The information on this page only applies when aggregation based disposal is being used. When managing at the record level please refer to the following page Disposal Approval.
Introduction
Disposal Approval takes place in two stages in Records365: first, the Records Manager assigns an Approver for one or more records that have reached the end of their retention period. Second, the Disposal Approver signs off on the disposal by either approving or rejecting the items assigned to them. Once completed the Records Manager can then complete the destruction of approved items.
Sending for Approval
Many organizations require approval from one or more users prior to destruction. You can select one or more items up for disposal and Send for Approval, assigning Approvers by their email address or by their Security Profile in Records365. When sending records for Approval, the process is as follows:
- A draft email is created using the default mail client for the currently logged in user to all of the specified approvers. The draft can be refined and tailored to meet the Records Manager’s needs. A link will be included in the draft to take the Approvers directly to the My Disposal View in order to complete the Disposal Approval process.
- All of the selected items will be assigned the specified approvers and will only be available to those users for approval. Records Managers can override the approval – this will mean that they will then be tracked as the Approver.
Assigning an approver does not automatically grant those users access to Records365. Users need to be a member of a Security Profile that includes the Approve Disposals action. See Security Profiles for more information.
To send records for Disposal Approval:
- Navigate to the Unactioned view on the Disposal page
- Select one or more records that are ready to be sent for approval. A few things to consider:
- Using the dropdown on the far right you can switch between the different aggregation types
- Using the checkbox in the header row of the grid will select all items on that page.
- Aggregations can be grouped using the filtering feature on each of the configured columns, allowing for multiple items to be sent for approval in the most efficient manner.
- Using the dropdown on the far right you can switch between the different aggregation types
- Click on the Send for Approval icon.
- The side panel will open to the right of the screen for you to select either an email address or a Records365 Security Profile for the Disposal Approver. To fill out additional approvers, click Add Approver again. Any of the Approvers listed by email address or any member of a Security Profile listed can complete the disposal approval process for these records. Click on the Manage Users & Groups link underneath a Security Profile to see the list of users and groups that are members of this security profile.
- Add an option message to the approver, this content will be added to the email which which is sent to the approver.
- Click Send. An email will be sent to the approver(s).
- Once sent for approval the items will no longer be available in the Unactioned view. Items that have been sent for approval can then be seen in the following views:
- The My Approval View, for the user(s) that the item was sent to for approval.
- The Pending Approval view, for all Records Managers that can manage disposals.
Approving Items
Once a user has been assigned items for disposal approval, they will receive an email containing a link to the My Approval View which lists all their assigned items.
Users that have exclusively been assigned the role of Approve Disposals can then access the My Approval View within Records365 to perform disposal authorization. These users will only have access to the features within Records365 required to carry out the approval.
Searching and viewing records within Records365 will not be available by default, however, if they do require this feature it can be enabled by including the Search Records permission in their associated security profile. For more information see the Security Profiles page.
To approve or reject items for Disposal:
- Navigate to the Disposal page in Records365.
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Select one or more items and click the Manage Approval button.
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Select the approval decision and enter any additional information in the Reason field. When Rejecting an item the Reason field is mandatory as it is used to help the Records Manager take the appropriate next steps for the item.
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Once items have been either approved or rejected they will be available for Records Managers to take the next steps. Items will no longer be displayed on the My Approval view, and can now be found on one of the following views;
- The Approval Pending view, for items that were rejected for disposal.
- The Ready for Disposal view, for items that have been approved for disposal.
Tracking Approvals
Once items have been sent for approval, keeping track of outstanding approvals can be hard. Items sent for approval will no longer appear in the Unactioned, and will now appear in both the Approval Pending, for Records Managers, and My Approval View for the assigned approvers. The Approval Pending view displays both items pending approval as well as items that have been rejected.
The Pending Approval view aims to help Records Managers with the following tasks:
- Follow up on outstanding approvals, by filtering on the Sent for Approval column.
- Change the assigned approver for records, which may occur when the original assignee has moved to another department and or is no longer the custodian of the content. Which is performed using the Resend for Approval button.
- Allow the Records Manager to become the approver themselves, by using the Dispose button from the Pending tab. This requires the user to belong to a security profile with Approve Disposals access.
- Find all items currently assigned to a particular user for approval, through the use of filtering on the Approver(s) column.
- Triage rejected items, filtering on the Approval Status column allows you to find items that have been rejected. Used in conjunction with the Comments columns the appropriate next steps can be taken.
Disposing approved items
Once items have been authorized for disposal, Records Managers can complete the disposal as per the below steps:
- Navigate to the Ready for Disposal tab
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Select the items for disposal, and click the Dispose button.
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Enter Disposal Comments and tick the checkbox confirming that any physical records have been destroyed, then click ‘Dispose’. Disposal Comments are required to proceed with final disposal.
This now completes the process of disposing of items with additional approval. To view the disposal information for an item or check the status of the disposal please refer to the Aggregation Based Disposal documentation.
Things to consider:
- Assigning Disposal Approvers does not automatically grant those users access to Records365. Users need to be a member of a Security Profile that includes the Approve Disposals action. See Security Profiles for more information.
- The above information applies to all aggregation types in Records365, namely record folders/files and boxes.