version and Revision History for a Document

Revision History

The revision history shows all major changes in the document's status regarding interaction.

To open the revision history, select Revision History from the dropdown menu in the document profile.

Each history entry is generated with

• The user who performed the action
• The date the action occurred
• The version and revision after the action was performed

A history entry is generated for

• When the document was created
• Initiated workflows
• Verification and approval that was rejected or approved
• Workflow that was cancelled or resent
• Published events

Version History

In the dropdown menu, you will also have access to the detailed version history. Here, all column changes are displayed and you have access to view documents in previous versions.

To view the version history of a document profile, click the dropdown menu and select Version History.

The version history will begin loading in an overlay in the middle of the browser window. Here you can see all changes made to a document at every stage of the change history. You can read more about SharePoint version history in the official Microsoft documentation linked below, but here are some key features:

• View the document content's previous minor or major versions. Inside the Office application (such as Word), you can then see an overview of the changes
• Column changes performed by actions in the document. Many of these are hidden columns used only by the code to track values in the workflow
• Monitor file size changes per version (to identify where a large image was inserted, for example)
• Restore previous versions to the current version

Microsoft Version history

Void documents

Even users with the highest permission cannot remove a document from the document profile library by deleting it in the traditional way. A document in the document profile is considered controlled in several ways, and to remove it, it must be invalidated/voided. The document will then be removed from the document profile and governing documents.

A document is invalidated by having a manager or a colleague approve that it is okay to remove the document. Invalidation is started from the dropdown menu for the document profile.

Edit the due date if it is not urgent and add a comment explaining to the approver why it should be invalidated. The default value in the approver field will be the user defined as approver.

An approval task is sent to the approver you have set, and they can open the approval form from the task in My Page or from one of the notifications the system receives regarding the request.

On this page, the approver can either approve or reject the invalidation request based on the document information and the originator's comment.

Accessing Voided Documents

In Business Online, documents can be marked as voided. These documents are no longer active, but remain available for review and traceability. Voided documents can be found under Governing Documents in the QHSE module.

At the top of the document list, you will find a dropdown with predefined views. Open the dropdown and select the Voided Documents view to show only documents that have been voided. The checkmark indicates which view is currently active. To return to the full overview, select the All Documents view again from the same dropdown.

A voided document cannot be edited. It is retained solely for documentation and audit trail purposes.

Cancel or Resend

If the verifier or approver has not yet processed the workflow, there is a function to cancel the workflow or resend it. The reason for this can be anything, but is usually related to

• You find errors you want to fix after the workflow has started
• Notify users again whom you want to review and approve

Select Cancel or Resend from the document profile's dropdown menu.

The Cancel or Resend form will appear on the right side after confirming the selection.

The form will show information about the document and workflow status. Click the icons Cancel or Resend to stop or resend the workflow tasks.

The document status will be updated to Workflow Cancelled if you choose to cancel it. The status remains the same if it is resent.