When a document needs to be removed from circulation it can be 'Set as Inactive'. This action archives the document in the 'Inactive' documents area, and stops all tasks and notifications related to it. Inactive documents can be viewed, retrieved or reinstated at any time with the appropriate permissions.
The 'Expiry Date' field is intended for documents which need to be automatically archived after a certain date. It is not to be used as a deadline for a document review or to create the next version, since the document will disappear for most users.
Inactivating Documents Manually or by Using 'Expiry Date'
This article covers the following topics:
- Permissions
- Searching for Inactive Documents
- Using the Action 'Set as Inactive'
- Setting an 'Expiry Date'
- Reactivating an Inactive Document
Permissions
There are no preferences in the Settings area which relate to inactive documents, but permissions are required to change the state of documents or access inactive ones.
To have access to inactive documents, the general permission, "Records:View Inactive Records" is required.
To be able to change the state of a document between active or inactive, there is one permission for each type of document:
- "COSHHs:Enable/Disable"
- "Documents:Enable/Disable"
- "External Documents:Enable/Disable"
- "Health And Safeties:Enable/Disable"
- "Job Descriptions:Enable/Disable"
- "Policies:Enable/Disable"
- "SOPs:Enable/Disable"
These permissions are included in the system 'Global Editor' roles and each one is included in the corresponding document type 'Editor' role. For example, the role 'SOP Editor' contains the permission "SOPs:Enable/Disable".
Searching for Inactive Documents
The search area for Controlled Documents must be expanded to reveal the 'State' field, which filters 'Active' or 'Inactive' documents.
Using the Action 'Set as Inactive'
Documents can be set as inactive while in any status - draft, pending authorisation, pending release, authorised, under review, or superseded.
In all cases, this can be performed by selecting the option from the 'Actions' dropdown menu.
Upon selecting the option 'Set as Inactive' and clicking 'Go', the following pop-up window appears:
A 'Reason for inactivation' should be entered in the text field for future reference.
You can choose to 'Inactivate All Previous Versions' by ticking the checkbox for this field. If left unticked, only the opened version from which the action is being performed will be inactivated.
Once you click 'Continue' the screen will refresh and the legend under the document title will indicate the State and Status of the document.
The Action in the dropdown menu will toggle to 'Set as Active' to allow reinstating the document at any time.
Setting an 'Expiry Date'
If there is a known date when a document should be removed from circulation, it can be scheduled to happen automatically on a specified date.
The 'Expiry Date' field sets the document as inactive on the declared date.
It only inactivates the version in which the date is set.
Document owners get notified one month in advance so they can confirm, change or remove the expiry date if required.
If the expiry date on a document has lapsed, it can be set as active again, but a recurring system process will spot the lapsed date and return it to inactive. The expiry date must be amended or removed to keep the document active.
| Note |
| We have received support requests relating to end-users misinterpreting the 'Expiry Date' field as a deadline for some other activity, like a review deadline for a document or the date when a new version should replace it. As you can expect, the documents had disappeared from view when they were automatically inactivated. This field is mainly provided for use in locations where by law, certain documents must be removed from circulation after a given period. The 'Expiry Date' field can also be used for documents such as contracts or, for example, to remove a procedure on a planned date because new equipment, with a new procedure, will be commissioned by then. To remove documents from circulation, as an additional measure, once they become superseded, it might be safer to inactivate them manually once the new version is in circulation, in case the publishing process gets delayed. |
Using 'Document Correction' to set an Expiry Date
The 'Expiry Date' field can normally only be edited when the document is in draft state, which might be too early to know when the document should be inactivated. If 'Document Correction' is enabled in the OU where the document resides and the end-user has the required permissions, this tool can be used to set or edit the 'Expiry Date' of documents in the following states (the ones in which 'Document Correction' is allowed):
- Authorised
- Pending Release
- Under Review
Setting an Expiry Date, through 'Document Correction' also only inactivates the version for which the expiry date is set.
Reactivating an Inactive Document
Inactive documents can be put back into circulation by using the Action 'Set as Active'. The document will be reinstated in the same condition as when it was inactivated, but some tasks will have been invalidated and will have to be recreated.
Skill confirmation tasks (reading tasks) will have been invalidated but if the staff are still on the list in the 'Skilled' tab and they don't have a current confirmed skill record, new tasks will be issued to them.
If the document is within its review window or the latest review is overdue, the review cycle will be automatically restarted, usually overnight.
The following video illustrates the information above:
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