SharePoint document review and approval workflow

With Microsoft SharePoint’s document review and approval workflow, your information management could become even easier than before. This function can be easily implemented using SharePoint’s metadata columns, data management standards, and workflows. Working with Valto’s SharePoint support team, managing your data is a breeze.

The ISO 9001 certification process for document management is complicated. One of these requirements is that papers have a designated owner, and a planned review cycle, so that the document owner reviews the document on a regular basis to ensure that all content in the system is accurate and up to date.

Step 1: Create document library columns

As the first step in implementing Microsoft SharePoint document review, the appropriate columns must be added to the document library. The following columns should be present:

Document Owner: A Person or Group field used to identify the person or group in charge of evaluating the document.

Last Review Date: A date/time column indicates the last time the document was reviewed.

Review Frequency: The number of days since the last review of the document.

Next Review Date: This is a calculated category based on the most recent review analysis and review frequency.

Step 2: Create a workflow process

The second component is the workflow procedure. When a document needs to be evaluated, an alert is sent to the Document Owner, and a task is created. With SharePoint training from Valto, you can be confident that your entire team is prepared to get the most out of the SharePoint document review and approval workflow process.

When the Document Owner reads the task, reviews the document, makes any necessary changes, and marks the item as finished, the workflow is complete. When the process is finished with the current date, it automatically updates the Last Review Date property, which then modifies the Next Review Date for the next cycle.

Step 3: Automatically trigger your workflow

As the final element, the workflow will be automatically triggered. The SharePoint Information Policy settings can be used to start the workflow automatically on a regular Date/Time column.

However, because “Next Review Date” is a computed field that determines when the document review procedure should begin, the document must execute a small piece of custom code.

The line of code is: Expiration.SetExpirationDateForItem(item, NextRenewalDate, false).

The scenario above shows another example of how SharePoint can be used to meet actual business requirements. The majority of the criteria are usually met by out-of-the-box functionality, which constitutes the vast majority of the solution. As is often the case, a tiny piece of custom code is then used to fill in the remaining gaps and complete the solution.

SharePoint document review via Email

When there are multiple reviewers working on a paper, constant emailing back and forth between them can be time-consuming and error-prone. When dealing with multiple changed copies of the same document, the review procedure can be especially time-consuming. When updates are sent via email, it is not only difficult but also time-consuming and inefficient to ensure that all changes are merged into a single final document.

Because there is a chance that someone will conduct their assessment of a document using an outdated or earlier version, or worse, finalising an inaccurate version, sending documents via email may put you in perilous territory.

One benefit of using emails for this procedure is that they are immediately received, allowing coworkers to be notified in real-time that their evaluation is required. Working with SharePoint for document review, on the other hand, has additional benefits, such as the ability to control the review process and provide real-time notifications through alerts and workflows.

Sharepoint Document Review flow diagram

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