An organized document stack requires time and energy to update, tag, export, and change ownership of documents. We’ll discuss all functions related to document management in this article.

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Some documents, once created, will never need to be changed, especially if you uploaded the original file during creation. But inevitably, many documents will change and evolve over time as your organization and products grow and develop. You’ll hear and see different terms for updating documents based on the current phase of the document. Below are instructions for editing drafts, reverting documents to draft status, and up-versioning effective documents, whether they’re Qualio documents or documents created using the Upload Format.

A document can only be edited by the owner/author of that document, and only Normal and Quality users can create/edit documents. If you need to edit a document you do not own, you’ll need to change the document ownership.

Editing a draft follows the same basic steps, whether it’s a document created in Qualio using the editor or using the Upload format. First, identify the draft document by browsing the Document Workspace and filtering for Your Documents in a Draft status.

Document authors can add comments to text while viewing or editing their draft documents before sending the document for review. Learn more about adding comments here.

Qualio now makes it easier than ever to work with others on your documents! As a document owner, you can invite colleagues to contribute as editors, streamlining the authoring and updating process.

Here's how it works:

Once a draft document has been sent for review or approval, you should consider the draft as “locked” and cannot be edited without reverting the document to a Draft status. Reverting a document to draft status will require the document to be resent for review and/or approval.

However, if a reviewer or approver leaves a comment for the document author, the document does not need to be reverted to draft in order to reply to the comment.

To revert a document to draft, identify it by browsing the Document Workspace and filter for either Your Documents or All Documents (Quality and Normal users can revert documents they don’t own back to Draft) and either the For Review or For Approval status.

Then, you can mass or single-select documents from the Workspace by checking the box and clicking the Revert to Draft button, or you can click the individual document to open and click the Revert to Draft button from that view.

You can then edit the draft document as described above.

Note for Upload format: While the source file can still be downloaded (by permitted users) during For Review or For Approval statuses, an updated file can only be added while in Draft.

Effective documents must also be put into a draft status before editing so that any changes to the document can be reviewed and/or approved. Quality and Normal user roles can create a new draft from an effective document called "upversioning."

First, identify the effective document by browsing the Documents Workspace and filtering for either Your Documents or All Documents in an Effective status.

Then, you can single-select a document from the Workspace by checking the box and clicking the Create New Draft button.

You can also click the individual document to open it and click the Create New Draft button from that view.

You can then edit the draft document as described above.

If you have an existing Qualio with an attachment you would like to change to the upload format, this can be done if the document is version 1.0 or greater.

To transition to the upload format, follow the steps below:

To convert a previously uploaded document into a fully editable Qualio document, follow these steps:

Qualio uses a built-in Change Control (CC) form on the Change Control tab of the document to assist users with logging all document changes. As you manage, edit, and upversion your document stack, you may need to investigate change control (CC) records and understand when and how new CC records are created and closed.

A new CC record is created and related to every new draft document. And just like the associated document, it can only be edited when the document is in Draft status. Once the document is sent for review and/or approval, both the document and CC record are locked. If the document needs to be reverted to Draft status for further revisions before being approved and made effective, then the related CC record will also be unlocked allowing users to add to the CC record.

When a document becomes effective, the related CC record is closed and cannot be reopened or modified. If a new document version needs to be created, a new CC record will be created and related to the new draft document.

CC records can be viewed and opened from either the document’s Change Control tab or by opening the Change Control Report, which lists all CC records with creation and closed dates. Click here for more information about the Change Control Report.

An organization’s Change Control form is controlled by the Change Control template and can be modified by Quality Users. Additional CC templates cannot be created. To view and/or modify your CC template, browse to the Organization Settings. Select Change Control on the left-side menu, and click the Change Control template to open.

Like document templates, sections can be added, removed, and rearranged on the Change Control template to meet your organization’s requirements.

When managing a document through multiple updates and versions, it can be helpful to view a document against previous versions of that document. However, documents cannot be edited while comparing versions.

When viewing the document, you can select which version to display and which version to compare it against. New content will be highlighted in green, and removed content will be shown in red.

A document’s version number is automatically incremented and controlled by triggers within the document lifecycle to update either the major or minor version.

Keeping track of document revisions just got easier! Qualio now provides a detailed history of all activities related to your documents, giving you full visibility into the evolution of your SOPs, work instructions, and more. With the new document history feature in Qualio, you can confidently manage your documents, knowing that you have a complete and accessible record of every step in their development.

Here's what's new:

Single documents can be exported to PDF, whether generated in Qualio or using the Upload Format. Document list views can be exported to either PDF, CSV, or XLSX. Bulk downloading PDF documents is not currently available but something our Product Team is investigating.

Every user can export a single Qualio document to PDF. However, depending on the user’s role and the document's status, there are two export options: Controlled or Uncontrolled copy.

To export a single document to PDF, start by opening the document and clicking the Export button. From the options dialogue box, select the type of export (if applicable), the page orientation, and whether a cover page should be included. Then click the Export Document button, and the PDF will be auto-downloaded.

Note: If your document contains attachments, clicking Export Document will initiate two automatic downloads. The first will be the PDF of the document in its entirety, and the second will be a .zip file containing all attachments.

The PDF header includes the document name, ID, and version number. It is possible to export a previous version of a document by first selecting the version to display and then following the instructions to export above. However, a “Superseded document” watermark will appear across all pages of the PDF.

The cover page provides helpful information, including the author, reviewers, and approvers, approval and effective dates, and the next periodic review. If your organization’s logo has been set up in the Organization Settings, it will also be included.

Users can also export lists of documents that function as indexes from either the Document Library or Workspace. Using different status, ownership, and tag filters, targeted lists of documents can be created.

If the export takes too long, users can continue working in Qualio. You'll be notified when the export is ready for download.

Users can preview and download the attachments from Qualio documents. The preview functionality supports .docx, .pdf, .png, .jpeg file types. All attachments can be downloaded and appear as hyperlinks, displaying the file extension. To preview, simply click the link to the attachment, and a modal will display the attachment content and give you the options to zoom in or out, adjust infinite scrolling/pagination, download, and print.

As users, roles, and responsibilities change in your organization, so will document ownership. Not only does document ownership allow you to edit a document, but as the owner, you’ll receive notifications of new comments, upcoming periodic reviews, and other crucial document lifecycle updates.

While bulk ownership changes are easy within Qualio, this does not have to precede a user’s removal/termination because the user removal process already prompts for the reassignment of documents and events.

Only Quality users can change a document’s owner to either themselves or another Quality or Normal user.

To change a document’s owner, first, identify the document by browsing the Document Workspace and filtering for All Documents and the correct document status, or use the search bar.

Then, you can mass or single-select documents from the Workspace by checking the box(es) and clicking the Change Owner button. Select the new owner from the dropdown and click Apply Changes.

Document ownership can also be changed when viewing the individual document and clicking the 3-dot menu (⋮). Select Change Owner, then select the new document owner from the dropdown and click Apply Changes.

As you create and engage with documents in different phases, you’ll see that document authors and document owners are identified, but what is the difference?

It is common to see a department/Quality Manager as the document owner of all approved documents, although other department members create and contribute many documents.

Part of managing your document stack may include deleting draft documents and retiring effective documents to keep your Document Workspace neat and tidy. Normal and Quality users can delete draft documents they own by opening the document, clicking the 3-dot menu (⋮), and then selecting the Delete option.

You’ll be prompted to confirm your action and its impact on your document. Deleting a draft will revert the document to its most recently effective version. Example: If draft version 4.3 is deleted, minor versions 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3 will also be deleted. All three minor versions can be accessed from the Deleted Drafts section of the Document Workspace. See below for restoring deleted drafts.

Deleted drafts will be retained in Qualio for 90 days. Normal users can recover deleted drafts they have created, and quality users can recover any deleted draft, regardless of ownership.

Deleted Drafts can be recovered by:

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Once the restored document is approved, any formerly deleted drafts will no longer be available in the “Deleted Drafts” area of the Document Workspace.

Notes on Change Control Report (CC-#) for Drafts:

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