The Workflow Documents accessed from a review or approve list in the Folder view. feature provides the ability to ensure a document is reviewed and approved before it is released to Viewer Viewers are users with Read-only access to documents. They can access documents and submit feedback to editors. Workflows can be created and configured with considerable flexibility to ensure they meet the review and approval requirements for any organization.
Using Workflow
The Workflow feature is optional and can be turned on or off via the Admin tab in Manager An Admin user who can manage and assign feedback, workflows, document, images etc.. If it is turned on you will see a Workflow tab in Manager.
Note: By default, your Panviva instance will have Workflow turned on.
The main steps for using Workflows are:
Workflow guidelines
When an author submits a document for review or approval:
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The reviewers/approvers receive a message notifying them that a document requires their review/approval; and
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A Waiting for review or Waiting for approval folder displays at the top of the Folders view in their Viewer.
As an author, be aware that changes made to a workflow or to a document while the workflow is in progress can cause some disruptions.
Workflow features
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Many workflows can be created with different reviewers and/or approvers set for each workflow.
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A workflow can be assigned at a document or folder level.
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Reviewers and approvers:
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Are able to complete the review/approve process entirely from within Viewer.
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Can add inline comments to specific parts of a document.
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Can add a general comment as part of a review/approval process.
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Can see the changes since the document was last released.
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Can see comments by previous reviewers/approvers.
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Authors can see all comments made by all reviewers/approvers.
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Comments are never shown to the Viewer users who are not reviewers/approvers for that document.
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The system can report on which documents have been reviewed/approved and by whom and when.
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Automatic reminders can be sent to reviewers/approvers.
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Workflow reports show you scheduled reviews, workflow audits, pending workflows and the status of workflows.
Workflow reports
Workflow reports are useful in managing your workflows. There are four reports available to you:
|
Report |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Scheduled review |
Shows which documents have scheduled reviews assigned. Filters. |
|
Workflow audit |
Shows the workflow history of a document. Filters. |
|
Workflow pending |
Shows documents that are waiting for review or approve. Filters. |
|
Workflow status |
Shows the status of all documents, whether they have a workflow applied or not. Filters. |
Related content
Tip: It is best to take a pro-active approach to managing your workflows. Therefore, use the following scenarios to help you determine a routine:
Implementing Panviva for the first time
Whether it is the first implementation for your organization or the first implementation for another department, the two most useful reports are:
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Workflow pending: shows you which documents have not yet been reviewed or approved - i.e. they are pending these actions.
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Workflow status: shows you all status types. You can easily sort by status type to see what is reviewed, approved, etc.
You will likely have a lot of documents in workflows during an initial implementation, so these reports will make your life a lot easier to get a quick status of document workflows.
It is a good idea to run this report daily until the final approvals are finished and the content is fully released to your users.
Audits
In the event you have an internal or external audit in which the auditor wants to see whether the information your users access has gone through an official review and approve process, the Workflow audit report is the one you want.
Run this report on the document(s) for which you need to show review and approve history.
Regularly scheduled reviews
When you have Scheduled reviews set up, the author receives a reminder that a scheduled review is coming up. This allows the author to ensure the workflow reviewers/approvers are still valid before the reviewers receive their notice that the document is waiting for review.
If you have a lot of scheduled reviews it is a good idea to run this report at least monthly. This allows you to plan ahead for the time it might take to validate workflows.