A written page in your knowledge base: a standard operating procedure, a policy, or a how-to that staff can be pointed at.
When to use it
When a procedure that lives in somebody's head needs writing down, or when a policy changes and the written version has to be brought up to date.
Before you start
- The Knowledge Category you want to file it under.
- Any form, checklist or scan you want to attach.
- You need create rights on this screen.
Where to find it
Knowledge and Training > Article / SOP.
The Knowledge and Training group is switched off in the main menu for now, so the entry is not shown. Until it is switched back on, open the screen from a link someone sends you or from a saved bookmark.
The fields on this screen
| Field (on screen) | What to enter | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Title | Name of this article or procedure. It is what readers see in the list, so keep it short and specific. | No |
| Category | The category this article is filed under. Categories are the tree readers browse the knowledge base by. | No |
| Summary | A line or two saying what this article covers. Keep the detail itself for the Body below. | No |
| Body | (not explained yet) | No |
| Format | (not explained yet) | No |
| Status | Draft, In review, Published or Archived. It records where the article stands; it does not hide the article. | No |
| Visibility | Who the article is meant for: Public, Internal or Role-based. Actual access is set by user rights. | No |
| Effective Date | Date this article's content takes effect. It is kept for your own records; nothing acts on it. | No |
| Review Date | Date this article is next due for review. Nothing reminds you, so keep your own watch on it. | No |
| Attachment | Attach a form, checklist or scan that goes with this article. | No |
| Active | (not explained yet) | No |
How it works
Saving files the article under its category, where readers browse for it. An article becomes part of training when a Lesson points at it. That is the usual way people are made to read one.
Status and Visibility record where the article stands and who it is meant for. Neither of them hides or releases the article. What a person can actually open is decided by their rights on this screen, so moving an article to Draft does not take it away from anybody.
Effective Date and Review Date are kept for your own records. Nothing acts on either of them, and nothing reminds you when a review falls due, so keep the dates in your own diary as well.
To retire an article, untick Active instead of deleting it. Anything that points at it then still works.
Tips and common mistakes
- Write the Summary as well as the Body. The summary is what a reader sees before opening the article, and a blank one makes the list hard to scan.
- There is a separate Article Version list, but editing an article does not record a version, so the text has no history. Keep your own copy before a large rewrite.