Add Stages to a Template

Contents

• Overview
• Pre-conditions
• Steps
• Supplementary Information
• Notes

Overview

A template workflow, and by that extent the workflows of all attached documents to it,  is comprised of its stages.

Two default stages are Draft (where a document can be edited) and Release (where a document is finalized and cannot be edited).

A stage can be configured to:

• Have a specific deadline.
• Allow document editing.
• Be mandatory (cannot be skipped) or be optional.
• Have approvers, optional or mandatory.
  
  

Stage Deadline

To ensure that document users have a timeline to aim for to ultimately complete the document and have it ready for publishing on the Policy Portal, stage deadlines can be set across the workflow stages.

On the template level, that can mean that the 1st drafting stage has 30 days towards its deadline, the 2nd drafting stage has 14 days towards its own deadline.

What that means on the document level is that if a document enters a new drafting cycle on the 1st of January, it has until the 31st of January to complete its current/1st drafting stage, and until the 14th of February to complete its 2nd stage deadline.

 

Nothing by default actually occurs if the deadline is not met, it's at the heart simply an organizational tool to ensure the document is worked and reviewed on in various aspects in a timely manner to aim for a timely release and publishing.

Deadlines on the document level can also be manually edited so as to allow for extensions.

 

A supplementary tool that assists in making relevant document users aware of an incoming deadline is the automation tool, which can email specified users and stakeholders of an approaching stage deadline, so that relevant team actions be taken to speed up document progress.

Restricting Editing at a Particular Stage

If at a particular stage document must not be edited, the ability to edit a document at a certain stage can be restricted.

Mandatory or Optional Stage

A stage can be set to be mandatory (so it cannot be skipped along the document workflow) or optional.

Note that a stage can be set mandatory without adding any approvers from the template level (not that on a document level approvers can't be manually added as that can be done).

Mandatory or Optional Approvals

A stage can be set to have specified users and groups automatically added as approvers once the stage is moved to from an associated document.

These approvers can be individually set as mandatory or optional.

Once the template is released, document owners will not be able to remove those approvers from the document.

In the case where a group is an approver, any member of the group approves on behalf of the entire group.

Pre-conditions

• System Level Permission: 'Create Templates', 'System Administration'.
• Document Level Permission for Template: 'Owner'.

Steps

1. Click File from the menubar.
2. Select Template settings.
3. Select Set stages.
   
4. Hover over the stages.
5. Click on the Add new stage icon that appears in between the current stages. Repeat the action to add multiple stages.
6. Click on the newly added stage to configure of any of the below stage settings:
   
   • Update Stage name;
   • Select duration under the Deadline field:
     • Fixed number of days: 7, 14, 30 or 60 days;
     • Custom number of days;
   • Tick the box for Ability to edit document or keep it unticked;
   • Tick the box for Mandatory stage or keep it unticked.
   • Specify any stage approvers (users or groups).
     • Decide for each one of them, whether their approval is optional or mandatory.
       • A mandatory approver doesn't necessarily make the stage mandatory, they are separate aspects.
7. Click Save*.

Supplementary Information

Selecting layouts for stages

Each custom stage can have a layout selected for it, which essentially is a selector of screens, filtering what metadata fields are displayed and editable for the Document Owners.

Automations

Automations can be configured to use any selectable trigger, whether it's a stage change or stage deadline, to streamline document workflows by automatically executing an action when the specified stage is reached or a specified timing relative to the stage deadline is reached.

With this in mind, it's key to be aligned with the owners of the documents created from your template to ensure that the appropriate stage change-based or stage deadline-based automations are configured to send email notifications to the correct stakeholders whenever either of the respective document triggers are met.

Notes