Example: Processing inquiries
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F2 Signed Approval automates specific processes that follow final approvals. F2 automatically creates a new record with a signed copy of a document from the original approval record using so-called signature phrases.
The standardised process presented in the following sections is an example of how F2 Signed Approval can be implemented. This standardised process concerns an inquiry from a citizen submitted via email to an authority.
The example presents the best practice for using the add-on module. An administrator setting up the add-on can use the example as inspiration as to how signed approvals can be used in F2.
The process consists of the following steps:
This example involves the use of case templates and requests, but neither are strictly required to use signed approvals. Read more on the required setup of F2 Signed Approval.
The following example involves two users:
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Myles McDougall who works in the minister’s secretariat and receives incoming inquiries.
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Penelope Poole who is employed in an office that handles inquiries into political questions specifically.
1. An inquiry is received and assigned a case
A citizen has sent a question to the minister. F2 is set up so that citizen inquiries are placed in the secretariat’s inbox, which Myles is in charge of checking. He opens the email and clicks Edit to switch to edit mode. If the sender is unknown, F2 will suggest creating the sender as a participant in the participant register via the dialogue “Create participants in the participant register”. Myles clicks Create participants.
Next step is attaching the email to a new case. Myles enters a “+” in the “Case” field on the record and presses Enter. The “New case” dialogue opens. He selects the most relevant available case template, “Citizen’s inquiries”, which automatically adds the sender of the email to the “Case participants” field. Myles fills in the remaining template fields and clicks OK to create the new case.
Myles saves the record. The record is now on the case, and the citizen is added as a case participant.
2. The task of replying is assigned using a request
Myles has to hand over the task of replying to the inquiry to an appropriate colleague or unit. He creates a new request on the email by clicking New request. The “New request” dialogue opens, and Myles adds his colleague, Penelope Poole, to the “Recipient” field. He also had the option of adding her unit, “Politics”, or a different colleague. Myles fills in the remaining fields of the request and clicks Send to send it to Penelope.
3. The request is accepted and an answer record created
Penelope receives the request record in her inbox. From here she can view both the original inquiry and Myles' request. Penelope opens the record, and the request window automatically opens. She accepts the request and then clicks Create answer record.
In the “Choose answer type” dialogue, Penelope clicks Approval to create an answer record with an approval flow.
The “New record” dialogue opens. Penelope selects the relevant approval template from the “Approval template” drop-down menu. Other fields in the dialogue have been automatically filled in by F2 based on information from the request. Penelope clicks OK to create the record with the selected approval flow.
F2 creates the answer record and its approval flow.
The box “Create reply when approval is final” is ticked in the approval template. This ensures that F2 automatically creates a record containing the reply once the reply has been finally approved.
4. A reply is written based on a document template
Penelope wants to attach a document template to the approval record. She clicks New document from template in the record ribbon to use a template for inquiry replies.
Penelope selects the relevant template in the “Select document template” dialogue and clicks OK.
The document template contains relevant merge codes and phrases including a signature phrase. Penelope writes the reply to the inquiry in the document.
Additionally, the document template is set up to be attached to records created automatically upon final approvals. This setup is done by ticking the box “Include upon reply creation when approval is final” in the document’s properties.
5. An approval flow is started for the reply
Once Penelope has completed the reply to the inquiry and saved the document on the record, she can start the approval flow. She clicks Start in the right side of the record window, and the approval is sent to the first approver.
6. The reply is approved
The approval passes through the steps of the approval flow until the final approver clicks Final approval. Penelope then receives the approval record and the automatically created record in her inbox.
F2 has automatically:
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created a record with a copy of the approved document attached. The signature phrase and any other information have been merged into the document.
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added the citizen as a recipient in the “To” field on the newly created record, readying it for sending.
7. The answer record is sent
Penelope opens the automatically created record to send as a reply to the citizen. The signature phrase and other merge fields have been merged with the document. The citizen has been added as a recipient in the “To” field of the record. Penelope adds the relevant unit in the authority as the sender in the “From” field.
Penelope has the option of writing a message in the record document before sending. She can also select the format of the attached document, i.e. whether to send a Word or PDF document (requires the F2 Metadata Remover add-on - documentation available in Danish).
Penelope clicks Send to send the record to the citizen.
8. The request is finalised
When the request is executed, the record on which Myles created the request is returned to his inbox. In the request window, he finds the link (1) to the answer record with an approval flow where he can read the reply. Myles finalises the request (2).
